Anglers Mail Action Replay - Photographer Duncan Charman

Anglers Mail Action Replay >>> Spring 2013

This week: Prawns catch loads of big perch but how many anglers use them for other species. We’ve teamed up with one angler who regularly bags up on big carp simply float fishing these in the margins.

Heading – Alan Muller goes marginal carp fishing with prawns.

Every now and again an anglers stumbles on a venue by accident when targeting a different species and that’s exactly what Alan Muller did when fishing prawns for perch last winter.

Trying to tempt one of the few big perch that a local commercial, Alan found himself constantly being beaten up by hard fighting double figured carp that certainly tested his perch set up to the limits. Being a lover of float fishing he wasn’t complaining and now regularly returns in the traditional close season to get his angling fix, before his preferred rivers reopen and his quest for catching monster barbel begins.

Alan classifies himself as ‘old school’ being bought up using watercraft to locate his fish and traditional float tactics to outwit them. ‘Once the rivers open you will find me spending the majority of my time targeting barbel and during this time rarely visit a Stillwater, yet once these close I have to get out and its species such as roach and perch that I prefer to target, yet just watching a float dip in the margins then disappear and the sound of my clutch screaming as a carp heads of to the centre of the lake is a s close to the power of a barbel as it gets and the frill of the fight and the fun of doing something other anglers rarely do these days is refreshing,’ he remarks.

Anglers Mail Rating: Having the lake to himself and knowing the venue like the back of his hand, fish are guaranteed.

08:00

Arriving at the lake Alan’s has already made his rod up and with minimal tackle quickly assesses the wind direction before deciding on four swims that he will bait and rotate during the short morning session.

‘What I love about this style of angling is that you don’t need loads of tackle, just a rod that I made up at home, a landing net, mat, bucket with bait along with a small bag which has items such as terminal tackle, scales, camera and a flask. This allows me to keep mobile, just like being on a river, taking a fish, maybe two from each swim before baiting and moving on,’ he comments.

He seems undecided at first to which bank to fish. ‘This wind is a north and its cold and I’m concerned the fish aren’t going to like it in there faces’, he mentions.

08:10

Not wanting to put all his eggs in one basket, Alan finally decides to bait two swims on the windward bank as well as two on the bank with the wind of his back and proceeds to bait up.

‘What I’m going to do today is to bait each swim down one margin with a handful of hemp along with two or three broken prawns. Before doing so, I place the rod on the ground as I’m going to be fishing right under my rod tip in every swim,’ he adds.

Leaving the swim to rest for ten minutes has a quick cuppa whilst deciding on what swim looks like producing a quick bite.

08:20

‘Bait for today is as basic as it comes, king prawns and hempseed as loose feed. I also have a few mussels in my bag just for an alternative, but rarely have prawns ever let me down. I keep a small pole cup also in my bag just in case I need to bait up really accurately. I also find that hemp and prawns that are a little past their sell by date better so always keep an eye out for any going cheap in the supermarket, so although I have had to pay for a day ticket, the cost of the bait is so cheap it counterbalances this,’ he explains.

He also tells me that in the winter when targeting perch he replaces the hemp for red maggots, however with the lake containing so many silver fish he’s decided against this as it will only attract unwanted species.

08:25

‘Everything about this session is about keeping things simple, moving around as well as using balanced tackle. The rod I’m using toady is an old Normark Titan 13’ Match rod which I’m teaming up with a small Shimano reel loaded with a fine 0.17mm mono, approximately 6lb. At the business end I’m using a small 0.4gram pole float which is virtually cocked with a 0.3gram inline Olivetti and positioned at half the depth of the swim and locked in position with a float stop. No hooklinks here as knots produce weaknesses, so its 6lb Gardner HydroFlo mono straight through to a size oversized size 14 barbless hook with is tied on using a grinner knot. The most important piece of kit in my tackle box today is a plummet which I use in each swim to set the float an inch over depth,’ he remarks.

08:30

Instead of plummeting the depth right where Alan’s baited I watch as he drops the rig short as not to disturb any feeding fish and notice how quietly this is done. Even with the water so murky everything is completed in an extremely stealthy manner not to spook any fish. After hooking on a prawn and lowering this into his swim just of the rod top I’m not surprised to see Alan bent into a fish within twenty seconds of the bait settling.

‘Well that didn’t take long and this feels a good fish by the way its staying deep and hugging the bottom,’ he reveals. After a few minutes of steady pressure the rod does its job and the fish, a common of around 10lb glides into the landing net and Alan rubs his hands in anticipation.

08:40

The common’s a great start yet I’m surprised as Alan risks another cast and instantly hooks another carp. ‘This lake seems to allow an angler to catch a couple of carp quickly, anymore and they seem to spook for the rest of the day, so by not being greedy and taking just two means that I can return later and catch almost instantly again,’ he comments. Proving the point Alan baits the swim with a handful of hemp and broken prawns before moving on. Repeating the process of plummeting he takes four carp from his three other baited swims in the next ninety minutes before returning to his original position.

‘I’m not surprised that the corner swim with the wind blowing right into it failed to produce, yet this just shows the important of swim selection and how an angler can get it wrong if approaching a venue in a static manner,’ he remarks.

10:10

Alan’s unhooking mat is only used on the bigger carp with most being unhooked in the net and creates some comfort to his knees during the session. ‘I’m not a great lover of chairs as most are two heavy and high which not only makes an angler lazy but reduces the stealth factor when approaching a swim. If I were here longer then a small lightweight chair maybe an option, but for now I’m happy to kneel down on my unhooking mat which gets me right down close to the water level, a position where I can see any slight movement of the delicate pole float.

10:15

The suns beginning to show as just like the action the air temperature is rising. There’s few carp sucking at the willow pollen that’s floating on the surface and knowing this, Alan edges his float even closer to the marginal cover knowing that the carp will be looking on top of the shelf for food. It doesn’t take long for the float to sail away and once again a healthy curve on the rod to appear.

‘ There’s no need to cock the float right down, in fact its best to have plenty showing as these carp brushing up against the line will create line bites so its best to ignore these and wait for the float to sail away in un-missable fashion,’ says Alan.

11:30

The action continues, rarely does the float sit still for more than a couple of minutes and I watch as Alan lands further carp. ‘The great thing about using such a natural bait is you never know what’s coming next. I’ve caught plenty of good tench here as well as the carp that run to over 30lb and with them averaging double figures you need to use reliable tackle and you never know when a monster perch will show. If I loose a fish its inevitable from a hook pull, however with a forgiving but powerful rod and a clutch set correctly rarely does this happen,’ he comments. The next fish is a well conditioned mirror, not the biggest and I can tell that Alan’s somewhat disappointed at the average size today which is below standard, however it’s all about to change.

11:45

Moving back to the swim with the most prominent feature within the lake Alan soon finds himself bent into a better fish that once again keeps low. After around five minutes a few bubbles start to appear and the pole float shows that the fish is tiring.

‘The bigger fish in here don’t tear of like the smaller ones. I remember playing a fish for over half an hour only for the hook to pull at the last minute. I saw the fish it was a big common in the mid twenties and just plodded away under the rod tip, proof you can’t ignore the margins. This one doesn’t feel as big but it’s certainly going to be the biggest of the day,’ he remarks.

Top tips -

1. A good pair of polarising glasses and peaked cap are important for removing surface glare.

2. A large circular landing net is far more manoeuvrable than a big triangular net and allows fish to be unhooked easily within it.

3. Removing weaknesses is important when targeting big fish on light balanced tackle and with line diameters so fine these days I can get away with quite unforgiving mainlines without compromising on finesse.

4. Placing shot on mainline is a recipe for disaster so I use an inline Olivetti locked in position with a float stop.

The End Result –

That final carp certainly was the biggest of the day, an immaculate mirror of around 15lb that shows no signs of past captures. Maybe it’s a clever fish that safely hunts in the margins, far away from most anglers’ baits.

‘It’s been a great morning but running my own business means I cant fish too many hours in the day, maybe that’s why I have a love for barbel. It’s now just before midday, less that four hours fishing and I have lost count of the carp I’ve caught, definitely more than a dozen. Fishing rarely gets better than this,’ he remarks with a big smile on his face.

The Big One

The Big One – February 22^nd & 23^rd

Don’t forget one of the biggest and best tackle shows in the south is approaching quickly. Based at Farnborough airfield (GU14 6AZ) The Big One has all the top manufactures including Nash and Peg One which is where you will find me. Pop along and see me as well as all the other consultants and we will be happy to answer any of your questions as well as showing off all the latest gear.

I will also be signing my book ‘Evolution of an Angler’ as will fellow Nash Consultant Paul Garner and on both days in the afternoon you will be able to fire questions at both of us and probably Lewis Baldwin in the main arena.

Coloured and oil injected deadbaits for pike

Creating confidence is a very important part of angling and some anglers go to extraordinary lengths to try and get an edge over other anglers, be it in carp, pike or any other type of specialist fishing, however how does an angler get confidence? In simple terms most anglers gain confidence in a bait or tactic by simply catching quickly. Cast a red herring into a lake, receive a take and land a big pike and that angler will have confidence casting an identical bait out in future sessions, yet did he catch because his bait was red? Maybe, maybe not, that’s the grey area surrounding such a topic.

The problem with using static deadbaits for pike is that time plays a major part, especially in the depth of winter when pike may only feed in very short bursts, so proof that something work is difficult to gauge. If you are in the right place and your location is spot on then results will follow, however get this wrong and it really doesn’t matter what rig or bait you are using. The only way to gauge whether a coloured or oil injected bait works better than a standard fresh unhampered bait is to fish then side by side on identical rigs within a swim that contains a good head of pike. My experience has usually seen a pattern emerging in such swims, and that is, the best bait initially will be the natural coloured bait, however after a few captures bites will tend to dry up as these fish wise up. This is when colouring a baits come into their own.

Although coloured baits can be bought from specialist shops most anglers tend to dye their own and there are a few different ways to do this. Probably the easiest is to buy a purposely shop bought colour spray. All that an angler needs to do is to mount the hookbait onto the hooks then hold the spray around six-inches away before colouring. This is an expensive and wasteful process and I prefer to simply add powder colour to a plastic bag, add a few baits before blowing up and shaking. Once the baits are covered I place them in the freezer as this process tends to draw the colour into the fish’s skin better.

Before an angler starts to colour his baits, he really needs to look at certain factors surrounding the venue that’s being fished. If the water is murky then I see absolutely no advantage in colouring baits as any pike will be using its other senses to locate its prey. In this situation, if an angler stops catching from a productive swim then it would be far more advantageous to change the type of bait being used. I have complete faith in sardines and this will be my first choice bait every time, usually one will be fished directly on the bottom, the other popped up. If I am aware pike are present, yet bites are not forthcoming then I will initially start playing with one bait, maybe breaking the head of it so the juices and blood are allowed to leak out or add sight stops to each hook. A coloured bait would only be cast out as a last resort, yet on the odd occasion I have been amazed at the upturn in bites, which goes to show that on certain venues, colour does make a difference, yet in hindsight, when such a marked difference has been noticed my belief is it’s simply down to past angling pressure. If I was fishing a venue with a small head of big pike then I would try my best to find out what, where and when these big fish get caught, as this to me is far more influential than colour of bait, however if I knew that the going bait was mackerel then I would have one rod using the freshest mackerel possible, yet with the other rod I would have no problem colouring one or even adding a flavour or oil in order to try and find an edge.

I know a predator angler that had amazing success when using golden trout, it was a bait he had complete confidence in yet these very specialist deadbaits were very difficult to source and came at a cost, so he simply dyed normal trout orange to keep ahead of others.

The big question then is, does colour matter and the answer to this is yes. Ask a lure or fly angler this question and the answer will also be yes, however a lure or fly angler will constantly keep changing things in order to find what’s working. If he catches just one fish this maybe a coincidence but often when the lure/fly is matched to what the fish are feeding on, multiple captures are possible. In most other styles of angling be it specialist carp or general, colour makes a huge difference. You only have to ask me what colour maggots I buy, red, or what colour piece of artificial corn do I reach for first, yellow! Colour may not be as popular in static deadbaiting yet on the odd occasion it can be the difference between catching and blanking.

This now brings me briefly onto the subject of using oils on, within or next to deadbaits and asks the question, does this make a difference? My answer to this would once again be yes, however that doesn’t mean I would be adding additional oils to every deadbait I use. In fact I have rarely injected or flavoured a bait directly as I have always felt that by doing so I was interfering with the baits natural draw. As long as the bait I was using was fresh, then that would always be my first line of attack, and if I felt the need to tamper with the bait then instead of adding oil to the fish I would feel far happier using a swim-feeder filled with foam and soaked in oil. To me this gives me the best of both worlds, an additional sent draw around a really fresh bait.

Again I do know anglers that have soaked baits in flavour before freezing them and would swear that they create an edge and have outscored conventional unflavoured baits on certain venues, but that doesn’t mean all. Similarly I know anglers that instinctively inject their baits with water soluble fish oils as its something they are confident in and have faith in catching, yet if you feel you want to try this method then I would advice that an oil specifically designed for this is used instead of just adding fish oil as unless you add a emulsifier to it then it might just be having an adverse effect.

All in all whether you feel the need to colour or oil up your deadbaits, the word confidence keeps coming back, as this is what all anglers need. If you are confident in what you are doing, then you’re half way their, but don’t get stereotyped in one approach. Keep an open mind, never be afraid to try something knew and if you find yourself sitting behind motionless rods then before tampering with your bait, take a look at your location as this is without a doubt the most important part of catching.

What happened in 2013 - part 1

What happened in 2013

1^st Quarter – January to March 2013.

January – The year started mild, the fishing should have been good yet the high pressure put paid to this then come the 19^th the ground was covered with four-inches of snow and night time temperatures down well below freezing before another mild front flew in come the last week. My fishing was rotated between chub fishing on the Loddon, trotting the Wey for dace, pike fishing at Frensham, as well as targeting the rudd. The only consistent sport was the dace and chub throughout Farnham town centre and the pike fishing, yet if it wasn’t for one mid double that seemed a mug for a sardine things would have been quite different.

February – Another month of high atmospheric pressure and temperatures all over the place. Fishing once again was similar to January apart from the chub fishing on the Loddon which is far tougher than in previous years. I have continued to bang my head against a brick wall at Frensham, only catching on three occasions from the last sixteen sessions and then only the odd fish showing. I did get the river conditions spot on in Farnham resulting in a mixed catch of chub, dace and trout totalling more than 35lb!

March – My records show that on one day the temperatures rose from a chilling -4 to a mild 12 degrees in just a few hours, yet on a whole, a chilly raw month. The longer days obviously has got the fish feeding though with a couple of five pound chub falling as well as some good roach, the biggest 2lb 6oz, yet it was the bream that seemed most willing to feed and a chance visit to a large gravel pit on the south coast supplied six double to 12lb 8oz on a night when the temperature stayed at just one degree all night! A session just days later when it was 10 degrees, in the same swim produced a blank, proves how fine the line is between success and failure!

What happened in 2013 - part 2

April to June 2013

April – The month things really started to hot up, oh how I wish every month was like this, yet it wasn’t until well into the month that things started to happen. The atmospheric pressure was far lower and although the odd frost towards the end of the month proved that winter hadn’t left, daytime temperatures were on the rise, 22 degrees in fact when I visited Whistley Mill. Bream and carp featured mostly in my catches yet the odd tench and crucian were also starting too appeared. It was also the month that saw myself starting a tench campaign on a P&DAA venue; however it was a couple of sessions towards the end of the month that were simply unforgettable. The first saw four double figured bream taken, the biggest providing me with my first personal best of the season at 16lb 1oz, then a session targeting their smaller cousins, silver bream saw six over two pound taken including another personal best of 3lb 3oz, just an ounce short of the British record. Another session just days later saw a further three over 3lb landed!

May – Typical of this month was the warm days and cold nights, often frosty as well as a spell of wet and windy weather. It was crucians that provided me with one remarkable session; just a short session of three hours at Enton when no fewer than ten over three pound graced my net, the best 3lb 13oz! Two more personal best fell in the shape of gold and blue orfe taken whilst on vacation at Anglers Paradise, the best a blue weighing 4lb 4oz. The tench finally arrived at Sinah but only after a risk taking exercise of filling it in with groundbait.

June – The tench campaign was gaining force with numerous males to just over 6lb falling on every visit, yet just when it looked like a big girl was on the cards the club closed the lake. Having to make a u-turn it was back to Frensham and with the cold spring seeing the tench holding onto their spawn it looked good for a double, yet although the average size was up the best taken was one of 8lb 2oz taken on the float. A few big rudd also showed, albeit to tench tactics and yet another personal best was taken, this time a rainbow trout of 6lb 8oz from Avington.

What happened in 2013 - part 3

July to September 2013

July – One night after eels produced a mid four, why I didn’t do more nights for these I will never know! Apart from numerous enjoyable guiding sessions to Frensham big pond it was a night spent under the stars with fellow Nash man Paul Garner that stole the show. Not for the fishing, which was good, but the spectacular sunset we witnessed at dusk, where was that coming from. Another great weekend was spent with Stuart Jupp at one of the Nash Roadshows, this time at Broadlands. Fishing scaled down surface tactics we showed the carp boys how it was done with a couple of twenties to our names. I think this one might come back and bite me on the bum, game on!

August – Looking back at my records it was this month when everything started to go wrong, or should I say most venues toughen up. It was also a month when I decided to give up carp fishing the Thames as it was proving just impossible throughout the middle reaches. In all honesty much of my time was spent guiding customers and although everyone caught it was this that stopped me getting my teeth into anything, hence the reason for being unable to string any consistency together. I did manage one big fish during the month, a 14lb 7oz barbel, so it wasn’t all doom and gloom.

September – The news was that the river Wye was fishing badly yet a week spent guiding on this incredible river bought exactly one hundred barbel to my customers! Another week later in the month, again on the Wye was also good, yet a couple of attempts piking was disappointing. It wasn’t just the Wye that was being kind, the Loddon was also hitting form and it seemed everyone I took out was landing a double. One lucky angler took two doubles, two modest chub, but the fish of the session was a bream weighing 10lb, where did that come from?

What happened in 2013 part 4

Last quarter – October to December 2013

October – Seeing September fish so well on the Loddon I found myself rubbing my hands together, yet for some unknown reason the river decided to toughen up. In fact it became almost impossible and sitting watching a motionless tip had me rethinking why I go fishing as it certainly couldn’t be classified as ‘pleasure fishing’. I was hoping to have, maybe a last attempt at the zander at Old Bury Hill but due to the mild conditions, after dark fishing wasn’t allowed. The most memorable fish of the month, apart from a few good crucians that were also tough, was a barbel taken on the float, once again on the Wye.

November – Not a lot to say about this month, it was that bad. The night restrictions at Old Bury were lifted, yet the fishing was appalling as was everything else I tried. Blank after blank was being recorded, and it wasn’t just me as everyone else I spoke to was also struggling. In the end I had to head to the Loddon with bread in the hope of a few chub. Two graced my net, however after struggling to get a bite all month the first was ironically hooked in the tail. If I was asked why the fishing was so bad then I would blame this on the long cold spring as the rivers were still full of weed and the trees full of leaves still.

December – What a start to the month as a trip to the river Test produced fish all day including a personal best dace of 11oz plus roach to nearly two pounds and all on the float. It was also a month that me and fellow Nash man Chris thought we had found a fantastic free stretch on the river Itchen only for a pacing jogger to point out the private fishing sign in the tree above our heads, something we had completely missed due to our eyes being transfixed on big grayling subsurface! Another fantastic day was spent once again on the river Wye and although our chosen species pike didn’t show I managed more than 50lb of chub on the waggler. The month just got better and better as it seemed everywhere I fished produced, and some specimen fish as well and this form has carried on into the New Year. Long may it continue!

I suppose that for a specimen angler like myself the year has to be judged on personal bests landed and although these are becoming harder by the year, six has to be considered as a real result. If I beat six next year then I will be more than happy!

Tight lines!