Commercials, Why It Upsets Me
Astute readers will have worked out that posts criticising commercial fisheries, using derogatory language to describe them and saying that fishing them is easy upsets me. Yes I take it personally. Indirectly such posts are aimed at me and others like me who fish commercials (I also fish canals & rivers).
There are a few reasons I fish commercials.
There are a few reasons I fish commercials.
- My match club switched to only fishing commercials some years ago.
- The annual two day event I fish now uses commercials exclusively. This is for ease of organisation and convenience for anglers travelling from distance. Strangely though the only time I have won the event was the last time we fished a canal (2010).
- There was a time, due to suffering from Ulcerative Colitis and post surgery I needed to be near a toilet.
- I found myself enjoying these waters, the new skills I had to learn and the fish I...
Neville Park, Snodland - method magic
I’ve only fished the method feeder once and it was a half-hearted attempt that did catch but was frustrating so I trawled all the method threads on here for nuggets of fishing gold.
In work at 5am to hit a robot repeatedly with a big hammer but at the lake for 8:00 to find the swim I’d hoped for occupied by 2 lads & 5 or six rods hogging the top third of the lake. Never mind I set up in a huge bay, put up my feeder rod (Ron Thomson 12’ Panther feeder, 8lb mainline, Drennan 15g in-line method feeder, size 14 QM1 4” 6lb hooklength) and a float rod just in case.
Bait choice was Sonubaits Super Crush robin red method mix & 2mm Stiki Method pellets (half flavoured with banoffee Haze) with 8mm washed out Waft Ums for banding on the hook. I added a glug of Haze on the hook bait too as I filled the mould.
As it’s a natural and not a commie I adopted the “cast/wait 5...
In work at 5am to hit a robot repeatedly with a big hammer but at the lake for 8:00 to find the swim I’d hoped for occupied by 2 lads & 5 or six rods hogging the top third of the lake. Never mind I set up in a huge bay, put up my feeder rod (Ron Thomson 12’ Panther feeder, 8lb mainline, Drennan 15g in-line method feeder, size 14 QM1 4” 6lb hooklength) and a float rod just in case.
Bait choice was Sonubaits Super Crush robin red method mix & 2mm Stiki Method pellets (half flavoured with banoffee Haze) with 8mm washed out Waft Ums for banding on the hook. I added a glug of Haze on the hook bait too as I filled the mould.
As it’s a natural and not a commie I adopted the “cast/wait 5...
Pointing feeder rod straight out
I've seen a few anglers do this now when method fishing - cast out, tighten up, and lay the rod on the rest pointing straight out down the line rather than being at an angle to it.
I've used this style before when the bankside vegetation had been high, or when the swim is tight, but you don't get any bite indication as such other than the rod being pulled on the rest, or the drag slipping. Unless you fish a slack line to the tip and watch that for indications perhaps.
What is the reasoning for it and does it work?
I've used this style before when the bankside vegetation had been high, or when the swim is tight, but you don't get any bite indication as such other than the rod being pulled on the rest, or the drag slipping. Unless you fish a slack line to the tip and watch that for indications perhaps.
What is the reasoning for it and does it work?
4" or 6" Hooklengths?
So after watching a winning ways on YouTube with Jamie & Andy, it was about pole rig shotting. However Jamie says he only uses 4" hook lengths now as it gives the rig more of method feeder style indication..... Is it better this way? I've only used 6" up to now? God its confusing this fishing lark.. 
Do you ask if you can fish next to someone?
Based on a situation I found myself in on the Severn.
It was a busy Saturday and most pegs would be taken by the end of the day. I was there early and had a bit of a walk but got a reasonable peg for trotting. Just downstream, probably 15m or so, there’s another well cut out peg. I was trotting down in front of that peg for about 10 minutes when someone else came and put themselves on that peg without saying hello to me.
I wasn’t too bothered as it’s another peg, but this left me in the situation of trotting in front of them as it was only just downstream. I continued to trot as he was fishing a barbel rod and I was catching probably just in front of him. Had he asked me I would have said “of course you can fish there, it’s a peg, but I am trotting so you might see my float”.
Was I right to carry on trotting or should I have accepted that he was fishing there now and I no longer...
It was a busy Saturday and most pegs would be taken by the end of the day. I was there early and had a bit of a walk but got a reasonable peg for trotting. Just downstream, probably 15m or so, there’s another well cut out peg. I was trotting down in front of that peg for about 10 minutes when someone else came and put themselves on that peg without saying hello to me.
I wasn’t too bothered as it’s another peg, but this left me in the situation of trotting in front of them as it was only just downstream. I continued to trot as he was fishing a barbel rod and I was catching probably just in front of him. Had he asked me I would have said “of course you can fish there, it’s a peg, but I am trotting so you might see my float”.
Was I right to carry on trotting or should I have accepted that he was fishing there now and I no longer...
