Avoiding the small stuff

[Hatman]

2007 is my year for learning how to fish commercials and build a good weigh, which usually means carp at most waters. But I'm being driven mad by small roach & skimmers!

I'm coming round to thinking that maggots are pretty much useless on commercials, there usually seems to be an endless supply of small pale roach. So I'm fishing pellet, corn and meat more, but still the bits keep bothering me! Today I wasted the best part of an hour with small skimmers munching on my hair rigged luncheon meat, they were so small it was ages before one found the hookpoint and I knew that it wasn't finicky carp needing coaxing with minor changes.

I've caught small roach & skimmers on pellets up to 8mm and cubes of meat that must have needed the corners chewing to fit in their tiny mouths! []

Any tips on avoiding the small stuff?

 

[midge99]

Keep the feed going in from a hight, the splashing will bring the carp in at some point, just take your time a match is five hours you don't have to put 20lb in you net in the first hour the carp will come. I often get this with chopped worm and caster

 

[norm]

have you tried putting a sing up telling the Small ones to keep away?

apart from that you need even bigger baits

 

[ianthefish2000]

maybe you just need to feed more to fill up the small fish before the big fish realise that their is enough food there for them to feed on. If i am fishing maggots on a commercial fishery i would look at putting in 2 pints in then first hour the slowing down to 1 pint per hour.
may look expensive but it does work.

 

[Roach Basher]

2 pints of maggots in in the first hour what are you feeding an army of small fish

 

[The Big Fella]

Looney I agree with Norm!

I am ok at fishing commercials I reckon and last week for instance every single time i swung out with a bait at 10mtrs + it got ragged by a small chub, roach or skimmer.

In the end I sussed it but couldnt believe the end result.

I was fishing half depth maximum (approx 2 1/2 feet) to 1 feet deep with at the end a piece of punched meat approx 10mm across by 15mm deep??

The biggest carp I had weighed 2 1/2 lbs and teh mouth never looked big enough to comfortably swallow this sized bait. However the taps were still there every single cast but when it went it was a proper fish none of eh bits and I weighed in nearly 50lbs to next weight of 16lbs etc.

I really could not believe the size of bait the carpies were taking and the little fish played little part after the changes etc.

Hope you get em!

Just go bigger until the small fish cannot take it anymore is my advice, as long as you know there are bigger fish that will take it and they are not a one off.

Its no use waiting for your 10mm - 25mm piece of meat sitting ther if teh biggest fish in the lake is 1lb??

Lastly my mate was fishing sweetcorn that had been frozen and thawed about 10 times and he had absolutely no chance with the bits!!!! They nicked his bait every single cast without fail wheras a fresh tin of green giant corn stayed on hook most time 3 casts at least etc.

When you freeze and thaw corn teh outer skin goes very soft, not ideal if you ever have to shallow up as you will get ragged baits every time.

[]

 

[Hatman]

Originally posted by norm

have you tried putting a sing up telling the Small ones to keep away?

I'm going to try that today Norm BSc Hons. I'll call in at the Ramgaria Sikh Centre in Leeds and ask for a volunteer []

I'm thinking bigger baits, bigger pellets, bigger meat & a better meat hair rig stop solution (does anyone make meat ones, flatter & wider?). I'm annoyed at probably my worst match result ever. My peg was good for 3 or 4 times the measley 15lbs I weighed - & thats setting aside the easie double ghostie that i touched with the net then lost! Schoolboy errors, DOH!

 

[Hatman]

Ianthefish & Roach Basher - bait limits applied on the match, I didn't want to risk 2 pints of my 5 on maggots, let alone the whole lot! Probably a good solution elsewhere & I've used it before to get through river bits to chub.

 

[banksy]

Most of us were similarly "bitted out" at our match last Sunday.

While the rest of us battled on trying to put together a decent weight of 2 - 3oz skimmers, the top 3 anglers won by a mile by fishing hair-rigged predrilled hard 8mm pellets.

Got to be worth a go ! []

 

[Ady]

Think its already been said as i only skim read the abose posts.

Id fish your usual bait like corn or meat, although if theres a good head of skimmers avoid corn like the plague. but as well as your pellet feed or whatever you use, bang maggot in over the top. I would take a pint with the intent not to use them and for the first hour get them in over your hook bait, they should stop bothering you after a while.

I did this yesterday, a change to worm brought me the Carp and Tench, but also in between, some better Rudd to 1lb and Bream 3lb+.

 

[Hatman]

I visited another commercial for the first time yesterday, again finding an endless supply of bits to restrict bait choices. Why don't commercials net the bits out and donate them to our rivers and public lakes? I'm sure there are EA rules preventing this happening freely, but with some sensible controls and tests the 'bits plague' could become a bonus elsewhere.

 

[nickg]

easy solution. dont fish commercials. then you will be glad to land any fish, not just those carp