What would you have done?

[Polepot]

Yesterday I fished a Match at Browning Tingrith the target fish were Carp and Crucians. I was fishing paste in 5ft of water. I started with a float which carried .5gm all shot at the bottom. 10 hook and .14mm line.

On the first put in the float did not settle but just bounced around. The small fish were hitting it but I just bought back a bear hook. This continued so I upgraded my float to a 1gm end finally to a 3gm this succeed in getting the bait down through the silver fish but then it was to heavy a rig for the shy biting crucians.

Faced with this scenario what should I have done, one I got my bait too the bottom I did catch a few Crucians and one common carp, but Im sure a lighter rig would have yielded more success.

I know I could have changed to tackling the silver fish but with 35lbs winning a three hour match, what good would that have been?

Oh for your information I managed 7.5lbs which gave me 18th out of twenty - as the teacher says

"Must do better"

Your suggestions please I need to do better next Tuesday.

TIA

Poles

Great info, great guys, great fun, thats Maggot Drowners

Edited by - Polepot on 26 June 2002 09:37:01 AM

 

[MALC]

Hi Nick,

Firstly a few questions:
1
Were you using a very soft Paste or was it hard ?
2
What species were the small fish ?
3
What size pellet were you feeding ?
4
What is the size of the carp your after ?

Without knowing the above i'd suggest setting up 2 swims.
With 1 as a throw away to attract the small fish and the second as your main line for the carp.

Your main line would need to be about a mtr or so further out than the throw away swim.

The main swim i would pot in my feed depending on the target size of Carp this would be a mix of damp 3mm,4mm & 5mm pellet.

The throw away swim would be feed by hand or catty with dry 2mm pellet.

I'd have 2 rig's setup one for each swim with a smaller hook on the throw away swim to fish a small (pea size) piece of paste or pellet, Cruicans love a small piece of paste.

In the throw away swim i would proberly use either a .75 or 1grm fine tipped float (with that depth) and have it shotted with a bulk about 12" to 18" from the hook, and with pellet i'd slide a couple of no 10 or 12 down as droppers.

On the main swim i'd be happy with a float from 1grm upto 4grm depending on the size of fish and the undertow.

Another way is to put a pellet or 2 on your hook first then wrap the paste round them then when the small fish ragg the paste on the way down the pellet will still be on the hook at the bottom.
But in 5ft of water with a 1grm rig you should be able to get through the small fish on the surface with a big lump of paste anyway.

Failing that if there were that many fish in the swim i'd go for them with an all out pellet attack because if they are ragging the paste like that then there must be a good weight infront of you.




Malc
Fish with Friends @ MaggotDrowning.com

 

[Polepot]

Malc,

Thanks for your comments I have answered your questions as shown below

quote: Were you using a very soft Paste or was it hard ?

The paste was soft

quote: What species were the small fish ?

Small Roach and Rudd

quote: What size pellet were you feeding ?

4mm

quote: What is the size of the carp your after ?

They are between 3 and 5 lbs.

I think the other points you made were very good and if I end up in this situation next week I think I may go for the roach and rudd with small pellet / paste. Although the match would have needed carp to win, a good net of silvers may have got me in the frame.

Thanks again

Poles

Great info, great guys, great fun, thats Maggot Drowners

 

[MALC]

Nick,

The thing with the pellet or small paste is that it will catch anything and you will still get the carp if they are about.

Another thing to try is to make the paste harder so the bit's can not ragg it also try hair rigging it

At the moment i'm playing with a new flavoured paste which so far has shown good results for all fish rather than just carp so that something is going in the net inbetween the carp.





Malc
Fish with Friends @ MaggotDrowning.com

 

[scouse]

hi malc
when you said make paste harder
do you mean with gluten
or geletine or with what
thanks

dave

scouse

 

[scales]

Hello Poles, I'd have tried a hard pellet with a bait band on the hook. I used this method to good effect on Brewsters canal at Browning Cudmore and it sorted out the better carp from the silver fish.

Cheers Mate,

Scales.

 

[MALC]

Dave,

quote:when you said make paste harder do you mean with gluten or geletine or with what

If it's a dry powder shop bought Paste thats mixed on the bank with water i always keep a little back in case i need to harden the mix.

If it's a Paste that i've made myself then i always carry 2 mixes one being hard and the other soft.

Also don't forget that most carp groundbait's make great paste's as well and any of these can be added to your paste to stiffen it up and also change the flavour.







Malc
Fish with Friends @ MaggotDrowning.com