Robert Walton on why you need to spread your bait out
It’s not just the waggler that will respond to feeding by catapult
PICKING up the catapult to rain in loose feed can work a treat on open water lakes, especially those full of recently-stocked fish that are relatively unwary.
A wide column of feed will satisfy the ravenous appetites of these new additions and this activity often arouses the curiosity of bigger fish, encouraging them to investigate and ultimately have a go too.
Reepham Fishery, in the heart of rural Norfolk, is a prime example of where this happens. Match anglers have found that keeping things nice and tight isn’t worth a light. Instead, pinging in feed with a catty gets a better response from small F1s and bigger carp, even with a frost on the ground.
Matrix Wensum Valley Angling man Robert Walton was only too happy to show us just how well this tactic works.
“Feeding with a little tosspot doesn’t seem to cut it here,” Robert explained.
“In matches at Reepham the waggler is as important as the pole. It seems that loosefeeding with a catapult on the float brings more bites than potting in, so I started to ping in bait on the pole line and my results were much better. Why the fish prefer this I don’t know – perhaps it’s down to the noise created, or the wider spread of bait?”
TWO LINES
“Fish will back off from the pole line, so it’s important to have a second line on the go. The waggler offers more versatility in terms of how far out you can fish. My pole line is around 13m out as the lakes at Reepham are small, so you’ve not got a lot of room to play with.
“I then feed the waggler line at around twice this distance so I can keep these lines well apart. Owing to the size of the fish, doing well at Reepham is all about getting regular bites – you need to keep something going into the net throughout the day.”
WAGGLER RIG
“This is my starting line, as it gives me time to prime the pole line and let things settle down. I’ll have two areas to cast to, roughly at angles of 10 o’clock and two o’clock in the swim, and I’ll give this between 45 minutes and an hour before thinking about picking up a top kit.
“Float is a 4g loaded Matrix insert with 5lb mainline and an 0.11m hooklink to a size 20 Matrix Carp Bagger hook. I fish one red and one white maggot around 2ins overdepth, with shotting down the line of four No9s set 4ins apart in the bottom half of the rig.
“This is fed with around 20 maggots every couple of minutes. I spray the feed with Marukyu’s Scopex Amino Spray to give it a lovely bit of scent.”
POLE RIGS
“Two pole rigs are set up to let me catch on the deck or just off bottom – even in the cold, the little F1s will come up in the water slightly. Both rigs carry Malman Secret floats, 4x12 for the deck and 4x10 for off bottom. Lines are 0.13mm main with an 0.11mm hooklink to a size 20 Carp Bagger hook, and double maggot is again the hookbait. On the pole, however, I will only fire in around six maggots every couple of minutes as opposed to the 20 on the waggler, mainly because I can be a little more
accurate at this shorter range.
“The deck rig is set to just touch bottom, while the off bottom rig puts the bait around 12ins off. Shotting for both uses tiny Stotz strung in the final half of the rig to give a slow fall.”
CASTING AROUND
“I try to land the waggler in the same spot, but it does no harm to cast beyond the feed or to either side, just to see if the fish have backed away. I’ll do this if I’ve waited quite a while for a bite.
“My plan is to cast past the loose fed area and wind the float back into the target area. In the opening hour this is where I’d expect to pick up a few carp alongside the little F1s.
“When to come off this line very much depends on how well I am catching. If things are slow it would be after an hour, but if I am catching well there’s no need
to rush and get on the pole.
“I have had matches at Reepham where the pole has only come into play with a couple of hours to go.”
WHEN TO COME OFF BOTTOM
“When I change to the pole I’ll begin on the deck and only come off it if I am getting liners, or knocks as the bait falls. In my experience, fishing a foot off the deck results in a smaller stamp of fish at Reepham, but the name of the game is to keep catching. “I’ve also found that the
colder the weather, the more productive fishing off bottom becomes, so it’s worth bearing that in mind.”
THE SESSION
Robert kicks off on the waggler and nobbles a carp almost immediately before settling into a run of F1s over the next 90 minutes. Fish are topping and blowing around the float all the time, a sure sign that he shouldn’t come off this line just yet, but things slowly fade away, prompting a change to the pole.
This immediately yields another run of small but plump F1s and a couple of bonus carp, before Robert encounters a slowing down of bites and those tell-tale dinks on the float as the bait settles.
Out comes the off-the-deck rig and although he waits longer for a bite he is still catching. Robert regularly gives the waggler a 10-minute spell to rest the pole.
A careful rotation of the lines and changes in depth see him haul out around 35lb of small F1s, half-a-dozen carp and a couple of unseasonal crucians.