Winning tricks from Adam Wakelin
Match ace Reece Hearn reveals how to do it now
IF you thought that winter fishing for F1s was all about dobbing maggots and bread around the swim to nick a few fish, you might just be barking up the wrong tree.
That’s the opinion of Matrix/ Bag ‘Em Baits matchman Reece Hearn. He still finds a place in his cold weather attack for a few expander and micro pellets, both aimed at catching a better stamp of fish when the chips are down and every ounce counts at the scales.
Maggots and bread are, of course, brilliant. But if small fish are a problem there’s no better bait than a pellet to guarantee that when the float goes under, something decent and quite possibly worth a few quid at the payout will be on the other end.
“Why pellets? Well, maggots mean little fish but pellets are much better when the lake you are fishing holds carp, F1s and quality skimmers. When you are fishing for a few bites I’m more confident of catching better fish using pellet,” Reece said.
“When I use maggots I never feel I’m in control of the peg as I don’t know how much to feed each time – have the silver fish eaten it all? Is there any bait left? With pellets, though, I can always be confident that some feed will still be there when a few carp or F1s turn up.”
To prove his point, Reece pitched up on a gin-clear Copse Lake at Coleman’s Cottage Fishery near Witham, in Essex. The clarity of the water screamed ‘bread, dobbed about to catch a few’ but Reece was confident that pellet would produce the goods.
“Pellet is an instant bait, inasmuch as if any carp or F1s are there they will normally take the bait quickly,” Reece explained. “This means that when I have several lines on the go at once and I am dropping in and out of them, I know that when the float goes it’ll be a quality fish.
“If I were fishing maggots, then nine times out of 10 I’d be thinking that an instant bite would be from a roach or skimmer instead. Not what I want at all!”
FRUGAL FEEDING
“All I use to feed is the smallest pot that I own on the end of the pole. Even then I only fill it three-quarters full, which equates to around 20 micro pellets. This amount will still leave some feed in the peg if roach and skimmers are about. I use Bag ‘Em Baits 2mm Super Natural Carp Pellets, but I do prepare them in a rather different way to the norm.
“The night before fishing I put them in a small bag, filling it to the top of the pellets with water, sealing it tightly and popping it into the fridge.
“The end result is quite ‘heavy’ micros that all sink immediately when fed, rather than floating on the surface for a few seconds, as can happen when the pellets are
soaked just before I start fishing.
“Every time I unship I’ll feed. The only exception to this is if I drop in and catch a fish quickly. If this happens I don’t feed anything on the next drop-in.”
HOOKBAITS
“Because I’m feeding micros I want my hookbait to match them in size as closely as possible, and Bag ‘Em’s 2mm Winter Xpanders are perfect. These swell up a little bigger when prepared but still closely resemble the feed pellets.
I’ll also prepare some 4mm Easy Expander pellets for if small fish prove a problem. I prepare the expanders in the same way as the feed pellets, bagging them tightly and leaving them in the fridge overnight. This way, I know that they’ll sink properly.”
THE SESSION
Reece kicks off on the short line but it’s no surprise in the clear water that the float doesn’t move. However, with three more swims at 14.5m in front of him there are still plenty of options.
These are all roughly the same depth, and when he makes the switch between them each one is given around 10 minutes and just that small pot of micro pellets before he moves to the next.
“This is how a match will unfold,” Reece explains.
“If I can catch a dozen to 15 fish then that should be a decent weight so it’s not a race. Often, things only really get going in the final few hours of a match, so there’s no rush or need to panic.”
After 30 minutes of rotating with just a few tiny skimmers in the net, a sharp dip on the float sees the elastic stream out and, gingerly, F1 number one is netted. All the while Reece has been lifting and dropping the float to keep the bait moving.
However, nothing more arrives in this spot so it’s back to changing lines with that small pot of micro pellets to fish over.
The net result is half-a-dozen F1s and around 5lb of skimmers and roach – a tidy result for a few hours’ fishing on such a clear lake.