TIPS & TACTICS
This month Rob Hughes shows readers which baits to loosefeed... and how best to do it!
Make a mess of baiting up, and your catch rate will plummet. But how do you ensure your loosefeed and baited rig are working in perfect tandem? ROB HUGHES is on hand to put readers on the right track…
IT’S pretty obvious that if you put your loosefeed in the wrong place, it will affect your catch rate. Accuracy when it comes to baiting up is almost as important as accuracy when casting out. Get it wrong, and you’re encouraging the fish to feed well away from your baited rig.
One of the questions I get asked most is where to clip up the spod rod in comparison to the marker float. Some say leave it at the same distance, whereas others say shorten it by a foot for every 3ft of depth. Now, that’s a significant difference of opinion.
I’d harboured my own thoughts on the matter for a while, but armed with a couple of trusty helpers – Harry Charrington and Lee Morris – I set out to find the definitive answer.
THE ‘TEST’
Just like with the casting ‘experiment’ last month, we set up a 1.5m x 1.5m square box on the bottom of the lake, in 11 feet of water at 50 yards distance from the bank. A marker float was cast out to the spot and an Impact Spod was clipped up to the same distance as the marker lead. A filled spod was cast out and, having hit the clip correctly (and this is important), it deposited the bait 3ft behind the target zone. The same test was repeated, and again it fell 3ft ‘too far’.
As usual, I was bedecked in my diving gear watching all this happen underwater, so I then moved the spod until it was touching the marker float on the surface and asked the lads to clip up once more and try again. This time the bait landed in the box, and it did so again several times when we repeated the experiment.
THE ‘CLIPPING-UP’ CONUNDRUM
Having seen that the bait was landing 3ft farther than the marker with Mozza’s casting style when the spod was clipped up at the same distance as the marker lead, we then checked the difference between the one he had clipped up and the one I had set ‘bang on the money’. Our conclusion was that in 11ft of water you could take 3ft off your spod rod line to end up baiting in the middle of your marked spot.
Now, don’t be fooled into thinking that this will be 1ft for every 4ft of water depth, across the board. An equally important factor is the distance you are casting, so I would follow the law of diminishing returns. If your water is half as deep again – i.e almost 18ft – then I’d perhaps add half again to the amount you take off the spod rod before clipping it up, so I’d take off 4ft 6ins in total, as opposed to the 6ft it would be if it were a foot for every 3ft.
The key, as mentioned in the casting accuracy feature we covered last month, is to be accurate and consistent.
“Our conclusion was that in 11ft of water, take about 3ft off your spod rod line to end up baiting in the middle of your marked spot”
CONSISTENT CASTING
I mentioned a moment ago that it was important to hit the clip ‘correctly’, but what exactly does that mean? Hit it too hard and it will bounce back off the clip, too soft and it will not get to the spot at all. Cast too low and there is again a risk of bounce-back, too high and it will be carried by the wind away from the drop zone. So where exactly is the best place to hit the clip?
Ideally the cast needs enough power to get to your chosen spot, and then start dropping. You should be hitting the clip between 2ft and6ft above the water to get the best and most accurate drop. The lower it hits the clip the farther away from you the bait will spread. The higher you hit it, the more chance there is of sideways spread as the wind and bow in the line take over.
Remember also that bounce back is exaggerated when using braid, as we all do on our spod rods. It’s easy to think that because you hit the clip that the spod made the distance, but if you hit it too hard and you get a bounce back of 6ft (which may not look a lot from the perspective of the bank) it means that the bait will drop well short of the target. The key is consistency, and you can check this by looking at how much line you have to reel in before you ‘connect’ with the spod before rewinding to reload.
Ideally, you shouldn’t have to reel in any slack at all – you should be in direct contact with the spod on the surface, after it has deposited its load.
WHERE DO YOU WANT YOUR FREEBIES?
It’s important to remember that different people want their hookbait in different places relative to their bait spread. For example, Harry likes his smack bang in the middle of his baited spot, Lee prefers to be on the near side, whereas I am quite happy having the hookbait at the back (albeit ideally off to one side).
It’s important to remember that proper accuracy and consistency is the key here. If you cast differently each time, your bait will spread differently. Equally, if you are not accurate, your spread will be wide. I can’t emphasise it enough – practise ‘consistent’ casting to take that hugely significant problem out of the equation.
I’ve just come back from an incredible session on a water that really responded to accurate baiting. In 48 hours of fishing I managed 20 fish, including six over 50lb and countless other whackers. Accuracy and keeping the bait and rigs tight was, without any shadow of doubt, a key factor in my success. At this time of year the fish are still quite tightly grouped up, but they’ll soon start spreading out and, as the weather warms up a bit more and they start responding to spodding over zigs, the bait really has to be kept tight to get those really big hits.
SPREAD BETTING…
So, with the ‘clipping up’ distance covered, the other major thing to consider is how certain baits fall through the water and how far they
spread out on the way down. The mass, size and shape of the bait being fed all come into the reckoning, and certain baits are more suited to certain situations and weather conditions.
Here I’ve compiled a list of the most commonly used types of loosefeed and, based on my observations when diving, how fast they sink and how far they spread.
WEATHER ISSUES
Besides the bait’s inherent weight, there are a number of other factors that affect how much your bait spreads out as it descends to the bottom. These include the way you deliver it, weather conditions, and water conditions (primarily undertow).
The weather can be a major issue, and wind in particular will play havoc with your accuracy, especially a cross wind. Old school spods drift an awful lot, and although they may have landed in the right spot, they don’t necessarily drop their load there. They generally only fully discharge when reeled in, so bear that in mind when it comes to your choice of weapon, especially when you are spodding liquid or ‘slop’ over zigs.
Spombs and Impact Spods are significantly better at delivering bait where it should be. It sounds very simple, but if you are struggling to get your Impact Spod/Spomb out to the spot accurately, try a bigger size. It’s amazing how big a difference this can make.
COMBATING UNDERTOW
Undertow is something that can have a big effect, but this primarily affects lighter baits. Generally speaking, undertow will be working the opposite way to the wind, but it will not affect heavy baits like boilies or bigger pellets. Conversely, light pellets, sweetcorn and maggots/cloudy spod mix can be badly affected, and on a big tow in deep water they could end up as far as 6ft or more off your spot. The only way to combat a hefty tow is to use heavier bait that will sink quicker. Sack the maggots and slop off and get on the boilies. If you are spodding slop for zig fishing it’s important to be very aware of undertow. If your bites dry up you may think that the fish have moved. They probably will have dones precisely that, but usually not too far, as they are almost certainly following the smell emitted by your bait. Try casting upwind a bit, rather than downwind, to see if they are there.
“Old school spods may land in the right spot but not necessarily drop their load there”