THIS WEEK: Catch more F1s on banded casters
THINK shallow fishing and you think pellets – that’s the assumption for carp and F1s on commercial fisheries.
If you were to mention using casters, you’d probably be laughed out of the room.
“They’ll only catch small fish” and “carp won’t look at them” are the normal responses, but casters have become a terrific bait over recent years for catching shallow. They can even outfish pellets on certain days.
Casters offer fish something
very different to a pellet, and they also have the knack of catching all sorts of fish – ideal if you are on a fishery with a mixed stock.
Especially good at this time of year when carp have finished or are actually spawning, casters let you catch skimmers, ide, F1s and even barbel up in the water.
Attached in a small elastic band on a hair rig, they can be brilliant at this time of year.
‘CRUSTY’ HOOKBAITS
For hookbaits I like to take a few casters and leave them on my side tray to dry out.
This turns them a little ‘crusty’, giving the caster a harder shell that will be more durable. A hard shell is vital, as if you try to band a softer-textured caster it will burst more often than not.
In terms of how much bait you’ll need, I’d say three pints is ample for a session feeding a good helping each time, say 25 to 30. This will create enough noise when they hit the water to get the fish interested.
DISTANCE AND DEPTH
If I was after carp then I’d be fishing at a minimum of 11m out and probably more, but F1s and big silver fish will happily turn up a lot closer, at say 6m or 7m, where you can also feed casters by hand to speed things up.
Depth is decided by the fish I am after, so for F1s anywhere from 10ins to 2ft is ideal. For carp you need to be prepared to go a little deeper, from 18ins to 2ft 6ins.
ROACH TROUBLE?
There will be days when small fish plague you, and my advice here is to use a hard pellet on the hook.
A 4mm or 6mm pellet should cut out the roach, and it’s also well worth trying the head section of a worm. This is a tough bait that can withstand being chewed on by little fish and it resembles a caster, giving you a much better chance of a bite.