Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
One line, two tactics, more bites – Alex Dockerty
With the days shortening, Dynamite Baits’ Alex Dockerty demonstrates how using two tactics on the same line will keep autumn bites coming
AUTUMN is well and truly here, but despite colder mornings and earlier darkness, big weights and large catches are still on the cards. I thought it would be a good idea to have a look ahead as to how you can keep the bites coming. In what can often be a tricky transitional period, I find that two methods come to the fore time and again – the bomb and waggler. By this stage of the year, the fish will have seen it all in terms of pellets being rained in on the pole line and the Method feeder bombarding lakes in a manner reminiscent of the Blitz. But right now being a tad more cautious while still approaching your peg in a positive manner can see you reap the rewards. And this is the beauty of a waggler and bomb combo. To an extent I can replicate what I would be doing on the pole line but at a greater distance.
Rig tweaks for more bites
The bomb presents many advantages over the pole line. Firstly, I can deliver a bait to greater distances which, because fish are becoming warier of pole tactics, means I am instantly gaining an advantage over those around me. Also, I don’t run the risk of foul-hooking fish that are off the bottom giving me false indications as is often the case at this time of year when fishing a pole rig on the bottom. I like to keep my set-up as simple and tanglefree as possible. I thread on a snap link swivel to my 6lb mainline before tying on a quick-change bead. This enables me to easily change the weight of the bomb and also gives me the option of swapping to a small cage feeder. The quick-change bead means I can attach a fresh hooklink in seconds, which is the ideal remedy if a hook becomes blunted or I want to try a different hookbait. My hooklink comprises 12 inches of 0.16mm (5lb 3oz) mono. Hook pattern and size is something I’m playing around with a lot at the minute. If you look at any specimen carp angler’s rigs they always fish huge hooks. This is because they’re reliant on the fish hooking itself. Since a larger hook is much harder for a fish to eject there’s a higher chance of turning a bite into a fish in the net. This theory carries over to bomb fishing and I have no hesitation using a size 12 Guru QM1 or 16 MWG for much of my fishing. To complement this is a tip from angling coach Paul Holland, which is to use a small piece of silicone tubing on the hook, again like specimen carp anglers. This changes the position of the hair and makes the hookpoint the heaviest part of the hook. When a fish inhales the bait the hook drops down and catches hold of the fish’s mouth. Without the tiny bit of silicone tubing the shank would be the heaviest part of the hook and I’ve noticed that this causes a lot more liners. Since incorporating the silicone tubing I get far more positive bites and I am convinced that the liners I was plagued with on the old rig were actually proper bites that I missed because the fish were able to eject the rig.
Float choices
Now, on to the waggler set-up. My 11ft waggler rod is paired with a 5lb mainline to a homemade waggler adapter trapped between two float stops and a loop-to-loop hooklength connection. The hooklength is a 3ft length of 0.18mm (6lb 6oz) to a size 16 MWG hook and a hair-rigged bait band. All my hooklengths are tied to this length and I then shallow up as needed. The crucial part is waggler selection. For me, there are two types to use – foam or plastic. Foam floats are brilliant if there is no wind and little tow. They are extremely buoyant so don’t dive and drag the hookbait unnaturally under the water’s surface. Plastic floats provide a superior presentation when there is a tow on the water. These floats are longer and therefore more stable which keeps the rig static. Conditions on the day will dictate the size of
waggler I fish with. I always like to use as light a float as possible because you get more bites as disturbance is kept to a minimum. My starting choice when conditions allow is 3g, but I carry floats up to 8g.
Another detail I’ve been considering is the way I connect the waggler. As you can see, the float isn’t loaded but the shot is attached to a small piece of line and a ring swivel. This means I can still clip my wagglers on and off.
To make the adaptor, I take a short length of fluorocarbon and thread one end through a small rig ring. I then fold the line in two, before pushing on a large rubber bead and the pellet waggler itself. The fluorocarbon's tag ends are blobbed with a lighter to prevent them coming apart. The shot needed to perfectly weight the waggler are then squeezed on to this fluorocarbon boom.
The beauty of this is that the weight is dispersed, so the float does not dive as much. At the same time, all the weight is towards the swivel end of the float which improves casting – similar to the concept of weight-forward feeders. I can’t claim the credit for this, though, as it’s another crafty trick I’ve stolen from Paul!
Feeding accurately at range
The type of pellet you use has a huge impact on what you catch. I always opt for Dynamite Baits' XL carp pellets because they are a uniform size which means that I can feed them accurately at a greater distance.
If, like today, here at Lindholme Lakes, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, I have to use the fishery’s own pellets, I carry a bottle of either Dynamite's new F1 Sweet Pellet Soak or the Sweet Tiger Nut liquid to pour over the pellets. The liquid increases the density of the pellets, so they are easier to catapult longer distances and with accuracy, as well as ensuring that every single one sinks. This is important because it prevents them spreading over a large area in my peg or, even worse, drifting into someone else’s. It’s something to definitely bear in mind when targeting fish either on the pole or running line. Always ask yourself:
"How is my bait behaving?" Often, a simple fix of glugging your pellets can help to not only give them a boost in terms of their flavour and attraction, but ensure they all sink and remain in the area that you need them to be
“Since incorporating the silicone tubing I get more positive bites”
The session
I started on the bomb, feeding two pouches of 6mm pellets at a time to draw the fish down to the deck. To an extent this worked, but due to the recent warm weather, they soon began to swirl for the bait near the surface. A switch to the waggler produced a chunky mirror carp, before a run of missed bites. This was a sign that F1s were in the swim. I shortened the hook-length to fish at 2ft deep and from then on I had a fish almost every chuck. It’s important to note, the feeding of this is much different to the bomb. I feed four pellets twice before casting and once more as the float lands. By minimising the amount of bait falling through the peg the odds are much higher that the fish will take my hookbait. By targeting the fish further out they definitely settled and fed on a day when conventional pole tactics wouldn’t have been so prolific.