Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Martin Barnatt has been rejoicing in his chub catches ever since he took to fishing with red cheesepaste
Simply changing the colour of his homemade bait is the edge that’s given Martin Barnatt huge success with quality chub
WE ALL strive to improve our skills, and more often than not it is the subtle changes that enhance your chances of banking a beast. Trying to think of a radical new rig or bait is likely to end in disaster. The most successful anglers often take an approach that is used by the masses before making a few tweaks that puts them among the bigger fish. This is precisely what Martin Barnatt has done, and his results prove that he is certainly on to something successful. The Lincolnshire angler has banked hundreds of big chub over the years, and a good proportion of them have been taken on a bait that loads of anglers rely on – cheesepaste. Yet few of them are as successful as Martin. So, exactly what is his secret? “Cheesepaste is a fantastic winter bait for chub as it is packed with flavour, making it easy for the fish to locate,” explains Martin. “That said, I am always thinking about how I can make my baits more appealing. When it came to cheesepaste, it was changing its colour that delivered the edge I was looking for.”
Standout bait
Although every angler will have a slightly different recipe for how they whip up their cheese paste, the vast majority will finish up with a dull yellow colour. And that’s exactly how Martin’s would look too if it wasn’t for a simple ingredient. “My cheese paste is bright red and I turn it this colour by using powdered colouring during the mixing process. The bright colour stands out better underwater and when you combine that with a flavour that chub are widely known to adore then you are on to a winner,” he says. There’s nothing complicated about his recipe and with a few easily sourced ingredients it can be cobbled together in no time at all.
Priming the swim
A single ball of cheese paste is all that Martin takes to the bank, and this is used for both the hookbait and loose feed. Chub fishing is about keeping mobile, and walking the bank before you even wet a line can lead to instant bites when a rig is finally cast into the water. “I have a wander up the stretch, feeding three or four small nuggets of cheese paste of a similar size to what I would use on the hook into any swims that look promising and then leave them to settle. Once I am ready to fish, I start in the swim I baited first. The idea is that the fish will have got a taste for the bait, feel confident eating it and once my hookbait goes near them, it’s swallowed in an instant!” Swims with extensive cover should be your first port of call, with overhanging trees and floating rafts of debris offering sanctuary that chub crave.
Simple yet deadly
“Swims with extensive cover should be your first port of call”
Fishing a float isn’t a suitable approach when cheese paste comes into play because the bait is too heavy to enable you to present a stick or waggler properly. Instead, Martin relies on a very simple link leger set-up. “Chub are extremely cagey so it is important you use a rig that enters the water in a subtle manner. That is why a link leger is better than using a feeder or lead. “I fix SSG shot on to the link and you should aim to use as few of them as possible to hold bottom in the flow. Unless the river is running very fast, anywhere between one and four shot should do the trick,” he says. Chub are a fantastic choice of species when a few bites are the aim in the most testing time of winter, and those rattles on the rod tip are even more likely by making the switch to red cheese paste.