Fish Better with Des Shipp

Brush up on key angling skills with England International Des, to put more fish on the bank

Bomb fishing edges

THIS MONTH: BOMB FISHING EDGES

IF I HAD to place my faith in just one winter tactic to catch a few F1s and carp in the freezing cold it would be the bomb.

It is an approach that gets used all year round and in winter its ability to enable you to search large swathes of your swim makes it incredibly effective.

Many think it is a simple matter of randomly chucking out a bomb, placing your rod on the rests and hoping for the best. There is much more to it than that.

This month I am going to detail my top five tips that will definitely swing the odds in your favour when

fishing the bomb...

LEAD CHOICE CHOIC

I always use the smallest inline lead I can. They fly much easier during the cast, hitting your target every time. The Preston Innovations ICS system enables you to change the size of the bomb if you need to cast further without breaking down the rig

SOFT ROD

You’re unlikely to catch at pace in winter so you need to land everything you hook. A soft and forgiving rod will help you achieve that and my top choice is a 9ft or 10ft Preston Innovations Tyson Carp Feeder

TIP TENSION

There is a balance to be struck when tensioning the rod tip. Too much and fish may detect the rig, too little and the fish won’t hook themselves. I have the tip set so it just about tightens up with a slight bend in it

TIME YOUR BITES

Use a stopwatch to time your bites. It’s likely you’ll notice patterns when you get bites. For example, if every bite comes within 10- 12 minutes of casting, there is no point leaving it out any longer before recasting

EXPLORE THE SWIM

Don’t cast too far to start – try to find the edge of the shoal and add a couple of metres every time you recast after a period of inactivity. Chucking in to the middle of a shoal will lead to them spooking when you get a bite