Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Adam Rumble
Strike a balance with your spring attack
AS FROSTS become less frequent and the temperatures begin to creep up, pretty much every angler is celebrating the arrival of spring.
The fish start to break out of their tightly packed shoals and with that their desire to start feeding returns.
That means the negative approach of fishing the bomb with a single hookbait and not feeding a morsel can now be abandoned. But before you get carried away, it’s important to take your next steps with caution. If you were to go from one extreme to the other and start lashing in the bait without moderation, you’re likely to suffer the consequences. After all, the fish are only just coming out of their winter torpor and still haven’t regained their full appetite.
Finding the right balance is key. Thankfully, Adam Rumble reckons he has the perfect rig and bait combination to hit the sweet spot this month.
The Preston Innovations and Sonubaits man relies on a simple, yet deadly, cage feeder with bread on the hook. His results in previous years show that it is an approach worthy of some serious attention.
“There’s no doubt that now is the time to start fishing more positively, but you have to think very carefully about how you do that when most waters are still quite cold,” advised Adam.
“My approach gives the fish that little bit of extra attraction that is now needed, yet the odds of them taking the hookbait are still stacked in my favour.”
The deadly duo
Fish are now more likely to come from elsewhere to feed and you don’t necessarily have to land on them straightaway to guarantee a few bites.
With that in mind, offering loosefeed is key to giving the fish a reason to come into your zone. But it is all about adding the optimum amount to keep a shoal occupied.
“If you lay down a big bed of bait the fish will come in, eat a proportion of it and then drift off with their bellies full.
“That approach reduces your chances of them finding the hookbait because there is so much choice as to what they can eat.
“You also need a bait that the fish want to eat but doesn’t fill them up. I find that micro pellets are ideal for this purpose.”
By recasting every 10 minutes, Adam keeps putting down tiny piles of food for the fish to eat. These give the fish a good reason to stay in the peg without the risk of enabling the shoal to overindulge.
On the hookbait front, there is a clear reason why bread is his number one choice.
“The fish aren’t competing heavily for food or doing everything they can to be first to it.
“Instead, they are cautiously coming into the swim and then slowly picking up any bits and pieces they find.
“Bread is an extremely light and fluffy bait, so it only takes the slightest effort from a fish to get it in their mouths.”
The winning set- up
Method, banjo and pellet feeders are common sights on the commercial scene and while there is no doubt they will produce bites, Adam prefers a cage at this time of year.
“A tiny cage accommodates the least amount of bait of the lot. It reduces your chance of putting in too much bait, which can ruin your session before it’s begun.
“When gently squeezed in for short chucks on commercials, the loosefeed falls out of the feeder and fish pick it up off the deck. This is important at this time of year as carp and F1s are often finicky when challenged to take food directly off the frame of a feeder,” he said.
A miniature 12g Preston Innovations ICM cage feeder is his first choice. This only takes the tiniest of micro pellet portions and also enters the water with minimal commotion.
On the rod front, a soft- topped 10ft version is best as this will help spot even the most finicky of bites and also reduces the chance of a gutwrenching hook- pull. A 4000 size reel is spooled up with 5lb mainline and the rig is finished off with a 4in, 0.17mm hooklength to a size 16 hook.
“I use a short hooklength as I would on the Method as this keeps the hookbait close to the feeder. I believe the fish will be hungry enough to get their heads down on the loosefeed as opposed to sitting just off it.
“If I were to use a longer 1ft- 2ft version then my hookbait would be sat well away and is likely to be ignored as the shoal congregates where the micro pellets are.”
Exploring the peg
Once you’ve managed to draw a few fish into the area, there’s every chance you’ll have a shoal that offers bites all day.
The competition created by the initial batch that turn up will draw in others and the cycle continues as the day goes on.
That doesn’t mean you can continue to carry on doing exactly the same all day long and expect get a bite every chuck though.
“There will be periods where you think that the fish have vanished, but they’ve just backed away slightly having developed a little caution.
“These fish still want to feed and if you drop the bait on top of where they’ve relocated, the tip should start going round again.”
There’s no need to make sweeping changes and casting a metre or so away from the starting point is usually more than enough to get things back underway.
If Adam is fishing up to an island he will usually start the day a metre or so off in the deeper water. Should he hit a dry patch, he will then seek to work out whether the fish have remained in the same depth and simply gone left or right or whether they have pushed tight to the island and feel settled in shallower water.
Experimenting with different bait and rig combinations is in our nature but rely on Adam’s approach as your number one banker this spring and it’s bound to provide the results that you crave.
“Bread is an extremely light and fluffy bait, so it only takes the slightest effort from a fish to get it in their mouths”