Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Phil Taylor
Phil Taylor displays the worm fishing tactics that help avoid being plagued by tiny roach and rudd during your next silverfish session
Beat tiddlers with a worm
THE days of anglers being only interested in catching carp seem to have gone.
Yet while they want to experience the thrill of the putting other species in the net, they still want to duel with something that holds their own during the fight.
Swinging in miniature silvers one after another soon becomes tiresome for many and that leads to them hooking on bigger bait to find those rod- bending specimens. Turn to the likes of pellets or corn and it’s likely to be a carp- only affair, but Phil Taylor reckons there is one bait can lead to a real mixed haul of quality fish. The Lincolnshire- based angler swears by the pulling power of a natural offering for good stamp fish of all species.
“If you’re visiting a water that has had an explosion of tiny silverfish, lobworms will help you pick out the better samples that you are after,” he said.
“Of course, not every bite will lead to a personal best, but when the float goes under, you can feel confident that you’ll need the assistance of a landing net!”
Priming the swim
If you’ve ever been plagued by tiddlers, you’ll have probably thought there was simply a lack of better fish in the area. More often than not, though, your targets are there waiting and are unable to get to the hookbait in time.
“The presence of so many little fish definitely intrigues the bigger ones, so I actually want to attract a range of different- sized silvers into my peg. Maggots are the best way to do this as the small fish can devour them and they’ll compete intensely to get them,” stated Phil.
“I’m always firing in bait and ping out 20 maggots every 30 seconds to a minute in order to get the shoal competing.”
These small fish will come close to the surface to get in on the action while the bigger samples often sit slightly deeper, picking off any scraps that come their way.
In order to keep those bigger fish occupied and discourage them from wandering off, Phil introduces five balls of Dynamite Baits Silver X Super Black Roach groundbait at the start. This carpet contains just enough food content to keep them milling around while not overfilling them.
“If you’re visiting a water that has had an explosion of tiny silverfish, lobworms will help you find the better samples”
Pin it down
Having fed in a manner that puts a solid proportion of your target fish on the bottom, you now need a rig that won’t let you down.
Fishing the float is definitely the way forward because of the finesse and accuracy it provides. Having a penchant for rod and line tactics, Phil goes down the waggler route.
“You rarely have to fish far to find silvers and a couple of rodlengths out is often the optimum distance as it leaves a bit of distance between them and the bankside but can also be fed easily by hand or catapult.”
In order to make sure his bait stays in the same place, Phil bulks up his shot just above the hooklength.
“I live in Lincolnshire and with it being so flat, it’s rare the fishery I am on doesn’t have a breeze!
“That means I need to set the rig so that the hookbait is anchored down. I plumb up and set the rig just overdepth and that leaves the bulk just off the bottom.
“Even if the wind is blowing at me, the rig stays in the same place and that keeps the hookbait over the top of the groundbait bed.”
Having your shot in this position can lead to lift bites, with the roach, rudd and perch dislodging the weight of the bulk as they rise off the deck with the hookbait.
If the float goes up, strike in a normal fashion and the rod will soon hoop over.
One of the many stillwaters that has experienced a boom in small silvers in recent months is Lakeside Leisure on the Lincolnshire coast.
Use maggots or casters on the hook and they’ll instantly be devoured by roach and rudd that are rarely above 2oz.
But there are plenty of bigger samples lurking, with roach to more than 2lb and chunky rudd and perch there for the taking.
With the IYCF cameras in attendance, Phil balled in his opening gambit of groundbait before getting to work with the catapult.
As predicted, there was a stiff breeze but Phil’s waggler rig stayed exactly where he wanted it.
Small fish were clearly present in large numbers, with the float often twitching as an overconfident tiddler made an effort to gobble up a chunk of lobworm.
In order to stop him striking instinctively at such little dips, he used a rod rest and disciplined himself to only pick the rod up when a concrete indication occurred.
There was nothing ginormous caught on the day, but the roach and rudd averaged 6oz- 8oz as opposed to the tiny 1oz- 2oz fish that maggots would have delivered.
A couple of redfins around the 12oz mark were the highlights and on a light waggler rod with fine terminal tackle, they certainly provided the kind of sport we all enjoy.
“On another day these 12oz fish could have been 2lb specimens but had I relied solely on hooking maggots, I’d never had stood a chance of such lumps.
“Lobworms will give you a lot more confidence to target the bigger fish and when the float goes under, there’s a much better chance that something special is attached to the other end,” concluded Phil.