Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Ready, steady... bite! – Craig Goldstraw
Craig Goldstraw shows why a stopwatch is such a valuable piece of kit
THE rod comes over your shoulder, the feeder is launched to your target and the blank is placed on the rests. Fingers crossed, the next time you pick it up will be to set the hook into a fish. But if the tip fails to go round, how long are you going to wait? Should we be developing a system to work out when it’s best to recast? Middy’s Craig Goldstraw reckons so. The commercial fishery expert has a plan mapped out before every feeder or bomb session, but he is ready to adapt. “I am convinced that you can work out how long you should keep the hookbait in the water when fishing the feeder or bomb,” says Craig. “There is more to it than just ‘chuck and chance it’. Those that do their homework will always land more fish than others that don’t.”
Starting out
At this time of year a large percentage of target fish will be well out of pole range at the start of the day, so rod and line tactics are needed to get off to a flyer. In cold conditions, Craig will always start on the bomb. “You include no loosefeed at all and are simply chucking out your hookbait and hoping it will be close to a fish that will slurp it up,” he said. “You need to think about where you attack first time, casting to areas where you have seen fish crashing out while tackling up, or close to any cover such as islands. “Don’t go tight up to the island straight away, though, as this could be really shallow water and fish are likely to start the day in deeper spots. “Drop it a few metres off and you are likely to be in a suitable depth.” So how long does the bait stay out before Craig recasts? “I will give it 10 minutes to start, and all the time I will be focused on the tip, keeping an eye out for little nudges that will indicate fish are close by because they are brushing up against the line. “I always have a stopwatch on my side tray that I start the second the rod is on the rests, because this enables me to keep track of time very accurately. “If I don’t get any taps or bites, I will cast to the same spot once more and leave it for the same amount of time. If the result is the same – nothing doing – then it is time to cast to a different place.”
Reading line bites
“When you finally find a shoal of fish they may not take the hookbait straight away but they will give themselves away by nudging your tip as they mill around and brush against the line. “If I am getting liners I will leave the rig in place for 10 minutes and then recast, but second time round it will stay in place for 20 minutes. “I’d expect the tip to go round this time, and when it does, I make a mental note of how long it took with a glance at my stopwatch.” More often than not, you will notice a pattern of how long it takes to get bites. So for example, your stopwatch may hit 12 minutes and moments later the tip may thunder round. Coincidence? Apparently not…
Bait choice
The top two baits when using the bomb are corn and bread. Corn is best when the fish are grazing and picking up morsels off the deck. Bread – which is usually the stand-out performer – is a winner when the shoals are sat off the deck and sucking in food that lands in front of their face. “If you hair-rig a couple of bread discs and chuck them out, they will pop-up off the bottom because they’re so buoyant. “The longer it’s in the water, the more it expands, and this is why the fish will take it after a certain period of time,” said Craig. “It may be that after 12 minutes, for example, it is at an optimum size to stand out, and that is why it is hoovered up. “When you have worked out a pattern, you can then reduce the amount of time you waste, reeling in and recasting once the ‘golden time’ has passed.” Clearly, winter bomb fishing is much than just casting out and hoping for the best. By exploring your swim and looking for patterns in your bites you can put more fish in the net this month.