Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
White baits catch more
Anglers spend hours choosing the colour of their bait but Dale Calvert urges you to look no further than plain white for anything you want on the hook
THERE are several factors to consider when choosing your bait but one seems to be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of importance – the colour. Take a walk around your local tackle shop and you’ll almost need a pair of sunglasses to shade your eyes from the bright, almost luminous pellets, boilies and even groundbaits. They all play their part in helping anglers put more fish in the net but which colour is the most consistent of the lot? Open up Dale Calvert’s holdall and it’s a sea of white. The Middy-backed angler is adamant that the clear water at this time of year lends itself perfectly to success with white baits. “They stand out a mile in clear water and you will get more bites on them than any other colour,” asserted Dale. “No matter what bait you think will get the fish going, it will be even more effective if you make sure you use it in this deadly colour.”
Dyed pellets do the job
One of the greatest assets of pellets is their multi-species appeal. Whether looking for a big carp, a netful of finicky F1s or a shedload of skimmers, they are probably the best bait for the job. The stock in your local fishery will have seen thousands of pellets fall past their noses and, although they will still feed on them, the bigger and more wiley specimens may well take them more confidently if they are presented in a different colour. “Sometimes I will feed dampened 2mm or 4mm pellets in their natural colour but use a bright white expander pellet over the top and on other days both the hookbait and loosefeed will be dyed. “If there is a little more colour in the water I do the latter because a bed of white pellets will stand out better and draw fish in from other areas. On tricky days when bites are at a premium I will dye only the hookbait which I present on a size 16 Middy 63-13 hook when on the pole. The fish may only take a few mouthfuls of bait and doing this gives me more confidence that my hookbait will be the first thing they notice and take.” Dale uses Adrenaline Baits Nano Pellet Boost to turn them white.
Brilliant boilies
Boilies are playing a much bigger part in the tactics of match and pleasure anglers these days. Dale brings them into play when he is chucking a pellet feeder. He has caught fish on plenty of different colours but, you’ve guessed it, his highest rates of success have been recorded on the white varieties. “I use a 4ft hooklength and rotate between a standard boilie that sits on the bottom and a pop-up that will sit just above the main bed of loosefed bait. “Once again, I alternate between using dampened 2mm pellets in their original brown colour in the feeder so that the hookbait contrasts, and whitening my loosefeed. “Casting regularly helps to draw fish in from other swims and I am convinced that some of the white flavouring creates a cloud in the water column.” In terms of terminal tackle when using this style, Dale uses 6lb Middy M-Tech Carp Commercial mainline, a 28g pellet feeder and a ready-tied size 18 Middy Band’em hooklength.
Against the grain
Maggots are extremely effective on commercials when you want to catch a mixed bag but for some unknown reason more than 75 per cent of anglers rely solely on reds. As with any bait, if the fish see too much of something it will eventually become less effective and Dale believes that is the case with red maggots.“They are fed so heavily and I genuinely believe that you will catch a lot more fish if you use white maggots instead. I will buy a couple of pints of white maggots
and find that a brace on the hook is a good starting point. Drip in a few at the start of your session and keep to trickling in that amount after each fish. “The only time I would increase the feed and dump in a bigger quantity at once is if the stamp of fish are much smaller than I anticipated and I want to attract bigger specimens.” Sprinkling some white Adrenaline Baits Nano Pellet Boost on top of your maggots can enhance them, giving extra flavour and creating a cloud when they enter the water.
Bread banker
Although sport has picked up well in recent weeks, we’ve all got to accept that the odd cold night that is still lingering around may well hit the number of bites you get. When this happens there is nothing better than bread and Dale loves to use it on the pole. “Most of the venues I fish have features within pole range and they are a magnet for most species – especially carp – when the temperatures drop. A couple of discs of punched white bread are the ideal hookbait with absolutely no feed. “Plumb up carefully so you don’t spook any fish and set the rig so that it is a couple of inches off the deck to start. It is then a case of simply lifting and dropping every 30 seconds, trying to put the bait in front of a fish and tempting it to feed. Try different areas that have cover and adjust the depth by an inch or so at a time and you will get bites if fish are in the peg.”