Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Mix that excites sight & smell – Jake King
Not sure exactly how skimmers are locating food? Then it’s time to stimulate two of their senses. Jake King shows how it’s done
IT’S up for debate which senses fish rely on the most. Some will argue that the scent released by your bait plays the biggest part in triggering a feeding frenzy, while others hold the view that sight is the primary tool when the fish are trying to hunt down a meal. In reality, it is incredibly difficult to get a definitive answer on the topic, so covering several bases is the way forward. Bag’em Matchbaits and Trabucco-backed Jake King launches a silver fish campaign once the temperatures dip, and when it comes to commercial skimmers he reckons he has latched on to a bait recipe that will get plenty of bites, no matter which sense the fish are relying on. “We’ll never know for certain what it is that makes fish feed so I have worked on a feed that is both vibrant in colour and packed with flavouring. That way I get the best of both worlds,” explained Jake. “It started as a trial at a local fishery but it seems that skimmers everywhere love it. Even when the going gets tough, it keeps the bites coming.”
the magic combo
Groundbait and pellets have a great track record for commercial bream and skimmers. Therefore, it’s no surprise that both feature in Jake’s mix. Micro pellets in two colours are dampened before being sprinkled with dry groundbait. “A lot of the venues I fish are quite deep, and here at Bishops Bowl in Warwickshire on White Bishop Lake you can find up to 14ft of water on the long pole line,” said Jake. “Feeding pellets loose is a recipe for disaster as only a small percentage make it to the bottom. Small fish will intercept them on the way down and any undertow can also drag them out of the swim.” To solve this problem Jake uses a combination of naturally coloured 2mm pellets and Bag’em Matchbaits Red Aggressors in the same size, and coats them in a small amount of XP groundbait. This acts as a binder and enables him to form balls of pellets that can be cupped in. These reach the bottom in seconds. “The groundbait is packed with flavours that will attract fish using their sense of smell, while the contrast of red and brown pellets stands out a mile in clear water to sight-feeders.”
irregular feeding
Skimmers swim around in shoals, and many anglers pile in a large carpet of bait at the start in order to hold them once they arrive. But with their appetites reduced in the chilly conditions, Jake believes a more negative tactic is better. Plus, it will save you a wedge of cash
over your winter campaign! “I fish two lines – one to the right and the other to the left – both at 13m, and I feed a single ball the size of a tangerine over each one at the start,” he instructed. “The fish are only grazing over the bait and not attacking it aggressively at this time of year, so even this small quantity of feed will hold them for a prolonged spell.” There is no need to add any additional bait until the bites dry up – in fact, doing so may well spook the fish it falls down on to them and lead to a period of inactivity. As a general rule of thumb, one ball will hold the fish for an hour. This means that when feeding a pair of swims, less than a dozen balls are required for a full session. Even on mild days it pays to stick to this negative approach because too much bait is likely to draw in carp that will bully out the silver fish in an instant. “This style of feeding is highly effective, and a bag of groundbait and two bags of different coloured pellets will easily last three sessions, making it a cheap way of fishing.”
Perfect presentation
Once the rig enters the water the aim is to get a bite as quickly as possible. By using the correct rig you can get the expander pellet hookbait to the bottom layers quickly before slowing it down moments before it falls into the layer where the fish are. This makes for a natural presentation. “As I am fishing in deep water I need a fairly heavy float to keep the rig stable. A 1.5g Trabucco R-Carbon is perfect for skimmers because of its sensitivity. “When it comes to shotting I set a 1.5g olivette 2ft up from the hook and spread three No.10 dropper shot below to slow down the fall of the hookbait,” he explained. “If you put the olivette any closer to the hook the hookbait would descend into the shoal at speed, look completely unnatural, and be ignored by the fish.” Jake’s mainline is 0.15mm to an 0.10mm hooklength and a size 16 Trabucco Match Specialist hook. Bright and calm conditions hardly gave us confidence that we would be in for a classic photoshoot, but Jake was undeterred. A ball was fed on each line before the rig was placed over the left-hand swim. With the float well dotted down, it took less than 10 minutes for the first bite from a 1lb skimmer. Fish kept coming at regular intervals for just shy of an hour before a drop off in action was noticed. Switching over to the right-hand swim brought about another flurry of fish before the same happened and it was time to feed more. As predicted, top-ups were needed approximately every hour and this routine kept the elastic coming out, with 40lb of quality skimmers in the net come the end of the session. “Whether the fish are feeding via scent or sight is anyone’s guess, but this feed attracts them no matter what the answer to that question,” concluded Jake.