Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Boost groundbait with glug – Ade Mansfield
When there’s an abundance of silvers, how do you pick out the bigger fish? Ade Mansfield has the answer
WITH bites almost guaranteed under any conditions, it’s unsurprising that more commercial anglers than ever before are turning their attentions to silvers. Most fisheries are packed with roach, perch and skimmers that are shunned during the summer when the carp are feeding furiously on every scrap of bait. Until the water temperatures increase again, the carp will be less active which enables other species to get a look in. Getting the float to go under regularly isn’t too difficult when chasing silvers. Persuading the bigger specimens to show an interest can be a frustrating business, though. Bait-Tech and MAP’s Ade Mansfield has been taking his local venues apart recently. While others around him have had to make do with tiny roach and perch, he’s made sure their bigger brothers and sisters end up in his net. “Almost every commercial has a big head of silvers but it is easy to get plagued by tiddlers and quickly lose belief and patience with what you are doing,” said Ade. “The he trick is to make your bait so appealing that the bigger fish muscle in and bully the small fish away.”
Flavoured groundbait
If f you are on the hunt for a magic bait that’s guaranteed to get you ou bites then you’re in for a major disappointment – it doesn’t exist! But if you are after something to enhance your bait and give you an edge then your local tackle shop will be full of options. Liquids and powered additives are popular, but Ade uses something a
little different to stay one step ahead of the rest. “I add a thick glug to my groundbait,” he revealed. “The flavour sticks to it, so it releases the scent over a much longer period. My favourite is BaitTech’s ‘The Juice’. If I add a few dashes before mixing it in I know that my loosefeed will stand out on the deck.” The mix consists of an even blend of Bait-Tech Pro Natural Dark and The Juice Groundbait.
Two pronged attack
Small fish will be found in every peg on the lake and will attack any small baits immediately. Fishing just one line is likely to see you plagued with them. For this reason, Ade fishes two. “The first is slightly to the left of centre and I loosefeed casters regularly. Amid this noise and frequent feeding is where I expect to catch small roach with an occasional bonus fish. “The distraction of this line keeps the majority of the small fish away from my second line, where I introduce a fairly big ball of groundbait at the start. This is where the quality skimmers and roach will show up. I’ll start on my caster line to get some bites and keep trying the groundbait spot to see if the stamp of fish I expect has arrived,” he said. Even once he has switched, Ade continues to feed casters. This keeps the small fish preoccupied and away from the groundbait. It also ensures he has somewhere to get bites if the big skimmers back away briefly. When they do disappear I feed a small nugget packed with pinkies, leaving it to settle before fishing it 10 to 15 minutes later.
Shotting secrets
Roach and skimmers feed in different ways to one another, and in many respects so do the rigs required to target them. Ade’s set up for roach is aimed at catching from all levels in the water column, fully aware that the species has a tendency to rise up to
intercept freebies before heading deeper again. “If a hookbait flies past their face at speed the roach have no chance to of taking it. You need to make sure it flutters down slowly. “The best way to do this is to string your shot out evenly down the line and use a light float to reduce the number of shot you need to use,” explained Ade. A slim 0.1g or 0.2g carbon-stemmed float is ideal, with 0.13mm mainline to a 0.08mm hooklength and a size 18 VMC Chika hook baited with a single caster to finish off the rig. Skimmers tend to hug the bottom, especially when there is a bed of flavoursome groundbait for them to graze over, and there is no point in your hookbait falling slowly. “To get my hookbait to the deck quickly I have almost all my shot placed 12in from the hook. I have one small No.9 dropper shot below the bulk and this slows the hookbait down just as it comes into contact with the shoal to make it look natural.” In this instance, a heavier float is better. It allows you to use more shot, accelerating the speed the hookbait falls, and a 4x16 MAP WD1 is ideal. Lines are the same as when fishing for roach and the hook pattern is the same for double pinkie, albeit in a size 16. Fail to get the basics right and you can kiss goodbye to lots of bites no matter what bait is in use, but nail down the essentials and glugged groundbait can be the little tweak that makes a big difference.