Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Jon Whincup
Margins in autumn
THE mindset of anglers takes a change in direction at this time of year. After months of bagging up on the short pole and down the edge, the focus turns to keeping the bites coming by fishing further out.
Dropping temperatures and clearing water can lead you to make quickfire tactical decisions, convinced that the fish will have pushed into open water.
However, completely ignoring the margins for the next six months is a massive error, according to Jon Whincup. He swears by bagging up down the edge in autumn.
The Peterborough angler resists the urge to spend the whole session wielding the full length of his pole and instead dedicates a fair slice of time to fishing just metres from his platform.
“So many people stop fishing the margins at this time of year because they think the fish won’t come anywhere near them, but that isn’t true,” said Jon.
“Yes, you need to change a few things to keep catching close in, but you’re still in with a great chance of some big carp at close quarters.”
Depth decisions
As a simple rule of thumb, the shallower the water, the better the sport is going to be in the height of summer.
Jon explained that this isn’t the case now, and a much deeper spot is needed.
“I look for 12in- 18in of water in summer but you need a lot more for the fish to sit comfortably in the autumn.
“Around 3ft is ideal because the fish won’t spook out of it. If I can find that tight to the bank then great, but I will go down the slope away from the cover if necessary.”
Jon always tries to find a flat spot where it is the same depth over a few feet, because this provides a flat dinner table to lay his bait down.
If you are forced to fish on a slope, always feed at the top of it because the bait is bound to roll down. If you fed directly over your rig on a slope, the bait would roll away from your rig and take the fish into the deeper water with it.
Banker baits
The biggest factor you need to consider when deciding what loosefeed to use is the depth of the water.
In shallow water you can get away with loose groundbait or dead maggots, because none of it will be intercepted by small fish on the drop or get taken away by the tow.
But once you start fishing in more than 2ft of water you need to start looking at feeding different baits.
“First, heavier baits are required because they sink quicker. They also stay on the bottom, which is important.
“If you used dead maggots, groundbait or micros they would waft off the deck as big fish cruised around the swim and the fish would inevitably rise off the deck to get among this food.
“This leads to fish brushing up against the rig and you striking at false indications on your float. The result would be a foulhooked fish that you would soon lose, spooking the peg in the process.”
To prevent such calamities, Jon feeds 6mm or 8mm pellets and sweetcorn. Both are reasonably heavy and will stay on, or very close to, the bottom – even when the tail of a doublefigure carp waves over the top!
Little and often
Positive feeding with a big cup is the ‘ go to’ style when it is warm but it’s now time to scale back.
Introducing colossal amounts of food will still draw fish in but it drastically reduces your chances of them taking the hookbait.
“In summer the fish will eat whatever you throw at them – no matter how much that is!
“In autumn, though, their appetites have started to wind down for the year and it is better to give the fish a mouthful and put your hookbait in the middle of it.
“The fish naturally come into the margins late in the day when they are hungry, and if you cup in just 20 pellets or grains of corn each time you ship out you will have the perfect amount of bait to get that next bite quickly.”
Big- fish rigs
The water might have lost some of its colour but the fish are still packed with power. Scale down your rigs too much and there is only going to be one winner… and it won’t be you!
“I use 0.18mm Browning Hybrid Power Mono mainline to an 0.16mm hooklength of the same material to a size 16 hook. An elastic with enough force to stop big fish is still needed, and I go with a grade 12 Browning Stretch 7 Hollow.”
A bulk of shot is the usual ploy to get it to the deck quickly, but Jon does things differently when faced with deeper water.
“The fish could be sat just off the deck so I use a spread bulk, starting at the hooklength loop and going up six inches.
“It slows the fall of the hookbait in the final layers, giving those fish that are sat just off the deck a fraction of a second longer to slurp it up on the way down.”
When the weather takes a turn for the worse, keep your faith in the margins to keep up your summer bagging pace.