LIVEBAITING THE PVA WAY
Revealed! A simple secret for casting huge baits away from the boat…
THOSE WHO FOLLOW MY exploits will know that I love uptiding. After all, I am from Essex where the method was invented. However, I’ve been using one particular trick in recent years that has transformed the way I fish big baits and livebaits, which I stole straight out of my carp fishing armoury. I wrote about livebaiting a few months ago, but thought I’d revisit it after a trip that I made before Christmas on my mate Roger Cooling’s boat out of Grimsby. It takes a bit of nerve and patience to fish a livebait all day, simply because it’s such a waiting game. But, if you’re not catching much anyway, what’s the problem?
My favourite winter cod livebait when fishing in estuaries is a whiting, indeed it’s also my preference for late autumn and winter bass, too. Don’t be too worried about the size of the bait either because I have caught loads of cod on whiting weighing over 1lb. As long as the fish in question is alive, you stand a chance of bagging a big cod on it. Don’t believe me? Well check out the photo on page 58 of the halfdigested whiting head that came out of the guts of one of the cod I caught on this most recent trip. at whiting was easily a pound or more when it went in. Unfortunately I didn’t catch it on a livebait, it took a huge stuffed squid bait, but it emphasises my point that even smaller cod love to eat big whiting.
CORRECT KIT
Tackle needs to be fairly substantial because you are specifically targeting larger fish, often in fast-flowing estuary tides. With this in mind I see little point in fishing anything lighter than a 12/20lb-class outfit when downtiding, or my preferred method of an uptide rod. Obviously, I match the correct reel to the rod. Again don’t go too small with your reel. Make sure it has the guts and drag needed to do battle with a 10lb-plus cod in fast tide, which can put serious strain on your gear especially if there is also a lot of weed and debris in the water, as there often is in estuaries.
Reel line should again reflect the size of the fish you are seeking, so there is little point in fishing light. I’d say 30lb braid is fairly standard. Use 20lb minimum mainline if using mono when uptiding. If you’re not close by or paying constant attention to your rod, I advise setting the drag and ratchet to avoid an expensive loss.
is is especially important if fishing downtide because you will not be afforded any time as a fish moves off downtide on a tight line, especially in a fast tide.
My favourite estuary livebait rig, whether intended for catching cod or bass, is a simple running leger fixed Pennell rig, tied with five feet of 40lb fluorocarbon line. Using heavy, stiff fluorocarbon helps to keep the livebait away from your lead weight and should reduce tangles too. I use two size 5/0 or 6/0 hooks for the fixed Pennell. I pass the top hook through the upper lip of the whiting and then nick the bottom hook through the dorsal fin to give a perfect presentation.
On various fishing forums and social media I often see livebait rigs that are tied with a fixed top hook, usually size 5/0 or 6/0, and a much smaller hook, say size 1/0, below it. is rig is primarily used for shore fishing, where the bottom, smaller hook is baited with a worm in an attempt to hook a live whiting or pouting in the first instance. ere’s no need to use such a rig when boat fishing. With care, most decent uptide rods can lob a 12oz whiting and 10oz lead weight away from the boat with ease. For those of you who fish like this, I’ve got a cunning little tip for you.
SNEAKY SECRET
During my carp fishing exploits I stumbled upon PVA cable ties, which dissolve in water over time. PVA, which stands for Poly Vinyl Acetate, is a form or resin that is soluble in water and is commonly used in paint, as well as that white glue that some of the ‘wrong’ kids used to eat in school. Loads of carp anglers put their bait and rig into a PVA bag, seal the top and cast it out into the lake. e bag dissolves in a matter of minutes, leaving a pile of bait and the angler’s hookbait in situ – it’s clever stuff. An advance in the technique in recent years saw the development of the PVA cable ties, which are designed to be tightened around the top of the PVA bag once it has been filled with bait, but I’ve found another use for them. You see, there a bit of a problem when you lob an extremely large bait or livebait over the side of the boat. What tends to happen is it all flies out great for the first few metres, then the weight of the bait takes over and pulls your mainline through the attachment for the lead weight, in turn creating a huge gap between your bait and your sinker as it hits the water. is can often be as much as 20 feet or more. e same problem then continues as your bait and weight sink to the seabed. As you let off more line from the rod end, the lead weight often sinks faster than the livebait, creating even more distance between it and your bait. In some cases, when your lead finally hits the seabed it can mean your bait is 50 feet away. Now that’s no good for a number of reasons, not least bite detection and tangles.
In the past I have tried to minimise this by slowing the rate of descent once the bait and sinker hit the surface after the cast. is is done by pulling the rod tip in an attempt to shorten the distance between the lead weight and bait as they sink downwards. You can even reel in a little bit once everything hits the bottom in order to get the bait and trace butted up against the lead weight.
Now all I do is tie the lead link to the end of the trace swivel with one of these PVA cable ties, and that keeps everything together for the duration of the cast and while the rig settles on the seabed. Simple! ere have been studies done where it is thought that PVA takes much longer to dissolve in saltwater than in fresh, but does that really matter when you’re intending your livebait to be sitting there for six hours?
To date I’ve had no problems with the method, and the PVA cable ties have always dissolved or weakened enough in the tide for everything to pull free.
LAST WORD
I must give your a warning at this point though. If you try this method, don’t be fooled by the false bite caused when, after 10 minutes, the cable tie dissolves and gives way and the tide pulls your livebait a couple of feet away from the lead weight.