If you are interested, I have penned a bit of a report of how my match went last Sunday, here goes...
After speaking with Kevin Wilmot earlier in the week I was persuaded to forget a pellet shallow and consider fishing caster instead. I don’t fish a lot of caster shallow because it’s too expensive (Credit Crunch and all that) but after the venues recent form, reading stuff Lee Kerry writes in the magazines about catching F1’s shallow on caster and knowing the diversity of species in Willows, I decided a caster approach would be most suitable and wont be as selective at the pellet may be.
As far as I’m concerned the key to fishing shallow (or any type of fishing come to that) is feeding. Shallow fishing usually requires a constant stream of bait falling through the water to either entice the fish to come shallow or to keep fish in the top layers searching and ultimately competing for food. The question then was how much do I feed and how often?
After speaking to Ron to see how he pegged the match it was good to see he had, as usual, left out the not-so-good pegs, left in the good pegs and gave the mediocre pegs plenty of room. I drew peg 18 and wasn't very optimistic, however with the nearest anglers on 15 and 24, I had plenty of space and I was confident of getting a few shallow....
Many venues respond to shallow fishing later on in a session after an hour or so of feeding to get the fish going. With this in mid I set up a paste rig at 5m with a view to go on after a quick look shallow first thing to see if the they are about. I started off at 11m, feeding 10-12 casters constantly (but not very accurately J). The fish were obviously already ‘up’ as on my first put in on double maggot fishing 18 inches deep I had a 1lb F1 hybrid. When I said I went straight on the hallow line, I mean I didn’t even feed any other lines beforehand.
After a couple of roach in the next 2 put-ins I decided to try an inch long piece of worm as a ‘target’ bait try and entice any better fish that may be in the area. After all I had an F1 first put in so they must be around. The worm done the trick and more F1’s followed. I decided then to concentrate on the shallow line as it responded so early. I put the paste line to the back of my mind. Wheely on 15 and Ron and Graz on pegs 24 & 25 we all I could see from peg 18 on what I call the second bay. From what I could make out, Ron had started on the feeder against the island opposite and Graz was fishing the pole against the island to the right of 25.
I kept up the process of feeding and working my rig and began to get into some kind of rhythm. After about an hour I had about 25lb of mainly F1’s and the odd tench. At this stage I was still fishing 18 inches deep but getting plenty of indication on the float. This lead me to believe the fish were probably feeding shallower than I was fishing my hook bait. The indications were probably caused by fish swimming into my line above the hook. With this in mind I decided to alter my rig to fish 12 inches deep with my bulk of nr 10s 6inches from the hook. My rig consisted of 0.14 mainline to a 6 inch 0.12 hooklength and a size 18 Mustad still water power hook. The float was a Maver ‘Margin’ in 4x12 size. By coming shallower my catch rate improved and I started to fill my second net at the start of hour 2.
As I was fishing worm on the hook, I decided to chop some more into 1 inch sections and give them a squirt of red colouring to give the fish something different as a target bait. This worked a treat, I guess the bright red colour was more visable to the fish that a dull piece of worm and this resulted in more positive bites. The fish did become wise to this after an hour or so and as I had been feeding caster I decided to spend some time with double caster on the hook. Again this change of hook bait meant my slowing catch rate increased once again. For the next hour or so I alternated between double caster and ‘red’ worm on the hook to keep the fish coming.
One thing I found was essential was working the rig. I got in to a rhythm of lifting and dropping my rig almost constantly. One thing that worked well was as soon as I let go of my catty pouch when feeding, I lifted my rig and dropped it back in, this meant the hook bait and feed were going in at exactly the same time. If I hadn’t had a bite after a few lifts, I stopped feeding and ‘slapped’ the rig up to 4 times. Slapping the rig means rotating the pole tip at speed and flicking the rig round on to the waters surface, perpendicular to the pole. I think the sound of the float, bulk and bait hitting the surface when slapping mimic’s that of the loose feed but the only bait in the swim when slapping being the hook bait. Doing this often resulted in my double 6 laccy being pulled from the end of my pole! At 2pm, with 2 and a half hours to go I decided to go for a third net.
The last 2 hours were manic. I decided that as I had been feeding casters all day, the wary fish would probably be selecting the single baits and would be confident eating them at this stage. I decided to cut back the feed to 4-6 casters each time to increase competition in the peg. The fish were swirling as they came ultra shallow for my loose feed. I decided to change to my 4x10 rig at 12 inches deep with all the bulk under the float to give the caster as slower fall as possible. I would have liked to have come shallower but the 12 inch rule meant I couldn’t. I tried to keep the bait a high in the water as often as possible by constantly working the bait and slapping the rig. I went and got my 3rd net at 2pm and at 4pm went for my 4th as I had lost track of what I had put in net 3. It was a good job I went for another net as my third net weighted in at 51lb and was knocked back to 50lb at the weighin. My 4th net, which went in with only half an hour to go, weighed just over 20lb which just shows how good the last part of the match really was.
I wasn’t sure what weight I had at the end of the match. Ron weighed in first with 120lb and we thought I was between 15 and 20lb ahead of him My 4 nets went 159lb 8oz. I was surprised I had caught that much, chuffed I had beaten my personal best match weight and was absolutely fooked!
So what did I learn:
Feeding and getting into a rhythm. I had to keep bait going in all the time. I’d feed and work or slap the rig until I hooked a fish, guide the fish away from the swim and feed again before shipping back. When I got to my top kit I took the pole apart and fed again. I then played and netted the fish and fed again before I un hooked the fish. I’d then put the fish in the keep net, check (worm) or re-new (caster) the hook bait and feed again before shipping the rig out for the next fish. Cutting the feed back saw more competition in the peg as the match drew to a close.
Working the rig. It was important to keep the hook bait dropping through the water to mimic the loose feed. If I left the bait stationary, I simply struggled to get a proper bite.
Slapping the rig. This was really important to encourage the fish to take the bait, particularly the larger f1’s, probably due to the bait falling through the water and the hook bait entering the water away from the pole tip. I did however find the fish were attracted to the tip of my pole. They probably associated it with feed raining in!
Practice. I’m not the most prolific angler but it’s easy to see why the top anglers are where they are. They spend more time on the bank and with practice come precision, something I believe key in most aspects of match fishing.
Listen to those in the know. If I hadn’t spoken to Kev I would probably have fished pellet. On the day I’m not sure if pellet would have caught as much as caster and I’ll never know.
Keep it simple. There was nothing complicated about what I was doing. I set up 5 rigs but only used the 2 shallow ones.
Rig up some spares. I did suffer a few tangles which I guess come with the territory when fishing shallow. Next time I will certainly have spares on winders, if not already on top kits.
….and finally, don’t bother asking Ray Sladden how he caught, because he wont tell ya, even after the match!
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