Before long Rob had set his depth, approx 2" over depth, and was soon adding shot to his line. Firstly he set two no 12 shot 10" and 15" away from the hook. Some 15" further up the line he placed his bulk consisting of no 9 shot set approx 1/4" apart. The float was set with about 1/2" of bristle showing. 
The shallower rig was then tackled. Rob set approx three feet of line and attached a size 16 Mustard Still water power hook and 0.13 Preston power line. Shotting of this was very simple with a number 8 shot below the float and a number 10 some 18" below that. He was now set.
At this point we were joined by Simon 'Bomber' Williams, the Fosters Tipton backed angler from Worcester. Bomber was also mesmerised by the amount of anglers on the bank and came along to peg 27.
Simon 'Bomber' Williams
He was soon setting up the tackle and was looking forward to the challenge a head.
Rob was now preparing his bait. " I try to keep things very basic" he explained, " You see a lot of anglers chopping away and then adding all sorts of things to the mix when they have done, I don't believe in this. I believe in keeping my options open. Even though worm is a very rich bait, on the day the fish may only be interested in the worm. Likewise they may not want a lot of it and may prefer caster or corn. I will mix my feed accordingly by adding things individually as a separate mix. To start off with I am going to feed like this." Rob goes on to show his first initial feed.
  
1. A third of caster. 2. A third of corn. 3. A third of chopped worm.
" I can chop and change my feed as I go by either adding more caster, corn or worm. The sign of a good angler is being able to work out very quickly what the fish want. This, I believe is were the top anglers get the edge."
This pot of food was shipped out to thirteen metres and was soon followed by the deeper rig of the PB15, with a dendro head attached to the hook before being nipped off to about 1" long.
 
An hour into the session and Rob was getting a lot of liners but only had two very small Roach to show for his efforts. " What happens now then Rob, if this was a match situation what would be your thoughts?" I asked. " It's early doors yet, and it isn't time to panic. Looking round the pool very little is being caught so it's not like we are doing much wrong. We just need to sort out what they want and how they want it. I explained about the feed earlier and now it is time to experiment to see if we can bring them on. After all what have we to lose? " Came the reply. With this out went some more feed but this time with more caster and very little worm.
Rob also believes, that depending on your approach, two different worm mixes are required. For fishing on the deck he likes a coarser chop of worm but likes a finer mix for up in the water fishing. " Up in the water the fish attack the bait as it is falling and the fish are competing. By offering a larger piece of worm on the hook compared to the feed it may produce a fish or two through sheer greed. On the other hand they may well be backing off the larger pieces preferring a smaller piece. By having differing size chop I'm not putting all my worms into one basket as they say! "
 
Deck feed Finer shallow feed
Next Page
Return to top |
