Tag Archives: deadbaiting

I got this season’s predator campaign off to a great start last week, when I tackled the Trent near Nottingham.  After fishing elsewhere all day to try and catch perch, river carp and barbel, I arrived at the river about an hour before sunset, having caught none of the species I‘d been trying for.  I hadn’t managed to catch any fresh deadbaits either, so all the zander bait I had with me was a frozen pack of 5 small roach.  It was going to be tough to make them last, but targeting zander I was only expecting a couple of runs anyway. My simple deadbait rig for zander, incorporating a buoyant leger boom I setup two rods with low-resistance run rings, which I’d adapted and added some small pieces of foam to pop the rig up and keep the line out of the Autumn debris on the riverbed.  There are similar items on the market, called leger stems, but I’ve never been happy with their quality so I make my own.  They’re simple and cheap and I’ll go through exactly how I put them together in a future feature.  The run ring rests on a run rig rubber, which incorporates …

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In the period between Christmas and the end of the traditional fishing season, I’ve struggled to catch over the last few years. Many species are at their largest, but they’re by no means easy to catch! I was hoping this year to buck this trend, but I’ve managed less late winter fishing sessions than I would have liked and the fishing’s been tough.  The unsettled weather has led to heavily fluctuating river levels, which made planning fishing trips very difficult. Despite this, I decided that my first session of the new year should be spent targeting chub on a prolific stretch of river… When I arrived, I found the river high, but falling. It was very coloured, but my confidence was boosted by news that an angler had landed a chub over 6lb on trotted breadflake earlier that morning. This was the size I was aiming for, to set a new personal best. Breadflake was a bait I didn’t have in my armoury; I opted instead to fish strong-smelling, oily baits, hard on the bottom. I fished hard all day, keeping mobile in an attempt to find the fish, but one very half-hearted take was my only reward. No fish, …

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October 2005 arrived, and with it my first serious piking sessions of the season. The deadbait rods came out to accompany my lure rods as I prepared for what shall hopefully be a very successful Autumn and Winter’s pike fishing. Sometimes pike can seem like one of the easiest fish to catch, but very often they can seem almost impossible to catch. Just when you think you’ve got the species worked out, they turn things on their head and leave you scratching yours. If you haven’t pike fished before, but would like to have a go, then please first go with an experienced pike angler, the main reason for this is pike welfare. Everything from the timing of your strike to the unhooking of pike must be done correctly because an angler can pose a serious risk to the pike’s life if they do not know what they’re doing. I can tell you that already this autumn I’ve had some success with my piking, but to find out exactly how I’ve fared, you shall have to read on! Due to the inconsistency of the weather, I have fished a variety of venues with my regular fishing partner, Matt. The first …

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Fishing for pike on the Norfolk Broads Since writing my last article, I have only had chance to fish twice. The latter session was the Norfolk Broads trip which I mentioned last time. Both trips were extremely fulfilling; but for contrasting reasons. One resulted in my biggest pike catch ever. The other was a full-on experience, with hardly any fish action at all! Due to the Norfolk session being a pike-oriented trip, my friend Matt and I decided we would have a confidence-building pike session first, on a venue we both knew well. It ended up being an exceptional day in terms of the number of pike caught. I took a dozen fish on lures, from a 100-yard stretch of water and Matt took the largest pike of the day – 14lb 4oz, on a deadbait; along with a few perch and some lost pike on a jig. We had found a huge concentration of pike, which only seemed to be interested in slow-moving baits, so I spent most of my time lure fishing. I caught the majority of my fish on a large Mepps spinner, with two fish caught on a Salmo crankbait. Both retrieved very slowly, close to …

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