Tag Archives: feeder fishing

Isotopes (also known as betalites, betalights and Starlites/starlights) are an essential item of tackle for night fishing when watching the rod tip for bite indication is required. To attach these to the tips of your rods you’ll need some kind of adapter, or something to attach them to. There are a few products on the market which offer a temporary, removable solution – such as the Korum Starlight & Isotope Holder Kit, Enterprise Tackle’s Avon/Barbel Rod Tip Nightlight Adapter & Quivertip Nightlight Adapter and the Drennan Isotope Kit – but if, like me, you do a lot of fishing in the dark, a permanent holder is a far superior option. If you have the money for a custom-built rod, several rod builders allow you to specify a night light adapter. But if, like most of us, you’re using off-the-shelf rods or if you’d like to retrofit an adapter to your older rods, you can achieve the same thing with a little bit of DIY. I’ve come up with a solution, which I’ve added to several of my barbel rods, zander rods and quivertip rods over the past couple of seasons (they will work for any rods where you may need …

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After more than a month of abstinence from fishing, I finally got myself back out on the bank between Christmas and New Year. I had a few new bits of tackle – mainly Christmas presents – to try out too. The first trip was an ill-advised, two hour drive to Boston with Craig and his mate Arran, only for us to find all of the drains were still completely frozen over with a good 3 to 4 inches of ice! After a brief bout of self-deprecation for not calling a local tackle shop to check, a swift re-think was required. We needed to find some flowing water to be guaranteed some ice-free fishing. The nearby Witham was an option but, as none of us had ever really pulled up any trees on there, we opted to head back as far as Newark and try a stretch of the Trent which none of us had fished before. It was close to a boatyard and seemed a logical place for us to find some lethargic pike seeking food close to shelter. Craig quickly caught a small jack, probably less than a couple of pounds, and that was it as far as action …

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Although I caught my first barbel from the Trent and my second came from the Derwent, my third and probably the next forty-odd were all River Dove barbel. It’s the place I spent my most formative barbel angling years to date and it’s a river which, although a tough nut to crack at times, I will always hold dear when it comes to summer barbel fishing. The beauty of the river certainly helps; it abounds with wildlife and the combination of gravel runs, streamer weed, gnarled overhanging trees and numerous intriguing twists and turns, make the Dove constantly fascinating. It’s a special river. Andrew’s rods await the interests of a Barbel at sunset on the River Dove I’ve held various tickets for stretches of the Dove and I’ve had varying results from them. Some stretches hold numbers of fish in the 4lb to 8lb bracket with the odd larger fish; others are more famed for elusive but hefty specimens. Due to struggling early-season on the Trent and Derwent in recent years, I decided to give the Dove a go at a narrow stretch, which happened to be the first I’d fished, back in 2003. This would “ease me in gently”, …

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Well, I didn’t get fishing too much over the closed season, but two of the more notable sessions were fishing for Crucian carp at Carr Vale Pond near Bolsover and Tench fishing with my friend and erstwhile www.anglerstoday.co.uk editor, Kevin Miles. I tried fishing light for the crucians, as is normally required to hook one, but for some reason couldn’t connect with the bites. When I eventually swapped to fishing the lift method (which is one of my favourites for close-range fishing) and swimfeeder, I did start hooking fish. The first came to the lift method on a single grain of corn and it went 1lb 4oz. Later on, my “sleeper” feeder rod – which I’d loaded with a big hook, a whole lobworm and a grain of corn in the hope of a big tench – was nearly dragged in by an absolute screaming run, which I assumed must be a tench or carp. After a good scrap for 30 seconds or so, the fish seemed to give up, almost like a bream would. I brought the fish to the net wondering what on earth I’d hooked. It turned out to be another, bigger crucian at a PB weight …

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Roach fishing is something I very seldom do, in fact I cannot remember the last time I set out to specifically catch roach, except maybe to use as pike baits! Unsurprisingly, my roach PB has never been anything to shout about; I don’t know exactly what my biggest roach was, but it was certainly below 1lb. The positive of this was that there’s a lot of room left for improvement! Through the grapevine I heard of a local day ticket water which had produced a few large roach to pleasure anglers over the summer months. It was time to try for my first big roach and this seemed the perfect place to start. I remembered reading an article last year about the virtues of flavouring maggots with super-sweet flavours such as scopex, in helping to tempt winter roach to feed. So I got hold of some strong scopex bait spray and sprayed this onto my maggots, twice a day, for two days prior to the session. The smell was unbelievable! Despite being sealed in a large bucket inside the shed, you could smell scopex in the garden with the shed door shut! I met up with my good friend Kevin …

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By mid-August, I am usually well into my stride catching river fish, especially barbel. This year, however, I’ve struggled to even get a bite! The problem with becoming confident in certain methods, baits and even venues, is that it’s easy to become set in your ways with your approach. The old adage “If it aint broke, don’t fix it” springs to mind. But what happens when it is broke, and your tried and trusted methods fail you time and again? It’s so easy to dwell on glories past, sticking with the same setup in the hope that it will work eventually. The truth is, conditions change, swims change, fish can become wary of certain rigs and baits. If you find yourself struggling, you must start ringing the changes until you find something else that works. Two chance meetings earlier in the month inspired me to get out of my recent rut, and I’m so relieved! With very few bites, and a single measly 10 ounce chub to show for several after-work river sessions, I knew I had to change something. My initial focus, along with trying a variety of different swims, was to change my baits until I found one …

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