| MARK WINTLE |
| Mark Wintle, an angler for thirty-five years, is on a quest to discover and bring to you the magic of fishing. Previously heavily involved with match fishing he now fishes for the sheer fun of it. With an open and enquiring mind, each week Mark will bring to you articles on fishing different rivers, different methods and what makes rivers, and occasionally stillwaters, tick. Add to this a mixed bag of articles on catching big fish; tackle design, angling politics and a few surprises. Are you stuck in a rut fishing the same swim every week? Do you dare to try something different and see a whole new world of angling open up? Yes? Then read Mark Wintle’s regular column. |
| EXPERIMENTING This week I want to discuss experimentation in angling methods. For many anglers, a familiar rig and bait (and swim) suffices for all of their angling. But it is too easy to slip into such territory and never return, and as a result miss a lot of fun and good sport. But what do I mean I by experimentation? This can be anything from little adjustments to the end tackle, to trying different baits and methods, to trying out an entirely different type of fishing altogether. There have always been two schools of thought on whether to always to stick to the tried and tested, or whether to develop the method and tactics according to what is happening. This manifests itself in various ways. Those that tend to use ready-made rigs, tackle winders, rod holdalls that allow the tackle to remain set-up must all surely fall into the camp of being fairly set in their ways and less likely to experiment. On the other hand, Dick Walker once declared tackle winders as unnecessary and pointless, and I must include myself in the ranks of the experimenters. Even when I did a lot more pole fishing than I do now I would rather make up a rig on the bank according to the prevailing conditions than always use a ready made rig even though it might take longer to set up. This may have been partly to do with the wide variety of waters that I fished, and therefore it was difficult to have a rig for every occasion. One thing that novices ask is how to tackle up, and, not surprisingly, will follow advice from books, magazines, on Fishingmagic or fellow anglers. But such designs are only general starting points that can be refined as you go along. As Confucius said, “Rules are for the strict obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men”. And so it is with fishing methods. True, there may be restrictions that you must comply with on the waters you fish, but provided you do so there is usually a tremendous amount of freedom in what you can do.
There is no such thing as a perfect method or rig. That at a particular time or circumstance a rig or method might be incapable of being improved there is no doubt. But conditions are constantly changing, fish rapidly wise up, and new tackle developments make previous methods obsolete. This doesn’t mean that methods and tackle from the past won’t work now, only that an open mind and a willingness to experiment can and will transform your catches. After all how many anglers are still using hooks to gut, potatoes as bait for carp (nearly said cane rods then!) and other obsolete methods and tackle. Simple floatfishing Even simple floatfishing provides endless scope to experiment. This is for me part of the fascination. Starting with the choice of float, there are plenty to choose from, often my choice is wrong, and I change it. Then there’s the shotting pattern. This will based on several factors; the depth, the flow, the presence of nuisance surface feeders like bleak, and most important of all how I am trying to present the bait. Now even assuming I get all of the foregoing spot on there will come a time in the session when the fish I am catching will become wary of the presentation. Or it could be that my feeding has positioned them differently in the swim. They may have come up in the water (usually induced by very regular feeding little and often), or conversely be feeding hard on the bottom (induced by much less regular heavy feeding). So, a change to my feeding, shotting, depth or even entire rig may be in order. Sometimes the change, even a tiny one, simply does not work. It may be a case of going back to the original rig, making the change more drastic, or even trying a completely different method. An example of this is when I was fishing the tidal Stour last summer. I’d been floatfishing bread punch over groundbait, and had some roach and a mullet. The river had been standing as the tide had risen. When the tide had started to draw off, a stream of bubbles appeared right over the baited patch. My attempts to catch the bream (for that’s what was causing the stream of bubbles) were fruitless using float tactics. I set up a feeder rod from scratch with a groundbait feeder still using bread as bait and soon got amongst the bream. When to Experiment The simplest explanation of when to experiment is to say that any angling situation where you know the fish are present, possibly feeding, and either you aren’t catching them, or you are catching them but not the fish that you are targeting, or that you can see the possibility of improving the catch or even landing rate. This last one is where you are losing fish, either off the hook or getting broken. Perhaps when not to… There are angling situations where a degree of patience is required. You’ve put the bait in, the rig is right, the fish are there, and it’s just a matter of time before the fish fall for the bait. Trying to hurry up the process could cause you to miss the opportunity altogether. This is where experience and confidence come in. Those with very long memories will remember how Trent masters like John Dean could plug away, seemingly catching little, whilst those around faltered and packed up. But sheer mastery of feeding and presentation, and the belief that other’s fish would eventually be drawn into their swims, led to outstanding match wins achieved in the last hour. Possibilities Just what can be varied by way of experimentation is endless but here are a few ideas.
Finding the Fish I have listed a tiny number of the possible permutations available that can be used to refine our fishing methods. I use this experimentation further to locate fish. There are many ways of locating fish; visual, knowledge of known swims, reading the water to guess likely spots, yet one that is rarely mentioned is simply getting down and fishing lots of likely spots – experimentation in other words. There is an element of trial and error, and sometimes the realisation that though the swim is a good prospect the conditions are not really right on the day, in which case it may be worth noting such a swim for more favourable conditions. In the same way, monitoring match weigh-ins can help find good fish. In this case you are using others efforts to locate the fish. You’d be in good company too, for the late, great Peter Stone used this method on the mostly featureless Thames where the efforts of a single angler are often not significant enough to bear fruit. Similarly, fishing with one or more companions can be a shortcut to better results. By each trying different swims, rigs, and sharing information, many hands can make light work. In a similar vein, this is the method used by successful match teams to crack venues. In match fishing you need to know what won’t work as well as winning methods, and as often as not, a get out of jail method when the going is really tough. Conclusion I have barely skimmed the surface of a vast subject. To me this experimentation is vital to my enjoyment of the sport, so much so that I often go out fishing to try a new water or method just for the hell of it. If you are one of the tried and tested only anglers then all I can say is try something different once in a while, you will certainly learn something if nothing else, and you never know… Next: ‘Eating My Hat – Centrepin Reels’ |
