Its not so much a case of finding a hot spot Mark as creating one. While looking for the fish is a viable tactic on smaller venues, on bigger deeper venues with allot of water you are going to face an uphill struggle trying to track down a relatively small fish like a Roach. Of course you got to be in the general ball park area but you can make things allot easier by getting the fish to come to you with bait.
Making a 1 hour round trip to bait up everyday is hard work. Not to mention all the bait preparation - buying the bait, soaking it, cooking it, bucketing it up and then lugging it to the river and throwing it in without anyone seeing you (which is a misson in itself) …it’s a slog ! But the rewards can be there after.
In terms of swim selection I am currently fishing at depths between 4.5 to 5.5m so say around 16 foot. I don’t like anything decaying or too soft on the bottom…so old weed, black silt and so on I avoid. I like a solid bottom, gravel, sand etc and a slow walking pace current at normal river level. Any weed I pull in has to smell fresh. I don’t need a specific feature to fish to as the bait will be the feature although I have done quite well fishing to slacker areas near cover in the past as well…fallen trees and the like but these can be a magnet to other fish too..Chub Especially.
I also cant stress enough how important it is for me to try and ensure no one elses fishes the same swim. The only pressure on the fish I want to be from me. I want them to be unpressured at all other times so they can eat the bait in peace. This is so important that I will even intentionally pick "worse" swims I know other anglers will probably walk past...so with difficult access or near a much better looking swim..anything really to put people off fishing it as best I can.
For what its worth the fish I am currently posting on the HDYGO thread have come from 2 different rivers (both French) neither has a track record for big fish & If I float fished maggots I would catch literally hundreds of 1 to 6oz Roach & not even realize there were bigger ones there.
Importantly I now try and target the big ones specifically by using hard baits and ignoring all the knocks and trembles and waiting for a good solid pull. I know some people may think that’s hot air but the facts are this ;
On the first river over a period of about 3 months I caught @90 Roach, 30 of those were over 1lb to 2+. On the second river, in a handful of sessions I have had 30 Roach, 19 of those have been over a pound also to 2+.
So in a total of @120 Roach , 40% have been over 1lb from two different rivers stuffed with small ones. By anyone’s measure that can’t be down to just luck. That’s proof you can single out the bigger ones intentionally.
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