Tee-Cee
Senior Member
It's been a week of picking and choosing the better ( less cold ) days in an attempt to be a little more comfortable on the bank. That said, it still took a major effort to go at all as the thermometer hovered around zero or a degree or two above.
I continued to persevere on a couple of still waters, fishing the same swims in the hope that fish might congregate around the fairly regular flow of bait, and to some degree this has been moderately successful in that I've caught fish. Not massive catches but still worth making the effort for !
This week and last I've given thought to what I could do to swing the chances of fish more in my favour and to this end I made a plan to introduce my maggots with flavour. I didn't comfortable with flavouring a whole load of red maggots without having some idea if it would work so I merely added some to those for the hook and, in addition, just dipped those on the hook into the flavour between casts. I bit fiddly as dropping a single red on a 22 into the powder is tedious to say the least.
What I can say, without fear of contradiction is this particular flavour has proved to be the difference between moderate success and total failure as introducing the flavour (after sitting biteless for a spell ) has produced instant response - and I mean instant !!
Of course, I kept a steady flow of 2/3 maggots going in every cast, and the bait was changed frequently to give some form of movement, and I varied the fishing depth if bites slowed, but I can still say the flavour made the difference.
Can I back this up ? Well, yes I can as a pal fishing long from me, who was biteless for two hours, tried it and he caught a fish on his first cast - a near 10lb carp falling to double reds on an 18 x 2lb bottom !!
Yesterday, the same thing....Biteless in one swim for two hours; a quick move to one ( in the weak sunshine of all things ! ) ; a change of depth followed by a little more feed ( plus a miniscule amount of groundbait also dipped in the flavour ) and in the next hour I had 7 roach to 3/4lb, which in bitter conditions was pretty good going !
Now here's a thing...........I fished with around 1/2" of float above the surface ( in the shadow of a tree so I something to see ) and EVERY bite was identical in that a small ring appeared first of all around the float before it submerged - NOT all the way BUT by a 1'4" only. Not once did it sink completely yet every time I connected with a fish....
Did this continue ? The hell it did, as in the hour before I withdrew I had a had a half dozen bites where the float did submerge TOTALLY and instantly, producing precisely ziltch ! Grrrrrrr !
Anyway, a good week made all the better because something different worked ( again ) and this due to a bit of lateral thinking....
Oh, the flavoured powder ? Well, all I will say is have a look in the spices rack at home or in the shops and mix a few together...........It's worth a bit of effort and fills ' boring ' time in the evenings - far more enjoyable than watching tele !!
For the record my catches were up to a dozen roach on the best day but less on others, and this when folk around me struggled as most sat with hands in pockets and moaning about the cold !! Nuff said !!!
I continued to persevere on a couple of still waters, fishing the same swims in the hope that fish might congregate around the fairly regular flow of bait, and to some degree this has been moderately successful in that I've caught fish. Not massive catches but still worth making the effort for !
This week and last I've given thought to what I could do to swing the chances of fish more in my favour and to this end I made a plan to introduce my maggots with flavour. I didn't comfortable with flavouring a whole load of red maggots without having some idea if it would work so I merely added some to those for the hook and, in addition, just dipped those on the hook into the flavour between casts. I bit fiddly as dropping a single red on a 22 into the powder is tedious to say the least.
What I can say, without fear of contradiction is this particular flavour has proved to be the difference between moderate success and total failure as introducing the flavour (after sitting biteless for a spell ) has produced instant response - and I mean instant !!
Of course, I kept a steady flow of 2/3 maggots going in every cast, and the bait was changed frequently to give some form of movement, and I varied the fishing depth if bites slowed, but I can still say the flavour made the difference.
Can I back this up ? Well, yes I can as a pal fishing long from me, who was biteless for two hours, tried it and he caught a fish on his first cast - a near 10lb carp falling to double reds on an 18 x 2lb bottom !!
Yesterday, the same thing....Biteless in one swim for two hours; a quick move to one ( in the weak sunshine of all things ! ) ; a change of depth followed by a little more feed ( plus a miniscule amount of groundbait also dipped in the flavour ) and in the next hour I had 7 roach to 3/4lb, which in bitter conditions was pretty good going !
Now here's a thing...........I fished with around 1/2" of float above the surface ( in the shadow of a tree so I something to see ) and EVERY bite was identical in that a small ring appeared first of all around the float before it submerged - NOT all the way BUT by a 1'4" only. Not once did it sink completely yet every time I connected with a fish....
Did this continue ? The hell it did, as in the hour before I withdrew I had a had a half dozen bites where the float did submerge TOTALLY and instantly, producing precisely ziltch ! Grrrrrrr !
Anyway, a good week made all the better because something different worked ( again ) and this due to a bit of lateral thinking....
Oh, the flavoured powder ? Well, all I will say is have a look in the spices rack at home or in the shops and mix a few together...........It's worth a bit of effort and fills ' boring ' time in the evenings - far more enjoyable than watching tele !!
For the record my catches were up to a dozen roach on the best day but less on others, and this when folk around me struggled as most sat with hands in pockets and moaning about the cold !! Nuff said !!!
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