If you've fished a commercial a few times over recent weeks, you may have noticed that the feeding and behavioural habits of the fish have changed a little. As autumn approaches a change is often needed to keep bites coming.
This is when worms and casters will come into their own and enable you to keep on catching at the pace you did during the peak of summer. Whether it’s carp, F1s or quality silvers in your swim, this is the combo that will keep the float going under.
Target the ideal spot
This is an approach that will catch all species, and you need to target an area of your swim where everything from carp to big skimmers will feel comfortable about settling.
I always find that the open water in your swim is the perfect place to concentrate on. It often has a suitable depth of 5ft-7ft and you can draw in fish from elsewhere.
That bit of depth is key, as this is an approach that will allow you to catch both on the deck and shallow. If the water is too shallow, the fish will be less inclined to rise off the bottom, and rather than change where they sit in the water column when they become unsettled, they could simply drift off entirely.
Fish will be cruising around the lake but, if you feed the area appropriately, you can stop them in their tracks and bolster the size of the shoal. Fish at a distance that feels comfortable – 11m-13m is a good starting point for most.
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Rely on balanced rigs
I want to be able to get big fish in quite quickly, while making sure I don’t bump silvers off, and that makes it essential that I get my elastic selection correct.
A white Daiwa Hydrolastic is used when fishing on the bottom, while I go for a more forgiving grade 10 Preston Innovations Dura Hollo when fishing shallow, teamed with a 0.15g Guru Cookie, a dibber-style float shotted with a bulk of No10s just above the hooklength knot.
My mainline for on the deck is 0.17mm to a 0.13mm hooklength and a size 16 Guru SLWG hook. I use a 0.4g wire-stemmed Guru Bobbie float, which is stable yet sensitive. This is shotted with a simple bulk set 18ins from the hook and a dropper or two below.
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Loosefeeding is key
Most of my feeding is done via a catapult, and while you can’t get every single caster on a sixpence, I still like to group them all as tightly as possible. If I can do this, I can group the shoal and that then reduces the amount of time it takes for them to find the hookbait.
A catapult with strong, quite short elastic helps, and I rely on a Guru Incredible Pult. It’s often used for rod-and-line and work, but it’s great for maintaining accuracy at short range too.
I’ll feed from the word go, and stick to a routine of firing in 30-40 casters twice in quick succession every 90 seconds. You must keep the trickle of bait going through the water column, or the fish won’t be stimulated into competing, which is a recipe for fewer bites.
The only time I’ll use a small pot is to add the occasional dollop of finely chopped worms. This adds scent, and is something a bit different for fish to feed on when the action slows a fraction.
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Read your swim
Although I only fish one line, I always chase the fish up and down in the column. I’ll start on the deck, but it doesn’t take long for the fish to rise, especially F1s, once the casters have been raining in for a short while. Stay fishing on the bottom until the bites either dry up, you get liners, or the stamp of fish gets a lot smaller.
Once any of these things happens, it’s time to reach for the shallow rig. I’ll start around 2ft 6ins deep in a 5ft swim, as they often come up quite quickly as they try to compete. If I’m still getting liners, it’s time to keep creeping shallower by just a few inches each time.
You can end up as shallow as 10ins below the surface, but if bites cease you need to start going deeper by dropping down a few inches at a time until you locate the fish again.
I’ll often have two or three shallow rigs ready, so that the length of line between pole-tip and float is never more than 6ins-12ins. Fish that are feeding shallow snatch at a bait quickly, and the shorter that length of line is, the quicker you are going to connect with the rig on the strike.
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Alternate your hookbait
I always use a worm hookbait when I’m fishing on the bottom. This is because small fish like little perch or hand-sized skimmers are often on the deck, and I want to use something that they won’t instantly gobble up.
A worm head can be great, but if that’s still getting taken by tiddlers, I’ll switch to half a dendrobaena. When it comes to shallow fishing, banded caster is often unbeatable. Leaving all the hook showing increases the chances of hitting the bite when the fish are intercepting the hookbait at pace.
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