Over the winter months fishery managers take the opportunity to undertake essential fishery management to maintain the health of the fishery. This will include nettings and restocking’s.
Many commercial fisheries around the country will choose to add carp and F1’s as these are the most cost effective and popular fish to stock. With these fish coming straight from a fish farm having been reared on small pellets your approach should take advantage of this.
In this article we’ll explore how to approach these venues to keep bites coming and take advantage of all the new mouths to feed.
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Simple tactics
As these fish are relatively naive, a simple rig is the order of the day. A 0.3g slim bodied float with a 1.5-2mm bristle with a stung bulk to get the bait down is all you need. Couple this with a 5lb mainline and a 4” 3lb (0.11mm) hooklength and you are ready to go, this slightly stronger tackle also gives you a good chance to land the older, bigger fish in the lake too!
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Rotating lines
These newly stocked fish can be relatively nomadic so be prepared to set up 2 or 3 swims and rotate them throughout your session to keep fish coming. By keeping one swim topped up, fishing another and resting the third you will ideally always have a productive swim with feeding fish.
Expanders on the hook
Soft expanders are an excellent hookbait and would be my first choice they closely resemble what these newly stocked fish relate to as natural food. A soft bait can be readily consumed and without the risk of it being ejected as readily. If missed bites and striked off baits start to become an issue a switch to a couple maggots on the hook should resolve this.
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Nuggets of groundbait
Feeding small amounts of pellet based groundbait like a ground expander that is over wetted with a small amount of hookbait samples, will keep these newly stocked fish engaged. The goal is to keep the fish interested without filling them up. Juvenile fish will find security in groups so keeping a few fish in the swim is bound to attract more.
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Pole pot to keep feed accurate
Using a pole pot is essential to keep the feed accurate and steadily keeping the bait topped up. The key here is to introduce a small amount of bait and ‘fish it out’ till bites start to slow then as they do add another small amount of feed to keep bites coming.
Lifting and dropping
Rather than staring at a motionless float waiting for it to hopefully disappear, imparting a little bit of movement to the rig by gently lifting the float body out the water and lowering back in will more often than not induce a bite, with the float disappearing as it resettles. This is normally as stockie carp and F1’snot being ‘riggy’ have simply watched the bait fall and grabbed it as its hit the bottom.
Inconspicuous bites
It’s important to have the float dotted down as much as you can and still see it. These naïve fish will pick up a bait and continue feeding even if they feel resistance as they are yet to learn that lesson. The smallest dip or even wobble of the float tip will no doubt be a bite so if you lift at any movement, you will more often than not perfectly hook the fish in the top lip.
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