ALL ABOUT THE GROUNDBAIT

     

 

I've never been that exercised about groundbait and I certainly don't believe that the dozens of different types on the market are anything more than bait for anglers to take. I can see why a method mix is useful for making sticky heavy balls that will hit the bottom of the Wye and break down slowly, why something with ground hemp in it might attract roach or something black might be useful on a clear canal. Beyond that, the only criterion that seems relevant to me is particle size. Old Pete loves his slop, superfine, sloppy stuff that bursts into a milky cloud upon hitting the water and that makes perfect sense to me as a slow sinking, foodless attraction for roach and the like. Mashed bread is undoubtedly a fantastic attraction for chub, can't argue with it. Me, I like to put some food down there and they way that I fish is definitely more in tune with the latter approach. If I am fishing for better roach, bream and hybrids on the canal, I use liquidised bread, with crushed and/or whole hemp and tares added. If I want to stiffen that up to aid throwing or just to get it down to the bottom quicker, I will add a dusting of Gros Gardons to it for no other reason than it has a picture of a big roach on the packet and as a traditional angler I have a soft, unproven and sentimental spot for aniseed as a roach attractant. If I need any quantity of dry material, brown crumb will do fine. That is now the only mix of any sophistication that resonates with me. Fishmeal/method mix will do for heavy water but that's it, everything else can be catered for with loose feed as far as I am concerned. 

     So today I was back on the canal, in the same spot as we fished on Wednesday, determined to catch a better fish. I arrived at dawn and immediately lobbed half a dozen small balls of groundbait around the swim. Not to close together, just in the same vicinity. A technique that allows for my incompetent throwing arm and, I like to believe, keeps the fish moving around leading to better bites. I've never understood the modern fondness for little piles of bait in one tight spot especially when bream are involved.  Fifteen minutes getting everything set up nicely and out went the first bait. Within a minute I had one tiny twitch that led to nothing but after two casts without a proper bite, I was starting to fidget. It sounds silly but I have always found the first thirty minutes to be a prime time. Obviously odd fish can come at any stage of the morning, but a good day is nearly always heralded by instant bites. I needn't have worried, the tip was soon pulling round and dropping back to the rythm of biting fish.

     
The first was a small silver bream which was nice if unspectacular and quite hopeful really. I'd quite like a decent one of those to my name, maybe a pound, please? And so the morning progressed with ever larger lumps of flake pushing the morning's best up past a 1-4 hybrid to the giddy heights of a really hard scrapping two pounder. 

     

Not bad I thought, but with a bite coming every cast, I felt the need to try an experiment. It's all right having a suitable groundbait but how and when to introduce it is, I feel a far more important consideration. I am certain that I have ruined more fishing by putting the wrong amount in at the wrong time than I ever have by using the wrong product. Instinctively with bream I have always felt that if you catch one, then all your groundbait has probably gone whether it has been eaten or just spread too thinly by fish swirling above it. Consequently I have always felt an urge to top it up immediately I have caught. Unfortunately, my sluggish intellect has only recently noticed that doing so has never really made things much if any better than they were before, Today I decided to chuck another few balls on top of this fish a chuck, unmissable bite a chuck , swim and see what happened.

Well I'll tell you what happened, it killed it stone dead for 40 minutes and when the bites restarted, they were unhittable, fast and twitchy. You can never tell but it seemed like a sign to me. Maybe they have backed off I thought and flicked my bait right across the canal beyond the baited area. Whack, the tip slammed round and I missed it. That happened twice more and the bites disappeared. Back over the bait and all I was getting was fast twitchy bites again.

              

Small fish, I thought, so I put two small pieces of 6mm punch on the shank of the hook. Once that had swollen up, nothing could take that bite without taking the hook as well, as long as they could find it of course. The tip pulled round firmly and I was in and after a short but feisty struggle I had my first decent roach from this swim, in the net. It weighed a pound and a few drams, so my day was made and a good job too, I never had another bite of any description. It was by now 10.30 and really apart from one or two special places, I have always found that is pretty much the end of things anyway.

One boat today, a decrepit old river cruiser with three likely looking sorts on it, all cussing and swearing at the top of their voices. F****ing caught anyfink mate? Their poor old dog, an enormous thing of dubious parentage, possibly mastiff x Pit Bull was getting it in the ear non stop, "f****ing get down you f****ing c***". Oh God I thought, I hope they keep going. I really didn't fancy my chances against that lot, but no it had to happen, they pulled up opposite which was no comfort given that we were right next to a bridge. I was pondering my chances, looking up and down the canal, which way do I run, what can I afford to leave behind if I have to leg it? I looked back just in time to see them putting all their rubbish in the CRT skips before they set off again still cussing and swearing at the dog and disappeared round the corner. Time to go, I thought.