Hi there,

I am a member of a water that has a few VERY big Rudd, and was just wondering what tactics Rudd anglers use alot? would the standard Crystal Waggler fished a few feet deep be the best option in general?

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My experience of rudd fishing is limited to places where there are lots of small ones, so the problem with this sort of approach is avoiding them. I saw a Matt Hayes video where there was a pit with, I think, only big rudd, and that was the approach he used, but a key thing was spotting the shoal. I read of a specimen hunter who got big rudd by ledgering, I think late autumn - I stress I've no experience of this myself.

try fly fishing ,a chap comes in the summer and has often picked out the larger rudd from the miriad tiddlers that surround it

Can you see the rudd? If so a tactic that has worked for me in the distant past is to fish a floating caster, either on the aforementioned crystal waggler or by using apiece of quill/balsa with a band at both ends with some shot in the middle of the bands for casting weight. Grease the line and fire out some floating casters to get them feeding; cast beyond the shoal and gently draw your baited hook back in to the vicinity and bingo! Used to work for me although my biggest was caught on bottom fished sweetcorn.
Good luck.
Dave

I would use Barbus10's method.
Once you have found big rudd you need to gain their confididence much like when surface fishing for carp. Get them feeding by using surface baits such as floating casters or pellets.
Also make some slow sinking maggots by pouring a fizzy drink (coke is best flavour) over a few in a bait tub they cannot climb out of.
Once they are feeding fire in some slow sinkers and some normal casters / maggots / small pellets.
This way when your baited hook goes in they will not be able to tell it is different from the loose feed as all the loose feed is dropping at different rates or floating!!!!!!!!!!

I have done well with clear bubble floats.

During spring / autumn I have found that popped up bread flake gets taken by the bigger rudd on a light ledger set up.

He must have been an ace fly fisher. In my limited experience of fly fishing for rudd, the tiddlers always got there first! Do you happen to know whether he was using very large flies? Or was it just that he could see all hte fish, and was very accurate at casting?

hmm. I hear mini boilies are pukka at sorting the proper fish out.

On the only two occasions when I had the chance to sight fish for seriously big rudd, both times I was in a boat. I caught them by casting beyond the fish with a lobworm and pulling the bait back past them.

1/ Slapton Ley in the early fifities, was using fairly crude "cork on porc" float gear - saw the rudd, did as described and had five over 2 lb, best three and a half.

2/ Lough Ree in the late fifties, we were tight lining for perch, half-ounce barrel lead stopped two feet from the hook. Saw shoal of big rudd - cast the rig beyond them, held the rod as high as possible, wound the lob past the shoal, and bingo! Got three over 2 lb in three successive casts. My mate made the mistake of trying to change to float gear, by which time they had gone.

Two other catches of big rudd (or near rudd)

3/ Local Res, couple of years back, got some azurine to 1-12 (thats the lemon-finned variety of rudd) in the winter by simple touch-legering, inching the lobs back.

4/Last December, using similar tactics in the same water, got a roach-rudd hybrid of 3lb 12oz
published the photo on AN - its there if you search for it - under title of Roach/rudd hybrid or wot? December 4th 2004 Have now brought it to the top for you.

I do not often fish deliberately for big rudd - but when I do, the evidence seems to be telling me they like a MOVING bait. Unorthodox, I know, but I can only tell it as it was.

[ 28. January 2005, 12:01 AM: Message edited by: Vagabond ]

Fascinating stuff, Vagabond. Have you caught other species by your touch ledgering approach, inching it back? My immediate reaction is that you lose the benefit of loose-feed, but then you could cover a lot of ground. Do you use a mobilie approach, as in lure fishing?

Flying Tench......Yes, a lot of medium sized perch caught that way, although most of my better perch have come to spinning or livebait.

Loose feed does not come into the equation, as I cast 80 yards out to the old river channel - leave it for a while, and then inch it back. Sometimes I put a blockend swimfeeder on (rigged so main line runs through the feeder like a barrel lead leger weight) I put a bit of chopped worm and a few maggots in the feeder for the first few casts. The logic of adding the maggots is that I use a couple to retain the wriggly lobworms on the hook.

The logic of the method is that I use a longish trail - four feet or more, and dragging the rig back brings the hookbait through the area where the maggots and worm have come out of the feeder as it sinks. (It is important to feather the cast so the bait is further away than the feeder as the rig hits the surface, then allow the feeder or leger lead to sink as near STRAIGHT down as possible by yielding line across the surface as it sinks) Then cautiously tighten up when it hits the bottom. Probably nothing like what REALLY happens - but its worked a time or three.

However, when the light fades I usually dont bother filling the swimfeeder any more - by then either the fish are there, or not. Best times in winter are from about 3 pm until dark.

PS and no, I don't use a mobile approach - there are one or two good spots, and having humped my gear round to reach a good spot I sit on my stool and let the worms do the walking

[ 28. January 2005, 12:03 AM: Message edited by: Vagabond ]