The Flying Tench

Peter, I accept that pike don't read the rules, and there will be exceptions, but I think what Leon was saying is that, for static deadbaiting, in the normal run of events you can expect good-sized pike on small baits, but normally, with wobbling, a small bait means small fish. In my own, admittedly limited, experience, I've had one or two good pike on small lures, but I've never had them on a small wobbled bait. Can you clarify what you were saying. Were you saying that there are exceptions to the rule, or that in your experience the rule doesn't really exist?

In my opinion everyone on AN is a true angler. But who is a COMPLETE angler? That is the question. For my money not Chris Yates, not Bernard Venables, not even Isaak Walton. There is only one complete, all the year round, Angler, and that is Mr Crabtree!

I should have said, I'm talking about Newbury!

The main free stretch is from the A339 bridge by the library up to where the river joins the canal above Northcroft Leisure Centre. There are good fish in it, but it's mainly canalised river, with people going along the towpath etc. There's also a small weir-pool on the north side at the top end, and a very short stretch of river just before it hits the canal, also on the north side at the top end. The Lambourn also has some free bits - mainly grayling and pike. PM me if you want more detail.

Ah! That may be why I didn't catch today! But I'd just got it into my head that high pressure was good news for all piking! Or at least rising pressure. I expect Budgie's right, but I'd be interested to see if everyone agrees, or whether there's some debate on this issue. And why should it be so? I guess it must support the idea of pike being in distinct modes, scavenging and chasing?

Two things: Do you recommned any particular artificial Shads? Where can I get them? On the general comments on sprats, we seem to be talkin at cross purposes. I've looked up the thread I was referring to, and Leon Roskilly made the point that when a pike is in chasing mode it prefers a bait about 10% of it's body weight (sorry, I mistakenly said 33% above), though it'll go for smaller ones when in scavenger mode. Some of you have caught a lot more pike than me, but Leon's comment cerainly goes with my experience - when wobbling, a small bait usually means small fish. The implication of what some of you are saying is that you've found otherwise - though I'd be grateful if you'd clarify whether that is what you're saying.

I learnt some stuff on a recent thread about how pike are attracted to deadbaits by the smell, and that it's good, therefore, to position a deadbait where there's a current and the smell will waft downstream, attracting the pike. All well and good, and it worked for me the last 2 sessions. Today, though, there was a temperature drop, and I had no success apart from a jack, wobbling. Low temperature may not have been the problem on this occasion, but I started thinking about how to catch when temperatures drop, and remembered reading how you need virtually to bonk the pike on the nose to get them to take. Now that was probably talking about lure fishing or wobbling, but what do you do when static deadbaiting? Does the smell attract the pike the same as in mild weather, or do you need to cast around more in an effort to get closer to the pike, on the basis that they won't follow a scent so far when it's cold?

In a recent thread it was explained that small baits were fine for static deadbaiting as it involved no effort for the pike to pick up a small fish, but they preferred large baits, ideally one third their own size (!) when they had to attack a live fish. It seemed fairly clear that to catch decent fish wobbling you need reasonably big baits. I was and am convinced by the arguments. But one thing puzzles me. In the books they often talk about 'wobbling a sprat' implying that sprats are, at least, the most usual bait to wobble. But why should this be? Accepting that it's not easy to cast a big mackerel repeatedly, wouldn't a herring or joey mackerel be a more normal bait?

Sounds fantastic summer fishing. I'm not so far away from you, on the Kennet. We certainly get those kind of fish, but I couldn't say I regularly catch them! They don't seem to disappear in winter in the same way, though. In fact I get the impression people catch more big perch and chub in winter than the summer. To put things in perspective, I've had two chub over 5lb in the last few years (one of them a very lucky 6lb 9oz) and 4 perch over 2lb, though some people have had more than me, of course. The Kennet is also a very varied river, with slow bits and also fast shallow bits. Much is local angling society, but there are some free bits too. Is any of the Blackwater free or dt?

'Cut up...' Could mean a range of things. If you mean it literally you deserve lots of sympathy!

Why is it that the water clears after frost?

Tony C - fantastic fish. River or lake?

How are the roach hunts going this year? Is it proving better or worse than last year? My best is only 13 oz (from Timsbury), but then I'm not really a serious roach angler. It would be interesting to know what effect the mild winter is having.

It may not sound very adventurous, but angling is so much about confidence that in your shoes I'd go and fish exactly where the guy who got 5 was standing and fish with wobbled smelt, like him. Once you've caught it gives confidence and you can move on to lures etc. That's just me, I realise, but in my best hotspot a couple of years ago I rarely caught on lures, but usually did on wobbled smelt.

I'm fishing a mill-sluice feeding into a main river. It's mostly 2-3 feet, with a gentle current going down the middle, but most of the mill pond area has no current. I tend to alternate from trotting the bait down to letting it lie by some reeds in still water only about 2 feet deep. Please excuse 2 basic questions: a) With Mick Brown's set-up, what weights do you use? I can't see why I need more than a couple of SSG on the trace? What's an uptrace?

I have only caught about 4 pike on a float rig, and have been surprised that the float has never gone under the water. In a couple of cases, with a suspended bait, there were just a few rings coming out from the float, and as I started to move the bait the pike took. The other 2 cases I was laying-on. In neither case had the float really moved. In one, I just intended to wind in with no suspicion of a fish, and the pike took. In the other case I had an instinct, and there was a fish on though thankfully not deep-hooked. I'm wondering if I've got the right rig as I don't seem to be registering the bites. I have a standard pike float with the line running through the middle of the float, but to weight the thing down I have 2 drilled bullets resting on the trace swivel. These can't help bite detection, but where on earth should I put them? Why do we need great big pike floats at all, specially for laying on? Wouldn't an ordinary stick float or waggler be OK? An inconvenience is that I can't take the float off easily to change to a bit of wobbling or ledgering, and I was thinking of getting a Pike Gazette float; but I'm wondering if all I need is a (waggler float adapter - is that the term? - a thing fixed to the line you can fit different sizes of waggler into) fitted onto the line above the swivel? Another point is whether to have a loaded float. Someone on a recent thread said that loaded floats don't help bite detection, but I don't think my unloaded set-up does either - so any advice would be appreciated.

And I seem to remember one of your articles saying you'd found November to be a terrible month!

I'm amazed that you're all so unanimous in praise of the humble gudgeon. No wonder people like barbel! Let me press you, though, on a point, partly for folks like Leedsunited (and me!) who'd rather catch something bigger. I think the point I was trying to make is that catching one or two gudgeon can be a good sign, and it's fine to catch them between other species, but if you catch, say, ten gudgeon on the trot in shallowish water, and you're aiming to catch roach, chub or perch, you should probably go deeper.

Chris, I've just looked up FishingJournal and your perch catch is extraordinary! Congrats. It's great to know such fish are around. Are you really saying, though, that the gudgeon took lobworm?

In a recent post Leedsunited mentioned catching nothing but gudgeon. It raises an interesting question - if you start catching gudgeon, do you stay or move? I've seen articles that say they are good news, and will attract the better fish, but in my experience that's not always true. To be sure I've known gudgeon share a swim with solid perch, for obvious reasons, but on other occasions I've found the gudgeon in the shallow slacks, and I've needed to go deeper and into slightly faster water to get the better fish. A special case is eddies at the edge of a river. In one of my favourites I had a 5lb chub and a 2lb perch, both in very cold weather, and certainly when I got the chub the main river was in flood. When I went back to this successful swim during milder weather I started catching gudgeon. I got one or two reasonable perch, to be sure, but nothing significant. I have the impression the better fish moved in when the river was in flood, and the gudgeon seemed to go - I know not where. I'd welcome others' views on what to do when you start catching gudgeon.

Fluff-chucker - I keyed Glasgow into the search engine, and a few things came up. Or a few more people might see it if you started a new post and called it something like 'coarse fishing near Glasgow'. Not meeaning to 'teach my grandmother', but I get the impression you're new to AN.

Poledark, thanks for your comments - explains a lot. What you're saying is that bumped fish were not hooked properly in the first place, and the key is to get more confident bites. Sounds good, and also why it seems to be the bigger, more wary, fish which bump.

You may say 'Why Peter Waller?'! No, even I admit that doesn't work. I guess we're into depth psychology here. Maybe something that's a bit ludicrous, but friendly at the same time? I'm referring to flying tench, not peter Waller!

Are these rubber shads that you fix your own hooks to? I guess I must get some. Can you recommend a reasonably priced version? Why do you avoid weights like the plague in still water for wobbling? Is it that the pike see the weights?