The Flying Tench

Dave G - did it work? Billy - it clearly did, but once again carp. Isn't there more evidence of it working for other fish than carp?

I'm puzzled. Archie Braddock's Magic Book on bait flavouring is about applying carp principles, modified, to general coarse fish. It's an impressive read, and Steve Burke said in a recent thread that he felt it was a really important book. Yet the only actual example so far in this thread of flavours working was for a carp. The only flavour of Archie's I've actually tried was his specialist roach flavouring, and I had very little success. But then I'm a hopeless roach angler. But I'm surprised there hasan't been more support for using flavours for general coarse fish.

Why particularly now, Andy, rather than say in January or February?

Somebody said you can suffocate them. If that's true, it must be possible to drown them? I guess I'll try this unless anyone has found it doesn't work. ie I'll just fill a a bait box of them with water.

Thanks for so much info so quickly - at least, so many replies! Beebs, I'm glad you didn't get Salmonella! I think Snotty's right that my wife wouldn't even accept a sealed bag, but at least the boiling water approach is a way I can experiment with deads.

I don't speak from great experience, but I've always thought it was quite a good time for pike and perch.

I've just read Archie Braddock's Magic Book on bait flavouring. It's good stuff, but I get the impression it's quite a complex business. I'm just a pleasure angler who likes to dabble in different types of fishing and goes about once a week for 2 or 3 hours. I get the impression that, to take it seriously, I'd need to get half a dozen additives and half a dozen flavours for starters, which would knock me back at least £50. Then I'd need to experiment quite a lot before the dividends really came. I'd be interested to hear from other general coarse anglers who've got into the flavour game. Was it worth it?

I've recently been reading up on dead maggots, and the best way to kill them seems to be to put them in the freezer for 24 hours; BUT my wife isn't too keen, even in closed containers, cos she reckons they'll have been fed on grotty, rotten meat and there'll be lots of germs around. Is this true? Alternatively, does anyone know another way to kill maggots? (ie a way that leaves them viable as a bait afterwards!)

I've always wondered where you got your name!

In one of Steve Burke's helpful articles's he mentions that, if he were to fish a pike match, he'd jig a lobworm. Could Steve or anyone else advise how to do this? Do you simply put a hook through the lob's head and a swan shot a few inches up the trace? My instinct is that perch would bite off the tail. Maybe you need two hooks?

In 'Fantastic Feeder Fishing' Archie recommends freezing the maggots for 24 hours to kill them. Unfortunately, as a result of 'her indoors', it wouldn't only be the maggots that got killed in my household. I seem to remember reading somewhere that you can drown maggots by filling the bait tin with water, but I can't remember how long it takes. Maybe half an hour? Does anyone know?

I've been reading Archie Braddock's book 'Fantastic feeder Fishing', which I was recommended on this forum, I think through John Ellison. I got it 2nd hand through Amazon, and amazingly it's a signed copy. It's exciting stuff, but one of the things which struck me most was the chapter on using dead flavoured maggots. On the Trent Archie found he got much more positive bites, presumably because the fish were getting scared of live maggots. I thought i might try it this close season on my nearest open canal, but I wondered if anyone had tried the approach in a canal or slow river?

Malevans, why can't the salmon feed in fresh water? Is it that their digestion system won't work? In which case, what happens to the luncheon meat , dace , worms etc?

I can see your point if it's wafting about in the current, but there seem to be too many examples to me of basic food; bread, luncheon meat, lobworms. But then, presumably the biologists who claim they don't eat in fresh water have examined the stomachs of lots of fish. It's a puzzle.

I can understand an aggressive reaction to a wobbled dace, but not, surely, to a piece of breadflake?

I was talking to someone yesterday who said he had caught 3 salmon in the Kennet this year on luncheon meat when barbel fishing. Now I read somewhere that salmon don't feed once they come into fresh water, and that everyone is puzzled why they take anglers' lures, and suspect it's an anger thing or a curiosity thing rather than a food thing. But luncheon meat is food, food, food isn't it? Have others caught salmon on coarse baits, and do you have any theories about why they take our baits? I won't ask whether you put them back!

I was talking to a pessimist today on the Kennet, who reckoned the fishing was in permanent decline. He bemoaned 03/04 in particular, putting it down to the lack of flow. Now I accept we've got some problems on the Kennet, with silting up and lack of weed growth. And I haven't done well this year, personally. But I don't quite see why the lack of flow should be such a problem. There are always faster bits and slower bits, after all - though I can see why lack of flow could be bad for barbel, for example. Also, there havene be plenty of good river fishing reports on Anglers Net from around the country. How do people feel the rivers fished in 03/04, and what have been the causes?

I must start checking the pressure forecast. Steve, or someone else who's into piking - can you tell me how high the pressure needs to be to make piking a good prospect?

Kleinboet, congratulations - the perch, and amazing to get a crucian in the Severn isn't it? To my amazement I got permission to pike fish a private lake today which someone assured me was so full of snappers you couldn't fail to catch. I got there and it looked positively evil - sunken trees everywhere, and I could imagine all the monster pike lurking in the shadows. The trouble was I think it must have been more overgrown than when my friend had fished it. It was almost impossible to get to the water. I got scratched by endless thorn bushes, fell over in a pile of compost, and caught Zilch! That's fishing, i guess!

Kleinboet, coarse fish and non-migratory trout are all on one licence. I must say, though, I wonder how much they bother about breaches of the close season. I've been trying to find on the EA web-site what the regs are for my region (Thames). I can't find it. Someone told me you can spin for trout in the close season, but not bait fish. Does anyone know if this is true?

What I think I am hearing is: 1. Technically you are within the law fishing with bait or spinner if there are trout in the water. So, presumably, the EA can't do anything about it, as they can only enforce the law? Or are we saying they have power to introduce different regulations, such as, no fishing for trout or coarse fish in the Kennet in the coarse close season? 2. Most anglers think it unsporting to fish for trout in the coarse close season unless there is a reasonable expectation that (at least 50%?) of the fish will actually be trout. I think I can go with that, tempted as I am!

I'm a bit worried by this feeling the line/rod for bites because I've got to admit I've never caught a fish spinning where the take wasn't absolutely obvious. I take comfort from Newt's comment that with the type of lures I use (spinners, mainly mepps, and plugs - floating/divers) the strikes will usually be obvious, but the next thing I'm going to try is small soft plastic jigs for perch, which presumably come in the category where I've got to start feeling for bites. I'm ashamed to say I've never used a spoon at all! What should I start with to search the water for perch?

The close season is nearly upon us, and it raises a question about whether it's OK to get round the rules. In my local waters, mainly the Kennet, there's a sprinkling of trout, and I've heard of people spinning 'for trout' and bagging up on perch. I've also heard of people, anglers I respect, bait-fishing 'for trout' elsewhere and mainly catching grayling. There are two questions. One, what is the letter of the law? Does it make any difference whether you're spinning or bait-fishing? Two, what do anglers generally consider to be reasonable?

I was struck by Steve's comment earlier about imitating the colour of the prey fish (the starter question by me was about Perch, so I'm not sure if the comment is mainly re them). When I started spinning I just had silver and gold spinners, and used gold on the brighter days and silver on the dull. Then I got into yellow-tiger and red, and I now have scarcely a silver spinner in my box - I guess I assume that silver and gold are close enough to each other compared with red etc. But, really, silver is the commonest prey-fish colour. Do others find it makes any difference whether you use silver or gold?

I'm an amateur at this, but my experience with perch goes with Steve. If nothing else, changing a lure brings renewed hope, and maybe a bit more concentration by me. And it DOES seem to make a difference. On the other hand with pike I should stick with it more. What usually happens is I fish for about 40 minutes, decide I'm not going to catch, and stick on a small lure to catch some perch. A self-fulfilling prophecy, I know!