Wingham Fish-In

[Steve Burke]

One big piece of advice I'd give is at night don't be in any hurry at all to strike, otherwise you could well miss a monster bream.

 

This advice has been given in books and magazines by just about every bream hunter on waters similar to Wingham where there are few bream. If you strike too early you're likely to miss the bream if it hasn't hooked itself.

 

The standard advice is to sit well back from the rods and wait for the reel to spin or the baitrunner to start.

 

Another tip is that bream don't seem to mind resistance at all, and so heavy bobbins are called for. That is heavy enough to fall back down in the event of a line bite. If the indicator is too light to drop back down again you won't know if it's a line bite or not, plus you'll be continually getting up and down all night adjusting the bobbin.

 

Line bites are a major problem with bream and if you strike at one you may well scare the mini shoal of bream for the whole of the rest of the weekend. Here I speak from practical experience!

[Errrm]

A few questions regarding rigs, I going to try and get out fishing a couple of times between now and then but if anyone can give me some advice then that would be great.

 

I'm going to mess around with sink tube leader (the korda brand) on inline and saftey clip to see how well they work but I was wondering if other people use these and in what circumstance? Also from what I understand the sink tubng should stop tangles and also sink the line and keep it pinned to stop line bites, will these still stay pinned with bobbins? or will the bobbins lift the tubing into mid water?

[Anderoo]

A few questions regarding rigs, I going to try and get out fishing a couple of times between now and then but if anyone can give me some advice then that would be great.

 

I'm going to mess around with sink tube leader (the korda brand) on inline and saftey clip to see how well they work but I was wondering if other people use these and in what circumstance? Also from what I understand the sink tubng should stop tangles and also sink the line and keep it pinned to stop line bites, will these still stay pinned with bobbins? or will the bobbins lift the tubing into mid water?

 

I'm not a big fan of tubing or leaders, but I do use them occasionally if I'm fishing swims where there's a possibility of a fish going over/around a bar, just to protect the line. Otherwise I just slide a float stop on the line a couple of feet above the lead and wrap some sinking putty around it, to keep the last bit of line on the bottom. (This is with a semi-fixed lead/feeder, with a running rig I never use anything.)

 

They will stay on the bottom with a bobbin hanging on the line. If you want to put your mind at rest, play about with it in the margins of a clear lake.

 

BTW I'm not trying to put you off using them just because I don't often use them - many very successful anglers do

[Errrm]

I'm not a big fan of tubing or leaders, but I do use them occasionally if I'm fishing swims where there's a possibility of a fish going over/around a bar, just to protect the line. Otherwise I just slide a float stop on the line a couple of feet above the lead and wrap some sinking putty around it, to keep the last bit of line on the bottom. (This is with a semi-fixed lead/feeder, with a running rig I never use anything.)

 

They will stay on the bottom with a bobbin hanging on the line. If you want to put your mind at rest, play about with it in the margins of a clear lake.

 

BTW I'm not trying to put you off using them just because I don't often use them - many very successful anglers do

 

It also more to put my mind at rest with respect to avoiding tangles, also I also feel that having the line up in the water so close the the bait (when using a semi-fixed rig) is just likely to spoke fish. I'm going to try and get to a place I know I will catch between now and then so I can try one rod with and one rod without to see what happens.

[Anderoo]

It also more to put my mind at rest with respect to avoiding tangles, also I also feel that having the line up in the water so close the the bait (when using a semi-fixed rig) is just likely to spoke fish. I'm going to try and get to a place I know I will catch between now and then so I can try one rod with and one rod without to see what happens.

 

Yes, good idea, confidence is important!

 

It also depends what type of hooklength you use. The only 100% way I've found to avoid tangles when using soft braid hooklengths (even very short ones) and an inline lead (with or without a leader/tubing) is to hook on a small PVA stocking. This is beneficial anyway for getting some concentrated attraction around your hook bait.

[Errrm]

Yes, good idea, confidence is important!

 

It also depends what type of hooklength you use. The only 100% way I've found to avoid tangles when using soft braid hooklengths (even very short ones) and an inline lead (with or without a leader/tubing) is to hook on a small PVA stocking. This is beneficial anyway for getting some concentrated attraction around your hook bait.

 

Do you mean just a small bag on the hook or a PVA stocking contains the hook, hook link, weight and loose feed?

[Anderoo]

Do you mean just a small bag on the hook or a PVA stocking contains the hook, hook link, weight and loose feed?

 

Just a small bag on the hook - like in this clip:

 

Youtube Video ->

[Errrm]

Just a small bag on the hook - like in this clip:

 

Youtube Video ->

 

Cheers, If I remember right from last year then back leads aren't needed?

[Anderoo]

Cheers, If I remember right from last year then back leads aren't needed?

 

Again, it's a personal choice really. I never use them (can't get on with them), others use them a lot. It will depend on the swim again really, unless you have a flat bottom between the rig and rod I personally wouldn't recommend them.

[Steve Burke]

I know some of you have been worried you have no experience on a low stock water like Wingham. In reality it's not that much lower than natural stock density. It's just that other waters, including many gravel pits, are artificially overstocked. This means that in the latter there's less natural food and so the fish have to eat anglers' baits. The result is that the fish become cute, and often you're fishing as much against other anglers as the fish. It means that rigs and baits are very important on such venues, especially if there are few features to aid location.

 

At waters like Wingham location is by far the biggest challenge. You may not catch if your bait and feed is in the wrong place, and so casting and feeding accuracy is very important. It's easier to be accurate at close range, which is one reason why the margins are a good place in nearly every Wingham swim. Other than that the bailiffs and I, not to mention some syndicate members, will be on hand to tell you about your swim.

 

Bait and rigs aren't as important as on more heavily fished waters. That's not to say of course that they don't matter, but location is the key.

 

Feeding is important on any water, and Wingham is no exception. This is perhaps where syndicate members vary most in their approach.

 

Not every swim will produce on the Fish-In, and the best areas vary from year to year, even in seemingly identical conditions. So I'd recommend that you don't put a lot of feed in to begin with. You can always add more later on, but you can't take it out.

 

If you've got feeding fish in your swim at Wingham you'll almost certainly catch at least something. And that something could well be a personal best of umpteen different species!