Attracting rudd

[Rusty]

Mr. Crabtree used to throw out pieces of toast anchored with stones. The rudd would come up and nibble the toast and he and Peter would then tempt them with maggot or fly!

 

I tried that once. There was a lake in Sidcup known as The Glade, it was full of Rudd up to quite a decent size and was fished most weekends by us youngsters. The Crabtree idea is a perfect example of the practice proving a lot more difficult than the theory, either the toast would fly off or the string would get tangled. On the few occasions that the launch was successful the toast fell apart and drifted about seconds after landing in the water.

[Worms]

I tried that once. There was a lake in Sidcup known as The Glade, it was full of Rudd up to quite a decent size and was fished most weekends by us youngsters. The Crabtree idea is a perfect example of the practice proving a lot more difficult than the theory, either the toast would fly off or the string would get tangled. On the few occasions that the launch was successful the toast fell apart and drifted about seconds after landing in the water.

Since the whole ethos of fishing (for me) is based on Mr. Crabtree, you must have been doing something terribly terribly wrong Rusty

[gozzer]

Mr. Crabtree used to throw out pieces of toast anchored with stones. The rudd would come up and nibble the toast and he and Peter would then tempt them with maggot or fly!

 

It's changed a bit now Nick. In those days the rudd out numbered the carp. Now any floating bait is likely to attract unwanted attention. It's even scuppered my livebait under a floating crust for perch method.

 

John.

[Worms]

It's changed a bit now Nick. In those days the rudd out numbered the carp. Now any floating bait is likely to attract unwanted attention. It's even scuppered my livebait under a floating crust for perch method.

 

John.

Is nothing sacred?

[Rigg'd]

i probably wont be of much help but i will say that at my local lake i fished a whip, by a bush in 9ft of water 1ft under the surface and was catching some really nice rudd on single white maggot with a couple of kernels of corn and a hanful of maggots being chucked in every 3-5 mins, worked well!

 

Just wanted to share this, hope it helps.

[The Flying Tench]

Could be gravel pits are more productive in bright conditions than other still waters, certainly tench will feed in hot clear conditions in gravel pits.

 

Ahh yes, Eynsham, never fished there and I believe it is or was Shimano Complex on second thoughts have you ever fished there? I think there is a good head of Chub and of course Carp, but perhaps Rudd as well?

Will dig around and see if I can find out.

 

Caradoc anyone?

Yes I fished one or two of the lakes on the Shimano complex near Eynsham a few years ago - mainly Smiths Pool in the close season trying for some of the roach. But the prices have gone up a lot, and there's a lot more fishing March - June locally now, so I don't have any plans in that direction.

 

But you mention caradoc - the beat on the Wye, presumably? It so happens I'm booked to go there on Monday 19 July - for the barbel of course. I'll also have a few hours on the Sunday night and the tues morning. Was wondering if there was something else round there I should target, even a rudd lake?

[Worms]

Redmire perhaps? But really don't know of any Rudddy lakes around here John, perhaps Worms might? Coincidence is that I am planning a trip to Caradoc in July sometime, I have fished it a few times and the early evening feeding frenzy is quite something, (both fish and angler )

Unfortunately not. I've never caught rudd and it is one of the stillwater species that I'm on the lookout for.....hopefully from a nice little estate lake.

[Guy123]

My advice would be not to fish for Rudd in lakes, go and find a river, as it makes stalking and generaly catching them easier. Lakes are a bit daunting for just rudd.

 

I used to fish my local river (Rife in Bognor), as before the Council ran out of money, it was realy good sport. You would either get tonnes of small Roach, or decent Rudd up to just over 2 pounds (my p.b. 2.1). You would never guess it looking at the weed infested stream now.

 

Anyways, I say taht because the river was never deeper that a meter, and never wider than 6-7. I picked a bit by a bridge also- great feature if you can find one. So tip one- find a basic river.

 

When i was getting the big Rudd, I used Sweetcorn, simple float set-up. Dont do anything fancy- very little gain. I would chuck a handful of maybe 5-10 pieces every 10 mins or so. For that year (07) it was excellent, great value fishing- and some pretty big fish considering the tiny venue.

 

08 When I started realy getting into fishing, was pretty good, no large fish- maybe up to a pound. 09 was terrible, river overlooked, and I blanked 5 times out of the 8 I went, only catching 1 or 2 in the session. I used to get about 10-20 fish in 2-3 hours. (6 in the evening untill whenever). Havent been since August last year.

 

So yer, ditch the lake, find a river, not too big, ask some questions, use sweetcorn (or maggot; both), keep out of site, fish in the evening.

 

P.S. You can see the fish usualy as they jump, plus you caN see Quote a few wakes, bubbles as they move in scholes.

 

Guy.

[Vagabond]

It is a long time since I deliberately targetted rudd, although I did have one of 1-10 last July, on a 18mm halibut pellet when I was after still-water chub.

 

However, I had some success many years ago, at three waters in particular. All involved sight fishing, and all involved two or three large lobworms on the hook. and ALL INVOLVED A MOVING BAIT.

 

1. Boat fishing on Slapton Lea, Devon (1952) Thousands of rudd, from tiddlers to over three pounds. The bigger fish swam in small shoals of up to about five fish. I was using float tackle and bread flake and getting plenty of fish to a pound or so, but the bigger fish kept well away from the boat. and the bread flake would not stand long casting and pulling the bait through the water - so I crammed on some lobworms on a size 8 - cast it well beyond the shoal, and then pulled it across in front of them. Some two-pounders and one splendid fish of well over three pounds (can't remember how many ounces over - I'm in Lancashire so can't consult my records) were the result.

 

2. Boat fishing Lough Ree, Ireland.(1953) Eric and I were tight-lining (just a small barrel lead and stop on the line) for perch in the deep water where the Shannon runs out of the lough. Lobs on size eight again. Spotted a shoal of big rudd. I immediately cast beyond them and "spun" the lobs past them. Three fish in three casts, all over 2 lb, all netted by Eric, who sportingly abandoned trying to change to float tackle (a tactical error with hindsight) and netted each one for me.

 

3. Bank fishing an estate lake in Sussex. (late 1950s, early 1960s) A crescent shaped lake. One bank open, the other bank heavily overgrown, with plenty of waterlilies in front of the undergrowth. My chosen method was to creep through the undergrowth, looking for the better rudd. Then cast a freelined lob into the nearest gap in the lilies and twitch the bait back. Over the years took stacks of rudd over a pound, and a fair few up to about two and a half.

 

 

I have also had lemon-finned rudd of over two pounds link-legering a local reservoir (which also contained roach-rudd hybrids - I had one of those at 3-12 and my mate, the late Roger Standen, found a dead one of over 5 pounds - but that's another story) It is probably significant that once the bait (lobs or maggots) had been out about ten minutes, I would twitch it back a foot at a time.

 

So if you want to try a slightly different approach that goes against the usual received wisdom, feel free..........

[The Flying Tench]

So if you want to try a slightly different approach that goes against the usual received wisdom, feel free..........

Sounds really good, Dave - more interesting than sitting spaying maggots !

 

J