Do you use a special reel for feeder fishing?

[Anderoo]

I'm afraid pretty much 100% of my tench fishing now is mini bolt rigs, alarms, multi-rods and all the rest of it - I think the last time I caught a tench on the float was about 8 years ago!

 

A lot of it is down to venues, I'd love a nice quiet little lake nearby where I could float-fish for small-medium sized tench, but they don't seem to exist any more.

 

If I was fishing a stillwater for big roach, I'd be tying up little bolt rigs straight away.

[watatoad]

That's both waggler and the lift method Andrew. If set up sensitively enough both methods should register on the float as soon as a fish suck's in the bait. Float fishing is far more sensitive than ledgering...as you will already know.

 

Response:

Spot on...every time within say 60 yards.

The 'beauty' of the little bolt rigs is there's nothing sensitive about it! Add to that a PVA bag and you have the reason so many people catch so many fish these days. You still have to put it in the right place (unless the place is stuffed with fish, as many are) but it takes way less skill and effort to catch with the bolt rigs than the float. So, more effective, less skillful in my opinion

 

Response:

"So many people catch so many fish these days."...???...Catching More??? Not if you listen to the many anglers complaints and moans of multiple blanks, when non specimen fishing

 

Me thinks you'd best start a teaching thread, to explain the perfect mini bolt rigs, that will help to reduce the many moans.

[Tigger]

I'm afraid pretty much 100% of my tench fishing now is mini bolt rigs, alarms, multi-rods and all the rest of it - I think the last time I caught a tench on the float was about 8 years ago!

 

A lot of it is down to venues, I'd love a nice quiet little lake nearby where I could float-fish for small-medium sized tench, but they don't seem to exist any more.

 

If I was fishing a stillwater for big roach, I'd be tying up little bolt rigs straight away.

 

 

There must be hot spots in the margins somewhere at Wingham Andrew (for tench & bream), why not have a go with the float you can catch fish just as big on the float as using the ledger. I've had tench to 9 1/2lb on the float and lots between 5 and 8lb. You might drop on and catch some of those large bream as they must have feeding swims in the margins, especially through darkness during the early summer when the margins are full of clouds of daphnia.

[Anderoo]

You really surprise me Andy, well at least you have confessed...but it tarnishes those images of those mint perch / roach you have posted alongside the 'pin

 

I wish you well and hope you come to your senses as soon as possible

 

I know, it's bad isn't it! I dare say I could probably catch tench on the float where I currently fish if I tried hard enough, but, well, maybe I'm a filthy carper at heart

 

As for bream on the float, I'm not that mad Although Glyn has proved it's possible.

 

Watatoad, I'm sure that if PVA and bolt rigs weren't common knowledge and standard practice, many anglers would really struggle most of the time. As it is we can have a really efficient little hooking set-up sitting perfectly in a little pile of bait, every time. Easy!

[Andy Macfarlane]

I'm afraid pretty much 100% of my tench fishing now is mini bolt rigs, alarms, multi-rods and all the rest of it - I think the last time I caught a tench on the float was about 8 years ago!

 

A lot of it is down to venues, I'd love a nice quiet little lake nearby where I could float-fish for small-medium sized tench, but they don't seem to exist any more.

 

If I was fishing a stillwater for big roach, I'd be tying up little bolt rigs straight away.

 

I'm soooooo glad you said that....lol

[Anderoo]

However I HATE alarms along with Bait Boats Brollies Bivvys Bolt Rigs and anything else beginning with 'B' apart from all things Bristol of course

 

Even worse than bolt rigs, there are some situations now where I would even use a bait boat

 

I do agree though that fish are better off with float fishing than legering. Because they get caught less

[Tigger]

I do agree though that fish are better off with float fishing than legering. Because they get caught less

 

 

Can't argue with that, on certain waters but on others the opposite prevailes and the float rules .

 

Andrew, I thought you liked a challenge, surely having a serious attempt at the wingham bream using a float would be a good one ?

[larsagi2010]

Dawn to dusk? Well I dont go that long, I choose Dusk mainly and use a quiver with an isotope to fish an hour or so into dark, standard practice really Andy, and that accounts for most barbel that are caught in the summer months.

 

To use Alarms are mainly Carp to Barbel anglers who just can't leave their old habits behind. I appreciate you do not have the types of conditions in Scotland as we have down here, and I think you are more into preds, so I do understand where you are coming from.

 

However I HATE alarms along with Bait Boats Brollies Bivvys Bolt Rigs and anything else beginning with 'B' apart from all things Bristol of course

 

 

Bait????

[Andy Macfarlane]

No mention of Delkims with a quiver just yet, he hasn't lost it completly.

 

Tell you what, just for peace sake, I'll get out ASAP for a pair of new out and out tench rods, to go along with the 20 other rods that have cluttered the place, just so you can sleep at night, safe in the knowlege that I'm not bastardising the art of the quiver?

 

It's no skin off my nose. I mean there are hardly any coarse fish venues up here as it is, never mind decent tench venues, so in my blinding stupidity, I bought what I thought might cover me for a whole miriad of applications but I didnt realise the self-imposed tench society would be upset.

 

I'll probably only use the rods on 2 venues for a few months out of the year but as long as you're happy, I'm happy.

 

[Anderoo]

Teme man, I'm not on a wind-up. When bream fishing, a bait boat would be a fantastic way to get all the necessary groundbait out to the spots without the need for hours of disrupting spodding. A real boat would be even better.

 

Tigger, I do like a challenge but for me that's a challenge too far! There's a time and a place for the little bolt rigs, and (for me) this is one of them.

 

For some balance, I spend all autumn and winter on the rivers either watching a quivertip or trotting a float, so I'm not a proper antichrist