Wingham Fish-In dates 2013

[Dick Dastardly]

No I too cant see why people reccomend fish meal or fishmeal pellet for eels.The nearest you can get to an eel proof boillie is a rock hard fishmeal!

[AddictedToScopex]

No I too cant see why people reccomend fish meal or fishmeal pellet for eels.The nearest you can get to an eel proof boillie is a rock hard fishmeal!

I recommended it based on my own experience. It seems others experiences have differed. I can only speak from my own experience however and if I continue to catch them when using it I certainly wont be stopping any time soon

[Anderoo]

When I fished for the bream I used large quantities of fishmeal groundbaits and quick breakdown fishmeal pellets of various sizes, and never had eel problems. The odd one here and there, but you can't avoid them completely! When fishing for the tench, I often bait up with a mixture of crumb and fishmeal groundbait plus a few pellets and other bits and pieces, and then fish tight piles of maggots (usually a little PVA bag) over the top, and again get very little eel trouble. So I have concluded that fishmeal doesn't bring them in, and small mounts of maggots are not easily detected by them.

 

However, feed qualtities of maggots and/or worms, and in most swims it's eel city!

 

Maybe it's water-specific, although in the fens we had to be careful not to overfeed maggots when fishing for bream and roach, otherwise the eels would turn up. This was in the days when there were millions of the damn things, many of which then ended up in my nan's kitchen

 

I used to fish the river Wissey a lot as a youngster, which unusually for Norfolk was clear, flowing, and gravel based. Our party piece was making eels appear out of nowhere by dropping big handfuls of maggots onto the gravel. Whereas previously when drip-feeding for the roach, dace, chub and perch there were no eels, a couple of minutes after the big handful hit the gravel, there'd be a writhing mass of them - really amazing to watch, and also handy if we wanted to stock the freezer with pike and zander baits!

 

So to conclude my ramblings, I'm not convinced groundbait makes that much difference, if you want to avoid eels don't use many maggots, and if you do want them, fill it in. (Of course, if you do that, sod's law suggests that you'll get one bite that night, from an 18lb bream ).

[Dick Dastardly]

I. If you want an eel feed dead maggots and if you don't want eels avoid it.

 

 

 

As simple ass that! And SIMPLE is the key at Wingham for guests! Too many wreck their chances of a good fish and do their heads in panicing about what and how to fish Wingham! Its really not that hard.Instead of getting your waterproofs in a twist just fish with a method and bait that YOU are confident in and that you have caught on on other waters! Wingham "Virgins" often score well when they do this.

 

Other than the basics that Anderoo has outlined (ie if your not catching in one area try another,types of feed to attract/dissuade species) its just simple fishing. As long as the conditions are ok you will be in with a chance of a good fish. No point over complicating it or trying to learn a new tactic for a few days trip!

[Tigger]

I reckon any groundbait will attract eels but fishmeal is bound to get them sniffing about. I know a few old gents who used pigs livers and blood in bread crumb to get the eels attension. Worms and maggot are my preffered hook baits and a worm maggot cocktail is irresistable for em'.

[AddictedToScopex]

(Of course, if you do that, sod's law suggests that you'll get one bite that night, from an 18lb bream ).

If that law does apply I will be carrying them in bucket loads!

[Steve Walker]

At the first fish-in I attended, I tried feeding chopped worms close in to attract perch. I think it took about ten minutes for the eels to arrive!

[AddictedToScopex]

At the first fish-in I attended, I tried feeding chopped worms close in to attract perch. I think it took about ten minutes for the eels to arrive!

Funnily enough that was a tactic I intended to try for eels using a starlight float this year at night.

night.

Edited May 2, 2013 by AddictedToScopex

[Errrm]

I have my questionnaire ready to be returned to Steve :-). For the last few years I have been saying I would concentrate on Perch and try and ignore the tench everytime but this year I am going loaded up with Lobworms and Maggots and going all out for Perch (and I'll probably catch a load of Pike and Eels!!) I was planning on fishing mostly worms over chopped worms and maggots. I'm thinking about ordering 3 pots of lob worms, will this be too many? Last year I half fished for Perch and went through 1.5 pots.

 

Getting excited now :-)

[AddictedToScopex]

I have my questionnaire ready to be returned to Steve :-). For the last few years I have been saying I would concentrate on Perch and try and ignore the tench everytime but this year I am going loaded up with Lobworms and Maggots and going all out for Perch (and I'll probably catch a load of Pike and Eels!!) I was planning on fishing mostly worms over chopped worms and maggots. I'm thinking about ordering 3 pots of lob worms, will this be too many? Last year I half fished for Perch and went through 1.5 pots.

 

Getting excited now :-)

I managed to go through a pot fishing for eels. I have asked for one pot but am already thinking of upping it to two to give me spares for the chop