Feeding off minnows

[The Flying Tench]

Tried to fish for roach in the local chalk stream today, but in the particular swim (one of the few bits with a gentle current) it is bite-a-chuck minnows at present. Am I right there are 2 strategies to avoid them?

 

- use minnow avoiding baits. Like sweetcorn. Today I used breadpaste, which worked last time, but it was amazing today how they managed to hook themselvs despite a big blob of it on the hook.

 

- feed them off. It's never worked for me so far, but I've been thinking. Presumably it only takes 2 or 3 maggots to fill up a minnow, and - just guessing - maybe there are 2000 maggots to a pint. So a pint of maggots would feed off about 800 of them. Hmm, I don't know if the minnows are in their hundreds or thousands? Maybe it would be quite expensive feeding them off?

 

Out of interest, has anyone found feeding them off works in practice?

 

And is there a danger that, by the time the minnows are fed off, so are the roach?

Edited December 27, 2012 by The Flying Tench

[Chris Plumb]

I've had problems with minna's in that swim too!

 

C.

[Rusty]

Out of interest, has anyone found feeding them off works in practice?

Haven't found so yet John, I believe I was a mile or so upstream from you today and it's the same there, any slack’ish water where the roach might be has the minnows on your bait instantly. They didn't like hemp...but then neither did anything else. It's fishing its socks off at the moment so I've given up on the roach for the time being and I'm just enjoying trotting a very full and clear chalk stream during the brief dry periods we’re getting, even had some sunshine today.

[davedave]

Minnows are a pain in the arse, Ive had a bite on a whole lobworm before which when I lifted the bait out of the water was a minnow just sucking on the end of the worm, hanging there, it was nowhere near the hook. Bloody things.

 

I find you either get a peg with loads or none, and if you have loads theres not a lot you can do. Switching from maggot to caster can help but not by much.

 

Dave

[Dales]

I would be tempted to catch the minnows as bait and try for a Perch or Chub not much help if you are after Roach.

[Anderoo]

The only cure I've found for a swim full of ravenous minnows is to move swim! With bleak you can keep them on the surface with very regular light feeding and use a heavy weight to drop your bait below them to the other fish beneath...never tried it with minnows, it might work? I doubt you'll feed them off though, if anything feeding will just bring more in.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Anderoo

[AddictedToScopex]

I have to agree that feeding them off has never worked for me either. The only time they have taken a back seat is when a large shoal of dace, perch or chub move up. I am guessing the dace outnumber them and bully them out of the way and the chub and perch likely terrify them as they are on the menu aswell as my maggots. Feeding them off in practice really refers to getting enough feed in to get it past the minnows and attract something larger that will bully them or scare them off. We get thousands of minnows on the Ribble too and they can be a nightmare until the other fish move up.

[Jeffwill]

Plenty of minnows = unpolluted healthy river.

[Chris Plumb]

I would be tempted to catch the minnows as bait and try for a Perch or Chub not much help if you are after Roach.

 

 

None in there of either species.....

 

 

C.

[Rusty]

None in there of either species.....

It's very odd that, only recently has a dace been caught (just one at that) until then the only coarse fish reported were small roach and pike. The river doesn't look chubby or perchy but since the fish passes from the Kennet have been constructed I would've expected a few pioneers to have made their way up to explore, they haven't though.