Feeding off minnows

[Chris Plumb]

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.

 

2 dace ( both Paul and I have caught 1 each!) - and the roach have been quite substantial from that stretch in the past - my best is 1-11 (Dec 03) and the following Dec I had 4,1lb+ roach in pretty much 4 casts (not far from the minnow swim too!)

 

But tis strange that nothing has ventured upstream - the very bottom of the Lambourn immediately below the hotel used to be stuffed with fish - barbel,chub, perch even BIG dace (my 1st ever 1lber was from here way back in 1989) so strnage that nothing has ventured upstream - maybe this will be the winter that they do with the Kennet in flood?

 

 

C.

[robtherake]

I've rarely caught good fish from a swim that contains lots of minnows. You might expect that they'd make themselves scarce if the big fish are there: though I'm not sure whether they would consider roach and dace to be a threat.

[The Flying Tench]

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.

 

I was present when the EA netted a slowish part of the lower stretch about 4 years ago. To my surprise, loads of small roach, one medium sized pike, and no grayling; and, to my surprise, a few small perch. More recently I heard of a 2lb perch, though that was second hand info.

[gozzer]

I've rarely caught good fish from a swim that contains lots of minnows. You might expect that they'd make themselves scarce if the big fish are there: though I'm not sure whether they would consider roach and dace to be a threat.

 

Like Dales said in an earlier post, try minnow on the hook. I know a few 'minnow swims', that produce good perch and chub, ( I guess that's why they're there). Put a maggot or two on a size 12, then lip hook a minnow, you will have others trying to take the maggots, and they will attract the preds. If it's warmer and the minnows/fry will attack a crust, then thread crust on the line, trapped with a match stick, and lip hook the minnow a couple of inches below it. The minnows attacking the crust attracts the perch/chub, the rest scatter leaving your hookbait as the one to go for.

 

John.

[robtherake]

Like Dales said in an earlier post, try minnow on the hook. I know a few 'minnow swims', that produce good perch and chub, ( I guess that's why they're there). Put a maggot or two on a size 12, then lip hook a minnow, you will have others trying to take the maggots, and they will attract the preds. If it's warmer and the minnows/fry will attack a crust, then thread crust on the line, trapped with a match stick, and lip hook the minnow a couple of inches below it. The minnows attacking the crust attracts the perch/chub, the rest scatter leaving your hookbait as the one to go for.

 

John.

 

 

So obvious when you put it that way, and a quite brilliant method, John. Did you work it out yourself mate?

[Chris Plumb]

Like Dales said in an earlier post, try minnow on the hook. I know a few 'minnow swims', that produce good perch and chub, ( I guess that's why they're there). Put a maggot or two on a size 12, then lip hook a minnow, you will have others trying to take the maggots, and they will attract the preds. If it's warmer and the minnows/fry will attack a crust, then thread crust on the line, trapped with a match stick, and lip hook the minnow a couple of inches below it. The minnows attacking the crust attracts the perch/chub, the rest scatter leaving your hookbait as the one to go for.

 

John.

 

 

Fished this stretch since 1982 - never caught a chub (of any size) and never caught a perch (ditto) from it - tis really a grayling water with a few brownies, some escapee rainbows, a few roac,h some pike and err minnows!

 

 

C.

[gozzer]

So obvious when you put it that way, and a quite brilliant method, John. Did you work it out yourself mate?

 

Not really Rob, it's something I've done since I was a kid. The crust bit, is a follow on from the piece of bread fished under a crust for rudd, and carp, that I vaguely remember reading about years ago. The maggot on with a minnow, again is years old, but watching how a minnow will take a maggot, charge off and be followed by others in case it spits it out, confirmed it as an option.

There's a swim on the R Swale, that's usually full of minnows, most tend to avoid it, but I love it. Just put a minnow on the hook, (with or without the maggot), and it's almost a perch a chuck, up to about 1.5lb. A mate beat me to it one day, and after a while shouted that he thought he'd hooked a pike, (he was scared stiff of them ). I went up to help, and saw the biggest chub I've ever seen, surface on the end of his line. He panicked, tried rushing it, and the hook pulled. I guessed at over 7lb, (he thought about 10 ). It was the only time I've ever seen a chub hooked in that swim.

 

John.

[Phone]

All,

 

I don't suppose it would be a good idea to mention that a wounded minnow works wonders in this situation? Not exactly 'dead' but real close. Glugged if possible.

 

I don't know the species "minnow" as it is in the UK but for perch where our use of the word "minnow" applies eye balls on a smallish hook are wonderfully.

 

Phone

[Latimeria]

I don't know the species "minnow" as it is in the UK but for perch where our use of the word "minnow" applies eye balls on a smallish hook are wonderfully.

 

You'd probably think of them as "dace", as in red-bellied and blackside. Our fish is "the" minnow, the one from which all others are named.

[The Flying Tench]

Fished this stretch since 1982 - never caught a chub (of any size) and never caught a perch (ditto) from it - tis really a grayling water with a few brownies, some escapee rainbows, a few roac,h some pike and err minnows!

C.

Chris, I don't know if this would tie in with your experience, but I've found there is a profusion of minnows some years. When I'd been in Newbury about 3 years, maybe 1997, I met someone who said some lunatics had caught quite a few pike in some Water Board lakes near the top end of the Shaw stretch and had put them into the Lambourn. That year there was a profusion of minnows and I surmised that the pike had eaten most of the trout which were perhaps the natural predators to keep the minnows in check.

 

Having said that I'm not saying there is a general profusion this year - I haven't fished it enough to say.