Targeting large rudd

[Mat Hillman]

Any suggestions on how to selectively fish for large rudd in a mixed fishery ?

 

I've recently joined a lake that has a really pretty strain of rudd, I've had them to 15oz "standard" float fishing, and have been told by the owner that they go to well over 2lb

 

but the problem there is the skimmers, fishing near the bottom I'm catching 10-20 4oz skimmers to every proper fish

 

my thoughts are to try to rig up a slow sinking bait, maybe a small shot embedded in some artifical corn and fish "on the drop" to keep the bait above the heads of the skimmers for as long as possible? Any other ideas?

 

Mat

 

[OTIB]

Any suggestions on how to selectively fish for large rudd in a mixed fishery ?

 

I've recently joined a lake that has a really pretty strain of rudd, I've had them to 15oz "standard" float fishing, and have been told by the owner that they go to well over 2lb

 

but the problem there is the skimmers, fishing near the bottom I'm catching 10-20 4oz skimmers to every proper fish

 

my thoughts are to try to rig up a slow sinking bait, maybe a small shot embedded in some artifical corn and fish "on the drop" to keep the bait above the heads of the skimmers for as long as possible? Any other ideas?

 

Mat

 

rudd0-15.jpg

You could try a crystal waggler set shallow, use a load of old casters and maggots to get the competing on the top, they are a genuine surface feeder so that should put paid to the skimmers.

[wotnobivvy]

Maybe a change of bait. I fished a lake where small ones were caught on corn, but a switch to luncheon meat brought out the bigger ones

[Mat Hillman]

Luncheon meat just caught me even more 4oz skimmers the place is really stuffed with them! the one in the pic was caught on a cockle! (along with a load of skimmers)

 

Mat

Luncheon meat just caught me even more 4oz skimmers the place is really stuffed with them! the one in the pic was caught on a cockle! (along with a load of skimmers)

 

Mat

[The Flying Tench]

How deep is the lake? One way is, as you suggest, fishing shallow, though skimmers will come up in the water so you may find you can't feed too heavily. In my experience, such as it is, you rarely need to fish deeper than 2-3' for rudd in summer.

 

As I understand it you have two problems, avoiding the skimmers but also the small rudd. I was once invited to a small lake teeming with small rudd and a few bigger ones. The method my host recommended was boilies. The best I got was 10oz on a 10mm boilie, but he got slightly bigger ones on bigger boilies, 12 or 14mm I think.

 

A bait which the bream are unlikely to take is fly. Others will have more experience of this than me, but I have watched small rudd attacking an artificial nymph. I don't know whether you fly fish, but a large nymph or small lure might be worth trying.

[Steve Walker]

A few years ago, fishing for tench in a shallow swim I was getting screaming runs from decent but not big rudd on popped up fake baits fished on bolt rigs. Several grains of fake corn might discourage the skimmers (maybe not, they are pretty tenacious).

[Vagabond]

My catches of big rudd (with one exception) have been opportunistic rather than targeted

 

The exception first - bunches of small red worms fished on a running paternoster at range in a reservoir. We were targeting the big rudd known to be there. The paternoster weight was a swim-feeder filled with chopped worm. About a dozen sessions in all produced a number of rudd up to two pound, both the "normal" rudd and the "lemon-finned" variety. It also produced a roach-rudd hybrid of 3 lb 12 oz I also caught on cockles and my mate had one or two on sweet corn, but small red worms proved the best. Edit, I forgot to say these were winter evening sessions, from late October onwards to January. Fishing late afternoon to about 11 pm

 

All the other occasions were when I was fishing from a boat in a big water in summertime. (Slapton Ley in Devon, and Lough Rea in Ireland) and a shoal of big rudd were spotted about 20-30 yards from the boat. In each case I promptly loaded three big lobworms on the hook to give casting weight, cast beyond the shoal and trawled the worms past them.

The Irish rudd (3 x 2lbs) were taken in one session. Improvised tackle, as we were tightlining for perch, using half-ounce barrel leads, below the boat in 20 ft of water when the rudd were spotted - I made no modification to the tackle (no time to do so) and caught the three fish whilst my mate was struggling to change to float gear.

 

The other catches (several to 2 lb and one over 3 lb) were made on at least two occasions (could have been more) on Slapton Ley many years ago before the roach took over. There were numerous big rudd then. When a shoal of big rudd was spotted I was using float tackle already, so it was just a matter of getting a big bait on so as to get the distance..

 

The main lesson from the "opportunist" catches is that big rudd do not hesitate to chase a moving bait - they are spooked by dropping a float on their heads, but casting beyond them and trawling the bait past them produced takes.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Vagabond

[Steve Walker]

The main lesson from the "opportunist" catches is that big rudd do not hesitate to chase a moving bait - they are spooked by dropping a float on their heads, but casting beyond them and trawling the bait past them produced takes.

I've heard it said that they will take tiny Mepps.

[Vagabond]

Have never had a rudd on a spinner, but did get a roach on a small copper spoon a year or so back.

 

 

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/1854340-predatory-roach/?hl=%2Bpredatory+%2Broach

[Mat Hillman]

To answer questions asked in various posts!

 

 

the lake is an old mill pool, gradually deepens from around 3ft and one end to around 5ft at the other where the overflow and old stream bed are. it's pretty small, around an acre, and long and thin, so I can pretty much get a float to any spot on the lake, so would rather not resort to ledgering

 

I don't have any fly fishing gear, but that was one idea that had already occurred. the surrounding undergrowth would make fly casting "interesting" anyhow!

 

I don't mind catching the smaller rudd while waiting for a big one to come along, it's the skimmers I'm getting fed up with, no fight and snot all over my gear!

 

quite like the idea of fishing shallow under a crystal waggler, will give that a try

 

Was wondering too if a 2lb rudd would be able to take a small dog biscuit - chum small bite mixer size maybe??

 

Mat