Rudd

[The Flying Tench]

I went rudd fishing at Barnes Lake, Standlake, near Witney today - I don't know if anyone knows it?

 

I was told there were good shoals of rudd, but location was an issue. In the end I fed maggots at a particular swim, and the rudd started to show. Didn't get anything big - but lost a couple which, assuming they were rudd, were certainly good fish! But it raised some issues about locating the shoal.

 

1. Early on, I found a shoal of small ones, bite a chuck. Now with some species the tactic would be to keep fishing, and in the end the bigger ones would come along. Sometimes the bigger ones are on the outside of the shoal. But does that work with rudd? I've heard that the shoals tend to have fish of the same size, so maybe the right tactic was to move on?

 

2. There was a lot of ripple on the water, which made it hard to spot fish taking a fly etc. If it had been calm, however, can you usually see the shoals? Occasionally I've seen a ripple effect, almost like the wind, but where an instinct told me this was different, but it was hard to say how. Am I deluding myself, or can this be a shoal of rudd?

 

3. How much do the shoals move? The point of this question is that, if they move a fair bit, and you keep feeding, they'll presumably come to you in the end. On the other hand, if they tend to stay in the same place, you have to look for them. I've known smaller waters where you can always find a shoal of small rudd under a particular bush, but I'm wondering if big rudd are a different kettle of fish?

 

John

[mark barrett]

I went rudd fishing at Barnes Lake, Standlake, near Witney today - I don't know if anyone knows it?

 

I was told there were good shoals of rudd, but location was an issue. In the end I fed maggots at a particular swim, and the rudd started to show. Didn't get anything big - but lost a couple which, assuming they were rudd, were certainly good fish! But it raised some issues about locating the shoal.

 

1. Early on, I found a shoal of small ones, bite a chuck. Now with some species the tactic would be to keep fishing, and in the end the bigger ones would come along. Sometimes the bigger ones are on the outside of the shoal. But does that work with rudd? I've heard that the shoals tend to have fish of the same size, so maybe the right tactic was to move on?

 

2. There was a lot of ripple on the water, which made it hard to spot fish taking a fly etc. If it had been calm, however, can you usually see the shoals? Occasionally I've seen a ripple effect, almost like the wind, but where an instinct told me this was different, but it was hard to say how. Am I deluding myself, or can this be a shoal of rudd?

 

3. How much do the shoals move? The point of this question is that, if they move a fair bit, and you keep feeding, they'll presumably come to you in the end. On the other hand, if they tend to stay in the same place, you have to look for them. I've known smaller waters where you can always find a shoal of small rudd under a particular bush, but I'm wondering if big rudd are a different kettle of fish?

 

John

 

 

john,

 

big rudd are indeed a different kettle of fish completely, to be honest these days i would only fish for them for the last three hours of daylight and at night, as they are extremely nocturnal. Of the six rudd over 3lb that i have had, 4 have been at night.

 

having said all of that they are catchable in the daytime, but in my experience they will stay either way out in the lake or very close to cover of some description, reeds being a favourite.

[Steve Burke]

Mark, I'd for one be interested in hearing about how you caught your big rudd. Perhaps you could post a link to an article, or better still post something here. Cheers!

[mark barrett]

john,

 

big rudd are indeed a different kettle of fish completely, to be honest these days i would only fish for them for the last three hours of daylight and at night, as they are extremely nocturnal. Of the six rudd over 3lb that i have had, 4 have been at night.

 

having said all of that they are catchable in the daytime, but in my experience they will stay either way out in the lake or very close to cover of some description, reeds being a favourite.

 

 

I did do an article in CAT a few years back about Rudd fishing Steve, but i seriously doubt as to whether I still have that anywhere, though its not beyond the realms of possibility.

 

i do a fair bit of fishing for big rudd, in fact they were probably the first big fish that i went for by design, but those were the good old days before the cormorants came in and reeked havoc on the silvers around here.

 

theres many ways too catch them, but the most successful that i have used are floater fishing, float fishing o the drop, or feeder fishing for them. unfortunately i have never fished a big rudd water, where there are not also large numbers of small rudd, and these must rank as one of the most voracious feeders of all fish!

 

therefore my fishing has really boiled down to two baits only, those being very small boilies, or sweetcorn, with the latter being my favourite of all. Big Rudd have some kind of fixation with sweetcorn, but this is where the real trick comes into play, because if you are fishing that corn on the bottom, the rudd would have to invert past 120 degrees to actually be able to pick it up. they dont, what they do, is to swim at the bait and bat it up off the bottom, where they take it on the drop. therefore its absolutely vital that the hookbait is critically balanced. i usually use a single piece of fake corn, and one or two real pieces, mounted straight on a hook, size 12 or 10, light gauge.

 

when using boilies i use 10 or 12mm baits situated tight to the bend of the hook, maple or activ 8 are my favourites, closely followed by esterberry boilies. i have caught rudd on all of these. again they are better popped up or critically balanced. these were usually fished either on a feeder or with a running rig and stick. the best attractant for rudd is either groundbait or hemp, rudd like roach absolutely love hemp. on one pit that i used to fish the rudd could be tracked round the pit, by the little blits and blats from the carpers alarms as they rolled their boilies around the swim and cleared off the hemp. invariably this happened just before and after dark, through to midnight, then it would die off for a while before picking up again just before and after first light.

 

again fishing on the drop i would use corn, bread would be great, probably better, but realistically it actually sinks too slowly and this means that the smaller rudd get at it first and drag the bait and float all over the place. last opening night i had 5 big two's and a scraper three by using corn on the drop, with a small shot to get it down past the smaller rudd, to the bigger ones laying slightly deeper. this worked a treat and only a few smaller fish were caught.

 

the other thing to bear in mind with rudd is that they are a shoal fish that will react to any disturbance by fleeing the area. therefore your casting, approach to the water etc need to be very circumspect. also when playing a fish try and get it away from the shoal without it splashing on the top.

 

hope that helps some people, because big rudd are in my opinion the most beautifull of our freshwater fish.

 

Edited June 5, 2007 by mark barrett

[Steve Burke]

Cheers, Mark!

 

There are a very small number of very big rudd in Wingham that have escaped the cormorants, but very few small ones.

 

I keep saying that I'll go after them but the bream, tench and perch keep calling. Maybe this will give me the kick I need, though!

[chesters1]

a chap that fly fishes for them at stockbridge has slices of dry bread in his pockets he chucks one in now and again which float off taking the small rudd with them ,hes had some fine rudd which he wouldnt have caught without this trick,he doesent appear till all the ducks have left for obvious reasons ,so him and his tweed prefer late summer

Edited June 5, 2007 by chesters1

[The Flying Tench]

Mark, thanks for all your advice. A big rudd to you is a 3lber, where as to me anything over 1lb is good! Bearing that in mind, have you any advice about locating the shoals. Do you find you can see signs of them on the surface in daytime?

 

And you mention floater fishing. Wow! It would be great to get decent rudd on floaters. Are ordinary dogbiscuits OK? And is that a way of locating them - put a few floaters in a few swims and keep watching?

[bluerinse]

Mark, thanks for all your advice. A big rudd to you is a 3lber, where as to me anything over 1lb is good! Bearing that in mind, have you any advice about locating the shoals. Do you find you can see signs of them on the surface in daytime?

 

And you mention floater fishing. Wow! It would be great to get decent rudd on floaters. Are ordinary dogbiscuits OK? And is that a way of locating them - put a few floaters in a few swims and keep watching?

 

I have caught several big Rudd up to 4lb, These were caught in a shallow lake in Latvia, (I worked there for 5 years) I found that there were plenty of small Rudd out in the open water but the large Rudd lived in the reed beds, You had to cast as tight as possible to the reeds (you get hooked up plenty of times) Firstly though spray maggots into the reads and to the edge of the open water. Keep the maggots going in a little and often and slowly reduce the amount that go into the reeds, this will draw the fish out to open water (about a foot from the reeds) when you have them competing for the bait (you will see the swirls) You need a very small light float and fish a single maggot on the drop with a size22 hook.

Cast lightly in and the action will be almost immediate, I have had great days fishing this way (from a boat) and have had staggering amounts of big Rudd.

The best weather is hot and sunny, not much else will be feeding but the Rudd seems to love it. Tremendous action and unbelievable sport.

[Anderoo]

FT, I fish a lake very close to where you were fishing, which also contains some big rudd. In the daytime, if it's warm, you can see them in their favourite spot in the branches of a big tree that's fallen in. At dusk, though, the whole lake comes alive with rudd feeding on fly life. They seem to be very loosely shoaled during this time, far more loosely than in the daytime. I fluked one of a pound and a quarter on little boilies meant for carp, but haven't yet targetted them specifically (I keep meaning to, but, well, you know!).

 

Mark's advice seems sound. I'd wait until dusk and fish a shallow float rig where you can see them.

[The Flying Tench]

Mark's advice seems sound. I'd wait until dusk and fish a shallow float rig where you can see them.

 

The key words may be 'where you can see them'. I guess you are saying from spottting them taking flies. There was little of this at Barnes Lake this week, but I can see it would be different on a calm evening in summer proper.