Groundbait in clear water

[The Flying Tench]

I had a chat today with a guy who seemed to be a knowledgeable canal angler. He was saying that you shouldn't use groundbait (or at least very little) when the water is clear as it scares the fish. He seemed to think this was generally accepted, but I'd always assumed the opposite - that groundbait would give some necessary colour to the water.

 

Any views?

[Andy Macfarlane]

That's rubbish. The only thing I would say is be careful not to make your groundbait too white or light. If the water clarity is good, you might find fish are shy about swimming over it, because it creates a nice silhouette. I prefer to use a slightly darker crumb when the water is that clear and visibility is high but I wouldn't stop using groundbait. Perhaps that was what he was driving at??

[John Weddup]

The first rule I use in fishing is there are no rules.

 

I regularly fish a large reservoir thats 20 ft deep and crystal clear. If you do not put in groundbait you will not catch much. Having said that I also fish lots of rivers that when they run low and clear put in groundbait and you will not see a fish for a week.

 

 

On canal type venue I agree that groundbait can kill a swim. But dark or black groundbait can work well.

 

Time of year , venue, quantity of fish conditions on the day, moon cycle, weather pressure etc all change the needs.

 

What type of fishing were you thinking of.

 

I have mixed a slop before and cupped it in , in very hard clear conditions and the colour in the water has worked very well. I have also walked in a low clear river with waders and stirred some colour up and caught roach and dace one after another where it would have been impossible without the colour.

 

Another experiment I did early autumn when the river was low clear and unappealing was to feed with catapult and watch fish reactions.

 

If anyone ignores my other comments this one is worth remembering. It was my local river quite narrow and very clear with everal shoals of roach and dace over probablly 400 yards.

 

I wanted to watch how they would respond to feed. the first swim I chose I put a catapult full of probably 20 maggots in and they all ran for cover. None came out for ages. Next swim put 3 maggots in. All fish attacked and bait eaten. Gradually increased numbers and fished gained confidence and took all bait. Then put big pouch full in and all fish disappeared.

 

Repaeted this over several swims.

 

The match angler philosophy of litte and often was played out in front of me. It has changed my feeding practice on certain venue,s.

 

 

 

 

 

regards

 

john

[Stretpegger]

As has already been mentioned issues such as time of year,the target species and angling pressure all have to taken into account.Personally if i am on a unfamiliar venue i always like to "feel" my way into a session so inevitably start with modest amounts of loose feed, upping the quantities if the fish respond.If the fish continue to feed confidently then and only then might i consider groundbait.Im not talking a bombardment of grapefruit size "depthcharges" but rather egg size say every other cast.

 

BTW an excellent and free groundbait is molehill soil.Colours the water nicely has next to no food content and will take quite large quantities of maggots and casters yet still breaks down readily underwater.