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After around an hour on the tip catching
mainly roach and perch with the odd small
skimmer, Darren is confident that a move to
the pole will now find plenty of fish in his
already primed swims.
“At the start of the session I fed my three
pole lines: one to my left at 11.5 metres in
around six feet of water, another to my right
at 13 metres in slightly deeper water and then
one at the same angle as the 13m swim but at
14.5 metres,” says Darren as he ships out to
the 13m line. His left-hand line is his roach
swim, due to the depth, and was fed with
pole rigs; one light for the roach, the other
slightly heavier for skimmer. As the fish are
feeding right on the bottom both are bulked
three-quarters of the way down, with three
droppers to give a steady fall where the fish
are looking for the bait.
This is all held under a slim-bodied
Garbolino DC12H float (0.35g for the roach
and 1g for the skimmers) using a size 18 hook
with 0.09mm hooklength for the roach and
0.10mm for the skimmers.
“The roach are taking the caster just as it hits
the bottom,” says Darren, as he strikes into
DARREN’S FEEDER RIG
This is a free-running setup using a small cage feeder with extra lead
to get it down quick. A section of the main line is knotted into two
loops below the feeder to work as an anti-tangle boom, stopping the
2ft long hook link tangling on the cast. The feeder is stopped from
coming over the loops and the hook link by a large float stop.
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a single ball of groundbait laced with dead
maggots and chopped worms. He’s also been
loose feeding casters over the top in a pouch
of eight to 10 every five minutes or so.
On the 13m line three balls of the same mix
went in along with a handful of prepared,
6mm expander pellets, while on the 14.5m
line it’s three balls of groundbait loaded with
4mm hard pellets.
“The 13m line with the most bait options
in is my gauge of what’s about and feeding,”
explains Darren. “From there I’ll work out
what I should be feeding and how I should be
fishing and it should deliver the bulk of my
catch. The 14m line is for the skimmers and
I’ll leave this for as long as possible.”
For today’s fishing Darren’s employing two
another fish. “A good trick, which is working
today, is to flick your rig out to give more of
a fall through the water. The better fish hang
back and will dart in when they see the bait
falling.”
On the two skimmer lines Darren fishes an
expander on the hook, this time lowering
the rig down into the water and lifting it at
intervals, which is usually met by a positive
bite and a workout for the No6 elastic.
“The fish are a bit cagey today; once one or
two are caught they back off, so I’m moving
from line to line much more than I normally
would,” reveals Darren. “Although they’re still
feeding pretty well, especially the roach, so
there’s eve