Afternoon everyone, just back from a session on the Trent at Walton. No fish but enjoyed the day all the same, having spoken to another angler their hasn't been much out for the past couple of weeks which has given me a little comfort. I just wanted to ask a few questions on a few things that I still cant get my head around, when assessing a swim for chub and barbel fishing, are their obvious things I should be looking for? I think the main thing im struggling with is the watercraft side of things, I know this will come over time but are there a few basic things to look for to get me going? Also once iv chosen a swim are there certain areas within that swim that I should be casting to, or avoiding? I will either tackle the stretch of river with a trotted float setup with a bunch of maggots on a size 10 hook ( used to avoid smaller species ) Or I will turn up with a fixed spool setup, long hair rig, lead clip either with a feeder or normal grippa lead, coupled with either a 1.5tc or 2.25 tc rod depending on what river and what the flow is doing, these are fished bolt rig style and the fish are hooked before I pick up the rod. Iv watch a lot of videos, read articles and this seems to be a popular method, would I be better scaling down to a lighter feeder rod and fish more conventionally? Im never sure how much to bait up once iv found a swim, should I put loose feed in or should I use only what goes in the feeder or pva bag ext? How much benefit is there to walking the stretch first and priming different areas before fishing? I think If I can start to build a little watercraft knowledge I can start to build from that.
I understand that there is a lot going on here so any little pointer or bit of help will be really appreciated, if you guys can recommend any books, videos that would be fantastic. Thanks
I understand that there is a lot going on here so any little pointer or bit of help will be really appreciated, if you guys can recommend any books, videos that would be fantastic. Thanks