FishingMagic Teach-in, Fishing the Method

Fishing the Method

Clattercote

It started out as a Method fishing and bagging waggler teach-in on Clattercote for FishingMagic members. Twenty-four members originally put their names down, one or two dropped out and kindly let us know on the forum and one or two just didn't bother to turn up. They missed a very enjoyable day but can take consolation from the fact that the breakfast in Tesco was poorly prepared, cold and a bloody disgrace!

Anyhow, it ended up with a superb display of mixing groundbait for method fishing by Stu Dexter, editor of Coarse Fisherman magazine. The bagging waggler was largely forgotten about and although I trod the boards a time or two to see if anyone wanted any help, it looked like most people were quite happy with what they'd learned off Stu, who not only did the groundbait tuition but also went on to describe the tackle and technique he uses. And I know for a fact that he didn't keep any secrets, for I've fished with him often enough to know what he uses and how he uses it.

Thanks to Korum and Sonu Baits

It was obvious too, that everyone wanted to get tackled up and put Stu's lessons into practice.

As usual at Clattercote (are we ever going to get the conditions right?) it wasn't too warm at first and the wind was blasting down the length of the reservoir towards the dam. To make matters worse about a dozen anglers had started fishing the pegs the bailiff had kindly reserved for us, in spite of it being clearly marked on the notice board that pegs 1 to 27 were reserved. An hour later though the bailiff sorted it out that we had pegs 1 to 15, so it worked out in the end.

The plan was for Stu to do his groundbait demo, with me videoing it, and then for anyone to join me or Stu for further tuition and a go with our gear.

“Make it as short as you can Stu,” I said to him, “as there are restrictions to how much video I can put on YouTube in one clip.”

“OK,” he says, “it'll only take about five minutes.”

Twenty-seven minutes later he'd mixed his groundbait, showed the lads the tackle he uses and was still answering questions as the camera kept on rolling!

So I've split the video into three parts, and all three are maximum size for YouTube. The problem is that the bigger the video the more the footage has to be compressed to make it fit. And the more compression the greater the loss in quality. Stu's presentation was too good to cut much out of it, but more than three parts would have been too much on one topic. However, in spite of the degradation of the original video quality it's all still clear enough to see and hear the demo. There's some wind noise on the sound track and the light was very contrasty, but not enough to spoil it.

After Stu's demo we all drifted off and tackled up. Mark Wintle had been fishing during the demo with waggler and was catching a few tench, bream and roach. And later in the day caught a very nice roach of over a pound. My first fish was a carp, a mirror ghostie! It took me a long, long time to get it in on the 5lb hooklength and 16's hook I was using, but this wasn't too surprising considering it was hooked in the tail!

And finally, the biggest fish to Kevin Perkins - a giant perch!

From then on myself and Stu in the next peg caught a succession of bream to about 1 ½ lb and packed in before the carp came on the feed. Those who stuck it out caught the odd carp, including a 12-pounder by Fred Boniface.

There will be a write-up and a few pictures in my Musings column in Coarse Fisherman. Here's Part 1 of Stu's 'Mixing for the Method' video. I'll let you know as soon as I get Parts 2 and 3 sorted.