Westlin Winds

[FishingMagic]

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Westlin Winds

 

[Paul Morley]

Excellent stuff as ever, Sean I'm interested in how you got to the choice of bait. If I came on your river tomorrow It's likely be with a bucket of bread, I may even use crust and 'rod top' for bites. All your emphasis is on different baits and sensitive bite indication. What experience on this river brought you to this conclusion - would I blank?

 

[geoffmaynard]

Very good. This ought to go in the "How To" category.

 

[Sean Meeghan]

Excellent stuff as ever, Sean I'm interested in how you got to the choice of bait. If I came on your river tomorrow It's likely be with a bucket of bread, I may even use crust and 'rod top' for bites. All your emphasis is on different baits and sensitive bite indication. What experience on this river brought you to this conclusion - would I blank?

Probably not Paul!

In the conditions I fished - river up a bit with a heavy peat stain - I wouldn't expect many fish and in my experience maggot gives me the best chance. I've been experimenting with using pellet or pellet groundbait as an attractor combined with the maggts in the feeder and fishing maggot on the hook. This seems to be working well. If I'd fished bread? Well I suspect I'd still have caught, but my instincts tell me I wouldn't have caught as many fish. If I'd relied on the rod top of my 1lb test curve rod? Probably a couple of fish. I might have seen the bites, but I suspect that the chub wouldn't have held on long enough for me to hook it. All the fish I caught on the maggot didn't move the feeder or if they did it was only very slightly.

You can catch chub when rod top ledgering, just as you'll catch chub on a bolt rig, but you'll catch more chub on a quiver tip with a weight which just holds bottom.

In clear or slightly coloured conditions I'll nearly always use bread, if the river is high and coloured then I'll use meat, boilie. pellet or paste, but I'll also be fishing for barbel! In that difficult in between state then it's always maggot.

 

[Michael Brough]

An other excellent article as usual Sean. I tend to do quite a bit of chubbing early in the season when they are often in the streamy water and are happy to use my avon rod with large natural baits and touch leger as bites tend to be bold. Like you though once the frosts of autumn arrive its the quiver rod which comes out but mainly flake as bait with mash or liquised bread as feed. Must try maggots in the conditions you describe and become less wedded to the size 6 hook

 

[Matthew White]

Another great article Sean.