Winter feeder fishing

[Tony Stevens]

Hi Jeff,
Here in NZ it's high summer and I have started to fish the tidal reaches of the Avon and Heathcote rivers fot Mullet.
These resemble dace and the average is 1 to 2 lb and fight like demons and are well worth the effort.
They bite extremely fast and only on paste or flake. to date I have fished a short hook link (12 in.)and miss 11 out of 12 bites; longer links do not seem to register at all using feeded methods.
At the start we tried longtrotting with some success but constantly changing depths and flow make life frustrating except at low tide when the flow is constant.
Any hints would be appreciated,
Tony

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Tony, Sorry, but not a clue about mullet fishing in NZ. Tidal is different to the stuff I've been writing about.

Colin, We have a fish-in planned for Sat 11th March at Maidenhead on the Thames. It will come up again either on the Front page or in a forum thread so start lookign at beginning of March. Pegs are all of ?2 each!

Click here

 

[John Tighe]

What is the reason for using a TARGET BOARD when feeder fishing.
Any comments are appreciated
Regards JT

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Sometimes fish, particularly bream, feed very gingerly. They can pick up a maggot, suck it dry and spit it out again before it will register much on a quiver tip.

For these occasions you need all the help you can get in detecting the slightest movement of the tip. A target board helps especially when the sections are different colours, in case you look away and when you look back you think there was a movement, but are not sure where the quiver was before.

There are other occasions (like on our Thames Fish-in recently) when there's so much weed coming down the tip's forever moving about so not much use at all there.

One guy, who used to fish for A4, always performed a strike before winding in anyway just in case a fish had delicately picked up the bait at that precise moment.

Little things like that can win matches and one one of my previous best chub was caught using the target board where the tip moved probably 2 millimetres. Would I have seen it otherwise? I doubt it.

 

[Laurie Harper]

Have you tried the dink-dink method? Can work wonders.

 

[Tony Stevens]

BINGO!
Cracked it. I'm using a simple link a,la John Wilson style, hook length 20 in. feeder link 9 in. size 8 or 6 specialist fine wire hook and bread flake 1 in. across tipped with 4 maggots.
When the tide is tanking through either on the rise or fall I fish the near side creases with the rod straight out from the bank and cocked up; the line is well down stream of course. Bites are often massive snaches and with an oz weight on the feeder they hook themselves.
At slack water it's a different story. Invariably the water is clear so the far bank holes are the best. Face down stream and fish a distinct bow with the rod high in the air. Bites again are quick with many dropbacks and a good sweeping strike connects most times.
To date I have had many mullet to 2, 3 lbs.
a number of brown trout to 4 lb and lost either a salmon or very large sea trout which was a foregon conclusion on 4 lb line and 3 lb. hook link
It is autumn here and in a 3 hr session today managed a good mixed bag of some 40 odd fish.
The Heathcote River (where I have been fishing) is similar to the lower tidal Sussex Adur if anyone knows that water.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)]

Mullet are a super fish to catch and fight like hell.

Most of the mullet I have ever caught came from the long wall at Durban Harbour using a fly rod.

If I could fish your river Tony I would use fly tackle. Try a blue and white pattern on about a size 8. Use a 10 lb leader then you just might have a chance with the sea trout.

 

[Tony Stevens]

Yup Ron, mullet are about the next best thing to bone fish but ours do not respond well to heavy gear and where I fish the bankside growth precludes fly fishing unfortunately.
We do use heavier gear down toward the mouth at Ferrymead; 15lb. line and 4in. tobys, zedies etc. Here I favour a Shakesphere or Mitchell bait casting outfit as the weights cast are from 2oz. up.
Best sea trout this year was 18lb. not to me though.
Regards,
Tony.