Help me out.....

So this is the spot on the Wreake that I've been throwing tackle in to for the past two or three outings. To no avail. But the fish are there, I've seen them.



To the left of the shot is an old weir. Current is left to right. The pool after the weir is deep. The faster flow of water is to the right over the weir (to the foreground in the picture).



The deep pool is almost dead still flow. It's here that the fish are.



The fish start to rise when the sun starts to drop to the horizon. They're of some size and look dark green on top. And that's as close as I've got to them! . I've tried bread, spinners of all different sizes, jigging with different types of lures. Hook size has been 6 or 8. I've used sweetcorn, both real and artificial.

So lads, tell me what the fack I'm doing wrong..... the damn fish are tantalisingly close and I will not give up.

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Looks a lovely spot, I used to fish the wreake with my brother about 35 year ago. Have you tried crust on the top ? We used to pick no end of chub up that way freelining it down stream.
I’d also be tempted to go with maggots, white I prefer for rivers no particular reason just a confidence thing. Flick a float over to that deep patch and keep feeding a few at a time.
After that I’ll leave it up to some of the very fine river fisherman we have on this forum who probably know more than I ever will.

If that was me, i would be trying cubes of luncheon meat, even used flavoured luncheon meat, on my local river, fish it on the bottom

At least to start with, on any unfamiliar water, I'd be taking a pint or two of maggots. There's not many fish in the UK that won't take them. You'll soon get a feel for what's about and where they may tend to lie. If you fish the float, especially a top and bottom float, you'll also get a good feel for depths and contours.

sam vimes said:

At least to start with, on any unfamiliar water, I'd be taking a pint or two of maggots. There's not many fish in the UK that won't take them. You'll soon get a feel for what's about and where they may tend to lie. If you fish the float, especially a top and bottom float, you'll also get a good feel for depths and contours.

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Apologies for asking the proverbial silly question but....

By 'if you fish the float' are you asking if I am float fishing? If you are, then no I do not. But I am going to get some.

(Stupid question number 2...)

What is a top and bottom float?

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Sunday Spinner said:

Apologies for asking the proverbial silly question but....

By 'if you fish the float' are you asking if I am float fishing? If you are, then no I do not. But I am going to get some.

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It wasn't a question. I was suggesting that if you fish a float you'll get a feel for the depths and contours that you won't get fishing lures or legering.

Sunday Spinner said:

(Stupid question number 2...)

What is a top and bottom float?

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It's a float that's attached to your mainline at the top and bottom of the float, as opposed to a waggler that is attached to the line at the bottom only.

I've sent you a PM which you'll find if you click on Notifications in the green bar at the top right of the page.

Sunday Spinner said:

The fish start to rise when the sun starts to drop to the horizon.

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That’s probably because in the evenings when the sun starts to drop the plankton and other minute life in a water begins to rise to the surface, and the larger dimples are where the fish start to feast on them.

I used to use small floating baits like floating caster that have been left out to dry a little to make them float, or small redworm that have had their heads inflated with a hyperdermic needle, or tiny pieces of floating bread with a small number of freebies thrown out around them.

I’ve also caught a few fish rising at dusk on small insects and flies presented on the surface, or just below the surface.

But you will need to be quiet and keep low or hidden if you are fishing not far out.

Sometimes you can get them taking surface baits right under your rod tip and you can ‘Dap’ your bait onto the surface without any line touching the surface, but you need to keep your reels clutch set to release line under a little pressure when a larger fish zooms off with the bait in its mouth.

Keith