Winter Commercial Tactics - Part 2

Want to catch more carp in the winter?

In the second article in the series, Andy Neal explains that although waggler-fished meat might not be your first choice on commercials in winter, he's had more success on it than any other tactic. So why and how does it work?

There is nothing like seeing a dotteddown waggler disappear beneath the surface, followed quickly by sweeping the rod back and connecting with a heavy, slow-moving weight – a big winter carp! It’s immensely satisfying to me and something I never tire of.

One of my all-time-favourite commercial-fishery tactics is the waggler. Used to its full potential, it’s a devastating method and one that really comes into its own during winter. In my mind, when the carp back away from the pole line in the clearer water there is only one way to target them – the waggler. Obviously, the straight lead is a well-used and successful tactic but I prefer the wag for a number of reasons. Firstly, a waggler lets you search your swim and look to find out where the fish are. Secondly, it can tell you a lot more about the swim than a lead with regards to where in the water the fish are and how much you need to feed. Thirdly, it will also show all the little knocks and liners you get even if you’re not getting true bites.

You simply cannot achieve any of these things with a straight-lead approach. I do catch a lot of fish with the straight lead and always have one set up in case it’s needed, but it’s the waggler that really lets me read my swim properly. And reading the swim is something that is really important in winter as too much bait will kill your chances of catching, while too little could lead you to underachieve on your target frame place.

Quite often, in winter matches, if I think I have a chance of a few bites I get blinkered; by that I mean I go for it by only setting out to fish one or maybe two lines all day. As weights are lower I pin all my efforts on really concentrating hard on these lines to make them pay off, rather than spreading my efforts and not understanding what’s going on in each swim. Patterns will emerge eventually and, quite simply, if you’re not spending enough time trying to develop these patterns you will never see them. Both of these lines will be on the wag and usually I won’t even get a pole out of my bag – unless the conditions are right for margin fishing!

I set up three rods – one lead rod and two waggler rods. The first wag rod is the one I use most and is for fishing a bait hard on the deck while the second rod, although plumbed at dead depth, is for fishing through the water column with no shot down the line. This also gives me the opportunity to come shallow if needed.

For fishing hard on the deck there is only one type of float I use – the bodied Drake wagglers. They may look a bit extreme for fishing in four to five feet of water but the presentation they offer is superb. These big wagglers allow me to cast the distance needed comfortably as they fly like darts, but more importantly they sit perfectly still even in a big chop. Keeping the float still is important as it enables me to fish a bait hard on the bottom without having to lay too much line on the deck and risk not seeing bites. The more you do this the more important you will find it, as the bites can be very subtle at times; it illustrates perfectly how the fish often suck in and eject baits without us knowing, and you certainly wouldn’t see those bites on a lead.

Shotting these floats is also important and I always try and dot the float right down, as much as the weather allows. The bulk of the shot are around the base of the float as locking shot but with three or four No8 shot to settle the rig. These trimming shot perform a very important job. I place them one inch apart in a spread bulk, starting just above the 12in hooklength. The reason for this is simple – think about a pole rig and how it works; more weight down the line results in a more direct, straight line to the float and thus a more positive bite. When the bulk is moved the float goes under so I use a spread bulk to create a positive indication. It’s spread out and not bulked together, to lessen the resistance when fish move the hook bait as well as having the same effect as a tightened bulk on the actual float. In short, you see every touch on the hook bait!

Hook lengths are 0.16mm diameter, to a hook roughly the size of my hair-rigged bait, in most cases 10mm cube of meat coupled with a Size 16 Fox Series 2 hook. These are big fish and need to count when hooked, so scale down in winter but don’t shoot yourself in the foot. I tie a bait band onto the hair and this gets pulled through the meat for hooking. This presentation is the best way as it leaves the hook free for penetration and the cube comes off the hair easily on the strike. For a 10mm hook bait I’d have the hair about 10mm long so that, combined with the stretched band, the meat sits just below the hook bend.

The other waggler rod is set up with a simple, straight-peacock float – something with a little more buoyancy should you need it to hold up a bait shallow or decipher liners from true bites. This rig, as already stated, has no shot down the line for fishing the bait naturally through the water column.

If you think the fish are sitting at half depth, a few quick casts with this will increase your chances of snaring one as the bait falls more naturally through the water. This also helps if you’re getting bites very quickly – this generally means there are loads of fish present and enables you to come shallow to where the fish are, or at least spend more time drifting a bait through the killing zone. After all, the fish won’t always be living on the deck at this time of year and you need to find the depth they want to be at.

This is my bagging rod and to be fair doesn’t see anywhere near the amount of use as the other – mainly because I can’t draw for toffee! When it does come out I’m usually on for a great day. Both rods are identical in terms of 0.20mm main lines to 0.16mm or 0.14mm hooklengths.

Now we have covered kit and why I use what I do I’d like to discuss the reason you might all think I’m crackers… my 10mm cubes of meat!

The face of the photographer (Mark Williams) was a real picture when he came to shoot this and saw me cutting up great big bits of meat. “Will you really catch on that in this weather?’’ he asked, unconvinced.

This tactic isn’t for the faint-hearted and needs total confidence to fish it properly. The bites may not come for two or three hours but when they do – and they will – it’s game on. I’ve had several matches at Viaduct Fishery, in Somerset, where I haven’t had a bite for two hours only to bag up in the last three hours as the fish switch on. In fact, in the last seven matches I have fished like this I’ve had three wins and three seconds. Some of these results have come from pegs where I’ve been told I won’t catch a carp!

The key is to stay on it and know that they will come. In every lake during winter there are a few feeding fish, and once these have found your swim their feeding will encourage more carp to join in, increasing competition and meaning you’ve got more chance of catching some. It’s just about how quickly they will find your swim.

The key to this method, as with any other, is feeding; getting this right is allimportant to the end result. At the start of a match I will fire out two or three cubes at a time, every five minutes for the first half-hour, to put a bit of bait in. It’s then a case of cutting right back to just one cube at a time but keeping it regular at intervals of a few minutes. Yet again it’s the noise factor that we use to our advantage, even in winter. The sound of a 10mm cube of meat hitting the surface is like a magnet to fish; even when they don’t want to feed they just can’t help coming to have a look. The inviting plop on the water is more than enough to pull and hold a lot of fish in wintertime. Feed too much and they will spook, feed just one at a time and you have the maximum noise effect with minimum bait. Sooner or later one of those frustrated carp will grab a bait and as one fish does, the confidence grows and the other fish join in. I’m sure the noise annoys them into feeding! On ‘normal’ sessions one 300g tin of luncheon meat, cut with a meat cutter, makes plenty of cubes and will do for the whole of the match.

Today’s Session

We’ve come to Viaduct Fishery today, but rest assured this isn’t just a one-venue method. The effectiveness of meat in winter first grabbed my attention while fishing the winter open matches at Docklow Pools several years ago. From there I have used it on many different venues across the country, including places like Moorlands Farm and Middle Pool at Manor Farm, Evesham. I’m sure that if your local water has an average carp size of 4lb plus then it will work well there too; it is primarily aimed at bigger fish due to the size of the bait and how the feeding works. It’s understanding why it works that counts.

Today was very interesting as the wind was howling and was certainly going to make life harder for fishing the wag. I plumbed up at about 40 yards and had an even four feet all over my peg, while having to lay about six inches of line on the deck to hold still. Having liberally sprayed my spool with a solution of washing-up liquid to degrease it and help it sink (don’t leave home without this when fishing meat on the wag – it’s vitally important to degrease the line) I made my first cast with three cubes of meat following it.

I had told Mark to be patient and he wandered off in search of food. When he arrived back a few minutes later and asked if I had had anything, a grin appeared when I told him nothing to report! Next cast and two cubes of meat later the float moved. I say it moved because it didn’t go under, it just sank gently as if dragging on the bottom. This didn’t seem right, as there wasn’t a massive undertow and a firm strike resulted in a hooped-over rod. Carp Number One plodded away up the lake and we were off the mark!

Over the next few hours I caught fish to mid-double figures steadily, and what struck us both was how when I fed three cubes at a time the float would sit there, waiting an age to go under, whereas if I fired out three cubes one at a time in quick succession I got a bite really quickly. This was proof enough to both of us how effective the method can be and that it must be the noise factor that helps with the catch rate.

The bites further illustrated the importance and effectiveness of the waggler. On the day you had to strike at every indication and most bites were little dips or slow, dragging pulls on the float tip. The times the float did shoot under must have been line bites, as not one was connected with. The fish today just weren’t moving around a lot and were obviously sucking and blowing the baits without any gusto, hence the poor bites and shy indications. This happens a lot at this time of year and with a straight-lead approach I’m sure I simply wouldn’t have seen these bites.

Fish love meat and it is always my number-one bait choice at this time of year. On those frosty and ice-laden days it just won’t work, however, and a sit-and-wait approach would be better with single corn hook baits, but again that’s down to you to study the conditions and make your decision from there. If you find yourself undecided then by all means do both on two different lines, but whatever you do keep that noise going on and you should reap the rewards.

This is a very bold approach that needs confidence to exploit the size of the baits, and the regularity and amount of feeding. It goes against all we know about winter, so go and have a practice, gain the confidence you need and win your next match with it! Be bold and make them feed!

More angling articles ...

• Winter Commercial Tactics 1 - Improve winter catches on commercial fisheries
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