Favoured
Methods at Stubpond
This
whole fishery responds very well to bigger
baits such as corn, luncheon meat and worm.
As with all commercial carp fisheries, there
are times when each of these baits becomes
'flavour of the month'. for about three
months this summer, worm over chopped worm
was unbeatable, but in the past a combination
of luncheon meat, corn, worms, casters and
maggots has been spot on.
You don't need much of any of them, this
is definitely not a 'chuck loads in' water.
Feeding and casting has to be accurate to
get any consistent results here.
Fishing
on the main match lake (Plantation Lake)
is with two main methods, either pole at
about 5 metres and 11 / 12 metres, or bomb,
feeder or waggler tight to the island.
Fishing to the island needs to be deadly
accurate, drop a couple of feet short and
you will not get a bite, stray six inches
too far and you are tying a fresh set of
tackle on. There are lots of fish that live
against the island, but I suppose that they
get easily spooked, because it's hard to
keep them feeding all day.
One thing that I have noticed is that many
of the experts at this style of fishing
will fish for the first half hour without
putting in ANY loose feed.
I guess their reasoning is that the fish
live there anyway, so why give away too
many clues that you are trying to catch
them. Who knows, I'm just passing on a bit
of information that might be of use to you
one day.
Pole
fishing is by far the most popular method
for fishing Plantation Lake, in fact the
whole complex is ideal for pole fishing,
with lots of pole sized carp to be caught,
as well as the skimmers and roach. With
the carp averaging 4lbs, you dn't need that
many fish to reach a match winning total,
which is often in the 30 to 60lbs range.
You have to be accurate with your feeding,
using a pole cup to feed the long line,
and you need to be patient, with the fish
often feeding well for only the last part
of the match. This is especially true of
the inside line, where you are fishing at
about 5 or 6 metres.
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Feed
carefully, little and often, and you could well
be in with a shout when the scalesman comes
round. My normal approach would be to cup in
a couple of cups of mixed caster, corn and meat
on the 11 metre line, and one cup of the same
on the 5 metre line.
I start by fishing the long line, feeding with
the pole cup occasionally, and hoping to pick
up a few carp. At the same time I would be flicking
a few loose offerings on to my 5 metre line.
Every 15 minutes or so have a cast on the inside
line, if you don't get a bite within a minute
or two then go back out on the far line.
As soon as I see an indication of a fish on
the near side line, I concentrate on that line
until the end of the match, increasing the feeding
frequency, but not the amounts that I feed each
time. The far swim is abandoned from that moment
on, since I have absolute confidence that I
will catch more fish close in.
Fishing's like that, confidence plays a huge
part, how does a fish know when you're confident.
It's a complete mystery to me. My only variation
on the above method is that on relatively calm
days i.e. when the wind is not howling straight
down the lake, I will feed two close in swims,
one either side of my peg, at 45 degrees to
where I'm sitting.
Methods for the other lakes are very similar,
with the exceptions that on Forge Lake I would
fish the 'long rod' (18 - 20 ft) and a running
line, because I don't want to be added to the
list of people who have had poles broken by
carp on that lake, and if I am forced to ever
fish another match on Mill Lake (see favourite
pegs for my thoughts on Mill Lake), pole is
the only method worth fishing there..
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