Line THEM UP!

Balling in groundbait. There can’t be many things that we do as match anglers that are as exhilarating. Unleashing a salvo of bait that can be heard for miles around, then proceeding to haul out large roach and dace that have been instantly attracted to the commotion!

I have learned a lot about this style of fishing over my years as a river angler, and won a fair few quid too, so hopefully I can pass on a few tips to help you get the best from the technique.

It all started for me back in the Summer of 2010. I was a young, fairly green reporter working for Pole Fishing Magazine, and I had been asked to cover the Team Match on the Evesham Angling Festival. The river (as always) was really difficult.

Weights of 3-4lb were worth good points. At this time, I had hardly done any natural venue fishing at all, and I stood on the Town Bridge staring upstream wondering what was happening as the competitors unleashed ball upon ball of groundbait on the river.

I was shocked. With commercial carp and F1s swimming around in my head, I honestly didn’t think that any of the competitors would get a bite. It just didn’t seem quite right. Feeding four kilos of bait to catch two kilos of fish?

But low and behold, the anglers caught instantly. And good stamp fish too. From memory, everyone who did well that day caught after balling in. And so my fascination with this style of fishing was born.

I learned one of my biggest ‘balling in’ secrets at Evesham, from Rob Perkins, and that was to do with where the groundbait is thrown. This is such a simple, but deadly edge with this technique, and something that so many anglers ignore.

To many, it seems logical to throw in groundbait in front of you, or even slightly upstream. After all, it gets washed downstream with the current, right? WRONG!

Groundbait rarely washes as far as you think, and the main problem with having fish bang in front of you on a river, is that it is very difficult to catch them on a running pole rig.

After all, the rig needs time to settle in the flow before it reaches your bait.Feed too far up your peg, and you find yourself missing out on fish. So the first key lesson here is always feed well downstream. I generally look around 1-2pm on a clock face. Keep in mind that the lightest rig you set up needs to be working (I.e. all shot registering on the float) before it reaches your bait.

I cant stress this point enough, as it is one of the most common mistakes where balling in is concerned. Often, you find that the biggest fish you catch are just as you run on to your bait - which shows just how vital it is to get this right.

So what groundbait mix should you use? Firstly I must say that there is no golden rule here it is all very much about personal preference. Four key groundbaits come into it for me. Dynamite Frenzied Hemp Black goes in all my mixes. Roach just love it, plus it darkens every mix beautifully. On slow moving rivers, I will add Sensas Lake, then depending on the pace, I might also add Gross Gardons, or on really pace water, I will replace the Lake With Sensas River.

When roach and dace are the target, I also add Crushed Hemp to the mix. I soak 500mm of this in boiling water over night, then add it to the dry groundbait before mixing. This is a deadly edge at times.

Just as important as the mix that you use, is how you mix it however, and again I think this is something not enough anglers pay attention too. We all love the aesthetic of a dry mix, it just looks right doesn’t it, beautifully crumbly, and breaks up quickly in the water. Again, this is one of the most common mistakes I see anglers make though - use too dry a mix, and you will ruin your swim, bringing fish off the bottom, or worse, actually pushing them out of your peg.

There are a couple of exceptions to this, for example if I was fishing for small fish on a very slow moving river, an active mix might be nice, but on anywhere with any flow, I like a bit of a stodge.

This means mixing the groundbait at least three hours before the session, and giving all the particles chance to absorb the water. You want it to be damp enough so that you can squeeze it together easily, and the harder you squeeze it the harder the ball becomes.

I then vary the consistency of my balls, so some are squeezed as hard as I can make them, and some are made to just hold together.  

I am looking to make sure my bait goes to the bottom intact, and stays there, breaking up and releasing feed at a steady rate throughout the early part of the session. In practice, this means you get quicker bites, and catch bigger fish, because there is less ‘open food’ (from the broken down groundbait) in your peg at any one time, so the competition among the fish that are present is greater.

The third dimension to this is the loose particles that you add to your initial mix, and then how you loosefeed through the day to keep fish coming. A key tip here is to bring a wide variety of baits with you. From dead pinkies and maggots to casters, hemp, worms and Fjuka micros I really like to cover my options as much as possible.

It may seem a faff at the start of the session, but by building your peg in this way, you give yourself more hookbait options later, and often ringing the changes between baits and presentations is the key to keeping fish coming later through the session.  

Although I like to vary the content of my initial feed, I am always careful not to feed too many particles, especially when I expect the sport to be tricky. For todays session on Burton Joyce, I am confident of a few fish, but I still have only put 300ml of particles in 12 balls for my initial feed.

Again, competition is at the forefront of my mind here, I never want too much bait in my peg at any one time. I can then control the fish by loose feeding through the day.

Tom's particle mix.

Tom makes the balls hard.

I start the day on the long pole, with the plan of bringing the fish back towards me. Catching close should always be the end game when after a big weight, as not only can you be quicker in landing the fish you hook and getting back in the water, but also the closer you can catch to the bank, the easier it is to keep the fish on the bottom where you want to catch them, as they are less likely to rise up in the water column close to bankside disturbance.

I feed a few fishery 4mm pellets, and a few white Fjuka 2in1 baits at 13m, and wait for a response.   Needless to say, I am not waiting long! A positive bite sees carp No1 on its way towards the waiting net.

One of the biggest lessons that I have learned at venues like this is the importance of not rushing. Catching big weights is all about being efficient, and being efficient is all about being smooth. Whe you hook a fish, take your time and make sure you land it. Have your rollers set low, so you can ship back without jarring, and use a nice light elastic with a puller kit. This way, the fish will often follow your pole back, then you can apply pressure at the netting stage to get him in the pan.

Fishing in this controlled way, I soon have six F1s, and two carp nestling in the onion sack. Most bites have come a couple of minutes after feeding, but on a couple of occasions. when bites haven’t come so quicjkly, I have tapped the water to instigate a response, and this has bought a bite.

All the while, I have been tricking between six and ten pieces of Fjuka 2in1 on a four metre line every couple of minutes. This will be the bagging line!

With this shorter swim being fed and rested for around an hour now, its time to have a look. As expected, the fish are feeding here too!

This is my favourite way to catch. No need for a pole mounted pot here, I can feed accurately by hand, and I soon have the carp and F1s queueing up. One deadly trick is to hook a fish, let it swim out of the peg, then feed, so when you go back in your next fish is waiting for you.

I end the short session with 80lb+ in just a couple of hours fishing, and more importantly, feeling great after some time in the Welsh Spring sunshine. I hope my tips help you put a few more fish in the net this Summer.