Catch Reports
Cracking winter common for Lee
Posted in Catch Reports on 16th November 2010Essential Bait rolling manager Lee Willmott has had a season he won’t forget in a hurry with a rake of big fish, including a personal best UK mirror at 41lb 4oz followed by a personal best Belgium river mirror of 47lb 4oz and now he’s gone and done it again with the capture of a new personal best UK common at 35lb 12oz! Not bad when you consider he only fishes about three nights each month!
Lee extracted the big common from a large weedy Glos pit where he introduced a kilo of Winterized B5 boilies to a clearing amongst weed at approx 40-yards. Even more satisfying was the fact that his ‘old man’ blanked during the same session!!
Hard Hook Baits (Mike's view)
There are often times throughout the season when I find myself having to use hard hook baits. There’s nothing worse than reeling in after you’ve seen a frenzied amount of fishing activity over your baited area, only to find that your hook baits have been nibbled away by nuisance fish! Some venues are obviously more prone to nuisance fish activity than others, but it’s not just nuisance fish that can be a problem. Diving birds or even pick ups from swans will often result in ‘missing hook baits’!
Hard hook baits will alleviate this problem, in fact, I actually think it’s advantageous when a diving bird picks up my hard hook bait. It gives me confidence that my presentation is good, and as the bird drops the rig, I actually believe it straightens everything out and gives me a better presentation that I can achieve via casting. I can remember fishing at Frampton some years ago, when the only time I could seemingly get a bite, was after a coot had picked up and dropped my hard hook bait!
Top Tip
After you’ve made a batch of hard hookers, leave them out on a towel to air dry for at least ten days, preferably in a warm dry place. Once they have sufficiently dried out, put them in a polythene bag and add a small amount of ‘Boilie Glug’ or ‘Liquid Food’ and shake well. For extra convenience transfer them to an empty pop-up jar or similar before placing them in the fridge or the freezer until needed. If keeping in the fridge, make sure you give them a good shake every few days and top up the liquid if and as required.
