Matty

Matty’s fishing tips.

These are some tips I’ve picked up which work for me.

Pole fishing tips – get the right elastic in your pole !!

1. Hollow elastics (fox match)

Grade	Line Diameter	Targets
Blue 6+	0.09 - 0.12mm	Mixed bag of mainly sub-2lb fish
Orange 10+	0.12 - 0.16mm	Open water, carp mainly in the 2-4lb class
Red 14+	0.16 - 0.20mm	Open water and shallow, carp in 2-8lb class
Yellow 16+	0.20 - 0.25mm	Bagging work and bigger fish
Purple 20+	0.20 - 0.25	Venues with high average size of carp including doubles

2. Solid elastics (fox match)

Grade	Line Diameter	Targets
4	0.09mm	Silver fish
6	0.09 - 0.12mm	F1’s, skimmers, sub-2lb carp in winter
8	0.10 - 0.14mm	Open water carping, fish to 4lb, bigger bream, harder venues
10	0.12 - 0.16mm	Open water or shallow carping, 2-6lb fish. Also big Tench
12	0.12 - 0.18mm	Bagging work on carp to 8lb
14/16/18	0.14 - 0.25mm	Hit and hold work near snags for carp to 10lb-plus

3. Once you’ve plumbed a rig it’s wise to mark the depth of the swim on your pole in case you need to re-rig or change the depth at any point. This can be done with Tipp-ex. It can be easily wiped off without doing damage to the pole.

4. Tapping your pole on the surface as you fish can fool curious carp into thinking there’s some free food around.

5. If using paste at long distances and it keeps coming off, buy a fox match tosspot with the lid off and this will hold your paste inside till the required length. There are 5 sizes, match, power, mega, super and super plus. There are also sprinkle pots in the range. There are 3 sizes for sprinkle pots, match, power and mega.

Float/feeder fishing tips

1. It’s always good to carry a black waterproof marker pen with you, in case of light change as a black top float shows up best against the reflection of a grey sky.

2. What ever way the wind is blowing, the undertow is always the opposite. Keep this in mind when feeding.

3. Always select a slightly heavier float than you think is needed to cast the distance. It is better to reach your distance with ease than struggle with a lighter float.

4. When maggot feeder fishing always start with a smaller feeder and work your way up in size if the response is good.

5. The method feeder time bomb; plug one end with marine halibut ground bait, then add small dampened pellets and then plug the other end of the feeder with ground bait.

6. When targeting bream and other silver fish, fine ground baits are best. A mix of Van Den Eynde Marine Green plus the old classic Supercup works for me.