Pre-baiting a swim

Dr4gul4

Afternoon Gents,

I'll begin by saying it's been a number of years since i've been out fishing, however i'm well on my way to getting set up again for some Coarse fishing this year.

Today however i've two questions, the first of which being an easy enough one.

What sort of line is being recommended these days for feeder fishing with a hair rig, and should i split the line so the rig's line is lighter or slightly different than that of the main line .

My second questions; which i hope wont be a long ramble is to do with Pre-baiting a swim.

I'm fortunate enough to have a private lake on my parents farm, it's size able enough , however only has one entry point from the land, years ago ( when i was a young lad ) we allowed friends from the uk to fish there, and while they have varied success on maggot's and swim feed, some times they had fantastic success.

However it's been many a year since the fish have even seen a bait, let a lone pellet's or boilies and I'm curious as to what i should do in anticipation of the big day out.

Should i pre bait the swim the night before with a good mix of hemp, boilies, pellets and ground bait etc, or perhaps pre bait it twice on alternate days ?

Or is it simply a case of making it overly complicated and i shoudl just turn up and hope for some luck ?

On a very side note, I'm aiming for tench and bream .. with a few annoying pike I'm sure in the mix

Guru Maith Agut

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

What sort of line is being recommended these days for feeder fishing with a hair rig, and should i split the line so the rig's line is lighter or slightly different than that of the main line .

A lot would depend on how far you need to cast to fish this lake, is it a small lake and deep close in or do you have to go a distance to find deeper water? If you have any shelves in the lake near where you fish then you could target tench there but the bream much prefer deeper water and both species would be hard caught until the water temps climb a good bit more anyway.
If you can fish close in then I would go for a monofilament line of about 8lb (Maxima being a good option) and then you should use a hooklength of around 4lb odd but you will have to have a good feeder rod to share the burden so to speak and not put the line under too much pressure as to break. Secondly if you are fishing at distance you could use braid as this will give you ultra sensitive bite indication though you should fish with about twice the length of your rod added to the braid of mono and this will act as a shock leader (prevent break offs when striking) although I could go into reams of detail about fishing with braid as it is a tricky feat but when mastered will add to your catch rate enormously.
Hope that helps, if you need some more info then just drop me a pm and I'd be more than willing to assist

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

Should i pre bait the swim the night before with a good mix of hemp, boilies, pellets and ground bait etc, or perhaps pre bait it twice on alternate days ?

Or is it simply a case of making it overly complicated and i shoudl just turn up and hope for some luck ?

Prebaiting can be very effective when done over a period of a few days believe it or not. You do need to be aware of the amount of fish in the lake and if it is small then keep the amounts small enough, say 40 orange sized balls put in each evening over three days and then fish the fourth morning from early. That would be my advice but as I say if you would like more then pm me.

Dr4gul4

Thanks GMA, thats a basis of what i had figured out, but again it's always good to ask, as for the details well, the Rod is a TF Gear multi feeder, i think it's rated for 8lbs so should do the job.

i'm aiming for the last week in April to hit the lake, it's a tough place to call, but it is deep, there a large shelf drop about 4 or 5 meters in, but in general the lake is not very large, however there is a good ( or was ) quantity of fish in there .

It's tough to estimate the cast distance i'd be aiming for, and even tougher to guess the make up of the lake bed, other then an abundant amount of lilies and weeds as it's been very untended over the years.

40 orange sized balls sounds quite a good plan, if costly the old Bait isnt exactally cheap, however i'll work some thing out closer to the time.

i'll swing over to the cavan fishing forums and say hi also. You never know i could do with some body to run a pike rod for the day..

Guru Maith Agut

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

40 orange sized balls sounds quite a good plan, if costly the old Bait isnt exactally cheap, however i'll work some thing out closer to the time.

Fishing like this ain't cheap at the best of times lol. I would say to you to get some natural baits though. If you are going to do a lot of fishing over the year ahead then you should get yourself a sack of hemp, it would be well worth it and the tench love it as do roach and hybrids and even bream. After that you should get a bag of crumb (don't know where you live but I sell it through the site at a damn sight cheaper than a lot of the tackle shops.. Bait Prices) and then bulk it out with layers mash (chicken feed, very cheap) or even flaked maize (again very cheap). They can all be got in Lakelands stores around the country. Also get yourself a 5ltr container of liquid molasses and use this mixed with warm water to bind your whole mix. Preparation will be well worth the effort trust me. Also get a few bags of frozen Lidl corn (still very cheap) should be thrown in for good measure and you can then use corn instead of maggots which will be far cheaper to fish on the hook.

May seem like a lot but this stuff will last you many sessions and as I said I don't know what area of the country you are living in but you are more than welcome to come to one of our coarse angling outings over the year and see what we do in regard to targeting specific species with certain baits. Details of the fish-ins (as we call them) will be up on our Irelands Coarse Fishing forum in the Angling Outings section that you will see when you are registered.

Good luck with it anyway, you will enjoy the fun of the fight if you do get them really feeding well.

Dr4gul4

Well when i'm over at home it's butlersbridge so i'll do my best to attend a few of the days out the ICF.

Most of the bait i'm looking at for the moment is in the dynamite bait range, i've hear good things about it, but it is costly... mixing up my own ground bait would probably be more cost effective in the long run and simply adding in the hemp maise sweet corn etc so i'll keep it in mind.

I do appreciate the advice

Guru Maith Agut

Ah sure you're only around the corner from me so. Chat on the bank someday soon probably

Guru Maith Agut

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

Most of the bait i'm looking at for the moment is in the dynamite bait range, i've hear good things about it, but it is costly...

just on that point dude, have the lads that fished it before used pellets on it? I wouldn't waste your money on buying pellets cos the fish over here just aren't used to them and although you may catch you are just as likely to catch well on worm, maggot, corn and even bread flake. Just a thought before you go spending loads on those pellets and boilies

Dr4gul4

Guru Maith Agut wrote: »

just on that point dude, have the lads that fished it before used pellets on it? I wouldn't waste your money on buying pellets cos the fish over here just aren't used to them and although you may catch you are just as likely to catch well on worm, maggot, corn and even bread flake. Just a thought before you go spending loads on those pellets and boilies

You know this has been in the back of my mind for a while now, they mainly used sweetcorn and maggot's from what i recall, however this is going back maybe 10 years, and i was hoping with a mix of hemp boilies and pellets doing a few nights pre baiting might get them interested, i'll throw in some sweet corn also and maggot's to the mix, it cant hurt and will give me a fairly good mix over all. even buying boilies and pellets will last me a while if nothings happening i guess .

Do ye have a shop open in belturbet ? if so i'll gladly drop down to pick up a reel of line or two,thats about all i'm missing at the moment.

Guru Maith Agut

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

Do ye have a shop open in belturbet ? if so i'll gladly drop down to pick up a reel of line or two,thats about all i'm missing at the moment.

No I don't do the shop end of things it's only bait really as the tackle line just runs into thousands of quid to have everything that an angler would need so for now I'll just be doing bait.

As for Belturbet I have actually moved and am just outside Cavan town on the Cootehill road now, that's why I said I was only around the corner from you i must rectify that on my site now

Dr4gul4

Ahh grand stuff, sure your right around the corner, i'll sort your out for some maggot's at least, it'll be easier to get them off you as opposed to running around the place looking for some.

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Dr4gul4 wrote: »

However it's been many a year since the fish have even seen a bait, let a lone pellet's or boilies and I'm curious as to what i should do in anticipation of the big day out.

Should i pre bait the swim the night before with a good mix of hemp, boilies, pellets and ground bait etc, or perhaps pre bait it twice on alternate days ?

Hi,
If the fish havnt seen a bait in years, then i wouldnt use boilies. keep it as simple as you can. Some of the best pre baits i have ever used are calf nuts! They are like big pellets. I havnt used them in a while, as im not too sure of the health risk to the fish, i used them when i was a younger with great success. Also a 20kg bag of flaked maze will last you a long time, bream love it. When I use flaked maze, I add dead maggots (live ones just borrow into the silt), sweet corn and maybe some pellets (depending on the time of year).

I dont use pellets until late in the summer, when bream are a bit harder to catch like in september and october.

Dr4gul4

Weird frank i know i've tried calf nuts before but had no joy what so ever, let's just say when i manage to get to the lake, i'll be well kitted up with all types of bait to test out on the day, along with some pre baiting, i guess in general it would be not a bad idea to feed the lake in the long term any way. altho i do know some of the fish are very big as is it will get them used to pellets etc ..

Guru Maith Agut

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

Ahh grand stuff, sure your right around the corner, i'll sort your out for some maggot's at least, it'll be easier to get them off you as opposed to running around the place looking for some.

No problem dude, just give me a couple of days notice in case I am low on them or turning caster. I generally have both during the summer though