There are some tactics you’ll rely on throughout the year, and fishing the bomb is one of them. It’s every bit as effective in the depths of winter as it is in the heat of summer, but the way you fish it needs a major overhaul to compensate for the conditions.
England international and former world champion Will Raison is a big advocate of the tactic, and while he modifies it for the winter months, he takes some inspiration from how it’s used in summer, too.
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Target two lines
It’s impossible for you to gauge what sort of mood the fish are going to be in before you get started, and having two lines will cater for whether they are on the hunt for a bit of food or have minimal appetites. My approach allows you to feel your way into the session and work that out.
You pencil a line in at 22m, and this will be fed sparingly with hard 8mm pellets. You only need to fire in three every few minutes to give yourself a chance of success. Don’t go overboard or you will leave too much bait in the swim at a time of year when the fish aren’t hoovering up big beds of grub.
The second line is fished at range towards the middle of the lake and you initially do this with a single hookbait. If the fish respond to loosefeed on the short line, you then start attaching a PVA bag of pellets to the hook when fishing long to give them the mouthful of grub they’re demanding.
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Pin your rig down
A lot of anglers scale down their tackle in winter, but on big lakes like Gold, you won’t find it has much of an effect. Add in the fact that you’re still targeting big fish that can fight hard, and you should stick with strong terminal tackle throughout the year.
The key is for you to pin your rig down to the deck so that the thick line and other elements are never seen by the fish.
I use 10lb Daiwa Tournament SLR mono mainline to an 8ins hooklength of 0.22mm Tournament Rig Line and a size 10 Guru QM1 hook. The lead is attached to an N’Zon Mini Lead Clip and you can use this either fixed by clipping it into the swivel or free running, and you should do the latter. The lead clip helps you pin the rig down, as does keeping minimal tension in the tip so that everything lays flat at the business end of the rig. A 10ft N’Zon 2.0 rod and a 5000-sized reel finish off my set-up.
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Wafter hookbaits
8mm hard pellet is a brilliant hookbait when it is warm, but wafters should be top of the hookbait listat this stage of the season. The water is clear and I’m convinced that they stand out and provide a visual stimulant in those conditions.
Trial and error is important when you’re trying to work out which colour performs best, but a little homework can give you an insight into what’s most effective at certain fisheries. For example, here at Gold Valley you can have a lot of success with yellow versions, while pink is a renowned winner at Larford Lakes.
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Vary your casting routine
I’ll start a typical session by having a couple of casts and leave the bomb in for 15 minutes. A stopwatch should be used for each one to see if you can detect any patterns. For example, if you get a bite on both casts after 10 minutes, that tells you leaving it in for that length of time and not much more is the optimal tactic.
On days when it is a bit more tricky, you should always experiment with casting every four to five minutes. There are still likely to be fish in front of you even if you aren’t getting bites, and when the going gets really tough, bites will often come moments after the bomb hits the deck.
In this scenario they watch your wafter fall in the final 8ins once the bomb is on the deck, with the movement triggering a response. With that in mind, the more you cast, the more bites at the cherry you get.
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The plop effect
A lot of anglers only step up the size of their bomb if they want to cast further, but you should make this move for another reason. There will be days when bites come soon after casting, and one of the reasons for this happening can be the noise of the lead plopping in alerts them.
I start the session with a 1/2oz bomb, but if you are getting bites quickly, you should soon step up to a 1oz version. This will make a fraction more noise when it breaks the water’s surface and that can lead to more fish coming into your target zone if they are in the right mood.
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