It is not often you hear of anglers at commercial fisheries winning matches with baits other than pellets or maggots these days, but Howard Webb has been dominating popular venue Viaduct Fishery in Somerton with a very underused bait... garden peas.
Since starting to fish the open matches again in April, Howard has won 14 of the 15 matches he has fished over a 7-week period, and he puts his success down to the humble pea he uses as bait.
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"All fish seem to love peas and apparently they are good for them, I have been using them to great success for loads of coarse species over the years, but carp and skimmers in particular love them," Howard told us.
"I use Tescos garden peas in water, they cost me 50p a tin which is great value considering how effective they can be!"
Howard uses a range of tactics to get the most from peas and he tends to favour them as a hookbait, but this can change depending on how the session is going.
"For carp I use a large mesh PVA bag, an inline sea lead and a 15'' hook length. I hair rig the pea on a size 14 and when they are really feeding well, I hook the pea straight on a size 12."
"Whilst fishing the PVA bags I never loose feed pellets or anything else over the top as this brings fish up in the water."
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"When fishing for skimmers or bream on the pole, I go over depth by about 6-9" with the pea hair-rigged or straight on the hook."
"It's better than a soft pellet as it will stay on the hook exactly where you put it and not slide down and the skimmers seem to favour them more," he said.
It is hard to argue with the success Howard has had using his trusty peas as bait and his fine run of form shows no signs of slowing down. Maybe it is time other anglers started to put their faith in using peas or trying to find other alternative baits to use. Howard also invented the highly successful Sillybait Groundbait range that was hugely popular a few years ago, so he knows a good bait when he finds one.
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