In what has been somewhat of a surprise, the opening of the 2024 river season has produced some huge ide, with Colin Hebb catching a very impressive 7lb fish to round off what has been a prolific week for the species.
Targeting his local river in East Yorkshire, Colin was fishing by dawn as the boat traffic later in the day can cause the fish to spook. Angling from his own vessel, he began introducing bread flake into the river in the hope the shoal would be drawn upto him and although it took around an hour of continuous feeding, a few ide began to intercept the floating pieces.
"It took a little longer than I expected for the first few ide to begin taking considering they had been undisturbed for three months," Colin told us.
"However I did manage to get them feeding and rather than try a cast immediately, I kept introducing bread as you often only get one chance as they are very shy fish and will spook very easily."
With the fish now taking confidently within a range Colin could fish for them comfortably, he rigged up a rod to freeline a piece of crust down towards the fish.
"It took all of a minute of the bread hitting the surface my bread to be engulfed down into the unmistakable mouth of a big ide."
"Thankfully, I hit the bite and, with that, the fish jumped clear of the river. I was in no doubt about what fish it was now, and it looked like a good one."
"After a short fight I landed the fish and it was in perfect condition, I quickly weighed and photographed the ide and at 7lb it was a great fish to start the season."
Colin is no stranger to big ide as he caught an enormous 8lb 6oz fish in 2021 using very similar tactics, and he believes fish of a similar size or bigger are still in the river to be caught.
USING ONE OF THE BEST FLOAT RODS WILL IMPROVE YOUR PRESENTATION WHEN TARGETING WARY FISH.
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