One for the cut cracks on here.........

#1

Gin clear cuts have been pretty topical on here recently.

When confronted with a gin clear cut and thus expecting a grueller how to you set your stall out to avoid a drynet?

Any other commonly known tips on the circuit as well as ‘perch balls’ and ‘stockings’?

If still dry half way through do you employ any other drastic tactics?

eg - given that after an icebreaking session it’s usual to catch right from the off, or following a boat passing through a gin clear cut, would you ever consider attempting to ‘rake’ your swim in some manner to introduce any colour and agitate some form of life activity?

If so, before or during the match at that point of desperation?

If not, why not?

#2

Nowt worked for me last sunday on the trent & misery TK, tried the lot and i think i aged 10 years in the process .........first time iv`e ever blanked in a team match.....came close once tho when i came 2nd in section in the lancashire winter league on the lanky with 1oz thanks to a last chuck perch

diddy · #3

try cupping in loose dry leam with no joker in then fish over it. ;)SHOULD attract sum sort of reaction. if that don't work then a prayer mat is handy.

endpeg · #4

One of the biggest mistakes i see is anglers make far too much noise and disturbance before and during winter matches. The blokes who seem to think its ok to shout to the guy on the next peg, let someone stand behind them to watch them, throw their keepnet in at the start, drag their pole cup through the water after cupping in etc etc are usually the ones that dont catch a lot at this time of year!

If its gin clear then I go for ultra light floats with strung out shotting patterns, small hooks and long lines. Mind you, none of that helped me on the Wyrley last year! :(

#5

I think the main part is being confident, I've seen a lot of people try things..feeding more lines, blowing down poles..

You have to wait and hope that at some stage your float is going to go under.

#6

TK, i noticed something on your knockup thread about your match on the cannock extension just before crimbo, try and have the draw well away from the canal in winter, if you have the draw on the canal bank it will spook the fish then the anglers will probably walk the remaining fish up the canal when they go to their pegs......

#7

Over the years i have come to the conclusion that the best trigger to get fish feeding is a boat.

I think you only have to look at the teams of three on the Wryley at pelsall. The pegs to the right of the junction had boats and everyone caught a few fish. The pegs to the left had no boats and lots of anglers went dry.

I quite often have the juice taken out of me due to my views on pike. My theory is that while pike are chasing roach the roach have to move so have to feed, then again when its tap water the pike dont feed until the light levels drop.

#8

Thanks for all the interesting and informative views and points you make lads.

I’ll certainly be giving that dry leam routine an airing come the appropriate time – thanks diddy123

Re the Pelsall match Endpeg, I appreciate the water clarity on the day on the common was terrible. This aint a pop at the Chockie Munsters pegging out, but it was pegged every other. Given the permanent pegs are 20 yards apart, this would have meant 40 yards approx between anglers, done obviously with the best intentions.

Just wondered whether was this possibly ‘too far’ apart giving anything remotely available for catching that day an opportunity to back off out of angler range?

Have you had any other thoughts on it since Chockie Munster?

endpeg · #9

I dont think they backed off as we all fished out of our pegs to try and search for bites. The roach simply werent in the five or six pegs where we were. If the roach were there someone would have had at least one or two in the dying stages of the match as the light levels dropped. There was a big ripple on the water on the day so the water clarity shouldnt have been such a problem. Ive fished clearer venues elsewhere and still caught. This is the section where i remember Dave Brown and a few others were blanking last time we fished a big B&J match on there a few years back. Browny ended up throwing a house brick in and caught a perch over it for mega points!

911654 · #10

what hooks would you recomend for house bricks jon

#11

TK..i still think if a boat had gone through the whole match length there would have been very few dry nets if any.

I think there are fish in most pegs, the only difference is that Pelsall is now more of a big fish venue and they are a lot less reluctant to feed in clear water.

At the weekend Simon Nickless drew an out an out flyer at Fenton. He went dry! By his own admission Simon said there were a lot of fish in front of him, problem he felt was that the peg was full of big roach and not the small fish that were feeding.

#12

Cheers Endpeg and Chockie Munster