The months of September and October are a favourite time for me. The weathers cooling down and all over the country big fish are getting caught as they get their heads down for that yearly autumnal feed up. Now is the time to try and get
out on the bank as much as possible and with the right methods and baiting tactics some bumper hits can be had.
Last October despite some severe health problems I managed to land a number of good fish from one of my local waters by regular baiting a couple of spots with a mixture of 14 and 18mm boilies. It finally paid off with the capture of a
couple of target fish I was hoping for. I prefer baiting with boilies at this time of year spreading the bait around the swim encouraging the fish to search and seek out every last bait. A few nights of this baiting should see the carp
visiting your chosen area regularly and once they keep coming back to your spots your half way there to putting them on the bank.
When it comes to baiting methods there are a number of tools and aids to make this easier for the angler. Throwing sticks like the Gardner Skorpion Sticks and spods such as Pocket Rockets are great for feeding at range, whilst the Slinga
catapults and baiting spoons can be used for close to medium range work.
Of course it’s not just a case of throwing bait in anywhere, known feeding or patrol routes need to be chosen carefully. Remember both the air and water tempretures are falling and weed growth is on the decrease. Edges of weed beds,
areas where deep and shallow water meet, snags, reed beds, bloodworm beds can all be good areas to target.
Your water will have their own areas where the fish like to harvest at this time of year and it’s up to each angler to find and get the best from these areas. Knowing the topography of your water before hand is an advantage and a few hours between sessions with the marker rod will help in the long run.
Once these areas have been located marking the spots and making notes of these in a pad or in your phone will make things easy on future sessions.
Marking the line with pole elastic or tape is an excellent way to ensure you hit the spot time and time again. If bankside space is tight then using storm poles or distance sticks make the job easy.
Once you’ve done the ‘donkey work’ as I like to call it then simply get out there and fish as much as possible. If your water is local to you then overnight sessions can be very rewarding, the dark hours are increasing and now is the
time to take advantage of those late night and early morning feeding spells.
If on the other hand your venue is further afield then just try your best to do as much as your own circumstances allow. All your hard work is for you to reap and enjoy, and not for some lucky angler who drops onto your baited spot and
lands the lakes bigun! As Nike say ‘just do it’.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be doing my best to get down to my chosen autumn venue, Linear Fisheries Manor Farm. This water has a great head of big fish (35lb plus) and every year sees a number of these grace the bank. I’ll be doing my
best to try and catch my share as they go on their feeding rampage.
Tim Childs.
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