The Town Welland, as the stretch of River Welland running through Spalding town centre is affectionately known, has to be THE roach venue to fish this winter. We joined local expert and England Youth international Josh Newman for a small-river masterclass.
With the recent influx of silver fish, Dynamite Baits’ Rob Perkins reckons there has never been a better time to pole fish the River Trent.
I have been lucky enough to live within walking distance of the mighty River Trent all my life, and as a result I have witnessed the changes it’s undergone – some for better and some for worse. Currently, and happily, the river is in the best form it has ever been, with lots of roach, perch and dace along with all the bigger species the river holds all being found in abundance.
Regarding this, methods have traditionally revolved around rod-and-line techniques; however, in recent years there has been a shift toward more pole fishing, especially as the roach and dace shoals have increased tenfold.
Lee Thornton reveals a margin approach for the modern era. Margin fishing is in a period of transition, and in this feature we are looking at modifying the way we feed and fish existing baits on commercials down the margins, to try and give you the winning edge.
Groundbait and micro pellets are probably the most used baits down the edge, but fish have wised up to these tactics, making methods that used to work far less effective. This in my opinion is down to two reasons: one, the fish get used to being caught in a certain way and are conditioned to behave differently to avoid getting caught, and two, once every angler fishes in a similar way, any key defining edge is taken away, making the draw more important than before.
Commercial master Andy Bennett reveals the lessons he has learnt to bag up using the pellet waggler.
Refining the pellet waggler is the key to continued success with this popular approach. Just like any attack, the anglers who perfect it and make it their own will be incredibly hard to beat. One angler who springs immediately to mind is Andy Power; he has years of experience on the method and just keeps on catching with it.
Growing up in and around the Norfolk broads, Octbox chief Rick Tyler thought he knew how to tackle rivers. That was until he found himself faced with the mighty River Ijssel…
The River Ijssel here in North Holland has to be one of my favourite river venues, and in truth it is unlike anywhere that you can really tackle on UK soil. It is perhaps best described as a much bigger version of the River Trent or River Yare, a massively powerful river with big shoals of hard-fighting fish.
The stretches that we fish are around the city of Zwolle, and here you regularly see ocean-going barges coming up and down the river, creating vast swills and waves as they past.
