One of my favourite ways of fishing is roving around with just a rod, a landing net and a tackle bag. I love this way of fishing on rivers, searching out chub and barbel. During the river closed season, an alternative venue to practice this style of fishing is on quiet lakes for carp.
Tackle
So, what tackle do you require for this type of fishing. I’ll obviously be promoting the Cadence Specimen range of products here! I generally fish with the CR10 Specimen Rods, and there is a cheeky deal on currently where you can get a combo package of a rod and a CS10 reel. Check them out there.
Now, back to my blog. For this type of fishing, I’m fishing with a Cadence CR10 12ft Specimen Rod in the 1lb test curve version. Alongside this rod, I’m using a Cadence CS7 4000 reel loaded with Edge Tackle Sinking Mono in 6lb breaking strain, or 0.23mm for those of you who work with diameter. I have this setup for waggler float fishing, and it fits perfectly inside the Cadence CL10 Specimen Rod Sleeve.
The beauty of using a specimen rod ready assembled is that it can be used for float fishing and, if required, changed to a feeder or straight lead ledgering rod, quickly. All you need to do is change the top section of the rod. To protect the spare section and quiver tips, I use rod end protection sleeves.
The second item that I love is the Cadence CL10 Specimen Carryall. This bag allows me to carry everything I require for roving around on a session. The Cadence CL10 Unhooking Mat comes with me, which can also be used to sit or kneel on. It also attaches to the Carryall, freeing up space. Lastly, the CL10 Clear View Set allows me to keep all of my bits and pieces together and organised. With everything in, the Carryall still has plenty of room for a small, rectangular bait bucket and more importantly, an upright flask! There is also room for a small side tray and short bank sticks.
Fishing
I like to arrive at the venue in the afternoon when most anglers are packing up. I often have a chat with other anglers to see how they have got on, and this gives me an idea of what to expect and the areas to avoid. Unless there is a rule that says it must be taken home at the end of the session, most anglers throw in their leftover bait.
With this in mind, when I set out on a roving session, I find several likely fish holding areas under trees, along reed beds and any deep or shallow areas that have produced before.
Having found somewhere I fancy, I then pre-bait these swims, intending to rotate and move to each in turn. It may surprise you that I do not just scatter a few offerings into each by hand. There is no doubt that one of the best inventions in angling is the Pole Cup for accurate baiting. I am not fishing the pole, so based on the principle that accuracy is king, I am introducing bait via a bait dropper, this keeps everything tight.
I visit all the swims in turn and introduce some micro pellets and a few pieces of corn
In the session I undertook for this blog, it was quite a while before I found what I was looking for. I decided to feed just three swims on this evening, with the bait dropper one in front of a swim that an angler had just vacated. The others were in corner swims, one with a nice overhanging bush and the other had a nice bed of reeds down the side.
I fed each of the swims in turn with a couple of bait droppered parcels, returning to the first swim to start fishing. After fifteen minutes, I had an enquiry but missed the bite, this was the only chance here, so I fed the swim again and moved on to the second swim under the bush. I cast out into around three feet of water and after a couple of minutes, the float slid away, and I was into a carp. After a short battle, I had a nice common in the net. All netted in my new Carp Fast Landing Net from Edge Tackle.
I went on to catch a further five carp that evening between 4 and 8lbs. I gave each swim half an hour before topping up with the bait dropper and moving on to the next one. I had two carp under the bush and three in the third swim along the reeds. I never had any other bits from the first swim!
Travelling light is easy to do, we can all be accused of taking far too much tackle. By reducing and refining the gear you take, so it can be easily carried, you open up a whole new world of angling. For short, sharp sessions, it really can’t be beaten. The ideal fishing to do when you’ve had a hard day at work or only have a few hours on the weekend to get your fishing fix.
