A complete guide to shallow fishing for F1's and Ide!

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Introduction

Shallow fishing is the number 1 method on most commercial fisheries in the summer months. In this article we take a look at how we fish shallow for species such as F1's and Ide. This is something I have based around the pellet waggler but I have refined the approach to target smaller more shy biting species.


Tackle

Rod

A light float rod between 10 and 12ft is perfect for catching shallow on your typical commercial fishery.

Reel

With constant re-casting being an essential part of all shallow fishing techniques a small and light reel is essential. A reel of a 2500/3000 size should be perfect for this style of fishing.

Mainline

The mainline should be as light as possible. This makes casting easier and is less visible to the fish getting you extra bites on those really tough days. A 4lb mainline is best, stepping up to 5lb if there's a good chance that you are going to be hooking a few big bonus fish throughout your session.

The rig


Step 1


The rig is very simple. I start by sliding a drennan puddle chucker on to the line and locking it into place with 4 no.8 shot.
The float here is important. The puddle chucker is specifically designed for fishing shallow and is semi loaded. This gives the float some weight for the fish to hook itself against as it swims off with the bait. Another great feature about these floats is that they have a quick change system allowing you to swap between floats to suit casting distances and weather conditions.






Step 2

A small no.8 dropper shot is placed just above the hooklengh. This helps keep a tight line between the hook bait and the float giving better bite detection. Without this dropper shot the hookbait can fall on a slack line allowing the fish to eject the bait before we get indication on the float tip.
The hooklengh is connecter via a simple loop to loop knot and is about 5 inches in length.





Step 3

The hooklenght is approximately 5 inches in length and is finished off with a hair rigged bait band to which I attach a 4/6mm pellet or a single caster. The hook is a size 16 kamasan b911 and is perfect for the small baits required.



Baits


Pellets

Small pellets of 4/6mm are perfect for this style of fishing. F1's and carp have been used to eating pellets all their lives and are accustomed to eating them as a natural food source. Pellets also create a lot of noise and attraction to bring fish into the peg. 

Castors

Casters are an outstanding bait especially on hard days when fish may not come to pellets. Ide especially love casters and for a serious session fishing shallow you can easily get through 1 pint per hour. So on a 6 hour session I would take 6 pints of casters, this sounds a lot but when the fish are feeding you can easily get through such huge quantities.



Let's get fishing!

To catch fish shallow regular feeding is essential. Fish on commercial fisheries respond to the noise of loose feed hitting the surface. Wether you chose to fish with pellets or castors it is important that you get into a routine and keep the feed going in little and often for the duration of the session. The idea is to get the fish competing for the loose feed and then fool them into taking your hookbait as it falls through the water amongst the free offerings. I like to drop the rig in the margins, feed my chosen area and then casty rig over the top. I stop the rig by trapping the line against the reel with my finger to ensure the rig lands in a straight line keeping a tight line between the hookbait and the float. I then let the float settle and allow a few seconds for the hookbait to fall through the upper layers before feeding around the float. I then retrieve the float quickly, fire out another small amount of loose feed and repeat the process casting over the top of the free offerings once more. After a while you get into a rhythm, the longer you keep up this rhythm the more successful your session will be. A huge amount of fish can be caught using this method and it is hard to find a more productive way of fishing on a warm summers afternoon. If fish stop feeding or become difficult to catch it can always be a good idea to rest the swim for a few minutes still loose feeding but without fishing it to re build the confidence of the target species.



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