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"Day Ticket Success"
"with Rich Wilby"
We're at Airlfield Lakes today and for once I get to fish my own water
I'm here most days but I'm usually helping anglers out or writing out tickets.
I'm here today fishing on my main lake, Mustang Lake
We've been open just over a year, it's a really nice day ticket water, well stocked
5 acres, about 230 fish in here now.
Average fish at the moment is already 17lb, a lot of twenties in here coming through
and we';ve got a nice 31lb scaly fish as well
It's a good water, they don't jump into your net you have got to get it right
Bait presentation, the same as any good day ticket should be
That's enough about my fishery, I'm hopefully going to steal a couple of bites today
I'm keeping my options open, conditions are a little bit up and down
We're in swim 2 we've got a couple of rigs in the water so let's see what we can do
"Approach"
My first tip for any day ticket lake where I see some people going wrong is they have a pre-determined idea of what tyey want to do
before they even set foot on the place
They want a certain swim or they have brought a load of bait and they are going to use it whatever the conditions
It really isn't the right way to go about it. It will work every now and again for you but
You need to come to these lakes I believe with quite an open mind
and be versatile and adapt to the swim, adapt to the conditions
Sometimes it's obvious where you need to be, a fresh wind, the fish are boshing out on it
So that makes the choice less hard but today was a bit difficult
I walked around twice I was around here yesterday I knew I was doing a day session
I wasn't sure even what bank to be on today we've got a cold north westerly that's 3 days old
I didn't think the fish were on it but I didn't see a lot on the back of it either so
We've got 6 toher anglers on the lake and sometimes I look for where the pressure is
and that will help me make my decision
Today was hard to find the fish they are not showing a lot because it's a little bit cold
We've set up in peg 2 we've got high pressure so I've decided to fish up along the island shelf in the shallower water
I've got sweetcorn, I've got pellets, I've got the spod rod but I haven't used it today as it felt a bit too cold
So I've gone for the boilie approach, my favourite approach, scattering them around the swim over both rods
We've put some bait in and they've got on it quickly
I just put in 50 monster squid with the Cobra throwing stick
and about 5 minutes later it ripped off I'm well chuffed just got to try and get it into the bank
It's scrapping fairly hard
Looks like a nice one
A nice dark fish
Throwing it's head from side to side I hate it when they do that
Come on
Yes!
Get in there!
Just got one in the net just about to sort out pictures and the left hand rod has ripped off
Happy days! Let's try and get this one in as well
Real nice fish nice and yellow on it's flank the other one's quite dark
This one looks like a banana ha ha
That's a lovely pretty fish
In you get
Ooh!
There we go
Got line everywhere but it's in the net happy days!
or we'll let him out ha ha
And?
18 pounds that will do nicely
Here we go a real long fish, a nice Mustang mirror a lot of them are chunky this one's really long and powerful
Yeah lovely old fish happy with that
Definitely liked the Monster Squid
50 boilies, 5 minutes they can eat it quickly when they're having it
They can get through bait very quickly
This is the second one
The rod ripped off just as we were about to photograph the first one
This is a smaller fish it's a real pretty fish
Give this one a quick weigh for my records
13 and a half pounds
A small one but it's a lovely pretty fish
Let's have a look at him
He lovely and he came to a simple blow back bottom bait or balanced bait I should say
..Monster Squid rig, pellets and crushed Monster Squid around it and again it didn't take long that rod has probably been out there for 20 minutes
..and it was away
On any day ticket lake and my lake is no different
If you can come here and catch fish consistently you'll go everywhere and catch fish
I can't imagine not using a top quality boilie on a lake like this
You come here for 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours it's got to be instant
It all gets eaten eventually but trust me if you put a top quality bait in it can get eaten within a minute
and again today I think I have put in 50 of these within 5 minutes a bite, within another 5-10 minutes another bite
I know that they are eating this Monster Squid as soon as it's going on the bottom
..if I can get it in the right area on some fish they will eat it
"Rigs"
I'll talk a little bit about rigs
On any day ticket lake and mine is no different you want to keep it simple
Simple, tidy, sharp
I'll probably use 3 or 4 rigs wherever I go they are all as good as each other but what I actually use depends on where I'm putting them
This session is a typical example I've got a chod rig on one that's my choddy
Nice and simple I like it on lead core personally Core Plus is my favourite, nice and heavy
But one thing I've found that seems to get bites quicker is to fish a bright bait, a white on a chod rig is my favourite
..especially over the Monster Squid white over that red it just gets quick bites
But yeah a chod rig because under my middle rod it's a little bit weedy out there
I didn't want to keep casting around looking for a little hard spot so a chod rig in the weed and it's fishing
The other spot on the left is completely clear so I don't want a chod rig on that one
So we've gone for a simple snowman rig, size 8 Fang X, a blow back rig
You've probably seen it before but it's simple, it's tidy and it gets bites quickly and that's what I'm looking for on these day trips
Tipped off with a little piece of the Yellow Mutant Corn
That rig will turn, it's sharp, it's slightly hinged where I've just stripped back an inch
You've got the Cling-On Tungsten Putty to make sure everything is pinned down on the deck
If it was clear all three of my rods would have that rig on
along with a PVA bag with some boilie pellet and a few crushed Monster Squid boilies
If the swims weedy they would all have a chod rig on
But on this occasion one on a chod rig one on a bottom bait
Both have caught fish again they are as good as each other but it's a case of putting them in the right area
If you can adapt your rig to where it's landing you're going to catch more fish
We've had some nice fish today it was great to get out on the bank
..a bit of sunshine even popped out as well I really enjoyed it
To be honest I'm nice and confident now and looking forward to the next tri�