freeline-25 - Page 75



Rotary Letter
God I hate ducks, especially those
that dive!
do to combat this like laser pens and
waving your landing net around in
the air. These are all well and good
but are just temporary measures. I
don’t think you can totally get rid of
the bird problem, because if they
want a free meal badly enough they
are going to get it, believe me. But we
can limit the damage and give ourselves the confidence to still be fishing even if we have a bird problem.
Here are a few ideas I have found to
work…
Hook baits
There is nothing worse than sitting
there at bite time wondering if your
hook bait still on after you have just
been picked up by a bird. You don’t
want to recast a new hook bait as it’s
bite time, but you want to be sure
your hook bait is still on. I like to use
freezer baits for most of my fishing,
and this includes the hook bait as
well, but if I’ve got a bird problem on
the lake, then I still use the freezer
baits as freebies, but use a shelf life
boilie as my hook bait. The shelf life
Using a dark hookbait and feed will
make it difficult for them to find.
boilies, while just as good
as the freezer baits, are
slightly harder, and if a bird
picks up my hook bait I can
be confident that the hook
bait is still attached to my
rig and working for me.
Baiting up
It’s evident in these situations that the birds see us
introducing our freebies. By
some miracle they seem to
be able to find exactly
where we stuck them and
keep returning till we either
catch the little buggers or indeed they
wipe us out, maybe picking up our
hookbaits a few times in the process.
There are several little tricks I use
when baiting up with my freebies.
Firstly, if I have a really bad bird problem on the lake, I like to get the colour
of my hook bait and freebies to match
the colour of the lakebed. Dark baits
like Mistral’s Vampire Squid are black
in colour and are ideal for fishing over
silt. Mistral’s i40 boilies are a nice
creamy colour, which blends in nicely
with gravel or clay. What this will do
is make the baits less visible to the
birds and they won’t find them as
easily if the colour blends in well
enough.
Secondly, my particular favourite,
which is a bit sneaky as well, is to
wait till someone up the other end of
the lake is throwing his freebies out
and all the birds and gulls have disappeared up in front of him. This is an
ideal time to stick your baits out – a
nice cunning little trick. Lastly if all
else fails, then try baiting up at dusk
or in the dark when the bird life has
retreated for the night.
I’d be interested to hear how the
other Rotarians deal with this problem if at all.
Question 5
The only time that I’ve ever used
bloodworm was on a size 22 hook
when I was a match fisherman many,
many years ago. There is no doubt
that fish love bloodworm beds, but I
just don’t know how you could fish
them efficiently enough to stay on the
hook. You could use some Arma Mesh
from Fox and you would have to double it up to stop the bloodworm moving through the mesh, or maybe even
use a pair of ladies’ tights. This discussion point has got me thinking
now; it would take a lot of messing
around and trial and error I reckon,
and would it all be worthwhile? It
could be so out of place in a bed of
bloodworm that the fish might just
associate danger with something so
alien. I’d be interested to know if any
of the other Rotarians have experimented with this.
Question for the Rotarians…
Quite a topical one, this. I see from
The fruits of baiting at night!
FREE LINE 75

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