Ide after ice (and F1’s)

[TF_iansi01354]

Guys

Interested in your thinking on this: –

The ice is melting this weekend in some places so should be able to get out and I am going to a lake full of ide and F1’s. Its c6ft deep with a couple of islands in pole range.

– Will melt water drop to the bottom and mean looking for the deepest water is a waste of time?

– Should I aim to still have a bottom rig but back up the shelf a foot or so?

– Does the cold water settle in the bottom inches or feet of a lake?

– Should I fish up in the water ie 1-2ft shallow, it is ide after all?

– Is deep/shallow ie mid water a better bet assuming the colour will have dropped out?

– Is the best bet across to the islands in the shallow water but on the bottom as the water will warm quicker?

I appreciate there is no right or wrong and I will end up trying a variety of approaches just interested in sussing if there is a favourite, or more reliable thoughts on the subject.

Whatever happens its gonna be warmer than the last 2 weeks, the craic will be good, but often the fishing is actually harder after ice than through it!

Ian

[TF_JohnH]

Melting ice will make the lake water colder. This will make the fishing harder than if you had fished through an ice hole last week.
Fish however will be shoaled up tightly so if you draw on them you should catch something, if you dont I do not think whatever method you fish you could catch.
I am no expert winter angler but I would fish a depth rig on a slow fall to try to explore all areas of the swim, I dont think they will be on the deck but suspect they will be mid water or slightly deeper.Maggot or pinkie would be my bait choice feeding next to nothing of course.

[TF_Man of Kent]

Water is rather strange as it is most dense at 4C, so this water will sink to the bottom. However, what is above it may be either warmer or colder and this is why you cannot always predict where the fish should be unless you have a thermometer (assuming temperature is the only influencing paramater).

If the lake is open and susceptible to wind (or is stream fed), the water will circulate and this can make fish location more difficult/interesting.

I would think you’d need rigs for a number of depths.

[TF_C.S.HParticipant]

Punched bread fished from 3 to 4 inches off to half depth with liqi feed.
Two lines – one in deepest part of peg one up shelf.

Ian’s absolutely spot on. Lake will fish really hard after ice has thawed. Need to draw on fish.

[TF_bremesParticipant]

Just punched bread feeding nowt~clap

[TF_iansi01354]

Really interesting re 4 degrees never knew that!!

So in theory the melt water will sit on top of the 4 degree stuff!

Makes slopes interesting and plays with your head once you start thinking the melt will cool the 4 degree and the 4 degree will warm the melt……bloody washing machine down there!!!

Plan A+B+C formed for tomorrow: –

A. I think I’m gonna start negative, fish the column for bites, 3 swims, the inside slope, the track and short of far margin and see what happens.

B. If thats not happening I’m gonna give it some on deepest line, feed heavy (got 3 pints maggots to use) and a bit of dark cloud to pull them in.

C. I’ll have killed it if B don’t work so will go for a walk to watch the venue regulars as its only my second visit and try inside and far line late on.

Love it when a plan comes together!

[TF_staffie]

Is this for saughall Ian???~think

[Anonymous]

The other difficulty is that once the ice melts. The water will be gin clear. Make catching in shallower water or up in the water very difficult. Im expecting most venues to be rock hard this weekend. Much harder than after breaking the ice.

Bread is a killer bait for picking out the odd carp in these conditions. Some F1 venues will produce on bread but many more dont respond to this approach!

[TF_dirkdiggler]

me and my mate went on spey canal at partridge yesterday~sick
the guy’s cut us two pegs out wi chainsaws and a digger which i was very very impressed with as the ice was around 5ins thick.
we then fished with bread punch and leamed up joker (we were allowed to as we asked the owner who said as we’d asked he would allow us to do so for the day)
it’s now banned along with the bloodworm,
however we both had a well deserved rock hard day with me having a no bite blank and my mate having two sardines on a single joker on a 22s to 05 hooklength (not quite the edge we’d hoped for)
so good luck over the next week or so your going to need it!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the confidence boost, dirkdiggler. Im on Spey on Sunday in a winter league. We broke the ice the other week and almost everybody caught but only 9lb won the match. Every peg was used which likely helps. If it had 5 inches of ice on it yesterday. Its likely to still have ice on it this Sunday. That might be a good thing as we can color it up with ice breakers and the fish will still have cover on there heads.

[TF_shep2]

does that mean it might be an idea to throw ice breaker in + colour it up even if the ice has gone t.blue~think

[Anonymous]

Seen it done on clear tench lakes and canals in summer and it works very well. Rake the swim and it gets colored up. Natural food is also disturbed. It never takes very long for the fish to find that area once the noise has stopped. But, thats in Summer!

Always been a difficult question to answer in winter. I,ve never had the bottle to do it. We know it works when we break ice. Especially under match conditions when the fish have no where to hide. However, it is likely to be banned very quickly on most venues in matches except when we are breaking ice.

Chucking a big weight in to the water and all that noise and disturbance that creates. All the fish might swim out of your swim and never come back. However, the continentals dont have a problem in putting in 20 babies heads at the start of a match!

The other problem is the anglers around you who are likely to claim that you are spooking the fish in there swims as well as yours. If it works. Then, the claim is always going to be that you are gaining an unfair advantage.

[TF_shep2]

thanks for that t.blue might try it pleasuring~clap

[andy85Participant]

trueblue is right bread is not a very good bait for ide or f1s really, brilliant for mirrors an commons, id be tempted to find 3-4ft an fish it there with maggots and one in the deepest part of ur swim, dont be scared to fire a few in wit the catty either only 3 or 4 like if ur gettin a few ide as the ide round here love loose feeding. 3 x 8 rigs for the slopes an 4 x 10s for deep water as they normally take it on the drop just before the settle or on the settle. wouldnt surprise me if u dont catch one thou as they have stopped feedin round here now an its purely f1 matches in which case id just keep it tight with a pot.

[TF_iansi01354]

Thanks – interesting thoughts guys!

Staffie – yeh Lower Ridge, hope you do better on Sunday than we did – at least we have broken the ice for your club (yet again!!)

We got there on saturday and the place was still solid, thicker than 2 weeks ago despite the rise in temp.

The bank that had some activity over the last two weeks and had ice broken fished better albeit only 5-14lb weights.

The far side that had been left to its own devices and is last to get the sun was rock hard, only one 5lb weight and the rest of the bank not managing 5lb between them!

Appears the best approach was on the slope fishing maggot and bit of dark slop to cloud it up and keep the rig moving for odd ide and roach.

Have to say didn’t work for me – I had less than a pound with most of that in the last 30 mins (before you ask no nothing big then!!) – but hey it beats xmas shoppin!

Wonder if it will be 4 out of 4 saturdays through the ice by next weekend then!!

[TF_staffie]

Well we eventually fished it today and oh my what a bad day,so much for breaking the ice for us ha ha it was solid so we had 45 mins of making swims then the rest of the day breaking the ice that had formed in the swims that we were fishing~sick you could actually see it freezing before your eyes.The match was won with a pathetic 10ib 8oz,with a 8ib carp included and second was 4ib.Very hard day for all with a few doing the walk of shame after a couple of hours into the match,most started getting bites in the last hour so the first four hours doing nothing~sick All in all not a good day and very poor weights but nice to get out never the less~clap

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