Stewart Bloor

Field Tester

0

Doesn't time fly? Whoever coined that phrase certainly wasn't joking. I can't believe that we are in the final run-in of 2014. It's definitely autumn now and the long days of the warm, dry summer seem a long way off. But life goes on, and as far as my fishing is concerned it just means different species, venues and bait approach, that's all.

I've done a lot of perch fishing over the last month, and as I've been spinning it is one of the few times that SBS does not feature in my angling. I did several outings after barbel though, on the mighty River Severn. My bait approach over the coming season is SBS 16mm and 20mm frankfurter sausage boilies as hook-bait over loose boilies, proactive multimix pellets with franky groundbait as the carrier.

Another species that will feature in my angling over the winter months will be chub. Before perch took over my affections they were my favourite fish. I just managed a few outings before the month ended and my approach, why may surprise many, is that I fish for them with a hair-rigged bait. While barbel fishing, I've picked up plenty of decent fish that way and it has certainly worked for me when targeting them.

Fishing the canal, I baited up down the side with loose boilies and my trusty pellets - proactive multimix. if you're in the market for a great all-round pellet then look no further. The mix consists of different pellets (as its name suggests) that break down over a period of time, thus ensuring that there's always something going on in the swim.

My choice of boilies for the chub sessions covered M1, M2 and lobworm. Basically I was down to my last few in each flavour so fished with them on an outing each to use them up. I can report that they all worked! That's the great thing with SBS - you can have confidence whatever bait you're fishing with.

As well as chub I caught a few of the carp anglers' favourite fish - the bream! Mind you, there's no such thing as a nuisance fish as far as I'm concerned, so it wasn't an issue. I do understand though, when you're woken in the middle of the night in torrential rain by a small bream and you've got to cast out again that they may not be welcome.

I banked a bonus carp as well as the numerous bream. In fact it came so quickly. I cast out (2x 10mm lobworm boilies) and no sooner had the bait hit the bed of the canal than the rod hopped over. There aren't many carp in the canal I fish so I was certainly pleased with it. Finally, I'll see you next month and if you're out and about yourself, tight lines.