Head To The Docks For Winter Sport

Geplaatst Match Tactiek at Nov 22, 2010

Bristol Docks isn't your usual match venue but it offers one of the best days natural silver fish fishing you are likely to find as Dynamite’s Pete Sivell explains...

There are few who know the Bristol docks as well as Dynamite's Pete Sivell, he's been fishing them for nearly thirty years and is adament that they offer the best natural silver fish sport in the area.

The docks are a massive expanse of water, they're up to six metres deep in places and are as wide as a football pitch is long in places, so you need quite a specialised approach.

What You Are Faced With
Bristol is a bustling trendy city and the water way runs only a few metres away from some of the city’s top clubs and bars. When the camera's arrived on the day of the feature, Pete was already set up and fishing, sitting between, and being dwarfed, by two huge boats moored against the dock walls.

It’s a daunting place to sit given that your box is perched on the edge of the dock wall and you’ll be faced with a three metre sheer drop before you reach the water, only then to be greeted by another 12 feet of cold, dirty water. Falling in definitely is not recommended!

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also the general public to contend with too! The bars are almost right on the water front and Pete assures us that the night matches are never short of an interesting occasion or two. Groups of half cut lads and scantily clad girls piling out of the bars only to be faced with the opportunity of talking to some of Bristol’s ‘politest’ anglers – we’re assured the Thursday night matches are certainly a sight, but that’s enough about that!

The bigger weights of bream are caught when the water is clearer. Bream shoal for safety in these conditions because the water is quite heavily pressured by cormorants. Although this shoaling makes the venue more peggy there is a better chance of sitting on a big shoal of slabs.

Where To Fish
“Two lines of attack are best, one on the feeder and another on the pole,” Pete assures us.

Pete’s opted to fish eight metres of pole. However, with him sitting so far off the water, this means that he’s probably only fishing around six metres out from the bank.

“The water’s not moving much today and it’s quite coloured so I’m fishing further than I would if it was flowing harder. When you’re faced with strong flows on here it pushes the fish closer to the bank as they seek refuge and the slack water created by the moored boats.

“I’ve got just over 12ft of water where I’ve opted to fish, but the further you go the deeper it gets, although it does flatten off across the middle,” revealed Pete.

Heavy rigs are the order of the day to get controlled presentation. Pete’s opted for a wire stemmed, body down, fibre tipped 3g Sensas Hubert float with a two gram olivette and three No6 shot 24 inches from the hook. In shallower swims he’d use a lighter version of the same float, but won’t drop below 1g.

Below the bulk Pete has two evenly spaced No6 droppers followed by a size 16 Drennan Super Carbon Maggot hook. Mainline is 0.14mm Maver Genesis and the 8ins hooklength is 0.12mm diameter of the same material. Pete uses the original black coloured Preston No8 elastic though the top two of his pole to allow him to strike the hook home firmly. Remember that you’re striking through a 3g float with the accompanying shot and 12ft of water – lighter elastics won’t set the hook properly and you’ll lose or bump fish.

The second of Pete’s two lines is a feeder swim that he’s fishing approximately a third of the way across the dock. He’s clipped up there because the bottom is still sloping and Pete’s firmly of the opinion that when the water’s coloured this is the best place to target.

“If the water was clearer I’d cast further, maybe half-way across the dock. What also happens is the fish back off the feed after you’ve caught a few and casting slightly past your bed of bait is usually the way to catch the better ones,” he said.

Pete’s feeder rig is a simple paternoster set up. He ties a large loop in the end of his 3lb Maxima main line, then cuts the loop so there are two tags of line. To one end he attaches a 15g medium sized plastic Nisa feeder via a link clip and swivel and to the other tag he ties a small loop that he will attach the hooklength to with a loop-to-loop attachment. A robust feeder is a must for stressful feeder fishing.

Today Pete’s opted for a 0.12mm diameter Maver Genesis hooklength tied to a size 18 Drennan Super Carbon Maggot hook.

“Over the years I’ve been fishing here, a two foot hooklength has proven to be the best time and time again. I will almost never use anything longer, but will shorten it to create a more positive bolt set up if the fish are really having it.

“Hook bait is the same on the pole line as the feeder - triple maggot, one fluoro and two whites. If you fish one or two maggots you’ll get pestered by tiny roach and skimmers. A larger hook bait singles out bigger fish," Pete explained.

The Feed
“Groundbait is the key on both lines, but I use a different mix for each.

“I’m casting into four metres of water today, so it’s important the mix comes out of the feeder on the bottom and not as it’s falling through the water. I used to use a large amount of brown sugar in my pole and feeder mixes for bream, but being involved with Dynamite Baits I’ve been using SilverX for a couple of seasons now and I wouldn’t swap back.

“The feeder mix is equal parts SilverX Bream Fishmeal, SilverX Bream Original and Dynamite XL Brown Crumb. The fishmeal seems to be important for holding the bigger fish in the area on the feeder line and the brown crumb softens the mix to allow it to exit the feeder.

“My pole line is approached with a darker mix, which for some reason seems far better than a lighter coloured one. I believe it’s because the water is shallower on the pole line than where I’ll cast the feeder, so the darker colour gives the fish confidence when they’re feeding closer in. Groundbait for the pole is a mixture of SilverX Canal&Lake black, SilverX River and Frenzied Hemp Match Fine Original. This is a sweet, dark mix that’s a proven winner with skimmers. SilverX River makes the mix stickier allowing me to add quite a bit of loose feed if I feel the need to.

The Session
Pete carefully plumbed the pole line and set his 3g rig four inches overdepth. Holding the pole in one hand as a marker, Pete threw six balls of groundbait, containing only a few casters and pinkies, to kick start the pole swim.

“I don’t feed many free offerings in the groundbait to start with, otherwise the fish can get too preoccupied,” he commented.

After shipping the pole back through the stack of abandoned barrels, Pete picked up his feeder rod and had five quick casts to put a small amount of feed into the swim. The feeder was loaded with Pete’s Dynamite feeder mix and he makes sure that he feeds a few maggots, casters and pinkies every time he casts the feeder out.

It’s a case of sit and wait to begin with, but Pete is casting approximately every four minutes to keep some feed going in the swim.

Twenty minutes in and Pete’s tip rattles just before he strikes into a pound skimmer. “That’s a good start,” he says in his thick Bristol accent.

“Because the expanse of water is so vast, regular casting is crucial, even when you’re not getting indications. I will occasionally leave the feeder in longer to see if there are bigger fish in the area, but usually four or five minutes is enough before re-casting.

“I’ve now been fishing for an hour and have five skimmers between 8oz and 1lb 8oz in the net, all on triple maggot hook bait. Tipping the hook bait with a fluoro pinkie can be a good trick to get you an extra bite when it’s hard and it’s certainly caught me my fair share!

“The feeder line is still going strong and I expect to have to leave the pole line for at least 90 minutes to settle before trying it. I’m hoping to catch the bigger fish there. Several more casts and I’m catching steadily now with an indication on most casts and a fish roughly every other. I’d estimate I’ve got around 8lb in the net now,” Pete said.

“We are two hours into the session and the feeder line had started to slow, so I’m having a quick look on the pole. Two bites and two small skimmers see me leaving the pole line alone for a bit longer and I’ve gone back on the feeder line.

“The short rest seems to have done all the good as a bite first cast results in a bream approaching 2lb, what a result!” he said.

A few more small skimmers and another decent bream find their way to Pete’s net before he decides it’s time for another little trick. He’s taken 10 turns off the reel and clipped back up again to allow him to cast just past the feed.

“We’ll that’s really worked this time,” smiles a delighted Pete as he slips the net under a superb bream knocking 2lb. What’s more, two fish of the same size follow on two consecutive casts before a brief blank spell sees him winding 10 turns back on the reel and casting over his original feed.

Pete estimates he’s got just under 15lb in the net after three hours and the soft tipped feeder rod (which no longer has a make written on it - it’s that old) has stopped moving indicating it’s time for another look on the pole line.

“I’ve been loose feeding casters over the pole line since the start of the session to help attract and hold bigger fish in the swim,” says Pete.

One further bite on the pole and one decent skimmer give a false impression of things to come, as Pete sits bite less on the pole for the next 10 minutes before having another look on the feeder.

“The fish just don’t seem to want to feed close in today. There’s a couple of anglers fishing further up the docks to my left and they seem to only be catching on the feeder as well. That’s just the way it goes on here. When I fish here next time it may be the complete reverse and all the fish will want to be on the pole line – that’s the beauty of this venue!” said Pete.

Another hour on the feeder and eight more skimmers grace the inside of Pete’s super-long keepnet before we decide to call an end to the session. Just a few hours fishing has resulted in a near 25lb net of absolutely pristine conditioned skimmers and bream falling for Pete’s tactics. He could have continued catching, but the thought of a chilled Blackthorne sitting 20m behind him was too much of a temptation to resist!

Pete’s record weight here is 66lb in a day match and 48lb in a 3-hour night match, but the venue offers consistently good fishing. Ton-plus pleasure nets are achievable here in summer, but to look at the venue you’d probably pass it by without a thought of fishing it. If you did though, you’d miss out on what is arguably the best ultra-urban fishing in the country.