Use the line-clip to get that “kol” going…

Ever looked forward to a fishing trip for weeks, only to be left in an anti-climactic situation? Been at the waters for 2 days with minimal success when a new angler sets up camp 100 meters to your left and he starts catching fish like its going out of fashion?

You keep watching him with the binoculars, trying to figure out his dips and hook baits. BUT, you never concentrate on when he is casting to check for a pattern do you?

He has most probably been in the game quite some time and has learned some tricks while fishing competitively. Don’t get me wrong, many social anglers also employ this tactic.

Think about it, if you want to trap birds, you need to attract them… but let’s say your trap is 1m x 1m, there is no use throwing the bread in a 6 meter radius is there? You will only trap a small sample of the birds.

Instead, if your bread is concentrated in that 1m x 1m section, your chances of trapping more birds with one attempt in this small area is much better.

The same with fishing, there’s no use casting all over the show as your fish will be scattered all over and your bite tempo will remain at a stop-start rate.

You want them in one specific spot. Have a look at specimen carp anglers. Specimen anglers use boats when taking out their baits and they concentrate all the ground feed in a small area where they then drop their hook baits.

As boats are not allowed in competitive bank angling, you need to consistently cast your ground feed on the same spot (or as close as possible) every time. As distance is a factor at certain waters, it gets more difficult to cast in a 3 meter radius at 120m than it is casting at 50 metres.

How to:

Find a marker across the water you can use as a reference every time. Aim for that tree, bush or water tank each time you cast. You need to keep on casting in the same direction aiming at the same reference as consistantly as possible.

Now comes the distance issue: Every time you cast, you don’t use exactly the same power or thrust which may result in either casting over or in front of your spot.

This is where the line-clip method comes in. Most of the modern coffee grinders or Bait runners, have a line clip on the spool.

You can either measure your line out beforehand, or if you are comfortable cast your line to the required distance and then take your main line and hook it into the line clip. You can clip it in twice, because sometimes when you cast, and you hit the line clip too hard, it does pop loose.

So your line is clipped and now for the cast. Try duplicating your initial cast before you clipped the line as closely as possible. To ensure that you don’t snap your line, lift the tip of the rod up after you’ve cast and wait for the line to roll off the spool. Once it hits the clip, just follow the momentum of the line and lower the tip as the bait hits the water. This will minimise the risk of snapping the line at the clip. You will soon find the correct power or thrust when casting and it will be like second nature hitting that sweet spot every time.

Once you have mastered this (this will take 3-4 casts to get used to) you should be able hit the target everytime. Like Gary Player used to say, ‘’the more I practice, the luckier I get’’

Now you can have your ground feed on one spot every time, increasing the volume of ground bait and concentrating it to be in one spot with every cast and consistently having more fish in a concentrated spot.

At the beginning of your session you can also cast a couple of bombs on the same spot one after the other to get substantial feed on your spot before actually putting hook baits on. This might actually kick-start your session in a great way.

It is important to note that you will need to be close to your rods and monitor for a bite very closely as you will not have the leeway to let the reel run and a large fish might break the line if you don’t act on a bite immediately.

Published with the permission of www.jytnbyt.co.za