Coarse Fishing

Overview

Coarse fishing can be divided into 3 main categories: pleasure, specimen and match fishing.

Pleasure angler

A pleasure angler is an angler who fishes for the fun and enjoyment of the sport, there is no competition so this type of angler can do as little or as much as they want without the pressures of time limits and amounts of fish caught. A pleasure angler will fish for any species of any size.

Specimen angler

A specimen angler will go after big fish such as large carp from a man made lake or large roach. A specimen angler will be looking to hook and land the largest fish in the pond. A specimen angler will often fish for a specific specimen.

Match angler

A match angler will want to catch as many fish as possible within their peg section. Match anglers are in competition so they want to catch fish quickly but efficiently in the allotted time, to complete the match with a larger weight of fish than their competitors.

Rules overview

Closed season

Freshwater fishing is prohibited between 15th March and 15th June on rivers, streams, canals and other moving waters; this is when the fishing of natural venues is out of season, with the exception of game fishing. This out of season period allows the fish time to rest during the spawning season. Fishing is still allowed on still waters, ponds, lakes and reservoirs.

Licences & Permits

Anglers must purchase a National Rod Licence to fish fresh water locations these licences are issued by the Environment Agency. Privately owned locations require the angler to purchase a permit to fish the waters, permits can be day, week or season permits.

Standard rules

Fishing tournament rules may differ from place to place but there are some standards for all:

Participants must have licenses to fish. Fish must be caught in a sporting manner. Fish hooked anywhere other then in the mouth are not caught in a sporting manner and must be released.

The following acts will disqualify a catch:

If any person other than the angler touches the rod, reel, line either with their body or any object from the time a fish strikes or takes the bait or lure, until the fish is either landed or released. If an obstacle to the passage of the line through the rod guides has to be removed from the line, then the obstacle shall be held and cut free with only the angler being allowed to touch the rod, line, reel etc, resting the rod in a rod holder or any other object while playing the fish is allowed. When a fish is hooked or entangled on more than one line. Changing the rod or reel while the fish is being played or intentionally foul hooking a fish will disqualify a catch.

Match fishing

In a match each angler is given their own peg, pegs are marked on the bank with peg numbers each section will be around 10 meters wide. The pegs are allocated to each angler by draw to make the match fair as some pegs may be favoured due to there location. After the draw anglers have one hour to prepare before the match starts.  As well as setting up tackle and poles the anglers are allowed to plumb the depth of the area they are fishing. When an angler plumbs the depth they are seeing how deep the water is by finding the bed of the lake or river. Anglers plumb the depth so they know how long their rigs need to be so that bait is presented at the correct height in the water for the fish to feed. No fishing or feeding is allowed during preparation time. Five minutes before a match starts the anglers are allowed to start pre-baiting, which is applying bait to the area the angler is about to fish. During these five minutes the size of the ground-bait balls used can be any size but when the match starts ground-bait balls can be no bigger than a ball made using one hand, this is so when the ground-bait balls are fed into the water they do not scare their neighbours' fish away from their pegs. When the pre-baiting five minutes is over this is when the match starts, the anglers are only allowed to fish and feed in their own peg, if a fish crosses into neighbour's peg, it is disqualified. Matches can vary in time ranging from two and a half hours up to four hours long. When the match finishes the fish for each angler are weighed to determine finishing positions and winners.
Matches are divided into sections the anglers compete against the other anglers in their section then the winners of each section compare the weights of their fish to determine who wins the overall match. If there are 30 anglers, there would be 3 sections containing ten pegs in each section, the winner of a section gets 1 point, the runner-up gets 2 points and so on.

Specimen fishing

Specimen fishing is a popular style of fishing that consists of anglers trying to hook and land the largest fish possible; a good size specimen fish will weigh around 20 1b. Carp fishing is the most popular type of specimen fishing because the carp has a reputation for being a determined and fighting fish, this adds to the excitement and fun of specimen fishing for carp. The largest carp to be caught in the UK have been between 40 and 50 1b on the continent carp up to 80 1b have been successfully landed. In generously stocked ponds where bites are not uncommon the constant battles between anglers and fish make for good sport. The carp like to test there food before they eat it by sucking and blowing it out so bait presentation making sure the hook is hidden and the bait is enticing is essential.
The carp also have good memories and can associate bait to being hooked and pulled out of the water, which adds to the challenge.

Layout / Technique

Bolognese style

The Bolognese-style of fishing uses long 5-7 meters telescopic poles with rod rings and a reel so the float can be cast out. The float is cast out and with the aid of the long pole it is held back against the flow of a river. Using this method it is possible to slow down the float's speed in a current increasing the time that the fish have to take the bait.

Fishing from the bottom

Feeder and leger fishing are methods where the hook is cast into distance with a weight or a feeder packed with ground-bait attached to the line. The weight takes the hook and the bait down to the bottom of the water where the fish take the bait. After the rig has been cast the angler tightens up their line to look for bites from the movement on the tip of the rod. 

Ground-baiting

Ground-bait can be thrown in or catapulted in depending on the distance that is being fished. Ground-baiting is an important part of fishing many anglers believe it is the content of the ground-bait that is the key to catching well; it is also important how the ground-bait is performed. There are various ways of applying the ground-bait to the area being fished:

Massive ground-baiting

Massive ground-baiting is a style used for fishing in deep hard bottom locations, in waters without strong current. The feeding mainly takes place at the beginning of the session throwing in 5 to 15 starter balls of ground-bait the size of a tennis ball. The ground-bait must be applied with precision to keep the fish feeding in the same area. The idea behind massive ground-baiting is to gather large fish feeding on the bottom of the water. It is also possible to feed over the top of the ground-bait later on if large amounts of fish are feeding.

Continuous ground-baiting

Continuous ground-baiting can be used in most water conditions because the feeding can be adjusted to the present situation. This style of ground-baiting is popular with canal fishing and fast moving rivers. Ground-bait is applied at regular intervals using small amounts of ground-bait at a time, the more fish that are present at one time depends on the size of the ground-bait applied, but the feeding intervals will always stay the same.   

Ground-baiting with pure baits

When ground-baiting with pure baits the same bait that is being used on the hook is fed regularly and precisely into the area that is being fished. In warm conditions seeds, hemp, corn and other baits of this kind are preferred. In cold conditions live baits such as worms, maggots, pinkies and other similar style baits are preferred. If the bait is applied in bulk over a slightly longer period of time the fish will feed from the bottom, but if the bait is applied little but more often the fish will raise to mid water.

Species of fish

Bream (Abramis brama)

Adults are easily recognizable by their bronze hue, black fins and protruding upper jaw. These are a fish that feed on the bottom, sucking joker, bloodworm and other types of aquatic larvae from the bottom silt. A bream can weigh up to a kilo, although there are bigger specimens.

Tench (Tinca tinca)

Tench are easily recognised by their minute scales, which give them an almost scale-less appearance. They have a dark olive or blackish colour. The fins are rounded and the tail is almost un-forked.

Roach (Rutilus rutilus)

Roach are easily identified; they have a dark brown or grey back with a bluish or greenish lustre, silvery white sides and a white belly. They are a species that feed in mid water and a usual size of a roach is about 50-100 g.

Rudd (Scardinius erythrophthaimus)

Rudd are characterised by their golden green hue, scarlet fins and protruding lower jaw.

Hybrids (Rudd x Bream & Roach x Bream)

The Rudd x Bream hybrid, while not widespread, is a special Irish fish that combines some of the beauty of the Rudd with the weight of the Bream. The Roach x Bream hybrid grows to over five pounds.

Perch (Perca fluvialtilis)

Perch are easily identified by their olive green colour and the distinctive vertical black stripes on their flanks.

Pike (Esox lucius)

The pike's body is streamlined, olive green in colour with a white belly. They have a large mouth containing many rows of backward pointing sharp teeth.

Eel (Anquilla anquilla)

The Eel has a long snake like appearance of the eel is its most distinguishing feature. It has small gills and pectoral fins, and a narrow dorsal fin.

Dace (Leuciscus leucisus)

Dace can be easily identified by the concave anal fin.

Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

The fully scaled Common Carp, the Mirror Carp, which has relatively few scales and a smooth body surface, the linear carp, with scales along the lateral line only and the Leather Carp which are totally scale less.

Ide (Leucisus Idus)

Ide are found in ponds, lakes and rivers. They have a relatively deep, flat-sided body, a rather small head and large eyes. The Ide is greyish blue to blackish green on its back, silvery sides and a white belly with a deeply forked tail.

Chub (Leuciscus Cephalus)

Chub are active throughout the year and are adaptable opportunists that often shoal in large numbers.

Barbel (Barbus Barbus)

Barbel has a preferred habitat of rivers, occasionally stocked in still waters

Ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua)

Ruffe has a preferred habitat of weed, sand or gravel substrate with low a flow of water.

Gudgeon (Gobio Gobio)

Gudgeon has a preferred habitat of clear flowing water with sand or gravel substrate.

Crucian carp (Carassius Carassius)

Crucian carp has a preferred habitat of shallow still water with dense weed.

Grayling (Thymallus thymallus)

Grayling have a preferred habitat of fast flowing water over gravel and oxygen-rich clear water.

Zander (Stizostedion Lucioperca)

Zander are usually located in lowland, rivers, drains and large still waters. Feeding is mostly active in the summer at dawn and dusk.

Equipment

Telescopic pole (Whip)

A telescopic pole has sections that fold inside each other; they extend by pulling each section out as far as it will go to lock it into position. A telescopic pole is not as rigid as a section pole. The telescopic pole can range in size from 1 meter up to 13 meters in length and are excellent for catching fish fast. This method is known as fishing to hand.

Pole

A pole has separate sections that can be built up or dismantled to create a short or long pole. These poles are rigid creating a more responsive strike. Poles can range from 12 meters to 16 meters in length and are excellent for presenting hook bait in a precise spot to make efficient fishing.

Waggler

A normal pole with a fixed line limits the distance that can be fished determined by the length of the pole. To be able to fish further from the bank a waggler rod with a reel is used. The reel gives the ability to cast the rig further away from the bank giving a larger fishing area to catch in. Distances of up to eighty meters can be fished using this method provided the angler can still see the float.

Lines

The lines used for coarse fishing are often quite thin compared to other types of fishing. The normal diameters for lines vary from 0.05 mm to 0.12 mm but thicker lines of up to 0.22mm can be used. Each gauge of line has a different breaking strain; a 0.05 mm line has a breaking point of around 300 g (11 oz.) this is strong enough for most types of coarse fishing. Wire lines are not allowed to be used.

Floats

Floats are used as bite indicators and to present the bait in a natural way to the fish. The hook can be set at the correct depth by moving the float up or down on the line. There are many different styles of float that are used in different conditions. When fishing in a flowing water environment a large bodied shape float is used, when fishing in a still water environment a thinner bodied shape float is used.

Hooks

Hooks can come barbed or non-barbed the non-barbed hooks are compulsory to use in most waters due to this style of hook causing less injury to the fish. The idea of a barbed hook is to stop the fish from spitting out the hook. Hooks can come in many sizes and can be double or treble hooks.

Forceps & Disgorgers

Forceps and disgorgers are used by the angler to extract hooks from fish which are difficult to remove by hand. These are more commonly used on fish that have swallowed a hook or a fish with sharp teeth.

Baits

There are many different types of bait that can be used the most common are maggots that are bred from flies, bloodworm and joker that are aquatic larvae, traditional earthworms and casters that are turned over maggots. These baits are not only used for bait on the hook they can be very effective to attracting the when catapulted into the swim, or when fed in ground-bait.

Ground-bait

Ground-bait is made from lots of different natural ingredients such as bread crumb, hemp, walnut flour and more. Before ground-bait is used it is made moist so that it can be made into a ball, the harder the ground-bait is compressed the longer it will take to disperse in the water. Ground-bait is applied to the area that the angler is going to fish, the fish are attracted by the smell and cloud that the ground-bait creates, the angler then fishes in the same area as the ground-bait.

Landing net

A landing net is a triangular or circular net attached to a handle that can be extended in length. Landing nets are used to lift the fish out of the water and onto the bank, causing less strain on the rod, line and the fish.         

Keep-net

A keep-net is used placed in the water next to the angler to hold all of the fish that have been caught, at the end of the match all of the fish are taken out and weighed then placed back into the water to be caught again another day. A keep-net is a long tubular net around 3 meters long that is made of fine mesh. A keep-net is not used when specimen fishing due to the large sizes of the fish being caught

Platform

A platform is used as a seat for the angler they are aluminium, plastic or fibreglass box's with 4 adjustable legs so that the platform can easily be levelled on a bank. Platforms have attachments such as rod rests, bait trays, keep-net attachments and more. A platform will also have storage compartments where the angler can keep other tackle close at hand while fishing.

Lures

A lure is an object designed to resemble fish prey, equipped with one or many hooks that is used to catch fish. The lure is attached to the end of the fishing line and is then thrown out into the water and pulled back to attract fish. An exception is the fly lure, which either floats on water surface, slowly sinks or floats underwater, based on real behaviour of insect. There are several types of fishing lures such as: Jig, Wobbler, Spinner, Spoon lures, Fly lures, Texas rigs, Mormyshka

Glossary