Hareshaw quarry bag

[Ian]

Love fishing here,when they're on they're on.all caught on bread and using a slider float in 16ft of water.

[Fredline]

Well done Ian, absolute quality. A man after my own heart. Fredline

[Ian]

Cheers fred.scotland has some amazing roach fishing.you would love it.

[Stuart Whiting]

Nice bag of roach there Ian, well done mate

Stuart

[Vole]

Great stuff! I've loved the slider since I saw Ian Heaps' video on it.

My big weakness is feeding - may I ask how and what you fed to pull them in and still keep them deep?

[Ian]

Great stuff! I've loved the slider since I saw Ian Heaps' video on it.

My big weakness is feeding - may I ask how and what you fed to pull them in and still keep them deep?

I keep it simple vole.firstly I'm not shy with the feed.i start with 3 tennis sized balls of ground bait,sensas noir being my favourite.i squeeze them very tight and wet my hands and smooth them.that makes them sink quicker and keeps them solid for a bit of time.i normally use maggots to start and 2-3 full catas go in and a couple of catas of hemp.that gets the foundations down.usually on this particular water the perch move in first and they can be a pain.catching them doesn't bother me but unhooking them does.usually the poor wee things are deep hooked no matter how fast a strike I make and I hate that.sometimes the roach come in fast and chase the perch away and I can continue using maggots.i just keep putting a half cata of maggots in every 10 minutes and half cata of hemp every half hour.putting little and often only brings the roach up and that's not what we want.basically you are trying to put in enough that more gets to the bottom than what gets intercepted on the way down.thats the main part.now here's a trick when using bread.take out half a loaf and dip it under the water for no more than 3 seconds then squeeze as much water out as you can then mash it up til its like a really thick soup,make sure you get all the bits that don't break down out.once you have done that add ground bait to it and mix.keep adding the ground bait til it starts to hold together and it can be balled in and gets to the bottom.you shouldn't be able to recognise that there's bread in it.once those roach start grubbing about on the bottom they will kick up the ground bait and it makes some cloud.the best bit about this is the cloud comes up from the bottom instead of dropping from the surface.that really helps to keep them down.again you can put a few balls in because the bread has been thinned down to basically nothing.try it in a basin.put a bit in and wait a couple of minutes then flick your finger through it.magic.

[Stuart Whiting]

Great stuff! I've loved the slider since I saw Ian Heaps' video on it.

My big weakness is feeding - may I ask how and what you fed to pull them in and still keep them deep?

I keep it simple vole.firstly I'm not shy with the feed.i start with 3 tennis sized balls of ground bait,sensas noir being my favourite.i squeeze them very tight and wet my hands and smooth them.that makes them sink quicker and keeps them solid for a bit of time.i normally use maggots to start and 2-3 full catas go in and a couple of catas of hemp.that gets the foundations down.usually on this particular water the perch move in first and they can be a pain.catching them doesn't bother me but unhooking them does.usually the poor wee things are deep hooked no matter how fast a strike I make and I hate that.sometimes the roach come in fast and chase the perch away and I can continue using maggots.i just keep putting a half cata of maggots in every 10 minutes and half cata of hemp every half hour.putting little and often only brings the roach up and that's not what we want.basically you are trying to put in enough that more gets to the bottom than what gets intercepted on the way down.thats the main part.now here's a trick when using bread.take out half a loaf and dip it under the water for no more than 3 seconds then squeeze as much water out as you can then mash it up til its like a really thick soup,make sure you get all the bits that don't break down out.once you have done that add ground bait to it and mix.keep adding the ground bait til it starts to hold together and it can be balled in and gets to the bottom.you shouldn't be able to recognise that there's bread in it.once those roach start grubbing about on the bottom they will kick up the ground bait and it makes some cloud.the best bit about this is the cloud comes up from the bottom instead of dropping from the surface.that really helps to keep them down.again you can put a few balls in because the bread has been thinned down to basically nothing.try it in a basin.put a bit in and wait a couple of minutes then flick your finger through it.magic.

Excellent write up Ian, I found that quite interesting and informative

All the best

Stuart

[Vole]

Thank you so much for that detailed explanation, Ian!
I particularly like the bit "the best bit about this is the cloud comes up from the bottom instead of dropping from the surface.that really helps to keep them down" - it had never sunk through my impermeable skull that wafty bits of feed , carried to the bottomby dense groundbait, will bahave differently from all the "active" bits of crushed hemp, cocnut, lard or whatever they put in those groundbaits that scare bream. Hmm, there's a thought. Two, in fact, depending on whether or not you like bream...
If i couple of deep pits on my club book that I haven't looked at yet... must get well-padded seat out of well-padded chair and go fishing!
Many thanks, again, for a really thought -provoking piece.

[Paul D]

Thanks for that Ian, what a interesting post, yet another of those "why didn't I think of that" moments.

[Ian]

No problem,if there's one thing I like as much as catching it's sharing experience.heres something yous may or may not have experienced,but it's really bugged me and I'm struggling to understand what's happened.i don't even know if it's good or bad.ive put a pic of a nice roach from broadwood loch.anyway I've fished it for about maybe 9 or 10 yrs and up until last year I was getting good bags of roach from it.the majority of it wasn't that weedy and any weed that was there only went out about 10ft from the bank because the water dropped deep after that,I mean 12ft or so.well two years ago during the autumn there was like little bits of weed in the water,just tiny strands probably no longer than a centimetre but it was everywhere.i didn't really take any notice because the fishing was just as good.thats until last year when to my utter shock when I went over in the spring when it was still a bit chilly I noticed the weed starting to come up.when the summer came round the whole water was almost covered in thick matts of weed.to make matters worse the fishing turned really bad.i only caught a handful of small roach all season.i fished it with my mate one day and we never touched a roach but as the sun went down the place started boiling with small roach with a few nice ones here and there.have yous ever heard of this phenomenon and do you think it's ok.heres where yous could help.do you think I was catching big bags when there wasn't any weed simply because the roach had formed a big shoal for protection and now the place has got lots of weed the shoal has broken up because they have the weed for protection.i can't understand what has happened.the weed is so thick it's impossible for me to feeder fish now.i don't think there has been a fish kill because I think I would have found some,at least I really hope not.can anyone explain what's possibly happened.