Angling Lines Blog

Readers question;

Hello Roy,

I am fishing with a party of 10 on Roseau Large Lake from the 12th until the 18th of May, in a pre swim draw I have been given peg 5 (both pegs 4 & 6 are occupied). Is there any advice you could give me in relation to this peg, bait, baiting patterns, nuisance fish etc.

Any information you could give would be helpful and give me a little heads up. In advance, many thanks.

Kind regards, Mark

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Hi Mark,

Thank you for your email.

Roseau in May can be a very prolific time if you get the baiting application and rig presentation correct. Roseau, as a whole is pretty much featureless, anglers baits is the attraction.

Paul Martin with a May 2011 Roseau cracker!

Peg 5 can be a good interception swim as the fish pass from the shallower end of the lake to the deeper parts being 6,7 and 8. My advice to you is at the start of your session is to fish PVA bags of dry particles and crushed boilie until after dinner and place some bait out for the evening, I would start with around 10 spods and top up after each fish, lost fish or aborted take, the fish move in, eat what’s there and move very quickly off the area. You will find this pattern throughout the week and it’s down to yourself to make notes of bite times and work your bait application around these times.

When I fish the lake for an afternoon/overnighter I always fish bags and then spod for the evening, if I receive a take I’m already clipped up to the area for topping up at night, this will certainly land you more fish throughout the week even if after baiting you don’t receive anymore fish during that night you will most certainly have food for the morning spell.

Another piece of advice is to rest the swim, the fish at Roseau are highly pressured and will move into an area where its free of lines, not many anglers do this but allowing the fish to move in and feed on an area free of lines can keep them coming back to that area again and again.

Nuisance species in the lake are bream and sturgeon, to avoid Bream use 20mm baits or snowman rigs. Sturgeon can be tricky at times but my advice is to NOT use pellet or fish the margin with any volume of bait, if your going to have a “margin rod” then fish for a bite at a time.

Baits, 2010 and 2011 saw Quest baits Special Crab outfish all other baits, I don’t see it changing, however I will be introducing Quest Baits Ghurker Spice this season and I believe it will be a hit with the fish, I can update you of this during the season if you wish?

I hope this helps, if you have anymore question please don’t hesitate in contacting me.

Kind regards, Roy

Just spotted this customer shot video on YouTube – a July 2011 carping trip to Roseau with Clearview Carp Tours.

Just spotted this customer shot video on YouTube – an August 2010 carping trip to Roseau Small Lake.

Customer question;

Can I use a standard tent on Roseau (which may not be green).  Why do I have to use a barbed hook on Roseau?

Cheers, Keith

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Hi Keith, thank you for your questions;

Tents

Tents of any colour are ok to use on Roseau, the only thing I would say is, light in many ways can, and does alarm the fish although on Roseau this won’t be an issue.  I used to fish a club lake that was, at times very “moody”, I always had some form of light on throughout the night until a fellow angler mentioned to me about light levels, at first I thought it was daft. I knew my rigs and location was always perfect on this particular venue and decided to put his advice to the test and make my own mind up. I selected a particular wind and knew exactly where to fish and fished throughout the night without any light, I had 3 that evening to 29lb! I then tried this with the same conditions in the same area and ended a 2 night session with a blank! This was tried on numerous occasions with the same outcome. I now swear by this, I’m sure it has helped me catch fish when other people have failed, give it a try mate, you never know you may be pleasantly surprised with the results!

The Hook Rule

This is an area of angling which has mixed opinions, I truly believe that a barbed hook is better for the fish as once the hook is in, then it usually stays exactly where it first takes hold, a barbless hook can move, pop out and catch hold again, this is usually caused through bad angling, blunt hooks or even the fish. If using a barbless hook it’s always best to never allow the fish ANY slack line, once the fish feel slack the can and do spit the hook, many more fish are lost on barbless than barbed.  So, to answer your question on hooks, Roseau is a barbed hook only venue.

Sorry if I have rattled on, sometimes it better to give informative information than to just simply say “yes or no”.

Look forward to seeing you at Roseau.

Kind regards,

Roy, Clearview Carp Tours

Ready to be moved to their new home…

During the last week at Roseau I have been working hard trying to create something that the Large lake lacks slightly. In my opinion the bank between pegs 9 and 10 isn’t too kind to the eye compared to the rest of the lake which in comparison has rather lush bank side vegetation all the way round come the summer months. I wanted to change the appearance of this bank for a few reasons. The prevailing wind on the lake seems to be south westerly which blows directly into the corner between 9 and 10, With the bank side here being very bare the erosion is twice as fast as it should be.

Snags safely removed

After consideration I decided I needed to create a barrier along this bank to help with erosion but ideally look the part and help the fishery in other ways. I have access to a lot of mature bull-rushes which are resident in a small pond onsite that used to be used as a trout fishery by the French many years ago. The plan was to remove the bull-rushes from the small pit then re-plant them all along the bank in question, but first I wanted to wade the margins to remove a couple of the snags that had become evident in recent weeks.

The work begins...

Having ripped my waders whilst peg building I decided to brave it and work in just shorts and t-shirt, although the weather was horrible with driving rain and wind the water was surprisingly warm and quite comfortable to work in. Once all the snags were removed I drove the jeep up to the small pit and began removing the bull-rushes carefully so I could transfer all their roots to give them the best chance of surviving in their new home. I proceeded to plant for 3 days, the effect was almost instant as the reeds gave the bay character and a very carpy feel. I also planted up the point between peg 1 and 10, like the bay between 10 and 9 the point had an instant effect to the eye, all of a sudden the area looked much more inviting to the anglers.

Looking much better

These reeds will hopefully take successfully and grow back nice and thick next year. They will help the fishery in so many ways, firstly they will be a lot kinder to the eye than the clay bank that was previously visible to the anglers around the lake. Secondly they will help with erosion, the reeds will slow the water down from crashing into the bank side in so making the banks stronger, The roots of the reeds will secure the ground around the banks, again this will help with erosion. Finally the reeds will act as an excellent habitat for all natural life in the lake, it will encourage small invertebrates to breed and thieve in the waters along with giving the carp somewhere to spawn comfortably and hopefully successfully in years to come.

Jack – Fishery Manager