Mason’s Match Winning Secret Is Out!!
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| 1,Take the Lead clip sleeve first and then the lead clip and slide on to your reel line ensuring the slim end of both the sleeve and clip are both pointing towards the rod. Then take the 30mm long piece of Black Hydrolastic and thread this onto your reel line. This short length of Hydrolastic is designed to act as an anti tangle sleeve that totally covers the swivel and the attachment knot whilst also acting as a stop or buffer that prevents the lead clip engaging with the swivel, making the rig free running thus making it suitable for virtually every commercial fishery in the United Kingdom. Once all three components are on your reel line, attach the small swivel to the end of your reel line with a simple Grinner Knot and trim of the tag leaving around 4mm proud. |  |
| 2, Now take a piece of line about 6 inches long and feed both ends through the second eye of the swivel to form a loop. Then place on end of the 120mm long piece of Black Hydrolastic through the loop and pull the line through the swivel which in-turn will pull the Black Hydrolastic through the eye. Once you have removed the line, simply tie off and attach the Black Hydrolastic with a simple over-hand knot and once secured in place trim off the tag end leaving about 4mm excess. |  |
| 3, To attach you hook length to the rigs Black Hydrolastic shock absorber, Barry recommends that you use a Crows Foot connection as this has proven to be the best and tidiest way of making a connection without adding any addition weight to the rigs shock absorber. If you do tie an oval loop to the connection end we found this does cause tangles, so just keep it simple. |  |
| 4, This next stage is critical and if not done correctly could lead to a lot of messing about. By using either spit or lake water ensure the swivel and connected Hydrolastic are well lubricated and makes it easier to slide the short 30mm length of Black Hydrolastic over the swivel and you should make it overlap approximately 10mm over the attached Hydrolastic. This keeps the rig tidy and acts as a buffer for the lead clip once it is loaded. |  |
5, The Completed Rig
TOP TIP - Ensure that the Black Hydrolastic shock absorber is no more that 75mm long. This short length of Hydrolastic will stretch to over 450mm long so anymore and you could make the shock absorber too soft and make the playing and controlling of fish a very tiresome job.
Suitable Baits
This rig is the perfect set up for presenting bread punch or bread discs, pretty much allowing you to get an ‘on the drop’ presentation whilst fishing the bomb. As the bread discs take on water they then expand and slowly fall through the water making this style of presentation irresistible to any passing fish. However, on some venues where bread is banned then alternative baits must be used. My first choice would be the Ringers Shellfish Pop Up boillies in 8 & 10mm sizes with the white option being a perfect alternative to bread. You can also try half a Pop Up with half of a standard boillie to create a critically balanced presentation.
If Pop Up boillies are also not an option, then pay a visit to your local supermarket and pick up some Mini Marsh Mellows. These pellet shaped little gems have proven to be the perfect solution to a bread ban and seem to catch nearly as many fish on the right day. I have also been using a range of baits called Squabs by Pallatrax. These elipse pellet shaped hook baits come in a wide selection of colours and flavours with bottom baits and a small sachet of Pop Ups supplied, making it possible to vary your presentation and combine flavours to offer something totally original. Try any bait that you are comfortable with, you never know?
TOP TIP - Try glugging the Mini Marsh Mallows, boillies or Squabs in Mainline Particle & Pellet Syrup, these thick liquids release a powerful aroma that lasts for ages and have proven to be very effective. My personal favourite is the Condensed Coconut Milk but there are six other options well worth considering.
The Session
Barry started the session with a 750mm long, 0.16 (5.5lbs) hook length made from the very reliable WB Clarke Match Team rig line. Barry started his hook length off by tying a 3.2mm Gardner Tackle latex bait band into his hair loop to act as a bait stop. Barry then added a size 18 GURU MWG barbless hook which was attached to the hook length ‘knotless knot style’.
To bait the rig he placed a single slice of bread in a bait box and used an 8mm round piece of pole section as a bait punch to produce a number of bread discs which he then pushed on to a KORDA fine latched baiting needle.
To get the bait securely on the hair you simply place the latex band in the needles clasp, pulled to fully tension the latex band and then simply slide three of the bread disc over the band and release for a secure bait presentation.
TOP TIP – when tying your hair loop always allow an additional 10mm for expansion of the bread discs as they will expand as they take on water. The above method of loading the hair rig only takes 3 -5 seconds once you’ve mastered it! Meaning your rig is back in the water quicker, greatly increasing your potential catch rate.
Casting and baiting the swim
With a vast knowledge of the venue, we opted for a noted swim with loads of features and a marginal reed bed that is well known fish holding area. Over the session Barry cast his ‘clipped up’ baited rig regularly at around five minute intervals for two main reasons. Firstly to introduce regular, small deposits of bread into the swim to induce feeding and secondly to try and establish if there were fish to be caught. After his fourth cast he got his answer as his tip gingerly went round and a 2lbs plus stocky slid into his net.
Over the next hour four other fish fell to his bread bait and soon he was starting to put a good net of fish together, 20lbs in the first hour on a rock hard day, not bad!!
TOP TIP - To prevent hook length entanglement and damage to the actual rig, Barry highly recommends that once the fish is in the landing net ALWAYS let the rig and lead fall outside the landing net.
As any well established match angler will tell you, you don’t need to put it in to catch well in winter. Basically this means if you don’t feed your swim in the winter months your chances of catching are far greater than that of an angler who feeds regularly. The reason for this is a very simple; the majority of still water fish, including carp basically don’t want food in the cold months. So by introducing feed regularly you risk spooking the fish and making them back right away from you feeding spot, eventually over feeding them and killing your swim totally. By adding only hook baits that are deposited in the swim after every cast, any fish in the area will undoubtedly take these free offerings and this feeding method will keep them interested.
TOP TIP – When bites dry up try changing the length of your hook lengths as the fish could be at a lower or higher level in the water and this could catch fish when others using static presentations would definitely struggle.
In the second hour Barry started to lose the odd fish and at first he was scratching his head, checking his hook length and hook for damage but all was in order. Then he cast out again and after three consecutive bumped off’s he hooked and landed a small F1 with a shout of “cracked It!!” , he had realised that the fish were too small for the bait he was using, he reduced the number of bread punch discs on his hair and the problem was sorted. For the next hour the catch rate reduced to a very slow pace but so had the temperature so Barry then cast in the opposite direction to another rush bed and after only a minute the tip flew round to the charge of the best fish of the session a 5lbs Ghostie.
TOP TIP - To keep a hooked fish under control you need to know exactly where it is especially if your swim has snags or channels that fish just love to head towards when hooked. To help try lifting your rod tip every 10 or so seconds just to monitor the distance and location of the fish you are playing, it really does help keep potentially awkward situations under control.
After spending about 30 minutes on the second line with only a small F1 to add to the tally, he re-cast to his original spot and as if by magic the sun finally came out for the last hour of the session and at exactly the same time his swim switched on as F1 after F1 slid into his landing net. Pretty much as fast as he could bait up and re-cast there was a fish waiting to take his bread baited rig every cast. So after the decided four hours had come to and end, it was plain to see that this very impressive bomb rig and old school bait combination has unlimited potentials for the angler who likes to work for his fish when others would give up or struggle. A 50lbs plus bag of F1’s and stock carp to near 5lbs in bitterly cold conditions definitely convinced me!!
Final Thoughts
I spent around four hours watching Barry work incredibly hard to catch fish on a day he had no right to catch fish on. The temperature was up and down like a Bankers blood pressure and with the wind chill factor, I reckon it never got more than a degree above freezing all day. Still Barry continued his quest for stock carp and F1’s with total and utter confidence that if the fish were in his swim they would eventually take his critically presented bait. To be totally honest, I was very impressed as the temperature didn’t seem to affect this tactic, in fact it seemed to catch more and a better stamp of fish the colder the day got, now how often do you see that happen? In my personal experience never!!
VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION - UKMA would like to thank Diane & the staff at Decoy Lakes for allowing UKMA to use the Lakes for this feature. We would like to point out that Decoy Lake rules state that Bread is banned on the entire complex and we only used bread after obtaining permission to use it for this feature from the fishery management.
Barry Mason is sponsored by Ringer Baits
