Jake of all Trades!

With his mum and dad owning Kiveton Waters, one of the most popular venues in the south east of Sheffield, it is no surprise that young Jake Dye knows a thing or two about commercial carp fishing. This is not the only string to the Creswell youngsters bow however, he is equally at home catching silver fish, forming an integral part of the Tricast Calder squad. We took Jake off his home turf to Carterhall Fisheries at Charnock, and asked him to knock us a net of silver fish together.

I fished a couple of the evening opens on here last year, and caught plenty of fish with a simple maggot approach, so this is all I have bought with me tonight” said Jake as he took the lid of his bucket to reveal two pints of wrigglers.

“With a large stock of ide to 2lb, alongside plenty of carp, tench ,skimmers, barbel and roach., it’s the kind of venue where you are as well fishing a bait that targets everything that swims, and maggots are one of the best and cheapest ways to do this.”

Jake had sat himself on peg 9 of the 20 peg lake, with a large reed fringed island to his left hand side, and some open water to his right. “I am going to fish a line as close to the island as I can in as shallow a water as I can get away with. This should help prevent line bites, as the fish will be feeding off the slope rather than down it, with there tails brushing into the line. I will also feed a line down the track, where I will start the match, and this will also give me somewhere to go should I think my track line needs a rest”.

In terms of rigs, Jake opted for a 4X12s Chianti to 0.12 Mosella Xedion and an 0.10 hook length for his down the track rig. A size 18 Kamasan B911 was his choice of hook, and he matched this rig to 9 hollo elastic.

“I like to spread my shot out at the start of the session and lay my rig in from side to side, or even lower it directly over the bait. At the start of a session, you tend to find that the fish are at lots of different levels in the water, and presenting a slowly falling bait can be a good way of catching a few better fish early, before the fish really get there heads down on the bottom”

As if to prove his point, Jake fed a large kinder pot of maggots to start with and took two big ide on the drop in his first two puts in! After these initial two better fish, Jake started catching a steady stream of smaller roach and ide, topping up with the kinder pot to keep fish coming.

“I am going to concentrate on catching as many fish as I can from down the middle in the early part of the session. I expect at some stage, this line will go quiet and when it does I will go on my island line. Had the weather been warmer, I may have been tempted to just fish up to the island on two lines, but the water is still fairly cold, so I reckon a combination of deep and shallow water tactics will be the best way to catch today”

Considering the fact he was leaving his Island line to later on in the session, I was surprised he wasn’t feeding it, choosing instead to just pot in on the line he was fishing. “Ide are a very aggressive species, similar to chub, and home in on food as soon it hit’s the water, that is why they are often caught shallow. I think you are better off targeting an area of your peg for them, leaving some water for them to back off to, and then fishing there when your line dies. If an ide wants to feed it will come and find feed actively, so feeding two lines can actually be counterproductive, as it can distract them away from where you actually want them to be- where your hookbait is!”

Jake was catching really steadily on the deck, and with no ide competing up in the water he changed his feeding tactic to suit, big potting after every four or five fish instead of feeding with the kinder . “Taking the kinder pot off can save you loads of time if the fish really have their heads down on the deck, as it means you can ship in and out far quicker, without having to worry about bouncing bait out of your pot.”

As predicted, after catching on this line for about an hour, things started to quieten off, and Jake decided it was time to try his island line. He kinder potted in a couple of dozen maggots, and lowered a lighter rig, comprising a 4×10 Carpa Chimp with the stem trimmed down, with the same line hook, and shotting pattern as the deck rig into the swim.

Seconds later, the float was under and the laccy was out, but this time it was a crucian and not an ide that was the culprit. A couple of better roach followed, and then it was back to the ide, as they homed in on their new source of food.

Whats really noticeable about the way Jake fishes is how considered he is, thinking about everything he does and every decision he makes rather than rushing in hap hazard. He is smooth with his tackle, but doesn’t rush or bully fish, taking his time and making sure they end up in the net.

With Jake catching well on his pole line, I decided to have a wander around the lake to see what else was being caught, stopping behind Woodseats angler Matt Oldfield who had hooked into one of the lakes bigger resident carp. After a lengthy battle, it ended up in the onion sack and at 19lb 14oz it shows that its not just silver fish that Charnock has to offer. Matt kindly agreed to let us photograph the fish, and it is displayed next to Jakes catch in the picture.

When I got back to Jake he was still catching as quickly as he had been when we had started 3 hours earlier, but with the light dropping we thought it best to bring the session to a close and get some pictures. With a net of silvers well over 20lb to show for his efforts, Jake had done himself proud and proved that he can hammer them out of any venue, not just Kiveton Waters!