Fishing Baits - Winter groundbaiting

Actually Catching Something.
Advice for Parents of Young Anglers

Fish Suppers for Sailors
A guide to fishing for yachtsmen.

Taking a bucket for a walk

Winter rivers, especialy after a flood, do a good job of hiding the fish in their depths. The water is cold and groundbait takes a while to work so that by the time you have given a swim a reasonable time to respond half the short, winter day may have been wasted.

One of my favourite tactics once the rivers have settled down is to take a large bucket of really stiff bread-based groundbait for a walk dropping in a couple of grapefruit sized balls at half a dozen or so likely spots and returning with the empty bucket to collect the tackle and another bucket of stiff, but lighter groundbait.

Drop in on each of those swims in turn and extract (usually) a chub, top up the groundait and make the circuit two or three times. If roach turn up at one of the swims then it's worth concentrating there for a while at the end of the day and catching the shoal.