Anyone twitch the deadbaits?

Wondering if anyone makes a point of roving with a twitched bait? I'm having a lot of fun on a light set up with smaller pike (Abu Garcia Devil 7ft, 5-15g casting weight - just upgraded to a nice Mitchell 7 bearing reel and 25lb braid) using roach as a hook bait.

Fresh roach (not frozen - very mushy once defrosted) is near enough indestructible. I had a pike and a brown trout on the same bait - they withstand hundreds of casts. Trick I've found to keep it on is to use a small section of flat elastic band on the hook with the barb, once it's been hooked through the lips. Acts as a massive (and forgiving) barb allowing fairly vigourous casting.

I also found that I was missing quite a few brown trout on this method as they were snapping at the back of the bait and missing the treble in the lip (roach are generally 4-5" long). So I made up a rig with a trailing single 4" down from the treble that is threaded through the back fully, and trails behind. Each of the two brown trout landed last session were hooked only on the trailing single. Larger one was 8lb 8oz.

Enormously looking forward to some warmer weather come April when I think this method will come alive. Also intending to try it on a Northampton stretch of the River Nene close to my inlaws. It's only a small river and the method lends itself perfectly to a roving approach.

I don't always like mobile methods like this, but the variety between bank fishing statically, roving, boat fishing and pole angling is keeping me well entertained.

I'll take some photos of the set up on Friday when I'm out.

Going to try a new rig tomorrow for this (I shall post a photo of it).

With me missing some of the brown trout takes, I thought about it and figured that I needed a treble hook towards the back of the bait. An externally mounted hook would ruin the action of the roach, so I've opted to go for a fixed treble hooked through the lip (with a small square of flat elastic band on the barbed hook to retain the bait) which is the same as before. Different is what is effectively a hair rig beyond that. I'll run a bait needle up through the roach from it's vent through to it's mouth. I'll then pull the wire trace hair rig out and connect a small treble via a snap link once it's out the other end. On the hair rig is a 3g olivette weight which will be fully contained within the roach.

I'm hoping this set up will minimise the chance of me missing strikes and with the wire trace running up the middle the roach will be near enough indestructible and good for hundreds of casts.

I'm also planning to take this rig idea up to the Highland loch in April and use it when the pike are mentally active after spawning.

I love twitching a bait back - had a few bonus fish on the retrieve , working the bait. Everyone should do it ! 👍

J Robinson wrote:Wondering if anyone makes a point of roving with a twitched bait? I'm having a lot of fun on a light set up with smaller pike (Abu Garcia Devil 7ft, 5-15g casting weight - just upgraded to a nice Mitchell 7 bearing reel and 25lb braid) using roach as a hook bait.

Fresh roach (not frozen - very mushy once defrosted) is near enough indestructible. I had a pike and a brown trout on the same bait - they withstand hundreds of casts. Trick I've found to keep it on is to use a small section of flat elastic band on the hook with the barb, once it's been hooked through the lips. Acts as a massive (and forgiving) barb allowing fairly vigourous casting.

I also found that I was missing quite a few brown trout on this method as they were snapping at the back of the bait and missing the treble in the lip (roach are generally 4-5" long). So I made up a rig with a trailing single 4" down from the treble that is threaded through the back fully, and trails behind. Each of the two brown trout landed last session were hooked only on the trailing single. Larger one was 8lb 8oz.

Enormously looking forward to some warmer weather come April when I think this method will come alive. Also intending to try it on a Northampton stretch of the River Nene close to my inlaws. It's only a small river and the method lends itself perfectly to a roving approach.

I don't always like mobile methods like this, but the variety between bank fishing statically, roving, boat fishing and pole angling is keeping me well entertained.

I'll take some photos of the set up on Friday when I'm out.

I do the same with small joeys I catch in summer very robust baits , I like them with a slight curve in them..... so they glide and flutter

I neglected to get any photos of the rig whilst out, but I found the twitching a bit frustrating as heavy rain had badly clouded the water. Ended up with a couple of smaller browns (up to 4lb 8oz) and missed one that practically launched itself out of the water but no pike. The hair rigging works very well though and the bait lasts about an hour of constant casting. I'll give it another go next week and report back. The brownies do my head in though as they faff around with the bait terribly compared to pike, and then give a fairly crap fight.

I'll use a scaled up version of the rig on the loch for the larger pike. I take it the joeys you use are quite dinky Stubbo?

J Robinson wrote:I neglected to get any photos of the rig whilst out, but I found the twitching a bit frustrating as heavy rain had badly clouded the water. Ended up with a couple of smaller browns (up to 4lb 8oz) and missed one that practically launched itself out of the water but no pike. The hair rigging works very well though and the bait lasts about an hour of constant casting. I'll give it another go next week and report back. The brownies do my head in though as they faff around with the bait terribly compared to pike, and then give a fairly crap fight.

I'll use a scaled up version of the rig on the loch for the larger pike. I take it the joeys you use are quite dinky Stubbo?

about 150 mm or there abouts