Matt's Master Class
(A guide to fishing DreamLakes)

Here is a rough guide to how I would approach fishing at DreamLakes, including the ‘clipping up’ method to try and help with baiting accuracy. I hope it helps and look forward to seeing you soon.

DL1
Feature Finding
Feature finding is very important when fishing for a week and should not be rushed. Once in your swim, try and find at least 2 spots to fish, leaving one rod to experiment with. Detail, when feature finding, is paramount – also make sure that your marker rod has braid and not mono line.

Vital ingredients:

• 1 marker rod
• 1 spod rod
• a magic marker or electrical tape

Method:

1. First find your spot with your marker rod, checking the contours and depths.
2. When you are happy, wind the marker down to the lead and ‘clip up’ using the line clip on your reel.
3. Now reel in. Placing the marker rod on the floor, undo the bale arm and take the marker float and lead and walk away from the rod until reaching the clip on the reel. This is the distance you are fishing.
4. Now, by taking your spod rod and a baited rod to fish with, simply place these 2 rods adjacent to your marker rod.
5. Take your spod and your baited rig and walk to where your marker float is.
6. Clip up your spod rod and baited rod.

All 3 rods are now clipped to the same distance and should keep your baiting accurate and on the money. Just repeat this for your other rods… easy as 1, 2, 3!
Don’t worry how long it takes you to be happy with the features you have found – confidence is everything and feature finding is part of it.

Reminder: with your baited rod, after casting out, always remember to unclip the line and mark the line with magic-marker or electrical tape just to remind you where the line was clipped – leaving a rod clipped up could be disastrous!

Baiting
Bait presentation is top of the list regarding rigs and presentation and there are endless different pop-ups, dumbbells, balanced and artificial baits to choose from. I always try to balance my baits and keep them as similar to a free offering as possible.

Now you have found your areas to fish, placing your bait is next. So, after recasting your marker to the spot, position yourself to spod. Rather than waste bait, I recommend filling the spod with some stones just to get the accuracy correct before using your bait. Concentration should keep you on the ball.

Tips:

1. Invest in a boilie chopper to chop your boilies giving better presentation in bags and sticks. Also, spodding chops is very effective.
2. Pin your line down and get it disguised – use flying backlead and backlead under the rod tip to be sure.
3. Feature finding is paramount.
4. Mark lines, stick to spots but also be observant of moving fish.
5. Observation is key when fish are pressured and constantly on the move.
6. Keep baiting tight and accurate. Try and target fish rather than giving them a smorgasbord.
7. Be prepared to move as the location of fish will alter regularly – “10 minutes in the right spot is better than 10 hours in the wrong one!”

Bait Kits

Pop-up Rig

Bottom Bait Rig

DL1 | DL2 | DL3 | DL4 | DL5

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