Hemp and Tare Fishing On Rivers

Once the initial early season Bream and Skimmer catches tail off with the increased temperatures, light levels and water clarity things start to get tough on our rivers.
Yes you can still catch a few fish early and late with maggot, casters and worms but you are often plagued with Bleak which unless you are targeting them in a match can be somewhat unwelcome. When faced with these conditions at this time of year it is time to turn our attention to Hemp and Tares. These baits are most commonly associated with Roach but on some days will attract other species such as Chub, Dace, and Skimmers.

Cooked Hempseed and Tares

So lets have a look at these baits in a little more detail, Hempseed is a small seed that when cooked can be used for both feed and hook bait. It needs to be soaked and cooked to rehydrate it, turn it its familiar dark colour and make it sink.
Tares are a member of the pea family, Brown in colour and larger in size than Hempseed, they are primarily used as hook bait but can be fed sparingly with the hemp.
These are again soaked before cooking until they are soft enough to easily hook.
Both of these baits should be readily available from various places including Tackle shops, animal feed suppliers and online. You can purchase them in various forms with the most cost effective being uncooked seeds that you prepare yourself, you can also buy ready cooked and bagged fresh seeds from most tackle shop and also commercially prepared seeds in tins or vac-pac bags.

Home Bait Preparation Basics:

Uncooked Tares

The method for preparing both of these baits is broadly similar in so far as both benefit from being soaked in water for anywhere between 12 - 24 hours prior to cooking. 

Uncooked Hemp seed

The hemp seed is then boiled in water for approximately 30 minutes until it starts to split revealing the White shoot. The Tare can be cooked in the same way but with this you are looking to alter the texture to make it soft enough to readily hook. At he cooking stage you can add a small amount of bicarbonate of soda to the water, this has the effect of making the Hemp shinny and darkening off the colour of the Tares although this is not necessary and down to personal choice. I am sure many of you will already be aware that the cooking of Hemp does give off a very strong aroma that if you are like me will find absolute wonderful. However please be aware this view is not normally shared by Wives, Girlfriends and partners, therefore ensure you conclude all of you cooking well before your loved one comes home and open plenty of windows. Alternatively you can cook it outside on a camping stove or similar, another good way to prepare it is in a vacuum flask overnight.
When using a flask ensure you do not overfill it as the Hemp will expand so leave room, fill to about 2/3 max and poor in boiling water. This is a great method providing you don't want to cook too much at one time. I need to add that you can also cook your tare in the same manner. When your seeds are cooked you can drain them off and bag them up and either put in the fridge if using in the next few days or you can freeze it indefinitely.
You may wish to save the cooking water and use this in your ground bait mixes as it would be a shame to tip all of that flavour and attraction down the sink.

Well that's an overview of the bait so now lets take a look at the methods, feeding patterns and Rigs we can use to fish Hemp and Tares. I'm now going to talk through methods we can employ to effectively present the bait to the fish in your peg.

Methods: 
The first and main method has to be the pole, fished at distances of between 7 and 13m with slim bodied floats and strung out shotting  patterns. The rigs would normally be shotted with small shot, stots or styls whichever you prefer in sizes 8 to 10 on rivers. It is far better to use multiples of small shot rather than fewer larger ones to give you more flexibility in your rigs and ultimately you can present your bait in different ways.
There are however times and situations when an Olivette and 3 or 4 droppers will work better for example when the water is deeper and the Roach are in the lower 3rd of the water. Just the other day I caught for the whole 5 hours of my session in 10ft of water on such a rig.

As for Elastics and Floats, in most situations I would use solid elastics in the range of 3 to 5 through the top 2 sections although there may be exceptions to this. Floats could be anywhere between 4x12 and 1.5gr depending on the depth of the swim or depth at which you are fishing.

 The second method that can be used in favourable conditions is with a whip or fishing to hand. When using a whip for this I would normally ditch the flick tip and use an elasticated top, this would involve a shorted length of stronger elastic in the range of 6 to 8. 
This would allow me to swing more fish to hand and therefore speed up the catching process. The exception to this would be if the majority of the fish were in the 1 to 2oz range when a flick tip may be a better option

Catching on the Waggler

Finally you could fish a running line float set up which can be useful if the fish are beyond pole range or have dropped further downstream due to water clarity and/ or disturbance and you can often find bigger fish hanging back from the main feed area.
I would look to use a soft 13ft to 15ft float rod with something like a 2.5 main line and floats of either insert waggler or stick floats depending on condition and flow and light strung shotting patterns to allow for a natural fall of the bait through the water. 

Regular Feeding keeps them lined up

Feeding:
I will cover feeding firstly from an initial feeding perspective and then move onto feeding throughout the session.
The initial feeding can be done in a number of different ways to suit different situations and there is no hard and fast rules on this but I will go on to explain some of my thinking behind different ways to start the swim off.
The first way I would start the swim especially if I was unsure as to how the Roach would respond to Hemp because they sometimes need a period of time before they will take it with confidence would be with ground bait. This would take the form of 2 - 4 small balls of a Roach type mix containing Plenty of Hemp a few Tares and a few casters to start some activity. I would initially start off on Maggot or Caster and loose feed Hemp over the top periodically trying Hemp or a Tare on the hook and definitely try it as soon as any Roach over a couple of ounces showed up.

The second way is to start the swim with a pot full of Hemp with the same few Tares and Casters in it for when I expect the response to come fairly quickly. I would again start off in a similar way to the Ground bait approach and take it from there.

Thirdly if I knew that the fish in the stretch were well switched onto Hemp I would just start with a couple of Pouches of hemp and then start dripping it in each run through.

After the initial feed I would look to feed little and often with maybe 20 - 25 grains of Hemp every put in, when you start catching you can gauge the response and adjust your feeding pattern accordingly. Do be aware though that the fish will more often than not come up in the water to intercept the loose offering which is not always ideal and can make hitting bites a little more difficult, this can be resolved by a change to your feeding pattern. You could always choose to catch them up in the water by trying a different rig or tactics to catch them but I will detail this more a little later.

All of these approaches have worked for me on the River Nene over the last couple of weeks but this is something you will need to work out for yourself on your own chosen venue. I would say if in any doubt start with a couple of balls as above because some activity in your swim will more often than not draw other fish into the area and there is always the chance of an early bonus fish. The other week I cupped in 2 balls of Ground bait and went over it at full depth with double Caster and after 3 small fish hooked and landed a 3lb bonus Bream before even starting on the Hemp Roach.

Talking About Rigs:
Starting with pole rigs, these are normally based around slim body floats but on occasion more of a rounded body with a bulk and droppers can do the damage. If the depth and flow allow I normally use a slimmer float pattern as you can group shot to form a small bulk and droppers to start the session and then open out the shotting pattern as required. Floats in sizes from 4x12 to 1.5gr all find a place in my setup for this type of fishing. 

Some Slim Pole Float Patterns I Use.

These are mostly made up on 0.12 main line because I do like my rigs a little more robust as you can find yourself swinging a lot of fish to hand. It is also slightly less prone to tangles than a finer line. I now shot most of my rigs up to .75gr with multiple stots in sizes 8 - 10 but anything heavier I incorporate an Olivette. I do however leave enough capacity for some extra droppers under the Olivette that can be used to alter presentation permutations if needed.
Hook wise you are better with round bend wide gape patterns in a fine to medium fine wire. I am sure if you asked 20 anglers the preferred hook for seed fishing you would get 20 different answers on the best pattern.
Myself I have started using Preston PR322 hooks in sizes 18 to 14 for my seed fishing and so far I am happy with them, I have used various other patterns over the years but these really suites me here and now. They are a little heavier in the wire and longer in the shank than say your Kamasan B511 but this slight loss in delicacy is made up for with the strength which is better for the way I like to hook the Hemp. I tend force the hook through the Shell without using a needle or such like to make the hole and find I can do this with the PR322 without damaging or bending the hook.
Finally for hook length I mainly use Drennan Supplex in 0.8, 0.9 & 0.10 diameter which although may seem a little heavy works well and I have every confidence in my rigs. Obviously I will reduce the line diameter if needed but generally find little need to do so these days.

Rigs for the whip are broadly similar to the long pole rigs but generally a little heavier in capacity to allow for an easy swing out, these are normally only deployed when the fish are really on it, in range and conditions allowing.

A selection of sensitive wagglers

Finally we can have a quick look at running line rigs, these come into play when the fish are further out or down the peg than comfortable pole range will allow or just because you prefer to fish a float. Wagglers would normally be of an insert type waggler or a slim antenna pattern to allow for registering bites as the bait falls through the water. Main line is normally 2.5lb Maxima, still one of he most reliable reel lines available, strung out shotting with 8s and 10s and hooks in the range 18 - 14.
Stick floats are normally lighter versions again with a strung out patterns and the same size hooks as the other methods. I'm a firm believer in having rigs shotted with plenty of small shot as this allows you the maximum different presentation options and reduces the number of rigs you need set up, keep it flexible and simple and you shouldn't go far wrong.

This grain wasn't even split open when I hooked it

Hooking Hemp:
This has to be the single most difficult aspects of fishing Hemp and one that is responsible for putting most anglers off, I know plenty of people who fish Hemp and Tares but rarely put hemp on the hook.
There are numerous ways to hook it and many schools of though on the matter but I will describe in more detail how I go about it.
The way I prefer to do it is to actually put the hook through the seed so that it will stay on after missing bites, move around less on the hook and possibly catch more than one fish on each grain of Hemp.
After selecting a Grain I hold it so that the indentation where it was attached to the plant is at the top and the split side away from my fingers. Then I pierce through the top of the shell and bring the point of the hook out of the split (even if it hasn't opened during cooking). Before using my current hook choice I used to prick a small hole I the top as it is quite tough, I used a little needle type tool I made for the job. But now using the PR322s I can do this with the hook itself without damaging it which is possible with some finer patterns, this method also means that the seed fits tightly around the hook shank and pretty much stays were I put it rather than slipping around on the bend and detracting from the amount of Hook gape left available for a positive hook hold.

Tares offer very few problems with hooking due to the softer texture of the bait so I don't think there is much I can add to this other than I will often undercook them slightly. This makes the bait a little more durable and stays on the hook better with repeated casting and striking. 

Some Common Problems Encountered during a Session:
I suppose missed bites has got to be right up there and some days it can be infuriating to say the least. The best way to overcome this as with any problem is to try and understand the cause. This is not always easy but worth giving some thought to in the search for a better understanding of what is going on. A few possible things that can be causing this are that your rig might need fine tuning for example it is often advantageous to have a little more bristle showing rather than striking at every dink on the float thus only striking at proper bites. When fishing Tares on the hook you can attract the attention of Dace which are well known for lightning speed bites and are notoriously difficult to hit, a change to Hemp on the hook will reduce the number of bites from these fish.
Sometimes false bites occur when the fish take the shot on your line, to test for this is really simple, just run the rig through a couple of times with no bait on and if you are still getting bite. This can be helped by grouping shot, moving them further up the line or even shallowing up so that fewer of the shot are amongst the feeding fish.
Quite often the fish will come up in the water which can cause problems but this can be helped by either trying to get them back down lower in the water or using a lighter rig fished shallower. The other day on the river I had them boiling the surface every time my feed landed and it was akin to feeding time at a Trout farm. Often Increasing the feed amount and double pouching can take them back down but on this occasion I stopped feeding for a few minutes and only started again when the fish dropped down and bites became hitable again.
Changing your hook size can often lead to a better hit ratio and often going down a size will see an improvement and it is always worth checking that your hook point has not dulled.
Finally you need to ensure your elastic is of the correct grade and set to the right tension to ensure good hook setting. Also that it is not allowing your line to go slack when shipping back. I see so many people fishing with too strong an elastic or one that is set overly tight which really doesn't allow it to perform as it should, when you hook a fish you want some elastic coming out of the pole tip and preferably more than a couple of inches, again this could form another topic in its own right so I will leave it at that and look to expand in a future article.

When you get it right you will have a bumper days sport

Although I have tried to be fairly comprehensive in this article I am sure I have overlooked and omitted things, to be quite honest very soon after starting to write this I got the feeling that I was going to struggle to fit everything into an article. It probably needs a book all to itself, well maybe that can be one for another day.

I will end by saying thanks for taking the time to read this article, I hope that you have enjoyed it as much as I did putting it together and found it informative with points you can take away and use on your next fishing trip.

Good Luck and Tight Lines

Mark