Rudd

I fish for Rudd in much the same way as Tench. The major difference is that I do not expect to catch them during dusk and dawn (the prime time for Tench), but rather in the middle of the night. Nearly all my larger Rudd have, in fact, been caught between 11:30 and 12:30 in the night. On several occasions I have tried to find them during the day, to no avail, but come night they appear - as if by magic.

Soon time for Rudd

I have also found that fishing for Rudd "on the drop" with slow sinking baits gives me far more bites, but not from the largest ones. At times I have fished two rods, one with the bait on the bottom - the other casting to showing fish with a slow sinking bait. The larger Rudd have, so far, always come to the bottom bait.

Time for Rudd (this was when I decided to buy a real flash!)

The only baits I use for Rudd is bread and prawns. Bread is my first choice, but when there is too much small Rudd I switch to prawns (with the shell left intact). Rudd above some 500 grams have no trouble, what so ever, to swallow a whole prawn. Quite often I have seen Rudd chasing fry, and I did actually catch a nice one on a bleak once.

Caught this one at a quarter past 12, but awaited the morning light to take it's portrait