Get Dobbing - Pemb Whiting

"Spring is finally here, and as a result the fish are in the upper layers of water, so you need to make the most of this explosive time of year. There’s one setup that I use a lot on commercial venues, and that’s the dobbing rig.

In basic terms, Dobbing is where you spot fish swimming just under the surface and lower your hook bait just in front of their nose.

This can be a real match winner, on bright, calm sunny day, when the carp come right up on the surface layers to sun themselves, and can sometimes grab you that bonus fish.

I set my pole up with the top kit attached and have it in the rollers ready to go. Then, when you see a fish, or if you’re really lucky and three or four come into view, you can ship straight out and swing your rig just in front of them. The worst thing you can do with this method is having 16-meters of pole waving over the water. The fish just won't come anywhere near you. Having all your tackle out the water creates a safe zone.

Tackle wise, I like to use very strong gear. That's for a couple of reasons, first of all, as I said it picks out the bigger fish in the lake. Secondly, because of the nature of this method there just isn't any need for fine tackle, because your hook bait is in sight for a split second only.

Starting with my elastic, I always use Red Hydro. It's perfect in my eyes; you may only get a 30-minute window where this tactic will work, so you need to make hay while the sun shines. I use N-Gauge in 0.25mm diameter, down to a 10-inch 0.22mm hook length. I've found that 10 inches is the ideal depth, so I can just put all the shot of my float up to the hook length loop and the float straight above the shot. I like the MWG hook for this rig, again, because it's strong and it's not going to let you down. I've caught fish of over 20lb with this tactic, so you really must have 100% confidence in your tackle, and by using these components I've got just that. To finish off my hook length I like to use a 10mm hair with a Speedstop on the end. These hold my bait very securely when you’re shipping out fast to try and flick your rig in front of your target.

As for floats, I only use one and that's a 0.5g dibber. It's a nice heavy float, which allows you to be more accurate swinging your rig. The rig is set the whole length of my top kit.

The last item is bait. For me, there is only one for this tactic and that's a 8mm cube of meat. I'm not sure what makes it so good to be honest, whether it’s the colour, the oil or maybe a bit of both? All I know is that it works so that'll do me.

Get on the dobbing rig the next time the weather is right, it's proper heart-stopping stuff and the action can be amazing.

Good luck."