Chub feed harder in autumn than at any other time, and rising coloured water is an opportunity rather than a problem. Here is where they sit when the river comes up and what to put in front of them.
Zander get easier to find in autumn and harder to ignore. Here is how their feeding changes as light levels drop, and why the last hour of daylight matters more than the whole day before it.
Perch shoal up and feed hard through autumn, and the big ones become genuinely catchable. Here is where they hold, what I fish for them, and why small baits stop being the answer.
Pike switch on properly once the water starts to cool. Here is what changes from September onwards, where the fish move to, and why I stop lure fishing so hard and start putting deadbaits out.
Water temperature changes what fish want more than any other factor. Here is how my bait choices shift across a full year on UK waters.
Badly prepared particles can genuinely harm fish, and badly stored bait costs you bites. Neither takes much effort to get right.
A bag of supermarket prawns costs a couple of pounds and catches perch, chub, barbel and carp. It is the best change bait in coarse fishing.
Cheesepaste, bread paste and meat paste predate every modern bait on the shelf, and on cold water they still do things a boilie cannot.
Both get treated as accidental captures. Both reward being targeted deliberately, and the bait approach for each is almost the opposite of the other.
Catching roach is easy. Catching big roach consistently is one of the hardest things in coarse fishing, and bait is a big part of the difference.