A valuable tip from my 22yrs off angling experience

[Poacherman]

Over the years Iv learned it’s not the hook point that hooks the fish it’s the bend .The bend drives the force off the strike thru the point most people when fishing for silvers roach bream ect ,and other species squeeze bread in a doughy lump on the hook. This works but is not optimal a doughy lump on the hook inpedes the action off the bend ,so the hook point just scrapes the fish mouth on the strike but not hooking it .The solution is as follows use a bread punch or Iff you short on £ a hollow pen works, slide the small disk off bread on the hook it swells in size in the water but leaves the bend free to do it’s job and increases your hookup rate massively. Iv won matches using this method keepnets full off roach n silvers, I only fish for the pot nowadays but match angling teaches u a lot about skill.

 

[Kepis]

Punch fishing is probably my favourite method, its won me loads over the years, mind you i was taught how to fish it by probably one of the best punch anglers in the country and former World Champion - Ian Heaps, even beat him off the next peg on his own lake using the method, lot more to it than just a disc of bread though, preparation of bait and the feed is important and feeding is critical, hook wise i used used B511's or if it was really hard in the deep midwinter where a bite was signalled by a small ripple coming off the bristle of the float, rather than it moving then a Drennan Ultra Fine Bloodworm hook was the order of the day with perhaps a 2mm punch.

 

[Poacherman]

Punch fishing is probably my favourite method, its won me loads over the years, mind you i was taught how to fish it by probably one of the best punch anglers in the country and former World Champion - Ian Heaps, even beat him off the next peg on his own lake using the method, lot more to it than just a disc of bread though, preparation of bait and the feed is important and feeding is critical, hook wise i used used B511's or if it was really hard in the deep midwinter where a bite was signalled by a small ripple coming off the bristle of the float, rather than it moving then a Drennan Ultra Fine Bloodworm hook was the order of the day with perhaps a 2mm punch.

Exactly breadpunch is fantastic B511s go to as small as size 26 I believe from memory. In winter I never fed more than a 10p size off liquidised bread at any 1 time my passion thesedays is trout and sea fishing though, I only fish for the pot now.