how i rediscovered the forgotten art of “spawn fishing”! filehow i rediscovered the forgotten...

How I rediscovered the forgotten art of “Spawn Fishing”!

By Will Barnard

In my quest for big fish, I’m always keen to find the next big edge before anyone else, in fact my yearning and searching for this ‘magic elixir’ is as fun and engaging as fishing itself. But what are the chances of finding one bait that could be proficient for all your angling needs and methods? Some time ago, I was made aware of Aqua-SPAWN, I can’t remember where or in what context but it appealed immediately! As I’m sure most will know; fishing with real spawn is illegal in the UK and has been for years, certainly beyond living memory for the majority of us law abiding anglers. Spawn fishing is a method we can only dream about, only the Americans and Canadians have been able to use spawn such as their lax conservation laws, taking real spawn and curing it with chemicals for use on the hook – flavoured eggs wrapped in mesh material with devastating effect for steelhead and salmon, something we’re unfamiliar with over here, until now! The bait is synthetic, not rubber or plastic as I imagined, and arrives as tiny little red beads (and slightly bigger if using SEASPAWN) in what looks like, an almost empty 200ml tub along with a little note in the bottom that reads:

Tiny little things aren’t they? Pour just 50-100ml of water/flavour in and see the magic!

Reusable too, left to dry on tissue can be rehydrated many many times over…

Plus full instructions are supplied on activation and re-hydration measures on the label.

Copyright © 2012 all rights reserved www.lagunafp.eu

I opted to make my baits about 6mm and as such, apart from hard chucks, keeping them on during the cast wasn’t a problem, however, if like me you would want 10mm for tench or even 15mm for carp and barbel then margin fishing or utilising one of the suggested hooking rigs or meshing system is a must, again, these rigs are easily explained on the website with any further support available from Laguna if requested. You can afford to make up the whole batch as any unused baits can be dried out on tissue to dehydrate just like the note says, either to make them smaller or to take them back to their miniscule beginnings. We can regard bread, worms and maggot as an all-round bait but certainly they may have their constraints when targeting a specific species of a specific size. My feelings about Aqua-SPAWN suggest that its appeal will change with regard to the species throughout the year. Certainly Barbel and chub in the early season Definitely Tench during the closed season Definitely Carp throughout the year And more importantly, at this time, grayling throughout the autumn and winter months, with its visual presence of a realistic embryo and excellent leak of flavour, I couldn’t wait to get on to the River Test and, for want of a better term, “TEST” my theory, writing reports about fishing the River Test has such headline making appeal.

To the river I headed, but in the first instance I needed to fish the venue with tried and tested maggot, just to ensure the holding pools and creases had residents.


There is little point in testing a bait if there are no fish nearby to be tempted, of course then, the result is a drop in confidence in what could be a very good bait, likewise, if you are certain that the fish are home but not interested at all in your offerings until you switch over to a proven bait, it’s easy to put a strike through that one. So, to the fishing, first day with the maggots and there were grayling abound in some usual spots, though disappointingly, nothing much over the 1lb mark, in areas that produced a great number of mid to upper 2’s last year. The recce was complete as well as a few bonus fish comprising of a brace of 14oz dace and a stunning 2lb 1oz Roach. Three days later, I was back, armed only with a few tubs of aqua spawn, this is testament to how convinced I am of its appeal and I was determined to make it work at all costs. I needn’t have worried, first trot through beneath a 4gm loafer and I’m into something decent, really decent in fact as it was forcing line from the centrepin beneath my thumb, this was even too big to be a large grayling in heavy flow and could either be a big chub or trout, I presumed the former as it was more of a plodding weight than a wiry scrap……a few minutes later I had changed my mind and figured that one of the few escapee carp had chanced upon the spawn bait and just had to fight it out, gaining when I could and letting line from the pin when I had to. Eventually, with the assistance of my fishing partner for the day, the net was brought to the bank with a Salmon.

Passing on the weighing but snapping a quick pic for proof, it was returned, I don’t know why catching a salmon on the SPAWN surprised me so much as it really looks the part and


already some of my local salmon fanatics are experimenting with its possibilities as well as that of SEASPAWN, its bigger brother. I decided on a move upstream as the salmon had plundered through every inch of water in front of me, again, the result was instant, this time the more familiar jangle and pause that indicated grayling, this pleased me, more so as it was much bigger than the fish I was catching a few days earlier, this one came in at 1lb 14oz.

A few more fish showed around the same size before I was in again to another lunker, this time I was certain it was a chub as the swim in question has form but doubt soon entered my mind as the fish just plodded around the pool in front of me and it became apparent that another salmon had fancied the very convincing egg….did I mention the imitation embryo? A move was needed once again, to a favourite spot this time, where the river pushes away from the nearside, creating a perfect double crease. This swim requires a bit of a chuck and I did start to have trouble with keeping the bait on the hook. This was easily solved by utilising one of the various suggestions that are supplied with the bait, in fact there is help wherever you look, on the website, accompanying your purchase and via email. This is a personal touch that indicates Chris Wilson and the Laguna team’s passion about their products; they are grateful for the feedback too and are developing tackle and other baits to ensure the end users success with their product.


One of the rig diagrams from Laguna’s site


Anyway, back to solving the issue. The issue being that the bait was coming off on the cast and in the fast water in front of me, I was concerned too that if the bait had remained on the hook during the cast, it may have been effected enough to come off while holding back in the flow. After reading Laguna’s suggestions about fishing the spawn on a looped hair rig in a bunch using the ROE-LOOP I followed a similar, scaled down version. My grayling fishing is always on a pin with 4lb main line to a fluorocarbon of between 2 and 3lb and an average hook size of 16 so I wasn’t looking at using a conventional hair rig, instead, I turned a knotless knot with a long non-looped hair which I pulled through the spawn and returned through the eye and simply blobbed the end with a lighter to secure it in place. What we had then was a loop with a spawn dangling off of it. No problem what so ever and even better than that, I could use that single piece over and over again, lots more fish from this swim, all up to the 1lb 10oz mark before finally catching a chub that I thought initially was a salmon.

In short then, I can tell you that Aqua-SPAWN is a very viable grayling bait and those initial results would suggest the same for salmon and chub.


I wouldn’t honestly suggest just going out on your next session for your chosen species just armed with Aqua-SPAWN, but I can suggest cutting back on your other baits if you have the spawn with you, for example, when I go fishing for chub with the spawn, I will still feed maggot or mashed bread and fish the spawn on the hook as in itself it’s not designed to be a loose feed. For those engineers, problem solving minded anglers, it is wonderful bait with so many variations; the bait is designed to be re-hydrated (activated), with water or any water-based flavour glug or dip you may wish for as well as Laguna’s own SAC juice. I am so glad to have found this bait, not only does it allow me to target any particular species, it also means the long lost method of spawn fishing has finally come home. Will Barnard

how i rediscovered the forgotten art of “spawn fishing”! filehow i rediscovered the forgotten...

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