plumbing depth

[ben88]

treading water in a canal, now thats sounds funny.

 

hope you got your pole section back though.

[RUDD]

poledark:

ben, it is always best to find out as much as you can about your swim and plumbing is probably the most important factor.

 

Den

Once you have the correct depth mark it on your rod or pole.

You can then muck about with the depth all day long knowing you can go back to just touching bottom whenever you like.

 

On most waters bottom features are just as important as ones you can see.

The most obvious is the marginal shelf.

 

I read an article the other week where the bloke carefully plumbed a peg on a commercial water.

The depth was fairly consistant apart from a crease on the bottom at approx 8m

He set a pole float so that a grain of corn cocked the float as the final shot.

He fished the grain of corn in the crease by slowly dragging the corn along the bottom until the float cocked correctly. If the corn was not in the right place the float tip stuck out of the water to far.

He found he could get more bites fishing in the crease than on each side of it.

 

Now this may sound like a lot of hard work but every water in the country has small features like this that can make a big difference to how many bites you get.

 

A deep peg at my local has a small plateu about a foot by a foot wide and a few inches high around about 9m out from the bank.

In the winter you can almost guarantee there will be roach or perch swimming above it (apart from if I fish it, then they are elsewhere).

[poledark]

Ben further to my advice to plumb the swim, check this link 2lb Roach

 

Den

[wunnus]

As Den says it is so important get as much info as you can and find the depths all around.

 

Once you have the general idea of depth try to find those little pockets and deeps that could form a hidey hole.

 

I agree with John that the only really true way is to wade out there then you get a claer picture of the bed. It tends to clear the fish away, but I suspect that if you do it for long enough they will come to accept you.

 

A compromise might be to use a weight on a quivertip and reel it in looking for obstructions etc.

 

On a stream you can use a light float set up that just sinks the float, just let it trundle through along the bottom. The float sinks in the dips.

[Matuka]

To prevent your plumb from sinking in the silt, add some foam to it as this helps stop it sinking.

[Liamsm]

I think that mapping or plumbing a swim is one of the most important things for successful fishing.

One little tip that I use when fishing a venue on a regular basis is to map a swim for your next session.

Apart from the first time, you are always fishing the swim that you mapped last time, but on the same trip map the next swim along for next time.

this way you are not disturbing the swim that you are going to fish at all.

I have found that mapping is even more inportant on canal sections, as the only features that you may find, might be a slight difference in depth, drops and holes and such.

........Liam

[Peter Waller]

poledark:

Ben further to my advice to plumb the swim, check this link 2lb Roach

 

Den

Nice site Den. Enjoyed exploring it. If you haven't seen it then have a look folks.

 

I did expect to see a picture of Den breathing fire but, on the surface, he looks to be a very nice man!!