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trotting - holding back


The Flying Tench

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TBH, I never found holding back to be that advantageous anyway. I'd say it's accounted for very few fish for all the tmes I've tried it. I reckon a float travelling at the same flow as the water with the bait set at the right depth will be found anyway. Fish do have pretty sharp eysight.

 

...besides, when holding back, the bait lifts. What's natural about that? Surely if anything that'll look stranger than anything.

 

I do it but rarely for the reasons mentioned.

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TBH, I never found holding back to be that advantageous anyway.

 

...besides, when holding back, the bait lifts. What's natural about that?

 

Interesting. That reminds me of the very first time in my life I encountered grayling.

A loooong time ago, my National Service took me into grayling country for the first time. Found some.

 

These grayling were in a fast glide. I fished for them with small red worms - held back, as my roach fishing had taught me, never a nibble. The fish were there all right, I could see them.

 

Went home for the weekend and consulted Jim Bazley's book (THE authority on freshwater in those pre-Dick Walker days) "When grayling fishing, let the float trot through unhindered" said Jim.

 

So next week I did just that - decent bites, and had a decent bag of grayling.

 

Someone once said the words "always" and "never" were the two that had least to do with angling. So on that basis, my approach to "holding back" has been to vary how much I hold back, sometimes not holding back at all, until I hit on what seems to be working that day.

 

Natural ? Well, what's natural about stret-pegging in a fast flow ? Yet it can be deadly.

 

 

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Someone once said the words "always" and "never" were the two that had least to do with angling. So on that basis, my approach to "holding back" has been to vary how much I hold back, sometimes not holding back at all, until I hit on what seems to be working that day.

 

Natural ? Well, what's natural about stret-pegging in a fast flow ? Yet it can be deadly.

 

Exactly Dave. As with most things angling, it all depends on the swim, the weather, the species of fish and how they want it on the day. That's one of the joys of angling, few things are 'set in stone'. Experiment, and keep adjusting your depth and shotting, until you 'suss' it out. Keep doing that during a session to keep in touch with the fish.

 

John.

Angling is more than just catching fish, if it wasn't it would just be called 'catching'......... John

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Most of the time when I hold back, it's to lift my bait over a rock or a snag or something but very rarely to make the bait 'flutter enticingly', as is often given as the reason for carrying out the practice.

¤«Thʤ«PÔâ©H¤MëíTë®»¤

 

Click HERE for in-fighting, scrapping, name-calling, objectional and often explicit behaviour and cakes. Mind your tin-hat

 

Click HERE for Tench Fishing World forums

 

Playboy.jpg

 

LandaPikkoSig.jpg

 

"I envy not him that eats better meat than I do, nor him that is richer, or that wears better clothes than I do. I envy nobody but him, and him only, that catches more fish than I do"

...Izaac Walton...

 

"It looked a really nice swim betwixt weedbed and bank"

...Vagabond...

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Steve,

 

Whatever the reason - I'm sure you are correct in that it is instinctive. It is a part of good "watercraft" to realize that instinct is the reason for any particular cause/effect when fishing. We often think fish think - they don't.

 

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I wonder if the instinct to grab food rising from the bottom is related to the behaviour of emerging nymphs heading for the surface.

 

 

Yes, not 100% sure why it works, but it does.

 

The success of a bait or a lure travelling upwards is common to lots of styles of fishing, from "holding back" through the "induced take" of the nymph fisher to the success of "sink and draw" dead baits.

 

Or if you want a "state of the art" up to date method, the drop shotting discussed here a week or so back.

 

I put a lot of rainbow into the freezer or into the smokers by letting a fly sink under the rod-top and then lifting the rod smoothly.

 

 

RNLI Governor

 

World species 471 : UK species 105 : English species 95 .

Certhia's world species - 215

Eclectic "husband and wife combined" world species 501

 

"Nothing matters very much, few things matter at all" - Plato

...only things like fresh bait and cold beer...

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An invertebrate rising from the river bed to the surface to hatch is a major trigger for a fish. Holding back suddenly will make your bait behave in this manner and can result in an aggressive bite!

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. ~John Buchan

 

Fundamentally fishing is a philosophy. A philosophy of earth, and growth, and quiet places. In it there is a rule of life, a recognition of permanences. It makes you notice the little things of nature, wherever you may be. ~Bernard Venables

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Articles on 'stick float' fishing usually say 3 things: you can fish up to about 3 rod lengths out; it's good to hold back so the float doesn't tow the bait along faster than the current near the bottom; you must beware of pulling the bait off course, as the fish will see that it's an unnatural movement.

 

But in my experience, at least in fastish water, even if you are only 2 rod lengths out it's impossible to hold back without pulling the float off course. Do others agree?

 

I realise there's probably no total answer, but I'd be interested to hear what others do faced with this difficulty.

For trotting beyond the rod tip try using a float that takes a good amount of shot, is slim and made of materials that make it very buoyant for its size. Next when setting up use a bulk shot pattern with the bulk shot set well down. If you do all this you should find the float will go slower than the surface water before you even start trying to hold it back.

 

To hold back without pulling your float off course you will need to have some of your main line running straight up stream from your float. The greater the amount of line you have running straight up stream from your float the longer and harder you can hold back before you run out of line running up stream and you start to pull the float from the side and off course.

 

Now the tricky bit, how you get some of your line to run straight up stream from your float.

 

1. If your only fishing an odd rod length beyond the rod tip you can try mending the line to get it there.

 

2. If you have a good up stream wind you can just lift the line off the water and let the wind blow it there. This I would call a wind assisted mend and in a good wind, it can be used even when fishing many rod lengths out.

 

3. Fish flow lines in the river where the water is moving fastest or trot any line where the water is moving fast than the water you are casting across and there is a good sharp join between the two speeds of water. Then all you have to do is let the float run unchecked. It may help you if you start your trot a few yards up stream of where you want to hold back, but this all bends into what I know as long trotting for me.

 

IMO to make the most of this technique, its best to use a main line that floats so you can lift it off the water to mend the line, but doesn’t float so high that it doesn’t grip the water at all and just slides across the surface straightening its self out when you try to hold back.

Edited by lutra

 

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