Free lining

[hammer_jamie]

Does anyone do this? I'm talking single hook and maybe a shot weight just above the hook.

How do you find it? Are there any disadvantages?

 

[Windy]

Quite often, one of my favourite methods. Preferred bait a large lump of bread, a dunk, a squeeze, and then swing into the (still) water. Nothing to beat the feeling of the bites coming through the line running through the fingers.

Less often a lump of meat on the river for chub (chub as don't have access to any real barbel waters within the limits of my time and purse).

 

[ciprinus]

Does anyone do this? I'm talking single hook and maybe a shot weight just above the hook.

How do you find it? Are there any disadvantages?

now that depends on the quarry, carp anglers merrily spend the equivalent of a small countrys defence budget on the latest tech and gear just to snaffle a carp, yet there is NOTHING (caps intentional) to rival a dog biscuit superglued straight to the hook with no other aids tossed gently in front of a cruising carp and to see that big gob yawn the bait down in passing then realize that he has been done. the action is explosive to say the least.

so, yeh!! i do it LOTS lol

 

[hammer_jamie]

Not done it in a long time mind, But used to love doing it with a bit of floating crust and watching that mouth come up and golp the lot

 

[binka]

I really enjoy free lining on rivers, I find it one of the best methods when it is low and clear.

The 14 -14 barbel which I took recently was on a freelinded bait except for a small shot to pin the line down over the immediate couple of feet or so to the hook.

If you can keep your line in a straight line with the flow I also think that baits settle in far more natural areas than, say, pinning a bait down with 3oz of lead in a fast flow although strangely this also seems to have its days.

 

[wanderer]

As Jon says, for short range surface fishing, and as windy says, great chunk of breadflake chucked into a weirpool or drifted down under the overhanging bushes can produce otherwise wary large chub. Rolling meat for Barbell is a deadly method, for close range in still water, simply watching the line gives great indication and fools the fish, but any further out and bite indication is not good, particularly for drop backs.

 

[thecrow]

Not to be used for predators when fishing with bait.

 

[wanderer]

Not to be used for predators when fishing with bait.

I have used it at short range for catfish, they do not like resistance, but you need to watch the bobbin very carefully because as you correctly identify, there is a risk of gorge.

 

[seth49]

Yes I too love free lining dog biscuits for carp, it so visual,done a lot of it this year.
Just to see them come up in the water and take the bait,or not with the bigger wiser fish.most times anyway.
Used to do a lot of this on the river with a big lobworm, you never knew what you would catch next,good fun.

 

[Alan Tyler]

For small-river chub: get them splashing at bits of crust, then freeline a bit of flake that just sinks, and is big enough to take line off the reel and through the rings - adjusting the angle of the rod to the line should find a point that gives enough friction to brake it, so the flake leads the way, but not enough to drag it to the surface. Older chub who aren't going to betray their presence at the surface have been known to slip up, presented with a slow-sinking bait.

 

[barbelboi]

I often, early in the season, freeline lobs/slugs/snails/mealworms for chub..

 

[dorsetandchub]

Jerry,


Totally agree with you. Give me a small river and some decent chub and freelining is as fun and exciting as it gets.

Have had some great chub this way and, as someone alluded to, it's perfectly possible to fool fish that other methods wouldn't. Always remember taking a freelined chub of 4lb plus from under a far bank bush and thinking "Going to have to go a long way to find a more enjoyable way of catching than that."

Great stuff.

 

[trotter2]

Because the fish feel little resistance until they pull the tip round it is a deadly technique, not to me missed out on.

 

[Harvey]

I only feeline for fryingpan sized trout. In very small rivers. It's a few years since I had a go at it, but it's what I grew up with. You quickly learn what a good spot looks like. If there's no one at home, you try the next spot.

 

[Keith M]

I often free line floating crust, boilee cake or Chum mixers for Carp on the surface at close range and in the margins and I occasionally do the same on streams for Chub giving out line as the crust or mixer moves downstream.

I also occasionally do a bit of 'Dapping' under the rod tip using all sorts of bait such as grasshoppers, inflated worms, wood lice etc.

When I was based in Cornwall and had a stream at the bottom of our hill; I often used to catch wild Trout for my breakfasts using a free lined half worms.

It's great fun and a deadly method at times.

Keith

 

[robtherake]

I only feeline for fryingpan sized trout. In very small rivers. It's a few years since I had a go at it, but it's what I grew up with. You quickly learn what a good spot looks like. If there's no one at home, you try the next spot.

The best streambed rocks are almost always occupied - I learnt that fishing a tiny trout beck near home. If you take a fish, it'll not be long before the next trout in the pecking order takes its place. We used to watch them for hours on those long, hot, sunny days when the school summer holidays stretched on and on. We were forced to freeline a worm, usually with a BB shot a few inches behind - the pools were the only places deep enough to float fish with a tiny perch bob. Fond childhood memories

 

[reltublien]

I have only just started fishing in 50 years and I love it. A chap on one of the lakes where we caravan introduced me to free lining and it certainly has advantages in the Margins. I started with just a hook with dog meat pellet on but have since bought an imitation plastic leaf which I secure with 1 small shot. The advantage of the leaf is that it allows a greater casting distance across the lake to other margins.

 

[robtherake]

I have only just started fishing in 50 years and I love it. A chap on one of the lakes where we caravan introduced me to free lining and it certainly has advantages in the Margins. I started with just a hook with dog meat pellet on but have since bought an imitation plastic leaf which I secure with 1 small shot. The advantage of the leaf is that it allows a greater casting distance across the lake to other margins.

Welcome to the fold. Good 'ere, innit? I pity the lower orders - you know, the non-anglers, (not the ragged and destitute.) How dull life must be, sans angling. All my best times have been had with a rod in hand, one way or another

 

[Ray Daywalker Clarke]

Free line golf ball size of Stilton cheese, Chub and Barbel love it.