Like most others, be it river or stillwater, my starting point is over depth and then take it from there. I have been for a short session this morning, fishing pole on a small club lake. The lake is around 6ft deep and full of tench and small crucians, so the approach is, dead depth for the crucians and 2 inch over for the tench. This is the rig I used:
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It's a 0.6g pole float carrying 8 no 8, 3 no 10 and 1 no 11, all stotz. With this amount of lead, the tip dots down to less than one eight of an inch, so I treat the tip with vaseline and it stands prouder than that, which I can then easily see, while still retaining the sensitivity. The three no 10s are droppers and I frigg about with them constantly. The bulk is 7 no 8s, about a foot from the hook. My personal preference is to close string them, which I like to think minimizes the pendulum effect and reduces tangles, but that's most likely a load of b*ll*cks. In the photo, the rig is set over depth for tench, with a no 8 tight up to the float stem and at 2 inch over depth. The next lead down, a no 11, is set at the dead depth, the crucian mark. Even with the rig overdepth you will still take crucians, you get that gradual sinking bite, so count 3 and lift the pole. I normally feed 10 to 12 expanders, through a cupping kit, every third put in. That is meant to keep the fish on the deck. If you drip feed, using a pole pot, there is every chance the fish will start to take on the drop. In that case you can restring the bulk no 8s to allow for that. The hook is a 16 Drennan silver fish spade end hook. Pete.