Fishing weedy lakes

The bad one

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
6,123
Reaction score
2,125
Location
Manchester
Used them when perching on rock bed reservoirs and needed to lift the line above the rocks to make it as free running as possible.
 

no-one in particular

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
7,596
Reaction score
3,333
Location
australia
For a lighter rake, I had a piece of aluminon tube about two foot long and 1/2 inch diameter. I drilled holes in it about every 4 inches at different angles to which I screwed 4 inch screws. A length of thin-ish plastic washing line for rope secured both ends so it didn't skew round when dragged back. It was fairly light and could be thrown a fair way, I only used it on a shallow canal about 30ft wide so plenty heavy enough to get about 15 yds out in the middle and clear a line of weed. Probably wouldn't be robust/big enough for some serious weed clearing but good for the odd bit of light work.
 

The bad one

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
6,123
Reaction score
2,125
Location
Manchester
Did it work OK
Yes of course it did!
Mine I made out of boom tube with a cork float body. Line through the boom tube, ledger or feeder at one end and a Drennan running bead at the other where the float body was. I had different lengths of them up to the full length of a boom tube. Around 12 inches.
 

Old fisher

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
340
Reaction score
293
Location
Notts

Old fisher

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
340
Reaction score
293
Location
Notts
Yes of course it did!
Mine I made out of boom tube with a cork float body. Line through the boom tube, ledger or feeder at one end and a Drennan running bead at the other where the float body was. I had different lengths of them up to the full length of a boom tube. Around 12 inches.
Your idea looks great for trotting rivers where mine was just meant for resting on top weed in lakes and ponds
 

The bad one

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
6,123
Reaction score
2,125
Location
Manchester
I'm not sure you got the point of what I designed them for? Either that or you are trying to be sarcastic!
I designed them so they stood up proud above any rocks and there's plenty on the reservoirs I fish in the Pennines, ranging from setts of half a metre square to small stones. The lead/feeder drops down to the bottom leaving the length of boom tube stood up proud, nothing to do with trotting a river. The hook length the just drifting down under the weight of the bait and "rests" on top of the stones.
If used on weedy water, and I get the correct length/size right the same thing happens the tube stands up proud and the bait drifts down gently and rests onto of the weed.

And that my friend is a proven catching method as witness from above from a drifting boat, over 4 ft of clear water down to the weed. Which went on to account for numerous tench to 9-4 on a very weedy mere on the boarder of Cheshire and Shropshire.
 

Old fisher

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
340
Reaction score
293
Location
Notts
I'm not sure you got the point of what I designed them for? Either that or you are trying to be sarcastic!
I designed them so they stood up proud above any rocks and there's plenty on the reservoirs I fish in the Pennines, ranging from setts of half a metre square to small stones. The lead/feeder drops down to the bottom leaving the length of boom tube stood up proud, nothing to do with trotting a river. The hook length the just drifting down under the weight of the bait and "rests" on top of the stones.
If used on weedy water, and I get the correct length/size right the same thing happens the tube stands up proud and the bait drifts down gently and rests onto of the weed.

And that my friend is a proven catching method as witness from above from a drifting boat, over 4 ft of clear water down to the weed. Which went on to account for numerous tench to 9-4 on a very weedy mere on the boarder of Cheshire and Shropshire.
I'm not sure you got the point of what I designed them for? Either that or you are trying to be sarcastic!
I designed them so they stood up proud above any rocks and there's plenty on the reservoirs I fish in the Pennines, ranging from setts of half a metre square to small stones. The lead/feeder drops down to the bottom leaving the length of boom tube stood up proud, nothing to do with trotting a river. The hook length the just drifting down under the weight of the bait and "rests" on top of the stones.
If used on weedy water, and I get the correct length/size right the same thing happens the tube stands up proud and the bait drifts down gently and rests onto of the weed.

And that my friend is a proven catching method as witness from above from a drifting boat, over 4 ft of clear water down to the weed. Which went on to account for numerous tench to 9-4 on a very weedy mere on the boarder of Cheshire and Shropshire.
Hi I certainly was not being sarcastic I thought reservoir water flowed ( I've never fished a reservoir) and you designed them to drift along above the bottom. So I made a mistake. Sorry.!! I've not fished from a boat on lakes or reservoirs so I have no knowledge of that kind of fishing so yes I never got the point. Please accept my apology
 

The bad one

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
6,123
Reaction score
2,125
Location
Manchester
Hi I certainly was not being sarcastic I thought reservoir water flowed ( I've never fished a reservoir) and you designed them to drift along above the bottom. So I made a mistake. Sorry.!! I've not fished from a boat on lakes or reservoirs so I have no knowledge of that kind of fishing so yes I never got the point. Please accept my apology
Apology accepted. I guess we were both at cross purposes and misunderstandings.
That's an interesting thought about reservoirs flowing. Whilst in the sense of a river flowing? The answer is no! The feeder streams are not strong enough flow wise to cause a flow such as a river would have.
However, wind does cause a tow which can be very strong at times and last a few days after a big blow. There's many a time the float is going through the swim at the pace of a slow river such as the Witham has.
The other conditions that cause a tow is convection currants cased by the warming of the waters from spring to autumn and in the thermoclines in deepish water.
 

nottskev

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 3, 2016
Messages
5,904
Reaction score
7,914
The first time I fished Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire - it's about 2 miles long and 1/4 mile wide - I had to change the tip on my feeder rod twice to leave enough in it to show bites. The tow was much greater than I expected.
 

Philip

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
5,762
Reaction score
3,170
About the Fledger...a similar presentation can be made with something like a Drennan Subfloat. If you pierce it with a needle and then slowly squeeze it underwater so it takes some water on you can create all sorts of critically balanced presentations from totally neutral to mega slow sinking that will sink so slowly that it literally comes to rest on the very top of weed fronds.... Imagine a hot still summer day in a weedy lake with subsurface weed reaching almost to the surface..you could present a bait literally hovvering right on the top of the weed with a float and bait both critically balanced.

About undertow ...Tony Miles wrote a very good chapter about fishing for Reservoir Roach and made the point that if you found the undertow you would find the Roach. Casting an empty feeder about could help locate it.

From what I have seen it can apply to more than just Roach and the term "Still" water is a rather misleading term especially on larges expanses of lake.
 
Last edited:

Old fisher

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
340
Reaction score
293
Location
Notts
About the Fledger...a similar presentation can be made with something like a Drennan Subfloat. If you pierce it with a needle and then slowly squeeze it underwater so it takes some water on you can create all sorts of critically balanced presentations from totally neutral to mega slow sinking that will sink so slowly that it literally comes to rest on the very top of weed fronds.... Imagine a hot still summer day in a weedy lake with subsurface weed reaching almost to the surface..you could present a bait literally hovvering right on the top of the weed with a float and bait both critically balanced.

About undertow ...Tony Miles wrote a very good chapter about fishing for Reservoir Roach and made the point that if you found the undertow you would find the Roach. Casting an empty feeder about could help locate it.

From what I have seen can apply to more than just Roach and the term "Still" water is a rather misleading term especially on larges expanses of lake.
That's something I might have a go at. The fledger floats exactly the same, it doesn't sink in either as it's neutral buoyancy
 

ian g

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
1,577
Reaction score
1,508
Location
North Shropshire
Read that chapter the other night Phillip , very interesting . I haven't seriously fished for roach but used to enjoy fishing Marbury mere which had a tow but always found the roach wanted a static bait while float fishing.
 

Keith M

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 1, 2002
Messages
6,202
Reaction score
5,107
Location
Hertfordshire
I very occasionally fish a very weeded up large pond for Carp and to get my bait down onto the bottom without it being caught up on the weed on the way down I use the PVA rig foam in the picture below with my hook buried into the foam.



For much smaller species I also have a few small elongated leger weights which are inserted into different lengths of green ‘buoyant’ tubing for when I’m fishing in deep silt and I need my line to stand proud of the silt. I bought these from a tackle shop a few years ago.
however before I saw them for sale in the tackle shop I made my own using bouyant plastic straws threaded onto the mono links just above the small leger weights.

Keith
 
Last edited:

Old fisher

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
340
Reaction score
293
Location
Notts
I very occasionally fish a very weeded up large pond for Carp and to get my bait down onto the bottom without it being caught up on the weed on the way down I use the PVA rig foam in the picture below with my hook buried into the foam.



For much smaller species I also have a few small elongated leger weights which are inserted into different lengths of green ‘buoyant’ tubing for when I’m fishing in deep silt and I need my line to stand proud of the silt. I bought these from a tackle shop a few years ago.
however before I saw them for sale in the tackle shop I made my own using bouyant plastic straws threaded onto the mono links just above the small leger weights.

Keith
I've also used rig foam Keith. I've also got and used the dissolving foam you get from parcel packing. Every time I receive a parcel with packing that looks like rig foam I test it as it's not all polystyrene, and quite a lot dissolve.
 
Top