Slack line fishing.

Paul Mallinson 2 · Jun 8, 2005

Whilst fishing at a local carp water recently I was struggling but I noticed two lads catching quite well so went to have a word with them to see if I could seek a bit of advice as I dont usually fish the venue or fish for carp. One of the lads informed me that i shoudl be fishing the margins as thats where they get there fish, at the same time I noticed they were fishing slack lines, i.e. not tight to the lead. I went back round and tried this and procedeed to catch three carp in the space of about 2 hours, the biggest going 16lbs, a p.b. for me! Anyway about a week ago I was reading an article in a fishing mag and it advocated the use of slack lines when fishing heavily fished waters. My question is this, if you were fishing straight out into a lake to a feature with slack lines, how ould you tell if a fish picked up your bait, hooked itself (on a bolt rig) and bolted towards you? Its stumped me this as I assume there must be a way of doing it or the likes of Terry Hearne wouldnt be advising such a practise.

Thanks,
Paul

Frothey · Jun 8, 2005

so long as the bobbins arent on the deck, you'll still get an indication. you'd also be suprised at the amount of indication that you can get with slack lines

or use a running rig....

GrahamM · Jun 8, 2005

Fishing slack lines also means the line will be lying on or near to the bottom rather than held tight and up in the water, spooking any fish that run into it. Especially with mono lines rather than braid that tends to float more.

Also, for the same reason, fishing tight to the margins almost demands slack lines.

Back leads will get round the problem to some extent at distance, but slack lines are better for margin fishing. Or, if you're not interfering with anyone else's fishing, fish almost parallel along the margin some distance from from your peg so that your line has chance to sink out of the way.

GrahamM · Jun 8, 2005

Incidentally, as Frothey says, you'll always get an indication when slack line fishing as line follows its own curve in the water rather than cutting through it. Try to imagine the line running round a huge pulley rather than it tending to cut through it like a cheese wire.

Chub King · Jun 8, 2005

Fish really light bobbins. They should allow you to play out slack line with a good sinking mono mainline (Maxima is good) and yet still give you some indication when the lead is moved. Or as Frothey says, fish running rigs.

Paul Mallinson 2 · Jun 9, 2005

Hi all, Thanks for the replies,

Frothey, this might be just me but I cant see how you can fish with a slack line and have a bobbin/swinger on. Surley if you have a bobbin/swinger then this is going to be pulled down by the force of gravity and then in turn the line will be pulled tight?

Graham, I get the theory behind using slack lines not to spook fish. On the day I mention when I was fishing in open water with tight lines I saw a couple of fish bolt from my baited area, presumeably they had spooked due to the tight lines. I havet really a problem with fishing slack lines in the margins as which ever way the fish moves when hooked it wont have to move far before the line pulls tight. Basically because it cant run towards you. I also understand the theory about the line following its own curve through the water although I wasnt aware of this.

I guess the only way around it would be to use a runing rig or use a back lead and fish with a tight line.

Cheers
Paul

Frothey · Jun 9, 2005

depends on how slack the line is, and how heavy the bobbins are. if you're fishing 60yds out you normally only need the last 10 yards or so on the deck, rather than completley slack all the way in, so theres enough tension in the line to use a light bobbin half way up (if you see what i mean)

fishing 10 yards down the margin wont matter if you dont use a bobbin at all, theres enough resistance in the water to move the line.

Benny The Bream · Jun 19, 2005

Use the mcf rattler set up correctly you can fish slack lines with just a tiny bit of tension to show drop backs. just came back from kingsmead 1 there were about 18 anglers on only 6 fish came out over 4 days i had one think i wouldnt have had if i was fishing tight lines the fish were moving out of any area with pressure ie tight lines. By the way kingsmead normally does a lot more than six fish in a night they were really finicky after spawning and my takes were really twitchy single bleeps.

Stuart Dennis · Jun 20, 2005

Paul, in these summer months your lead and rig should have done 99% of your hooking by the time the indicators are indicating. whetehr a drop back or not. if you still have concerns try fishing with heavier leads, one way or another the fish will bolt and the run will indicate for you.

RobP · Jun 27, 2005

Hi Paul,

Having read your original post, i have just returned to Carp fishing after 5 years off and have started back on a really tricky pond up North near where i live. I'm having to fish slack lines due to the pressure the pond attracts. The best way i have found to achieve this is to use longer lengths of tubing than i normally do, say a metre long, and use some Heavy Metal on the top of the tube to pin it down. You dont need loads, just a pea size ball will be enough to keep the tubing down. I use Fox Mk2 swingers with the counter weights slid as far towards my bite alarms to keep resistance down to a minimum, and i leave it so that the swinger can drop back 3 or 4 inches before it has swung full travel. Set up like this you can see the line "bow" into the water so i am confident that my last 2 or 3 metres of line will be on the bottom out of the way of the fish.

Hope that helps,
Rob

RobP · Jun 27, 2005

I also meant to say that with the Foxy swingers set 3 or 4 inches up, you get plenty of option for line movement to indicate any drop backs you may get. (Unless your bite alarms are prehistoric like my delkim-converted-original-chunky-special-optonics which work when they please!!)

Rob

Big Rik · Jun 27, 2005

I've got to add that I've never experienced anything other than blistering takes whilst fishing running leads and slack lines.

My view is pretty much the same as Grahams in that the line is contoured and any takes will pull the line through the bottom, the line wont cut through it.
Mono (and braid) absorbs water, so it becomes heavy and the drag is enough to create a bolt effect.

Stuart Dennis · Jun 27, 2005

I know its crazy to get your head round, but a slack line (mono) will give a far better indication of a bite than a tight line. Fishing slack lines is not all about lowering your line to the deck to avoid line bites.

Benny The Bream · Jun 27, 2005

hence my twitchy takes im sure they would have develped into decent runs i just knew what was happening as it happened. cant fault the mcf rattler highly recomend it.

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