Back Leads

Has anyone tried using back leads while legering for pike. I fish quite a few rivers where boat traffic and rowers are a bit of a nuisance especially when fishing the far bank. Has any one used a light back lead just to pin the line down to the river bed so the line hopefully is not affected by the boats or rowers that are also using the river, do you get more dropped runs due to the extra resistance that the back lead will cause, have you had problems with bite indication, any thoughts or experiences you have had of this would be appreciated, as I am getting fed up with constantly reeling in to let this traffic through.

I fish quite a few rivers where boat traffic and rowers are a bit of a nuisance especially when fishing the far bank

then don't fish the far bank. walk round and fish upstream to the spot.

would love to but to get to the productive areas would mean a hike of over a mile also leaving your car is a bit dodgy as their have been a few cases of them being brocken into

Assuming we've talking the same river, it's quite deep. I got round it by putting 20lbs mono on a couple of reels and fishing that with the rods down in the water.

The line sinks a fair way down, certainly deeper than rowers will foul. The only times I've had problems is fishing near bridges when you can't always see them coming.

I wouldn't have thought back leads would be anything other than a liability. If you're tight to the lead on your rig, you have far better bite indication than via a back lead, esp on a river which has a pronounced shelf with a lot of cabbages/weed growing on the sides of them.

That what i've done in the past Chris, now it seem the rowers are sticking religiously to the side of the river going up one side and then down the other side on their return, in past years they have been considerate and moved to the centre of the river when they saw an angler [boat traffic permitting] and as you say with the rod tips set low or even sunk there was not a problem. This year however I have had a few problem with them and have had them nearly smash into my rods and stripping line from my reels, luckily I have not had any of my lines break and have managed to rerieve my rigs and bait back intact. After speaking to their coach who generally follows in the motorised boat behind them his attitude is that they are not breaking any rules so tough luck. Maybe I should report them to the enviroment agency and back it up with some photo's as evidence, As a boat user myself and I know you use one as well Chris, if I see an angler on the bankside I stay well clear of him so not to ruin his swim or damage his equipment, if there is boat traffic coming down the river I generally let it pass before continuing pass the angler giving him a wide berth, common sense really. I was thinking of trying to use the fox captive backleads that have a gate on them so if i got a take the line would pull from the back lead which would cause an indication similar to a dropback when the line went slack as it pulled free of the back lead, what do you think.

or you could use really really powerful rods with heavy line.....heavy enough to stop or turn a light boat.....then tell the coach that you also are not breaking any rules.......but you are willing to talk ?

Not sure Chris, never used one myself. Wouldn't it just drag your line down into all the cabbages etc you get down the sides..?

I would have back leads could potentially lead to catastrophic deep-hooking by preventing drop back takes from showing up. I wouldn't dream of using them for pike fishing.

I used to regularly use back leads when fishing for Cats at Claydon.Reason was to avoid all of the false screamers caused by carp banging into the line! Didnt put the cats off and certainly didnt affect bite indication.But then its only a few feet deep and your fishing quite close range.

I dont think I would be to happy about back leading for pike though for the reasons all ready given by others.

Why cant you ledger or use sunken float paternosters if the water is quite deep? Keep the rods well back/sunken and surely the boats wont be a problem?

My real worry would be losing gear on these boats and leaving baited hooks in the water.Sometimes you simply have to accept some areas arnt fishable (safely for the fish that is)