Just what is stret-pegging?

[DorsetTangler]

Ive never understood it or the theory behind it?

something to do with a big weight on the bottom, a big loop of line in the flow up to a flat float? How big do you make the loop etc? Fast flow, slow flow? Either? Only works close in?

How in heck would you know you had a bite?

Cheers all

 

[robtherake]

It's just another name for laying-on, isn't it? Fishing an overshotted, stationary float with lead on the deck in a near bank swim; the deeper the swim, the more line you need to put on the deck to keep it there. Paying out a bit of line creates some slack. The rod is in a rest.

I've not tried this, but I read that a driftbeater is ideal for the method - the bulbous and buoyant tip holds up well in the current.

 

[Mark Wintle]

An overshotted, overdepth float fished more or less downstream of the rod tip. The name comes from strut (run), peg (stop), so you run it a yard, stop and hold it steady for a while, run and stop, etc. so not the same as just overdepth or laying on.

 

[no-one in particular]

Basically you line the bottom three/six foot or so with small shot so that it just stays on the bottom in the flow with most of the shotted section on the bottombut when you lift the rod tip it dislodges and you pay out a couple of foot of line and fish a bit further down. You can continue doing this till you have searched the whole swim, stopping for 5 mins each time; sometimes for quite a distance. That's why they call it street pegging, pegging back the bait. Not bad, less arduous than trotting and you can winkle it under a overhang if there - plus the fish like a stationary bait sometimes.
Most floats will work to some extent but something buoyant, I liked the old cork floats with a stem. But basically you hold the rod and feel for the bites as much as anything.

 

[sam vimes]

What exactly stret pegging is seems to vary depending on who you ask. Some talk of a float laying flat on the surface of the water, others don't. Some talk about massive overshotting layed on the bottom, others don't.

In the following videos (around 1.40 in PT2), what's called stret pegging is nothing more than holding back to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYcFVc4lq7c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtUZBN9vC8Q

 

[robtherake]

An overshotted, overdepth float fished more or less downstream of the rod tip. The name comes from strut (run), peg (stop), so you run it a yard, stop and hold it steady for a while, run and stop, etc. so not the same as just overdepth or laying on.

I love to ferret out word and phrase origins, Mark; you've made my day!

 

[trotter2]

Mark has got it right :thumbs:

 

[barbelboi]

As Mark states, stret pegging need not be a static method. If you’ve searched one area, release some line out let and the float move a bit further down. Lock up and the float will resettle. If your fishing in an area where the float won’t resettle than it’s too fast an area to be productive.

 

[tigger]

The meaning seems to vary from region to region, or angler to angler. According to Bernard Venables stret pegging is intermittemtly holding back through a swim allowing your bait to flutter up in the current and then drop back dowm when you release pressure. He did it in the series "Anglers corner" the episode is on youtube.
The way Mark describes sounds the same but with your shot dragging bottom.
Laying on is just float legering in flowing water. Because the water is flowing you need to fish enough extra line/overdepth until your float half cocks, faliure to fish far enough overdepth will see your float dragged under. The depth and power of flow will determine the size of float you need to use and how much overdepth you'll need to go. I often lay on when fishing a tidal stretch and the flow ceases so making trotting up or downstream a waste of time. Once the tide turns and the flow picks up again i'm back on with trotting .


Blimey, i've only just noticed Sam has put a link up to the BV vid I was talking about on youtube !

 

[Tee-Cee]

I've added the following passage as it's the only one I know of in all the books I have, but may well be others, though...

NOT necessarily the definitive work on the subject but IMO it explains it pretty well, as does that written by Mark Wintle................

I’m quoting from a book ‘ Successful Angling ( Course Fishing Tackle & Methods ) written by Messrs Richard Walker, Fred J Taylor, Hugh Falkus and Fred Buller and first published in 1977

AS FOLLOWS ;

Stret pegging ( Page 105 )
Holding back a trotting tackle to clear an occasional obstruction on the bottom sometimes causes the bait to rise up in the water in a manner thought attractive to fish. Stret Pegging was possibly developed because of this discovery. The method is old and well established, though there is no indication as to how its name is derived.
Stret pegging, or stretting as it often called, is a method used in near bank swims and is particularly effective in flood water. The tackle is set deeper than the water and is allowed to settle briefly downstream after casting. Then the rod is lifted, a yard or more of line paid out, and the tackle allowed to settle again. The procedure is repeated until the maximum downstream area has been exploited, at which stage the tackle is recast.

It really is a combination of near bank trotting and laying on tactics ; its effectiveness lies in the fact it covers big area of water at all depths – slowly and methodically. While the rod point is being lifted the tackle rises from the bottom and the bait may even show on the surface. A bite could come at any depth. While the rod is in the rest, where it stays between moves, the bait spends most of its time on the bottom, but is subject to sideways movement as the peculiarities of the current sweep the float out from the back and back again. From the bank to several feet out of the water is therefore covered effectively throughout the whole length of the swim, at all depths.

The float lies at half cock when resting and throughout the whole time the line is usually taught from bait to rod tip.

Bites may be registered by the float moving sideways ( difficult to recognize at times ), lying flat, or diving under so that the rod tip bends toward the water
END

( I believe this section was written by Walker, but I’m not sure )


Make of it what you will..............

 

[flightliner]

Its a combination of holding back and also allowing the float to move a little further downstream. When a session as been underway for a while its not unusual for fish to be concentrated where the anglers free offerings suit them best.
Once this area has been determined allowing the bait to move downstream could be a little counterproductive .
Super on the right day, my all time favourite water for it was on the upper Witham just south of Newark on the A1, The trent a close second but ideal swims are hard to find but the lower tidal sections have plenty.
Take a fifteen/seventeen foot rod if you go looking.
ps-- In my area of south Yorkshire it's often refferred to as fishing "peggy leg"

 

[Philip]

I was actually doing some (what I consider to be) stret pegging last night. I agree with most of the descriptions already.

I think one of the key things about it is to choose the right amount of weight to suit the current you are fishing. Fish too little weight and the bait will simply rise too high in the water on the tight line from the rod tip. Choose too heavy a weight and the bait will snag up on the bottom and the float will over run it.

Get it right and the bait should be fishing down stream of the float but still staying close to the bottom. You can then inch it down the swim (I usually inch it down under some resistance) to keep the bait fishing down steam of the float.

You can tell when you have it about right as the float tip keels over with its tip pointing upstream towards you. And you can tell when its wrong as the float starts to drag under with the tip pointing downstream..i.e the float has now over run the bait which is snagged on the bottom

I have read that its a tactic that can only be used in faster water ...and whilst I agree its easier to fish in faster currents, in my experience you can also fish it in much gentler currents if you ease the float down under resistance to keep the bait downstream of the float.

Fished with a nice bit of flake on the hook you have an absolutly deadly setup for river roach ...the split shot just touching bottom and the flake popped up a couple of inches above them...inch it through the swim and how can a Roach resist that ?

The bites can be absolute clonkers !

 

[David Dalton]

I think part of the confusion about the meaning of stret-pegging may have been caused by John Wilson. In his books and videos, he describes a technique where he fishes a peacock quill overdepth and flat on the surface as "stret pegging". The float lies downstream of the rod top, but line is not paid out at intervals and so the float remains in the same place. I have always understood stret pegging to be as Mark Wintle describes it. Wilson's method I would regard as a form of float legering.

In traditional stret-pegging, the line was taut from rod tip to hook. This gave a bolt effect that could give rise to very strong bites, but must also mean that fish sometimes drop the bait as they feel the resistance. Some of the Cralusso floats, such as the Cralusso Bubble, give a modern alternative to old-style stret pegging without the disadvantage of the taut line.

 

[no-one in particular]

One thing is when you look at free bait running down a current it stops a while as it snags on the bottom and then a bit of current gets it and it moves down a bit further. This intermittent run of bait on a river bottom is replicated by the pegging method so looks very natural to a fish. This is not always easily achieved by trotting and fish like the bait static on the bottom sometimes instead of constantly moving.
The man thing I have always understood is get the shotting and over depth right to the current and depth so you can just lift the rod and it will move. get this so it just holds bottom, too much or less will not work as well. And the longish line of shot on the bottom holds the bait very static as it can wave about a bit if just fishing your normal trotting set up over depth although you can do that but its that presentation thing.
Great for getting a bait to a hanging tree or bush. Looks very natural to a wary fish as it stops and starts its way towards to a fish there like your free offerings would trundling and stopping along the bottom and bites can be very positive except you have to be quick as the fish will feel resistance..
Its a good method anytime with the right river swim and conditions.

There must be many variations to what it is exactly; I doubt there is an exact way; just the general idea..

 

[trotter2]

In the john Wilson books he advocates the float should be flat I would describe his technique as Laying on not stret pegging.
There is a good description on the technique also in billy lanes books

 

[S-Kippy]

I've read all this and every description just sounds like trotting & holding back to me.

Which prompts the question if that's "sp" then what is trotting ? Running a float through at the pace of the stream without holding back ? I rarely, if ever do that.

I always thought Stret-Pegging was something significantly different....more like laying on, overdepth on a tight line.....particularly close in when the rivers in flood and occasionally lifting the rig and dropping it a few feet further downstream. The laying on flat float thing I get. I've seen blokes work that very effectively but I can never get it quite right.

 

[rayner]

This is how I see stret pegging, I said I see because different areas have different ideas.
It was used on flooded rivers and close in. A moving bait is not the most productive method in high water levels.
Stret pegging as I was shown in the 60s was nothing more than float ledgering on flowing water.
As I was shown it was like this.
You would have a typical ledger set up with a float set 2ft or 3ft deeper than the swim, the weight would be cast down stream and the float left to run until it sank.
The line was then slowly retrieved until the float was showing on a tight line as much as you liked.
Bites were either a drag under or if the weight was moved down stream it would lay flat or at least show as a lift bite and the tip of the rod would drop back.
I preferred the lightest slimmest float I could get away with.
I never had the float move sideways with bites but it did occasionally in the flow, if I wanted to search the swim it was a case of recasting further down not inching as some do.
The swim was fed with a bait dropper and hook baits were always lob worm.

 

[S-Kippy]

That's what I always understood as being "stret pegging"...except substitute the lead for a string of bulk shot. I doubt I'd bother nowadays....I'd put a tip rod out but to be fair they've come on a bit since stret pegging was first "invented".

 

[rayner]

That's what I always understood as being "stret pegging"...except substitute the lead for a string of bulk shot. I doubt I'd bother nowadays....I'd put a tip rod out but to be fair they've come on a bit since stret pegging was first "invented".

Yes it's definitely outdated now.
As I understood stret pegging was a way of fishing a static bait in flowing water before quiver tips.
The bulk shotting as you say may well have been used long before I was shown the ledgering method.

 

[tigger]

Yes it's definitely outdated now.
As I understood stret pegging was a way of fishing a static bait in flowing water before quiver tips.
The bulk shotting as you say may well have been used long before I was shown the ledgering method.

float fishing a static bait in a river is laying on....how's it outdated?....I often use it and in the situations where I use it, it's by far the best option and works a treat.