They come up so readily cos i'm after roach lol
Seriously the the 2ft in 4ft swim reference is whilst roach fishing, on cloudy days. It has to be noted they rarely come up so readily when it's super bright although I did have that scenario a few weeks back. If i'm after barbel on hemp and maggot i'll prob be around a foot to three inches off bottom, touching it at a push but holding back as I find dragging bottom leads to too many foul hooks in the pec fins, on my gear foul hooked barbel isn't a good idea so I fish shallower, with patience and regular feeding they will come up.
How when dragging bottom do you avoid foul hooking?
In all honesty I don't avoid foul hooking, it does happen but quite rarely really. It seems to happen more when the fish are in tight shoals, and on smaller rivers but I suppose that's obvious. I think this season i've had one foul hooked fish which came off as I reached for it with the landing net. I lost another fish after a few seconds which is often a fould hooked fish, as you know they seldom come off if lip hooked. As far as I can remember that's it for foul hooked barbel so far this season.
I haven't done anything like as well as I have in previous years for barbel....had a bumper year for gudgeon though lol.
For some reason the fish in my regular river don't seem to want my trotted bait and want it pinned to the deck....I really have no idea why?
My best two sessions so far have been when I resorted to touchlegering and I had 14 and then 18 and then 8. Best trotting session was 10 but they where all small and went from about 8 ounces to 2 or 3lb.
Ido getthe impression that the numbers of larger fish have dwindled but unlike the other regular anglers I don't blame otters as otters have always been present on this river.