DAVE ROTHERY

Dave Rothery
“T-Rex’s ‘Metal Guru’ was No.1 nine months before I was born and my earliest fishing memories were of cold, blowy winter’s days with my dad fishing off the beaches of Norfolk and Suffolk,” says Dave, who hails from Devon.

But it wasn’t long before he was into carp fishing, a particular facet of angling that he’s much preferred ever since. Dave absorbs all the information he can about his favourite species, dissects it, and then uses it to carve his own somewhat unique path to catch Britain’s most popular species. He is more competent than most at all methods for catching carp and like most specialists he prefers to catch the biggest fish, but enjoys the smaller ones along the way.

Snag Fishing for Carp

Writing about snag fishing is difficult for me as I always have the worry that people will fish real jungle type areas without really thinking about what they are doing; always tempting when you are struggling and the fish are blatantly there! Saying that, a lot of snag areas aren’t really feeding areas – the fish just go there for a ‘rest’ and you can bet you aren’t going to be the first person to fish it!

snags

If you are going to fish snags then consider a few things:

  • Is your tackle up to it?
  • Can you get the end tackle to the spot easily enough?
  • Have you got a realistic chance of landing the fish?
In terms of tackle it isn’t just a case of using a pokey rod and dragging them out – the action of the rod is more important and I’d much rather use a through-action 2lb test curve rod than one with a stiff 31/2 lb TC – but obviously you’ve got to be able to get the bait out in the first place – which brings us to distance. Is it safe to fish heavy snags at range? Even with braid you won’t have much control over a fish once you go over 60yards or so.

Braid or Mono? One part of me wants to say braid as the lack of stretch will give you more chance of stopping the fish, but if you do snap off it’s not ideal to have the fish towing braid through a snag.

snags

I usually use a weaker hooklength – usually mono – no more than 10lb because it will give the fish a better chance of snapping the link if you do snap off, and if you can’t stop a fish with a 10lb link, you probably won’t with a 15lb one.

It’s also one of the only times I’ll use a barbless hook (unless forced by the rules) purely because the fish has more chance of shedding it quickly if you do lose it. Make sure you use a decent, strong pattern. Short shanked ones are normally best for it, or hooks like the original Nash Fangs and Gardner Mugga’s (current favourite).

Rig
The rig
Depending on the snag, it can be worth using a leader like 20 ft of Kryston’s Quicksilver Gold as it’s really tough stuff, and heavy enough to lay flat – I use it on one lake where you sometimes fish to a small cut-through and the fish invariably try to get around the back – it’s stopped cut-offs completely. The only tip I’ve got with it is to strip the last couple of inches off it where you tie it to the main line as it will then give a really neat knot.

I’m not a great fan of lead clips, most don’t work properly and being cynical I like how certain manufacturers that also make overpriced leads want you to lose a lead every time you cast out! But if you are fishing close to bad weed/snags it can help. I doctor my clips so the lead will fall off – indeed the lead only stays on as it’s tied on with pva and invariably its inside a pva bag! I just don’t trust the rubbers that most systems use. I also use sea leads as they are a fraction of the cost of ‘carp’ ones.

There are two ways to set the rod up – either pointing directly at the snag, or at 90

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