As the weather starts to warm up so does the water, and the parts of the lake that warms up quickest, are the shallowest. Lots of commercials are ‘snake lake’ type lakes or have islands that can be reached with a fishing pole, these areas typically between 12” and 2ft deep, these areas offer cover and refuge for fish and as they are targeted by anglers also represent an area where food is abundant.
These areas of the lake are referred to as 'mudlines', here fish activity is obvious with undercut banks where the fish have eroded them away, and distinct area where there is no bankside vegetation, again this has been eroded away by feeding fish.
So, these are obvious area to target to have a productive day’s fishing, in this article I will dive into how to fish the ‘mudline’ and give you some helpful tips to hopefully improve your fishing.
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Get your approach right
The most important thing to get right when fishing the mudline is threefold, first of all the rig must be right, as the water is very shallow and feeding fish will cause a lot of turbulence so the rig needs to be set up to be stable to avoid lifting at liners and foul hooking fish that can quickly clear the swim of fish.
Secondly the depth, finding the right depth against the mudline is important, too shallow and the fish wont come in to feed and too deep they become more difficult to catch and risk lots of foul hooked fish, the ideal depth is between 12" and 18" inches.
Thirdly feeding, overfeeding the swim can cause chaos particularly if you attract a lot of fish into the peg, the activity of the feeding fish will make it very difficult to present the rig effectively, and results in lots of line bites and foul hooked fish.
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The rig
The mudline rig is designed to be stable, therefore a short 0.4g float round bodied float isn’t too heavy for fishing in up to 2ft of water. Bulk the shot above the 4” hooklength, this will also add stability and help towards supressing liners and possible foul hooked fish.
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Find the right depth
Don't be drawn to fishing directly opposite the peg you are fishing, plumb around the mudline to find the right depth. Ideally this is between 12" & 18", at this depth, you want to be tight against the far bank, as the same principle as fishing the margins applies, you don't want fish to be able to get behind the rig as this will increase line bites and ultimately lead to foul hooked fish.
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Feeding
The key to feeding a mudline is to feed it for a bite at a time, a small amount of bait with your hook bait presented right on top of it is the most productive way of catching fish on the mudline.
‘Filling it in’ and feeding a lot of bait will just create chaos with lots of fish all fighting for the food making them almost impossible to catch. By setting a single ‘trap’, using a pole mounted pot to introduce a small amount of bait, which you then present your hookbait on top is the most effective way to keep fish coming without blowing the peg.
If you find that you may have been overzealous with the amount of bait, and liners and foul hooked fish become a problem, simply start over further to the left or right, resting the peg to let the commotion die down and then simply return to it resetting the ‘trap’.
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