The short line, also called the ‘5m line’, is a great place to fish for carp at this time of year and when used with hard pellets, it’s a method that wins a lot of matches.
I always think it’s a very safe way of fishing too, because you’re using a bait that will always catch fish and, as a consequence, it will never be 'wrong' as a method.
Find the flats
Let’s break the method down. Firstly, where to fish – the answer is not always at 5m! Every venue is different but as a guide I like to fish on a flat bottom as opposed to a slope, which can cause problems with foul-hooking. So, once I find the bottom of the slope, I then go about a foot past this point onto the flat, and look to fish there.
When hard pellet fishing I always like to plumb to dead depth. If you aren’t sure what dead depth is, then it means plumbing up so that just the bristle and the top of the float body are visible. I never feel that fishing hard pellets and laying line on the deck works properly.
USING THE BEST FISHING POLES WILL MAKE YOUR ANGLING MUCH MORE EFFICIENT.
Fish the angles
I also like to fish at an angle of either 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock. Which I choose depends on wind direction and tow. I do this so that when I hook a fish, I can steer it out of the swim and then play it in front of me, away from where I’m fishing, keeping disturbance to a minimum.
SITTING COMFORTABLY? YOU WILL BE WHEN YOU USE ONE OF THE BEST FISHING SEATBOXES.
Go lighter
Light rigs will get you more bites when fishing with hard pellets. Your hookbait needs to appear as natural as possible, and such rigs go a long way towards achieving this.
My float choice is a Guru MW Bobbie, a slim-bodied pattern with a thickish bristle which is perfect for dotting right down, which I love to do when hard pellet fishing and then lift at literally every indication. As a guide to sizes of float, I would quite happily fish 0.3g in 6ft of water.
Typically, my mainline will be 0.17mm to a six-inch hooklength of 0.15mm. Hook choice is then a size 16 Super LWG with a micro bait band positioned 2mm off the back of the bend.
The shotting pattern is made up of a loosely-strung bulk of No10s, with the bottom shot six inches from the hook and the rest spaced at inch intervals above this.
WANT TO CATCH SOME FISH ON THE POLE? OUR WHERE TO FISH GUIDE HAS YOU COVERED.
Use pellets
My pellet size is always 6mm unless the carp are of a good average size, say 8lb-plus, where I’d go for 8mm.
Feeding is little-and-often, and normally this means six to eight pellets at a time. I always feed twice each time, the thinking being that the carp hear the first lot of pellets hit the water, come to investigate and then follow the second lot down.
WHY NOT ADD SOME OF THE BEST LIQUIDS AND ADDITIVES TO MAKE YOUR PELLETS STAND OUT?
Work the rig
Lifting and dropping is deadly when fishing hard pellets, so I never let my float sit for longer than 30 seconds. Bites then often tend to come just as the float settles after lifting. When I say lifting and dropping, I’m talking about lifting the float four to six inches clear of the water and lowering it back in again.
YOU DON'T NEED A LONG POLE FOR THIS METHOD, ONE OF THE BEST MARGIN POLES IS AN EXCELLENT CHOICE!
