Have you ever plumbed up and thought your peg was too shallow to catch from? Let’s face it, 12ins of water doesn’t seem enough to hold fish consistently or target them effectively. Instead, you might be drawn to deeper water.
Do this, however, and you’re missing out on one of the best parts of your snake lake peg – the water tight to the far bank commonly known as the ‘mudline’. There may only be 12ins of depth but, fed correctly, this is enough to catch from all day and, done right, foul-hooked fish and liners can be eliminated.
The principles for fishing here aren’t too different to those we use for the nearside margins. Both swims are shallow and have a bank to fish against, but the mudline is further away so you can catch from the off because the fish will be a lot more confident there. Here's how I fish them...
ATTACK THE MUDLINE WITH ONE OF THE BEST FISHING POLES.
Find the right depth
Although you may have a mud bank, on some lakes this can be too deep and lead to problems with foul hooking. I’d look for 12ins-14ins of water tight against the bank, but I would advise spending some time with your plummet until you are happy you have found a nice, flat area you can present your bait!
EVERY ANGLER NEEDS TO KNOW HOW TO TIE THE BEST FISHING KNOTS!
Give yourself options
What I feed changes during the day. To begin with its dampened micros, then 50/50 pellets and groundbait and finally just groundbait. Just keep experimenting and see what gets you the best reaction on the day. A great rhythm is to ship out, feed, let your rig settle and for one or two fish to come into the peg and you hook one!
UNDERSTAND HOW AND WHEN TO USE GROUNDBAIT WITH OUR EXPERT GUIDE.
Sink the feed
Rather than tap the bait in from a pot, I put holes in my pot and then submerge it, this releases the vacuum created from compressing the bait in the pot and the bait will fall out stealthily! This stops fish coming off bottom.
IF FISH DO COME OFF THE BOTTOM, JAMIE HUGHES HAS THE ANSWERS ON CATCHING THEM!
Go for a big float
Keeping the rig stable all begins with the float, a 4x16 Carpa Edge. This is short, but very buoyant, and won’t be wafted about all over the place by feeding fish. If your float is moving around a lot and you have to keep replacing it, it is likely the rig isn't heavy enough an the float is too small!
YOU CAN INSTANTLY IMPROVE YOUR POLE FISHING WITH THESE EXPERT TIPS!
Create a target bait
Shallow water will soon get muddied up by feeding fish, so the bait needs to be easy to find. Two or three maggots, a 4mm expander pellet or half a worm are my favourites.
SELECT THE BEST WORMS FOR FISHING, WITH THIS HELPFUL GUIDE.
Keep the noise down!
You need to guide fish out of the peg quietly, which requires a soft elastic. There’s nothing to beat Daiwa Hydrolastic in the White or Grey grades for this job.
OUR GUIDE WILL HELP YOU CHOOSE AND FIT THE RIGHT POLE ELASTIC.
