The Demise of Float Fishing??

[@Clive]

Stret pegging is subject to many interpretations. My understanding of it is much like Philip's but with the addition of movement. Once the float settles you can quickly lift the rod, release a foot or two of line, then allow the float to re-settle. Effectively the bait is hopping downstream a foot or two at a time. The float is set about one third overdepth and the shot on the bottom is just enough to anchor it. There is somewhere a video of Bernard Venables using this method.

The modern version is much different to this and imo not worth considering. Going back a hundred years the pages of the Fishing Gazette contained many arguments from anglers as to what constituted stret pegging. The methods suggested as being the correct one ranged from tripping the bottom with the bait, laying on and float ledgering.

Some of the better anglers used stret pegging for dace in winter and caught many specimen fish.

 

[no-one in particular]

I am amazed on a thread about the demise of float fishing that no ones mentioned Stret pegging yet !....its usually good for a bit of debate as there are so many different opinions about what it actually is.

For me its fishing direct off the rod top downstream on a tight line ...rod top>float>bait all pulled out in a straight line downstream with bulk shot holding the bait down on the bottom.

...I keep trying to convince (..fool..) myself its the reason I need to buy a 16+ foot float rod to add to the tackle mountain...

It was also good for if you balanced it right you could lift your rod tip let out a couple of foot of line and your bulk shot! and bait would creep down a couple of foot, you could winkle it under a bush or tree or just search out your swim a bit without all that tiresome trotting. is that where the name stret pegging comes from? It meant having a lot of small shot strung out instead of a "bulk shot" and you could be fishing it all on the bottom for anything from 3 to 6 ft say. Anyway , that's my version of it, I wouldnt call it laying on which I do a lot but thats with just a couple of bb's and the laying on bit is only a few inches and not float ledgering at all, I can remember the old diagrams quite clearly.
On the face of it it shouldn't work, the fish has to move all those shot strung out first yet, somehow it did. The right swim and flow and the bait hard on the bottom and a quick strike did work.

 

[peterjg]

Strett pegging, a very enjoyable method. I like using homemade lollipop floats for this in faster water.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Philip, you know that guys were fishing Linch Hill, near Stanton Harcourt, Oxon, catching huge roach on carp gear and boilies, great fish, pp method to catch roach on, pleasure wise, some guys are using heli-rigs and maggot feeders to catch big roach on 2.5-3lb hooklinks, but using 1.5-1.75lb t.c. rods to do it, totally unbalanced, but the line is a good 'sporting' option, the 5lb line quote was based on the different in sporting value of hooking roach on tench gear, however using a 5lb hooklink on a heli-rig for roach is far better than using 10lb plus line, especially if harder fighting species or larger fish like double figure bream are intruding your search for 4lb roach, it's my take on it, as a matter of interest what b.s.line do you use for your remote river roach sessions?

This stret pegging thing is something I've never really understood and I'm sure Keith drew me a diagram once on FM explaining it, but to me it's just a form of laying on, fishing well overdepth whilst putting a bow between float and bait...

 

[Mark Wintle]

The easy way to understand stret-pegging is to understand the two words - stret = strut = take a step, peg = stop so it's run a short bit then stop, and repeat.

 

[nottskev]

Having an odd name makes it sound arcane and esoteric, or something Jack Hargreaves might have made a feature on but there are all kinds of ways to ease or stop-start a bait overdepth through a swim. Rightly or wrongly, it makes me think of the kind of thing you end up doing when the water's a bit too fast or too heavy for the float you've got on.

Out of curiosity I googled it. Pages of stuff came up about Straight Pegging, a short pole method, apparently

 

[@Clive]

Yes, traditionally it was a winter technique where you fished along the line of one rod length out. Anglers would seek out shallow bends to be able to fish further away.

I mainly use it from my anchored boat for the carassins.

 

[Philip]

Agree ..from a boat its brilliant as you can position yourself right out and above a feature then slowly fish the whole length of it leaving the float to settle for a few mins before tripping off a bit more line and letting it settle a bit further downstream again.

Jetties that jut out into the river with nice weedy slacker areas on the inside are ideal as well... I know one spot thats perfect for it...not fished it for ages...it really is time to give it another go.

 

[@Clive]

That is exactly what I do. Anchor at the side of marginal weed beds and fish down the side of them or anchor above a fallen tree and slowly work the bait downstream.

Usually I use a bait dropper with hemp and maize on a hand line.

 

[Philip]

Yep ...dropper out some bait so there is a nice covering on the bottom then inch the float down it. Its a really pleasurable way to fish.
I used to fish it with bread quite a lot, the boyancy of the bread helping to balance it all so it just holds stationary.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Crikey, I haven’t done that for a long time and don’t know why really. I had some really good river rudd and chub fishing with bread.

 

[flightliner]

As a young lad my dad used to take me to the lower tidal Trent at Cottom back in the day.
Our favourite method back then was "laying on" with a big goosequill float that was bulk shotted and a hook baited with creed wheat from one of the natural bankside swims that protruded into the river.
Even then I could take some good bags of roach using the method, some were, to me then, looked quite big but in reality they were probably nearer to twelve ounce or so.
Today those natural banks have been lined with big rocks and straightened cutting out the chance to use this most effective method, which I used to catch my first two pound roach with same bait from the river Witham near Bardney in the early sixties.
Even today when i'm on the Trent I keep an eye out for swims that jut out out into the river, i have found the odd one but here and thede but in reallity they are pretty rare these days which is a little sad tbh.

 

[no-one in particular]

This has made me think where I could deploy this method, Only one, right at the end of a club river stretch, its mostly shallow and weedy but right at the end it transforms to deeper water and a muddy bottom but with reed margin down the side and it juts out a bit. Its not very fast so keeping it light, maybe a goose quill could be ideal fished about 5 ft over depth with a string of small shot. I will be able to stret peg it down along side the reeds probably quite a distance if I get it right. Fancy that with a bit of bread crust anchored down. I have a had a couple of chub off this swim but I fancy this for a big roach or tench, there used to be few tench along here; not had one for a long while but might be still there along these reeds.

 

[@Clive]

I normally use the stret pegging method in the warmer months purely because that is the only time I can use the boat on local rivers to access where the larger carassins are. But, historically it was a winter tactic. In cold weather fish are reluctant to move far and so the slow, methodical progression of a bait along the bottom searches a long stretch of water with a slow moving bait.

Some of the old articles recommend fishing at the start of a bend where you can use the position to keep the float further away from the bank. Another tip was to fish where deep water is found very close in. Flightliner's early experience with his Father mirror the tactics and floats written about in the Fishing Gazette in the 1920's.

 

[ian g]

It's a method I use a lot when fishing for perch though probably not exactly as described . I've found they like a still bait but often take just as it is moved.

 

[Keith M]

We have had a stocking of Tench in our estate lake earlier in the year; and tomorrow my son and I are going to target them on the float; which is my favourite method when I’m fishing for them; and we’ve got a blend of two different Tench groundbaits containing some sweet mollases and some blood meal and various other Tench attractors..

When we used to have them up to around 7lb or 8lb the larger ones would hug the huge beds of lillies right out in the centre of the lake; and I had my largest Tench on smallish active 8 flavoured fishmeal pellets which we dipped in active 8 enhancer, but the big ones have long gone, through a serious pollution, which happened quite a few years ago; and now I’d be happy if with any sized Tench on corn, maggots or Redworm.

Keith

 

[flightliner]

I normally use the stret pegging method in the warmer months purely because that is the only time I can use the boat on local rivers to access where the larger carassins are. But, historically it was a winter tactic. In cold weather fish are reluctant to move far and so the slow, methodical progression of a bait along the bottom searches a long stretch of water with a slow moving bait.

Some of the old articles recommend fishing at the start of a bend where you can use the position to keep the float further away from the bank. Another tip was to fish where deep water is found very close in. Flightliner's early experience with his Father mirror the tactics and floats written about in the Fishing Gazette in the 1920's.

Clive, my father was only a very casual angler but he only took me to the Trent on account my constant pestering.
It was my fathers older brother who was the keen one who went most weekends on the train out of Sheffield. (the anglers special)
From what I gather it was my uncle who told my dad where and how to fish,
Dad once told me one of his earliest memories of his brother were one night after a good day at Cottom (on the Trent) he came upstairs to show dad a big oval plate where the outside edge was ringed with gudgeon, the next two rings of fish were Roach and in the center was the biggest Roach of the day.
This was in the days when fish were food for many poorer people and were often eaten. This was around 1920 when my dad would have been 4or 5 years old.

 

[The bad one]

It's a method I use a lot when fishing for perch though probably not exactly as described . I've found they like a still bait but often take just as it is moved.

I’ve found the same Ian when I’m fishing the reservoirs on the wind float drift for perch. I work out what size of anchor shot I need to just holt bottom until the undertow will move the shot/bait. This tends to solicit a bite or two from the perch.
Interestingly, the bites and bigger fish always come at the end of the drift and baited area.