Fishing a shallow weedy venue

[mikench]

My fishing yesterday was on a shallow,3' lake with loads of blanket weed and that cabomba weed I keep in my aquarium. The fish might like it but I don't. How does one go about fishing in these conditions. Every cast retrieval involved a minute or so removing weed from the feeder, the bead and the bait. Likewise on the float the fluff coagulated on the line and in the eyes and weed covered the hookbait even fishing at a depth of 18-24".

My elected method on the feeder( see the HDYGO post) didn't work. Is it possible or should I have gone elsewhere? Should I have raked a lot more and more thoroughly?

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Given those conditions Mike, in all honesty, I'd have been packing up and seeking an alternative vebue . . . sometimes the cards are just stacked against you so if float or feeder are difficult then to move is the better option.

Earlier preparation like raking and feeding would have helped but then on open waters you never know who might be in your prepared swim agead of you.

 

[103841]

Because im able to catch fish just a rod length out on the estate ((occasionally), I take my longest landing net handle with a fine mesh net and scoop out as much of the crud as I can. If there’s a breeze though coming towards you , forget it, go to the other end of the lake which hopefully might be clearer.

 

[tigger]

You know what we did the week previous Mike .

Sometimes raking can be a good option. Maybe you would have been better to fish over the weed via a float or even freeline your bait with no weights at all. Obviously your only gonn'a freeline if fishing close enough to get your bait out.
I think I would have gone elsewhere, but if i'd stayed I would most likely have tried to get the fish up in the water, catty out a mixture of casters and maggots regularly and cast out regularly. I would have tried float fishing with a floating bait or tried altering my set up so my bait was at levels where it wasn't coming back covered in weed and where I was getting some results.
Just my ideas of course.

 

[mikench]

Perhaps I should have gone with heavier Tackle but the issue of the weed and fluff enveloping everything would have remained. I'm sure the weed has been made worse by the absence of fishing. Small hooks and light hooklengths were ineffective in the conditions.

 

[nottskev]

We've had....what...a month or more of hot sunny weather (not all consecutively) so far this year, and some waters have weed growth in excess of what they might normally have. The weed on one water I've been to lately was more like mid-summer and much more of a problem than it usually is at this time of year. Were you at the mill pool we chatted about, Mike? I've not been there since I moved, and places can can change, but I don't remember any weed problems, and a little feeder with red pinkies or maggots always picked up a few tench even in the daytime. It's known for its tench, and looking at your pic, the conditions look a bit unlikely for them. If there are other viable species of the sort that like to come up and play in strong sunshine, maybe carp or even rudd (whatever happened to rudd?) you can try for them, as Tigger was saying. Doing that with tench would be a very long shot. I've not been out very often - 4 times - but so far it's either been a blank or some fish in a small window after tea-time. I wouldn't fret over methods - it sounds more like a case of wrong place, wrong time. I've been to that tench lake we've been to a couple of times lately. I expect to catch 30 or 40 in an evening. I didn't get a bite!

 

[mikench]

It was indeed the venue we discussed and I followed the tactics we spoke of. The weed was the worst I have ever seen it and I'm sure à concatenation of circumstances explain its profusion. It was nice to be there though. We saw a kingfisher hovering over the water at a height of at least 30' which we had never seen before. I will pick a swim and rake it heavily next time. The venue offers no shade at all, it was very hot and the closest pegs( our intended ones were taken at 5.30am) meant that the sun was always on you and a brolly would have made things even more difficult.

 

[sylvanillo]

Well one thing is which species you are fishing for I believe.

On feeder fishing, for any sort of whitefish, it's my first season so I don't have practice.
What I've noticed during my one and only attempt last weekend that a 20 gr cage buries into the bed, I have put 3 large slices of bread 'pellets' (punched bread) and a shot on the hooklink so the bait floats above within the weeds.
So I was thinking of those floating feeders? Looks like an option? Especially the option of adding some variable weight on it so it can even remain steady at a certain depth.

If it was predator fishing in this thread, then no doubt I would cast one of my custom weedless wobbling deadbait rigs, with a bleach or a sprat. Works super well on my Daiwa Deadbait and had so many pike / perch.

 

[markcw]

Well one thing is which species you are fishing for I believe.

On feeder fishing, for any sort of whitefish, it's my first season so I don't have practice.
What I've noticed during my one and only attempt last weekend that a 20 gr cage buries into the bed, I have put 3 large slices of bread 'pellets' (punched bread) and a shot on the hooklink so the bait floats above within the weeds.
So I was thinking of those floating feeders? Looks like an option? Especially the option of adding some variable weight on it so it can even remain steady at a certain depth.

If it was predator fishing in this thread, then no doubt I would cast one of my custom weedless wobbling deadbait rigs, with a bleach or a sprat. Works super well on my Daiwa Deadbait and had so many pike / perch.

Forget the feeder fish a lighter straight lead, I dont know how long your hook length is but do away with the shot on it and place it on mainline near to loop to loop if thsts how you join mainline to hooklength, vary the size of your punch bread, If you are targeting roach or skimmers it's no use putting three 8mm discs on the hook. They expand, the small fish will attack them and you will be striking at bites you cant hit.

 

[rayner]

Try fishing groundbait loosely squeezed into a cage feeder and strike it out on the surface after the cast, to get it settled on the weed, then fish a long tail to the hook with a slow sinking hook bait.
With the lack of bait going into the venue, I would have thought the fish would have kept the weed a little shorter.

 

[markcw]

Try fishing groundbait loosely squeezed into a cage feeder and strike it out on the surface after the cast, to get it settled on the weed, then fish a long tail to the hook with a slow sinking hook bait.
With the lack of bait going into the venue, I would have thought the fish would have kept the weed a little shorter.

Sometimes I have used similar method ,but used groundbait around straight lead instead of using cage feeder.
Another option is take a tip from the carp lads and fish a zig rig, can fish your bread from inches off the bottom upto the surface.

 

[sylvanillo]

Re. the above: I meant 'bleak' not 'bleach'
This coronavirus is starting to drive me crazy. or perhaps that's a covid sequelae.

The feeder rig I use is adjustable, it has 2 Enterprise tackle's adjuster-stops (they are great), and I can try a hooklength of between 20 cm (8 inches) and any size let's say up to 2 m (6 feet). At 6 feet, I keep social distancing with everyone even the fish, and the bait may be floating at the surface. That way the groundbait if very loose in the cage will partly cover from bottom to surface. Well that's the theorical foundation because it didn't work last time.

On that rig I can also replace the cage by a weight.

You will notice, I've tried to import all tips from you guys... softer tips, light rod, thinner lines, smaller hooks but not too small, bread sliced, smaller cages

It's all worked super well to date, now its time to make it work in summer just a question to... go fishing!!

I will have a look at the "zig rig".