How to catch more on snake lakes
Fish a typical snake lake and your eyes will instantly be drawn to fishing tight up to the far bank with a bait on the bottom.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, but one common problem posed by these shallow-water pegs is foul-hooked fish.
Carp charge around in a couple of feet of water, running through the mainline and ending up being hooked in the tail or fins.
It’s annoying, and does the chances of building up your swim no good at all. Is there a solution?
I think there is, and it involves fishing shallow. Shallow in 2ft of water? Sounds daft, doesn’t it, but far from being the latest in lunacy it’s given me 200lb match-winning nets in recent years at venues including Puddledock Farm in Essex. Here the Snake Lake offers identical-looking swims with a typical 2ft to 3ft of water tight to the far bank.
Although I use the term ‘shallow’, the truth is that I’m fishing at half-depth and looking to catch carp that I can see moving in the swim. It’s a bit like dobbing in open water, getting into a routine of feeding, keeping your eyes peeled and then laying the rig and bait into the path of a carp.
Do it right and the elastic will be ripped out of the pole with all fish hooked properly in the mouth!
Multiple areas
Having several areas to drop the bait into will keep the fish coming as opposed to hammering one line all day. The plan is to catch until the spot goes dead and then move to another that’s been fed steadily.
How many you catch off each line will be governed by the reaction of the fish – if you drop in and nothing happens for 10 minutes that’s the signal for you to switch lines.
Feeding
Bait and feed is nothing more complex than hard 4mm pellets, but it’s far from a case of ladling in the bait and waiting for the pole to be yanked over.
I begin by catapulting in 10 to 15 pellets each time to make some early noise and get the carp mooching around. Once I see a few moving, this is cut back to five or six pellets each time.
If this doesn’t work, I cut back further to just one or two pellets.
Should this draw a blank then I’ll turn to a last resort of a couple of bigger 6mm pellets to make some splash. If this fails, then chances are the tatic isn’t going to work at all on this particular day.
Bait placement
If you put the pole over the heads of the fish they’ll clear off, so I try to use the reeds or sedges to my advantage and hide the pole in amid them.
Basically I look, and then once I see a carp moving I tuck the pole behind where the fish is moving from and lay the rig in front of it. The pole tip is never put over the top of the fish!
Sometimes I may even rest the pole on the sedge itself.
How shallow?
Fishery rules may dictate how shallow you can fish, but I’d go as shallow as allowed. That may be 6ins or 12ins deep. Fishing as shallow as you can means line bites will be minimised and will lead to more fish hooking themselves.
My rig is standard stuff in terms of line and hooks, but the float needs careful consideration. It acts more as a sight bob than a way of stabilising the rig. A tiny 4x8 MAP SF3 pea-type float taking a few No10 shot underneath is ideal.
Look for cover and signs
The right sort of peg is crucial to catching shallow, and I want a swim that offers reeds or beds of sedge to act as cover. This will keep the carp feeling safe with the foliage over their heads and also lets me hide the pole-tip away from the fish. Try it in a barren swim with just a bare far bank to fish to and it’s never going to be as good.
It does take a little while for the fish to come off bottom, though. Around 30 or 40 minutes of feeding should be long enough.
It’s also vital that you can see the carp moving in the peg to catch them. When there’s no movement, this means there are no carp off bottom and so you’d be better off fishing on the deck.