Whats on the river bed

[Dave Taylor]

How do you go about finding out what's on a river bed and its depths. If the
river is fast or even fair paced, wont that cause the float to move away
from the plummet so that you get a false reading.

p.s. I don't own a pole so need to know the answers in regard of a rod and
reel setup.

Thanks

Dave

[Derek.Moody]

In article <wej0c.2061$zu.1130@newsfe1-win>, Dave Taylor
> wrote:
> How do you go about finding out what's on a river bed and its depths. If the

When you're fishing an area you can't check out in low, clear summer water?

A treble hook and a heavy lead on a strong line will bring up weed and
debris. Grease the lead with butter to get samples of coarse components or
vasilene for finer stuff. You'll feel pebbles/gravel as you drag the lead
over the bottom.

> river is fast or even fair paced, wont that cause the float to move away
> from the plummet so that you get a false reading.

If the river is quick then plummets are only of limited use. Leave off the
hook and group all the shot (or move at least a couple of your largest shot
to the bottom position) now trot down the swim adjusting the depth until you
are just tickling the bottom with the shot - you can work it down over
shallower features into deeper water beyond and get a good idea of the
contours. Make a note of the significant depths and readjust your settings
to the behaviour you require - and add a hook.

So you might want to move the float down (say) a foot and move a telltale
down close to the bottom if the swim is fairly uniform. Or if it goes up
and down a lot you might even move the float up, spread the shot shirtbutton
style and hold back hard over the bumps.

I did once own a spring closed plummet with a hollow in the bottom for
grease. I've not seen one recently.

Cheerio,

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