Fishing - Question for you matchmen

In article ik21c.2117$vY.1958@newsfe1-win, Dave Taylor
wrote:

In Bob Nudd's article in last weeks Angling Times, he is talking about
dropper shots. He fed some small balls of groudbait and was fishing 3 ins
over depth. Later in the session he started getting bites on the drop. My

Sounds like he was fishing in still or at least very slow moving water.
I no longer fish matches so the situation rarely arises. In general,
although it is quicker to take small fish from midwater it's also easier to
scare them so for any but the last half hour or so I would prefer to take
them from the bottom. My instinct would be to use some fast-sinking
groundbait to try to get them back to the bottom.

question is what do you guys do ....
Do you start fishing at dead depth or even off bottom, or add more
groundbait to try to draw the fish back to the bottom.
Or do you continue to fish over depth and just try to hit the bites on the
drop.

Nothing of the sort. First I use my eyes and try to see what is where. In
matchfishing, especially if you are part of a team, the two or three fish
caught before the swim is much disturbed may make considerable difference.

I once won a summer match with chub caught on floating crust, nothing else.
The first three came in the first ten minutes and the last after quite
literally sitting and doing nothing except flick the occasional loose crust
in for three hours until a couple were taken when I picked up the rod again.
Ten pounds of fish in four lumps beats an awful lot of small fish

Yesterday I took half a dozen chub by setting the float about a foot
overdepth and holding back hard on the 'pin so the flake fluttered and
dawdled just above the bottom. The groundbait was four loaves mixed pretty
stiff with a little dry crumb to temper it and thrown into the fast water at
the tail of the shallow above the pool. I also had a few grayling from a
run less than 18" deep on maggot by feeding two or three maggots twice per
trot. In that case the float was set at two feet and also held back hard.

If the water had been cloudy I might have used paste so the bait actually
trundled over the bottom or fed chopped worms and baited with lob. If
really thick then a good smelly cheese paste ledgered or laid on in one
place would have been a better option. Come the summer freelined bread or
crust may again be the choice.

In other words: Automatically starting with any of the above options is a
mistake. Did the columnist say why he chose to begin as he did? That's
the critical decision.

Cheerio,

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