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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