The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

... two books arrived with me in the past couple of days, and an illustration from each sparked my interest.

The first is from a 1st edition copy of "Tench" by Fred Taylor (part of "The Richard Walker Angling Library" pub. MacDonald 1971) illustrating the 'lift method at work' :-



The second comes from one of the chapters written by Edward Ensom (Faddist) in a 1st edition copy of "Fine Angling for Coarse Fish" ( "The Lonsdale Library Volume IV" pub. Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd 1930) illustrating 'shot ledgering' for roach. In the text it states "a fish may pick up the bait and swim upwards, causing the float to lift or lay flat on the surface."



The only obvious difference is that in one the quill is attached top and bottom, and in the other it is attached bottom only.

On such niceties are techniques based.

Mal,

I think, probably as you imply by the comparison, that there is very little in so called methods and gadgets we see nowadays that is genuinely "new", very often someone has been there and done it before.

Regards,
John Harding

Top and bottom would work in calm weather AC but why bother? fix bottom only and bury the line so if a breeze gets up you avoid any drag.

I was using the upper version yesterday and Wednesday. Over both days, not using cane sorry, 200 rudd to about 1.5lb + 4 perch all around the 1lb. Two enjoyable evenings fishing.

The second version I usually use in running water where it is more laying-on and fished overdepth.

This is also from "Tench" by Fred Taylor, and shows how he varies the length from hook to shot for different baits :-

I used a paternoster rig as well with the bottom only waggler float slightly over depth and over-shotted with a hooklink of 4in holding the bait. The lead was 4 swan and the float was also partially shotted up the line in conventional style. The swan shot sinking into the silt.
Therefore - I think - the float was fishing normally, as shown above, but with a fixed weight holding it. The float literally 'jumped' upwards when a good fish took the bait but dipped when a small fish took, unable to move the 4 swan.

More experiments to follow.