The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Thanks Olly I like trying new approaches so I'll give the sliding lead a go!

Looks like I, "lay on", most times I fish the float then? Ether now with traditional tackle, or when I used to use modern poles and rods. If I am fishing in strong wind I like to lay on over a foot with shot on the bottom to slow the bait down in an under tow. I do this on rivers when I am trotting as well and often find a better quality fish will take the bait. Last year I experimented with laying on close it on stillwaters for larger Bream. The float was fished well over depth, and lying flat on the surface of the water. When you got a bite, it lifted upwards like a light house, or shot under at an angle. It was exciting stuff but only worked close in, as effected by the wind.

Regards ExeAngler.

One quote from Billy Lane's Encyclopaedia of Float Fishing about using a crowquill float - "

"This rig can be varied for laying on in running water an alternative I'm inclined to employ a lot more than I would in stillwater. The big difference is that the bottom shot will always be fished on the bottom. For this method it should never be less than 18in. from the hook.

In addition, you will need to fish over the real depth of the water. How much is something have a little formula for and this seems to have served me well over the years. Briefly, I fish a foot over depth for every 4ft. of water."

I fish laying on quite a lot in rivers and it's one of my favourite methods. It was a very successful method on the River Hull where I learnt to fish rivers. The only problem is holding the float far enough out from the bank and sometimes hitting bites before the fish sinks the float tightens up to the rod tip and lets go of the bait.

It's more sensitive than ledgering and sometimes fish will take a still bait and not a moving one (and vice versa). I fish a deep swim on the Yorkshire Derwent and one time I was fishing it around 3:00 pm each day I stopped catching fish trotting the float through the swim but when I switched to laying on I kept on catching. As I use a 20ft rod on this stretch (it's around 14/17ft deep) I can hold the float well out from the bank.

You don't need much shot on the bottom as you can fish with the shot bulked or an olivette set just off the bottom.

Does it perhaps have anything to do with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhoewflkQu0. No, thought not.

Having read all of the comments so far, I think that "laying on" simply means shot or a drilled lead laying on the bed of a river or still water. Over the years I have stret pegged, float ledgered, and laid on, using different sizes and types of weight to give the desired result. When stret pegging, I would raise the rod and let the float drift downstream a little at a time, but to me it is still a form of laying on, as is float ledgering. As my school teacher used to say to me many years ago, "The clue is in the statement" in this case laying on!

@ Stathamender:
Now I'll really struggle to get excited about freezing my joints rigid, trying to get a bit of bread to behave in the precise way that will persuade a seven-inch dace to make a mistake. There'll be this brown nymphomaniac wriggling away behind my retinas as I "relish" the lung-scraping fresh air of a January morning in some muddy park and wish I could catch ANY fish so I could go home... you've ruined it!
Or not, perhaps...

Needless to say, it's a technique best practiced at close range and I always do this with more lead than is needed to sink the float. And I wouldn't call it laying on if the lead wasn't enough to sink the float until the depth is determined and float adjusted accordingly to be anywhere between 1 or 2' or more over depth, with more shot further up the line for finesse at the floats tip.

I often fish stillwaters with a foot or more of line laid on the bottom and the bottom shot just off the bottom. I would regard this as a laying on. In rivers I will have a small shot on the bottom probably a no 6 to no 4. As already mentioned laying on is a pretty broad definition.

The lollipop float is made for laying on in rivers and is a very sensitive method. I bought my first pole for laying on in rivers.

Me too - a fully rung pole, Garbolino I think, of 15ft with 2ft detachable butt made by Dells many moons ago! A shop in Wandsworth now defunct I believe. 2/3oz of lead in the butt to 'balance the rod' which spent most of its time in rod rests - until a barbel sunk the float! A very powerful rod.

According to The Marshall Cavendish Fisherman's Handbook :

Laying-on. 'A method of freshwater fishing in which split shot are set a short distance above the hook and are allowed to lie on the bottom with the bait. A fish taking the bait can lift it without feeling the weight of the shot but the effect on the float is very marked. There are many variations on this style. '

I suspect if with any float set up, that if some shot is laying on the bottom then one might call it Laying-on (hence the name) . But if just the bait is on the bottom then I'm not sure what one would call it, but I wouldn't describe it as laying-on because when a fish takes the bait it may well feel the weight of the above shot!

A method best used to beat surface drift on still waters, or in flow when one doesn't want to leger but wants to present a still bait on the bottom.