I am struggling a bit at the moment and like you do, I am being critical of my approach to see if I can make any little tweaks. Now, I am fully aware that this may be old hat however, it’s not a subject that I have really heard discussed, or written about. I am starting to have real worries about line colour.

I am fishing a water that is extremely clear and deep, and quite often there may be a big variation in depth between the spot being fished and mid water. For example, I may be fishing in say 6ft of water but have depths of 24ft or more half way between the rods and the baited spot. Combine this with prolific marginal weed growth and numerous snags I don’t think it practical to use back leads or excessively slack line i.e. hugging the lake bed. This leaves a situation where it is unavoidable to have line passing through the swim mid-water.

Rightly or wrongly I chose a clear line thinking that it would be the most inconspicuous. Indeed when tested in the margins my rigs are all but invisible (to the human eye at least) with only the bait really showing up against the lake bed. It’s only when viewing the line passing through mid water that things start to look not so great. In fact in certain high light situations my line looks almost like a laser cutting through the water.

Reflecting upon this, it occurred to me that half of my captures have come at night, the remainder in low light conditions or from fishing right in the edge. To make matters worse, a member who visits the lake far more often than I can, and as such witnesses a far greater number of captures, commented that hardly anything is caught at night. Now that’s either coincidence, and I am just getting paranoid, or I have effectively already answered my own question?


Does anybody have any opinions or real experience, have I already answered my own question, should I switch to a dark line? What do you think?

you could try locking up like guitar strings for half n hour then slacking off..had some strange findings numerous times on one particular rod regular...picture this,marker 40 yards out in 4ft of water...bed going down in dips to 4 n 3/4 foot between tip and marker...then weed up to the surface inbetween too up to the surface...6`sh foot past the marker to the left of it was the lead..on four occasions had onetoners when not expecting one...havin a pee..looking in the margins a few swims up etc..so you could say a longer screamer than normal with no breaks in the screamers at all..yet when struck all fish were to my right and before the marker...strange ..nowt but line being ripped off and i`m further than my marker and the fish went in that direction...couldn`t get my head round it at first..then came to the conclusion the fish belted out on initial run..then in the run through line cutting through all and everthing..the fish chose the path of the fastest...ie out a bit..then beared left in an arc because it was faster and easier in the panic ...and must of done a full circle in front of me before i struck...which leads me to believe the fish wouldnt had done so had i not been rock solid for the first half hour...locked up,build up on exposed line after time,then slack off and the heaviest line sinks which pulls the line down and as if tight..the only explanation i can find...funny you should mention line too..just got a tin of that subline of kordas in brown..X-lines prices are daft now...and thought if this sinks like a brick like it says..it`ll be nice to have slack brown for a change..let you know how that goes..!
About fishing slack over deviations on lake bed..try tight first then slack off after some time...reckon its the old table cloth trick andy!

There is no doubt in my mind that a hooked fish 9 times out of ten will panic into taking the easy option if it comes across solid resistence at the point of being hooked. When fishing to snags on a free spool the fish nearly always make for the snags. Fish the same spot locked up solid and its amazing how many fish instantly kite away from the restence out into open water.

Not exactly sure what you are getting at by having the line bow tight for the first hour? Are you suggesting that you make the line more obvious initally hoping that it may fool the fish later when the line isn't quite as obvious?

No andy,i lock it up tight first just to get the line bedded on weedy waters and in strong currents...then let off to slack once line/current as cut itself in so to speak..found out that less line needs to come off the reel to become completely slack after... than with feeding some off at the start...so reckon less line coming off and still being within a twitch from a fish...the added residue built up on line in open between contours then sinks because its heavier now and then flows into the gullys with ease yet keeping in touch with lead as if tight lined...does that make any sense ..where you didnt want to fish slack lined..which with added residue slack line may really be tight but not up in the water but now bedded!

Ah now I see where you are coming from. To be honest though, getting the line to sink is not really the issue. If I wanted I could pin it down nice and tight, but I really don't think this is a practical option in many situations on this water. Although after writing that, it has just occured to me that there could be some milage in using some sort of back lead 6ft or so back from my rig. That should at least pin the business end down while still being able to keep my line out of the weed and numerous snags in the near margin.

Andy, why not try a flying back-lead at the distance you suggest......?

Flying backlead or a standard one slid right along the line (dependng on distance of course) seems the most sensible and best compromise with the snags/weed and depth variations.
Have a look at the weights used for Carolina rigging soft plastic worms and compare them to most flying backleads.....

rods up high like river barbel fishing..guitar strings for half n hour..then slack off but this time only slightly so no bend in rod...reckon the last 30 yards out of 70 will be along the bottom nicely..and the close in bit will be well out from the snaggs and you can fish heavy bobbins for dropbacks

None of the above addresses the main point...line colour...buy som TFG red line(first colour to disapear in water) and spool it on 1 rod. Just had 2 nites on St Johns and a lad using red main line had 3 fish in his stay fishing over maize,it looked cack but worked for him,and if it worked on St Johns that see's massive pressure then ive an open mind.

j.

`None of the above addresses the main point...`


Thats nonsense...line collecting gunk mid water will be easier for the fish to spot..and colour of line wont matter a jot..whereas to lying on the bottom where it will be camouflaged extra now with congregated gunk..dont close your mind