"Fishing with A Bow in the line"

[skatenchips]

As a River angler Ive used standard swimfeeders and leads
for years with a bow in the line and when a fish bites relying on the weight to dislodge and create a drop back bite on my rod tip in a standard current.

Now Im in the big boys pond,big tides just larf at my smooth
leads and bounce right round when I try to create a bow.
so.....when using gripper leads can you still use a "lighter"
lead and cast uptide to create a bow and hope that the fish can pull the grips from the sand or is just as well to use a heavier grip lead and tighten down after your cast in a straight line to your sinker.
Im trying to create a balanced weight so the fish
regardless of size will feel less resistance.
Or is the bow method not used..

Gazza

[gremlin]

You guessed right.

it's the fundamental of UPTIDE FISHING whether from beach or boat.

Remember that striking a bite is OUT, it has no effect. When your gripper gets dislodged just wind down as quickly as poss.

I can remember some years back on Admiralty Pier, Dover, where lateral tides can be soul-destroying and coming to an agreement with half a dozen others that we'd have to each cast 50m uptide to hold.
It worked brilliantly, but can be a pain if all don't do the same!



PS when fishing at Southsea last week, a bloke wandered along and asked me if spines were necessary?

"You know, leads with spines coming out of them."

Aaaaah yeh. You'll need 'spines' alright!

[skatenchips]

I understand the principles Ada.......lol
It is the application of whether you can "get away with"
using a lighter grip lead with a bigger bow in a strongish tide
or if you have to use a heavier weight with a smaller bow
but to the same effect.
All I seem to see along the south coast is standard breakaways
but wondered if uptide lead grip with 6" wires that ive seen in
Kent harbour fishing articles would be of better use in this method.

Gazza

[gremlin]

Using a lighter grip lead would actually defeat the object of the exercise which is getting a lead to 'anchor' in a strong lateral tide.
The other benefit of a 5 - 7 oz lead is acting as a 'bolt-rig' to hook your fish. (Remember it's no use striking with a 50 yard bow in the line).

Fixed grips (rather than breakouts) will give better grip and less 'failures' when big tides are accompanied by deep water like that found at Dover outer piers.
Fixed leads are a liability where it is snaggy or a tackle graveyard.

Big long wires have a habit of cartwheeling and short, stubby grips are a better bet.

My Dover bombs for this purpose had these proportions .... monsters needed!



The general method I am talking about from the beach looks something like this hasty sketch ....

[vifferrider]

Wow

Excellent thread ;D

Thanks for that diagram Gremlin, even though it may seem common sense , some of us novices would not think of that method

Rich

[slipperylimpet]

Just one thing I would like to add is that if there is a lot of weed around then the slacker you line the more likely it is to catch weed. So the more weed the tighter and higher your line needs to be. Also stronger tides tend to have more weed in them so if your aim is to use this method in stronger tides then the more chance you have of catching weed. But definately worth having in your armoury!

[greysfanboy]

This is something I do regularly fishing in strong tidal areas. Unfortunately these marks are popular with lots of other people, and more unfortunately still there are novices who are also unwilling to learn. There are two or three marks like this on the IOW that I just will not go to anymore as idiots won't learn to cast uptide and hold bottom, and simply get dragged over everybody else's lines.

solehunter will know the places I'm talking about, as will other seasoned Wight anglers

[solehunter]

greysfanboy said:

This is something I do regularly fishing in strong tidal areas. Unfortunately these marks are popular with lots of other people, and more unfortunately still there are novices who are also unwilling to learn. There are two or three marks like this on the IOW that I just will not go to anymore as idiots won't learn to cast uptide and hold bottom, and simply get dragged over everybody else's lines.

solehunter will know the places I'm talking about, as will other seasoned Wight anglers

I sure do mate. But `everyone elses lines` are not a problem to me as i avoid other anglers most of the time, except for mates in the know

slipperylimpet said:

Just one thing I would like to add is that if there is a lot of weed around then the slacker you line the more likely it is to catch weed. So the more weed the tighter and higher your line needs to be. Also stronger tides tend to have more weed in them so if your aim is to use this method in stronger tides then the more chance you have of catching weed. But definately worth having in your armoury!

Fair comment, but uptiding when its weedy is the best time to do it in my opinion. When your weight is uptide of your rod, all of the weed is going to run up your line and sit on the surface in the bow....not around your baits...as it would if you were down tiding

[skatenchips]

yes,your diagram is as I do on swollen rivers with flat leads
but i have found I can hold bottom with a slightly lighter lead
by introducing more line to the bow.....so in effect creating a
straighter line from the bend in the bow to the lead...
The spring back or drop back bite on your rod tip is wound down
onto as you say but me thinks weed on the line..size of fish and strength of tide will all play there part in whether you can actually try a balanced weight approach.....I think the main differnce here is that adding "grips"of any kind to the weight
will make a dragging rather than rolling effect.
No matter mate....it just makes a change to think of wots goin on
rather than just lobbing a heavy lead out and hoping it stays put.

cheers for ya thoughts..!!

Gazza