-
Also on both lake and river my float after casting was at the correct height then 30 seconds later would very gradually sink down
On the river this is probably caused by the current pushing your float to the side and your sweetcorn catching on the bottom, slowly pulling the float under.
If you have a waggler set up (line only going through bottom of float) on the lake then it could be wind pushing the slack line (between rod and float) which pulls the float under. Your sweet corn will be sat on the bottom of the lake anchoring everything in place.
Sweet corn sinks so you have to take this into account when adding your shot and setting the depth. Sometimes the weight of the corn is enough to sink the float. On a lake you can normally get away with being a little over-depth as the corn will just sit there but on a river you need to be a bit under-depth to stop it from catching on the river bed as it is carried along by the current.
The fish you caught was a roach btw.
Arducius-
Thanks a lot for the reply. Already I like the fact fishing isn’t something you can master overnight, it takes years, or better decades, so will try and soak up all the advice. Especially on the river, the gap between float and hook was far greater than I imagined the depth of the water was so thought something was off.
Thanks also for the simplified explanation – much appreciated, e.g. I’ve heard the term ‘waggler’ a lot but nice to know what it actually means. Good point regarding the weight of the sweetcorn, will take bait weight into account when setting up my float before leaving the house, great point. Quite fortunate there’s a few fishing spots my way and the bait shop is friendly, sure I’ll be annoying them more. Here’s to weeks/years of getting it wrong and learning along the way!
@853Superfly will watch, ta!
jambon
Also on both lake and river my float after casting was at the correct height then 30 seconds later would very gradually sink down, any idea what's happening? It was really windy if that has anything to do with it?