winning mudline tactics
These shallow swims will produce fish right through a match
FISHING up in the water accounts for many match-winning weights in June and July.
Shallow tactics down the centre of the lake will often catch, but this is not guaranteed. Carp and F1s have too much water to move up and down in, generating line bites and lost fishing time when you’re after a big weight.
The solution of course, is a man-made one... the mudline.
Every snake-lake swim gives you a far bank to go at. Some are cluttered with reeds or sedges, but in an ideal world – and if your venue is heavily match fished – that far side may have been cleared to offer bare earth and, more importantly, shallow water.
This may only be 18ins or so, barely enough to catch in at first glance, but such are the habits of the fish that they’ll be perfectly happy to feed here all day even when their mates are constantly being hoiked out around them. This far bank is a natural holding area for fish, and one you’d be potty to ignore.
Last week, Mosella star Steve Openshaw talked us through his shallow attack at Partridge Lakes. This time round, it’s the turn of the mudline to come under Steve’s scrutiny.
According to the man himself, this is his number one spot to win a match, with the shallow line and the margins secondary swims to turn to at various points in the day.
“Deeper than this and you may be okay, but I wouldn’t want to be fishing in much more than a couple of feet of water. That way I’ll avoid line bites and silly indications on the float. The important factor in deciding where to fish is to get reasonably close to the bank, as the fish will use this as a bit of cover.”
FEEDING
“Pellets can work well on a harder day, but at this time of year I can’t see past using groundbait and dead maggots,” Steve explained.
“These work brilliantly in the near bank margins, and the contours tight across are no different, so why won’t maggots and groundbait work there?
“The answer is that they will! My mix is Sonubaits Margin Carp to which I add a touch of Bag ‘Em Baits XP to lighten it a little. This is mixed dry to be fed loose – you don’t want to feed hard balls in such shallow water as that’s a recipe for liners.
“At the start of a match I’ll give the fish half a large pole pot of groundbait, then switch over to feeding smaller helpings with a pot on the pole.
“My aim at Partridge in summer is to catch shallow down the middle for much of the match, so I only need to introduce enough feed to keep a few fish in the swim at all times – they naturally live on the mud line anyway so you’re not trying to drag them in from other
parts of the swim. I don’t any maggots because I want the fish to find the hookbait – three dead maggots – immediately. Give them too much choice and you won’t get proper bites.”