RINGER TO THE RESCUE
Champion angler Steve takes an in-depth look at your angling problems
Steve shows you how to catch shallow in the margins
Can I really catch shallow in the margins or is it a waste of time? Jason Froud, Aldershot
“The last two hours is normally when the edge comes to life”
FISHING shallow in the margins is more common than you might think, especially on venues where F1s dominate.
This is a species that loves to come off bottom to feed. You can catch carp shallow in the edges too, but success is dependent on many things.
The depth of the swim, the type of fish you are after, any features like trees or reeds and sometimes the actual number of fish feeding in the swim are all factors to take into account.
Even if you don’t think you’re going to catch many fish shallow, having a rig set up ready to go and test the water is a wise move – switching to fishing off bottom could just trigger a great response from the peg.
Why fish shallow?
There are two reasons why you might want to fish shallow in the margins – the first is down to depth. Sometimes you will find the margins are far deeper than you’d like, 4ft of more.
In this case, you might try to keep the fish on the bottom, but line bites and foul hookers become a problem. You need to fish shallow to try and overcome this.
Equally you might find there are simply too many fish in the margins, making shallow fishing the best option in terms of catching them.
Another situation where shallow fishing may become an option is if your margin has a lot of features which prevent you getting tight to the mudbank and the really shallow water, – swims with overhanging trees or big rush beds, for instance. In this scenario fishing shallow can often be the best option.
Talking rigs
Light floats are the key, bearing in mind you are probably going to be fishing anything from 6ins-18ins deep. For really shallow work I use an MW Cookie, but in 12ins-18ins of water I like a MW Guru AR as it allows me to read indications that little bit better, thanks to the bristle tip.
Mainline and hooklength is the same as for any type of margin fishing. For instance, if I’m after carp from 6lb-15lb I’ll opt for 0.22mm N-Gauge mainline to a 4ins hooklength of 0.19mm in the same material. Hook choice is a size 16 or 14 Super MWG eyed.
For F1s and smaller carp
I’ll fish a lot lighter, 0.17mm mainline to a 0.15mm hooklength. Hook is a size 14 or 16 Super LWG eyed.
Shotting patterns vary, but quite often I will end up with all the shot bulked under the float. If I’m missing bites I will try a little bulk set 4ins from the hook to try and make the rig more positive in terms of hitting bites.
Banded baits
Note that I use eyed hooks for both rigs. The reason is that when fishing shallow in the edges I will be hair-rigging.
Hair-rigging is far better when fishing shallow – if I fish a short line between pole-tip and float and stay tight on the float, when I get a proper bite the fish will almost hook itself.
As for hookbaits, when fishing shallow in the edge there are loads that work – hard pellets, meat, casters and maggots to name but a few – with pellets probably being the best of the lot.
The right elastic
Elastic choice is worth a mention because normally when fishing shallow in the edge you want a soft elastic. For big carp I will normally fish Black Hydro, while for smaller carp and F1s it’s White Hydro.
If you have a margin peg that is full of snags you might have to up the elastic strength to take the snags into account. After all, there is no point fishing a soft elastic if every fish is snagging you up.
Different feeding
Normally, when margin fishing, the feeding is all about lots of bait and a very positive approach. When trying to catch shallow in the margins, though, it’s very different.
You see, the secret to shallow fishing is to get the fish up in the water and competing for the loose offerings, and feeding little and often is the key to achieving this. When I say ‘little and often’ and if I’m feeding hard pellets I’m talking about six to eight 6mm pellets every 10 to 15 seconds.
This will create regular noise on the surface which in turn should help to pull even more fish into the swim.
Make use of cover
A great little tip if you have a lot of cover in your margin swim is to feed some bait into the cover so that it is in the water, but it gets held up on the foliage. The bait that is held up will help to draw the fish up in the water and at times you will see them swirling to try and get to it.
All in the timing
Catching shallow in the edge can happen early in the day, particularly if the weather is hot and you have some cover. That said, the last two hours is normally when the edge comes to life.
The beauty of shallow fishing in the edge is that you normally see the fish when they arrive, either in the form of the odd swirl for the loosefeed, or you’ll hear fish sucking against the foliage for bait that’s become stuck. Basically they tell you when they’ve arrived and when to fish for them!