Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Bag up on the 5m line – Tommy Pickering
It’s the one place you can bet will produce quality fish and former World Champion Tommy Pickering is here to show you how
IF YOU read the match reports in our sister title Angling Times you will notice a recurring theme in the manner of how the events are won. The ‘five-metre line’ is a phrase that crops up on numerous occasions, but exactly why is fishing at this particular distance so effective? Angling legend Tommy Pickering believes it is the most important area of any commercial lake swim and has caught literally thousands of large carp from this zone during his illustrious career. “If I had to pick one part of my swim that could guarantee me a netful of big carp then I would pick the 5m line,” explained the Maver-backed former World Champion. “It is an area that fish will regularly patrol and there are several reasons why it is such a banker.”
Finding the slope
The vast majority of commercials have been dug in a similar fashion leading to a common topography. A small ledge is constructed close to the bank to provide shallow water in the margins before a slope begins, dropping down into deeper water. It is at the bottom of this slope where fish congregate and on most venues you will find it by shipping out to 5m. “Any leftover bait that is chucked in after a session or wafted about in the margins rolls down to the bottom of this slope and fish get used to patrolling this area for food. It is important to plumb around carefully when you start so that you find what is called the crease. This is where the slope meets the flat bottom.” When plumbing up, set the depth and ship out very slowly. Keep lifting and dropping the plummet every foot you move. You will notice the depth changes slightly each time but once it levels out and remains the same no matter how much further you go out, you have found the bottom of the slope. Tommy prefers to fish a foot up the slope because this keeps your rig away from any big beds of silt that have built up at the bottom of it.
Keep on feeding
It is very rare that an area of your swim will get fed from the very first minute of the session to the last, but Tommy never lays off the 5m line. “Most parts of your peg only get bait added to
them for a small part of the day. For example, if I am fishing the pellet waggler I will regularly trickle in bait while attacking it but when I abandon that for, say, the margins I am done with it for the day. “But the 5m line is the exception and I will feed it by hand right from the start and keep doing so until the end. I don’t expect the fish to be sat there instantly but they can turn up at literally any time so you need to make sure there is already plenty of bait to hold them when they finally arrive.” If a mixture of F1s and carp are the target then feed a small handful of 4mm pellets every five minutes, switching to 6mm when mirrors and commons are the primary species. Once Tommy starts to actually fish on the line he will change from feeding by hand to cupping in the bait. This helps concentrate the fish over the exact spot where your rig is sat, reducing the number of fish that are charging through the swim and brushing up against your rig.
Swim rotation
Tommy never starts fishing at 5m because the fish tend to inhabit other areas of the lake at the very start of the day. As the hours pass the fish will gain confidence and come closer to the bank and, as they make their way into the margins, they are often stopped in their tracks by what they find. “The 5m line is a great place to try when the bites dry up on another line. I will only give it a very brief go and if I haven’t had a bite within three minutes I will leave it alone for a period because the shoal hasn’t turned up yet. But I keep feeding at the same rate as I was previously. “It tends to become really prolific in the last couple of hours of a session and you can guarantee that when you get one fish there will be a lot more stacked up behind it just waiting to be caught.”
Rely on simple rigs
If you were to ask Tommy about his secret to success he would tell you that keeping things simple has played a major part. That ethos certainly shines through in the pole rigs he uses, with nothing complicated in his set-up. “I always use a float that won’t get knocked around easily by big fish. I need to be able to tell the difference between a line bite and a proper indication where the fish has mouthed the bait
and a Maver MVR Finesse helps me do just that. “The shotting pattern is incredibly simple and I use a bulk and two smaller dropper shot below. I go with what I call my ‘6-6-6’ rule. “This is a six-inch hooklength, six inches between each dropper shot with one tight to the hooklength, and six inches between the top dropper and the bulk. “In water that is less than 4ft I switch this to the ‘4-4-4’ rule which works on exactly the same principle.” When big carp are on the cards he uses 0.18mm Maver MV-R Rig Mono to 0.16mm MV-R Hooklength Mono and a size 16 CS27 hook that is baited with a banded 6mm pellet. The prolific Hayfield Lakes in South Yorkshire was where Tommy tackled up and he kickstarted the day fishing the long pole. A couple of early 3lb carp came to the net and all the while he had been priming the 5m line, flicking in small quantities of 6mm pellets over the top. With the long line flagging, Tommy had a look short after an hour but it was immediately evident it was too early and it was back long. But on the second stint which came about two and a half hours in it was a different story, with the big carp instantly queuing up for the bait. “Stay patient, keep the bait trickling in and the 5m line is almost guaranteed to produce some very big carp next time you’re on the bank.”