Fishing among aquatic vegetation is always very effective – in the rivers under the floating carpets of weeds there are not only chubs and barbel.
River anglers will certainly sign it – Tam, where leaves of aquatic vegetation can be seen on the surface, the fish also gather there.
In the shade of green floating carpets, after all, chubs are looking for food, barbels, roaches and daces. Almost all carpets have holes and tunnels with free water. These places are very easy to catch. In the tunnels among the aquatic vegetation I am regularly successful both with a float, as well as on the ground. I let the float drift along the vegetation belt. When deciding to fish from the ground, I pay attention to it, to bring my bait under the rug, and there the plants themselves will hold it in place. It is much more difficult. when dense aquatic vegetation covers the entire fishery. At first glance, you get the impression, that there is even no way to throw the bait into the water. Most of my colleagues, guided in life by the principle of doing everything along the least resistance line, he avoids such places immediately and tries his luck in other sections of the river with little water vegetation.
Under the rug
We have a rather strange situation like this here, that in summer hardly anyone goes fishing in places, in which most of the fish from the river are concentrated. Therefore, I would like to share a few ways with you, how you can effectively fish for even the most overgrown sections of the river. First we need to clear up one thing – Looking at the fishery, we can only see the top surface of the green carpet of vegetation, but we are completely unable to see it, most importantly – shaping the bottom. Sometimes the obstacles lying at the bottom are hidden among the water plants, holes or small underwater hills. These landmarks attract fish with magical powers. Sometimes an ordinary canopy of vegetation is enough – the fish find shelter under it from the rays of the sun, and the insect larvae, which are their main food, constantly fall on their heads.
Probing sensitively
Of course, this does not apply to winter, when aquatic vegetation sinks to the bottom and dies. In the cooler months of the year, the water flows in the river bed much faster. The fish then try not to waste unnecessary energy to stay in the current continuously and stand in the hollows m at the bottom of the river. A successful angler simply needs to know, where are such lows. How to find them? The simplest method is to carefully sound the entire strip of vegetation. We must use a fairly large weight, because only then will our measurements be truly accurate. The light probe weight does not always reach the bottom, as it sometimes stops on dense aquatic vegetation. Sometimes it is also slightly moved downstream – The float of the sounding set then goes under the water. and it seems to us, that the fishery is deeper, than in reality. My advice is to sound out as many places as possible, because only in this way will we have a reasonably accurate picture of the bottom shape. Rivers are mostly shallow in many areas covered with aquatic vegetation. In this case, exact probing, inch by inch is just an unnecessary waste of time. Wading is a much better and more effective way, whether it's in trouser boots, whether it's in swimming trunks. I always start wading from the upper limit of the section I have selected and I go downstream very slowly. All the time I carefully check the bottom of the river in front of me with the telescopic landing net handle, thanks to which it has never happened to me before, to suddenly disappear under the water. When searching, I almost always come across holes in the bottom, and in many such places the river is even a meter deeper than normal. After finding attractive holes, I always ask myself two questions - how to prepare this place for fishing and how I will fish? If on a shallow one (so almost always overgrown) of the river section, we will manage to locate a distinct depression in the bottom, we can be sure, that many different fish gather in this place, mostly barbel and chub, because they are species that have a special fondness for places covered with aquatic vegetation.
Keeping the distance
Until a few years ago, I did something more or less – I removed part of the water vegetation above the depression (making it easier to toss the kit), lured and angled directly in the hole. I was able to catch a lot of fish this way, however, a problem arose very quickly – the constantly disturbed barbel left this place for good with time. Today my approach is completely different – I no longer fish in the hole, but about five meters above. The fish find my groundbait (bait) following the sense of smell (the smell of the bait streak). The above method of fishing has one great advantage – concerned barbells (one or more of them) they can immediately take refuge in "home", that is, in a nearby hole.
Fishing directly over the bottom recess still scares the barbel in their natural hiding place and there is a serious danger, that in time the fish will leave this place and move to some other stretch of the river. This had happened to me many times before. When fishing a few meters from the "house" I know barbels very well, where the frightened fish will run after breaking off the hook. I leave her alone then, that she would calm down and overcome her suspicions. After some time, the hunger will be felt anyway and the bar will reappear near my bait.
The length of the rod
Now for some tips, how we should fish for "hot spots" among aquatic vegetation. On the one hand, our hunting position should not be too far from the site, where the fish stand (a few meters is enough). On the other hand, we must be aware of this, that we are the ones who decide, precise lure, where the barbel will feed. For example, we found a hole in the middle of the river bed, away from the shore, let's say two rod lengths. However, nothing stands in the way, to draw the fish a little closer to the shore by smudging our groundbait, the length of the rod to be precise. Thanks to this, it will be easier for us to fish, i.e. precisely cast the lure on the float set in the breaks between aquatic vegetation and haul fish caught. Apart from that, when fishing in shallower water we will have a better overview of it, what is happening in the baited place. After selecting a promising fishery, we must first remove some of the aquatic vegetation from there, so that our groundbait and lure easily sink to the bottom. An ordinary metal rake is a suitable tool to prepare the fishery, obviously without a wooden handle. Attach a rope to the rake and throw it in the chosen place. A few swipes across the bottom is enough, that there is a gap suitable for fishing between the vegetation.
In the fishery itself, the bottom can only be raked in an area of several dozen square centimeters. Only that is important, so that we have a landing net with a long handle or a convenient one (read with a small amount of vegetation) conditions for the landing of a slippery fish. The lobby must be very strong, because the barbell, who will manage to enter the weed, it is practically impossible to remove.
Five point
Finally, let's imagine such a situation, that we are standing on the river bank, which on the episode 50 meters is covered with a carpet of aquatic vegetation without any breaks suitable for fishing. Previously, we wade in trouser boots along the entire length of this section, we found five very promising places under the vegetation and convenient fishing spots on the shore. A few minutes of work all over the place and here we have five small commas among the vegetation, roughly the length of the rod, so we can precisely bait and fish. We walk along the river bank against the tide, so we start fishing at the lowest point.
The float set is lowered into the water on a rod without a reel or on a long match rod. If, after catching a few barbel or chub, there is a break in the bites, we move on and catch the next comma.
After reaching the last comma and catching it, in the first comma (the lowest) the fish have calmed down a long time ago and we can successfully try to fish there again. So we go down the river and start all the fun all over again. Please pay attention: angler, who prepares a few corridors in the weed constantly feeds the bait in an optimal way, he doesn't have to wait for hours in one place for a bite, and that always means catching more barbel and chub.
