How effective is it?

This forum is for discussing Stret Pegging.
Post Reply
User avatar
Snape
Bailiff
Posts: 9982
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:52 am
12
Location: North Oxfordshire
Contact:

How effective is it?

Post by Snape »

I have never tried this method (not knowingly anyway) and from what I can tell it involves using an avon style float fished over shotted and over depth so lying flat just downstream of the rod tip fairly close in to the near bank to avoid line going in the water between the rod and float. The bait is held on the bottom by a group of shot. There is a bow in the line between the shot and float so the fish feel no resistance. It you get a downstream bite the float sinks and it cocks on an upstream bite. The bait can be inched down the swim by raising the rod tip to displace the shot and let them settle again. Supposedly the moment of the move is when most bites occur and they are strong.
I'm keen to give this a go for the chub and barbel and even pike.
Link to stret pegging image
http://www.thenumberone.co.uk/float7%20copy.jpg
Pike stret pegging
http://pikeonline.co.uk/rigs/bait-fishi ... g-deadbait
Anyone have any particular experiences?
“Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers,” Herbert Hoover.
`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º>

User avatar
MGs
Pike
Posts: 6417
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:24 pm
12
Location: Cornwall

Re: How effective is it?

Post by MGs »

http://www.traditionalfisherman.co.uk/v ... ilit=stret

It used to work well with a decent flow.The bites are decisive, even from small to moderately sized fish.
Old car owners never die....they just rust away

GloucesterOldSpot

Re: How effective is it?

Post by GloucesterOldSpot »

It's effective, but it takes a bit of time to get the float/shot/depth relationship just right. The way it is described in most old books, with a bulk of shot and a telltale below it resting on bottom is very difficult to make work. John Wilson's method of using a piece of peacock quill laying flat, and a link leger on the bottom is easier to do, but is not stret-pegging in its true sense, as it doesn't readily allow the bait to be worked downstream in stages; it's more of a laying-on method. If you have enough weight on the line to hold the bait in position it's too much for the current to carry downstream when you try to shift it.

The best instruction for stret-pegging I've seen was by Ian Heaps, in Angling Times many years ago. He used a lot of very small shot spread out in groups rather than a concentrated weight, with the float set about 70% deeper than the water being fished. One shot would be down near the hook, then two together a little way above it, then three, then two, then a single one - a kind of double-tapered shotting pattern if you like, spread out between hook and the point where the float would actually be if fishing dead-depth. The float of course is placed further up the line. I tried it and it worked very well, though it still requires some adaptation to suit different current speeds and depths. In gentle flows the shots might be as small as number eights, whereas in fast or heavy water they may need to be BBs.

User avatar
MGs
Pike
Posts: 6417
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:24 pm
12
Location: Cornwall

Re: How effective is it?

Post by MGs »

We used to use groups of No.1 shot but nearly all in the lower half of the line between the hook and float. The distance between the float and hook was approximately twice the depth of water.
Old car owners never die....they just rust away

User avatar
The Sweetcorn Kid
Wild Carp
Posts: 11787
Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2011 7:09 pm
12
Location: Portsmouth
Contact:

Re: How effective is it?

Post by The Sweetcorn Kid »

Martin James uses stret pegging, he is away on the kennet at the moment but I'm sure he will enlighten us on his return. :wink:
SK
The Compleat Tangler

“Imagination is the real magic that exists in this world. Look inwards to see outwards. And capture it in writing.”

Nigel 'Fennel' Hudson



Click here for my Youtube Channel...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoyLH ... 5H4u8sTDgA

User avatar
Snape
Bailiff
Posts: 9982
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:52 am
12
Location: North Oxfordshire
Contact:

Re: How effective is it?

Post by Snape »

The more I read about it, the more I am inclined to use it on the Warks Avon.
“Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers,” Herbert Hoover.
`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º>

User avatar
Burnie
Dace
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:54 pm
6
Location: East Scotland

Re: How effective is it?

Post by Burnie »

I used to use this method for most of my Chub and Barbel float fishing on the Midlands rivers, indeed I have even used it for Bream on the Throop. When the river was really pushing through the amount of shot was greatly increased to allow you to hold position without the shot moving, on occasions you can almost be float ledgering with the shot exceeding the required amount by 100 percent or more. I always had the rod in my hand when using this method and not laying on using a rod rest. I pretty much dispensed with the float in the end and just touch ledgered instead , though I never added shot to the main line direct after learning on the Hampshire Avon about weak spots caused by shot. The link ledger thing was common on the Avon in the early 1970's, probably where John Wilson learnt it, in the days before you could buy ledger stops, we used a bit of drinking straw and a bit of either match stick or reed off the bank, then folded a loop of line above it and added your shot.

User avatar
Ryeman
Roach
Posts: 264
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:31 am
11

Re: How effective is it?

Post by Ryeman »

Didn't Fred J Taylor invent the link ledger? And Dick Walker wrote about stret-pegging in some of his articles. I may be wrong but I think he described it as a good method when the river was up a bit.
I tried it for grayling a couple of times in the Rye at the bottom of my garden. When the level is fairly low trotting is the best method in my lower swim. But one day when it was up and going through too fast I tried stret-pegging in the slower water close to the bank. I couldn't quite make it work properly, but did catch a few grayling. Next day the level had dropped a bit. I tried it again and managed to get it working really well. By lifting the rod tip, and giving a bit of line, I found I could explore every inch of a 20 yard run down to a willow bush. Trouble was, I didn't catch anything!
I'd forgotten about it, but must try it again.

Alan

User avatar
Burnie
Dace
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:54 pm
6
Location: East Scotland

Re: How effective is it?

Post by Burnie »

This time of year I think the slower you can fish a bait for Grayling the better, stret pegging would be my first choice for presentation, oh and try using a pink bug nymph if maggot doesn't work, I caught using this method on the river Earn, a tributary of the Tay a few winters back.

User avatar
Olly
Wild Carp
Posts: 9086
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:58 pm
11
Location: Hants/Surrey/Berks borders.

Re: How effective is it?

Post by Olly »

I used to use "stret-pegging" when the Thames and its tributaries were in flood. It consisted as a trotting float with or without a body. So an Avon type to a simple straight balsa or peacock quill dependent upon how fast the water was. The more or faster flow = more body. Always double rubbered.

I fished them from the top of an eddy. Trotting or bouncing the shots down on the bottom and holding back so just the last shot or few of them were scraping the bottom on the crease. If the river was too fast I would do exactly the same on the inside of the crease. Most of the time it was moved downstream by moving the rod in that direction - not by letting line off the reel. Holding back lifts the bait up (usually) and bites as said above vary from a gentle pull to a violent self hooking pull!

I would also float ledger changing to a small running lead, up to 1/2 oz, and a length of peacock quill as described above as the indicator - float. Again using double rubbers. With a bite the float would slide away and even the rod tip would move - like a quiver - if the fish was pulling hard. This method was used overdepth by 2-3ft so the line was at an angle.

Remembering the above I dont think I have regularly used either method for 50 years at least when I last fished and lived 100m from the Tidal Thames catching roach to 2lb and bream to 3-4lb. Later used the float ledger method at Staines Gasworks with a 17ft fully rung roach pole with centre pin for barbel.

Post Reply

Return to “Stret Pegging”