Advice please on Trotting.

[darren]

Last year i did a bit of trotting for chub and barbble on my local river.The river Ribble at The tickle trout hotel stretch at preston.
I now want to get a bit more into this method.As anyone got any advise on types of floats,rods,line.and baits.
Cheers Darren.

[excarper]

Use a rod thats 13foot long or longer. Yes the longer the rod the better. This helps you mend the line and hold back your float. As for reels probably the best is a centr pin if not a closed face reel. Abu have brought out a new range of reels. You can of course use a fixed spool reel but you will need to fish with the bail arm open and your finger on the lip of the spool to allow line to run off down the swim. Make sure you fill your spool to the brim as this makes it easier to control. TRy using preston powerline (hi tech) mainline. 0.15 mm is about six pound breaking strain for the chub and large roach. You can scale down to 0.11 (3 pound) for the smaller fish and any decent body up river float will do. AS your fishing a moving bait try spraying maggot and or castor at the head of your swim and follow down with your hookbait. Split shots all grouped together below half depth to avoid tangles. Keep feeding every cast or two just enough to keep fish competing for the feed. As you reach the bottom of your run just hold back the float a second or so this will lift your bait upwards and normally you get a take. Good luck when you go.

[pingu]

good post excarper

only thing i know really is faster flow = bigger float to hold more shot to get bait down

must admit allthough love doing this on river i am a bit of a heathen with normal reel and go for it sorry


dave

[barbelblanker]

Barbel, what the hell would I know about that?

For silver fish and chub though......

Don't try and cast too far out. Cast top and bottom floats with an underhand or sideways flick. A stick past 2-3 rod lengths is out of control.
Cast slightly downstream and feather the line (stop it gently) just before it hits so the line is staight to your float and it doesn't land in a tangling heap. You need to try to keep the line mended (coming from upstream of the float). If the line goes below the float it starts dragging it faster than the flow and across which USUALLY means no bites .
Put a small shot (6 or 8) about two feet above your float and use this to guide how much to hold the float back. If you want your bait to fish on the drop spread your shot out like a shirt button. This causes the bait to rise more when to "check" (hold back) the float. If you want your bait to get down and stay down then bulk shot nearer the hook.
Suit the float to the flow.
Stick floats are great in a slightly upstream and behind you wind as this allows you to keep the line coming from the upstream side of the float. This slightly slows the float down. If you have a downstream wind or a boily swim then the stick looses all it's advantages. Go for a heavier balsa float or an avon. Alsohgolds true if the swim is deep and going through as you need to bulk shot near the hook to get the bait down and to stay down.
If the wind is strong and down stream you loose all control over top and bottom floats and might be better off with a medium to large waggler.
Just remember , it's already been said, the key is to keep feeding. Also remember that different baits fall through the water at different rates. Wet hemp sinks a lot faster than maggots so fir the maggots a little bit further up than your hemp. The hemp will hold the fish. If you get this right the fishing will gradually improve as fish move up the bait trail till they reach the "killing" zone. This is the area where , assuming it's all gone right' the majority of your bites will come. Keep feeding the way you were before and this should stay in the same place.
And finally, remember there ARE days when the fish didn't read the rule book. It's just not very often.
Above all , have fun.
I personally think that this is THE most satisfying way of fishing for fish on a river. That's why I am hoping to get two sessions at least in the next week or so. This is the time for great river roach fishing. Tight lines.
Oh and you might want to get anglers mail or Improve Your Coarse fishing as they both have articles on just this subject (well you didn't really think I used to live by the River Avon in bath did you ?).