What's best? Tight or slack lines?

Question: With every man and his dog advocating slack lines (and there are ‘slack lines’ and ‘slack lines’), do you think the over-cautious carp are getting away with it even more than ever, as it goes without saying, bite indication is desensitised with this form of angling? So would the use of laser tight lines, heavy leads and ultra sharp hooks be a natural U-turn progression, leading to more fish hooked, or is the tight line going to put the fear of god into them?

James Armstrong

"Braid and fished tight"

“I use braided main lines fished tight for 90% of my angling, other than marginal work. I use a 12ft fluorocarbon leader and having witnessed my line lay from a boat, tight lines do not travel directly to the lead and it’s very, very rare that your leader is tight, especially when travelling over weed. Generally, the last 10-20yds or more is lying flush on the deck, especially with a sinking leader containing blobs of putty over it.

“Tight lines and braided main lines, combined with sharpened hooks and 4oz leads equals success. The odd carp might spook, but I fish very weedy waters and generally they don’t see or feel it. I would much rather spook the odd fish from my main line than have them continually feed, and pick up my rig, without getting hooked or me knowing.”

Luke Church

"Whatever is right at the time"

“In my opinion I don’t think the over cautious fish are getting away with it more just because an increasing numbers of anglers are adopting this style of angling – at the end of the day if your hooks are sharp and the mechanics of your rigs work the way they should, then surely whether you are fishing tight lines/slack lines/rods on the deck or up in the air, the fish should still get hooked either way? I believe there is a time and a place for each style of bite indication, but knowing what, when, where, etc. is very important. I don’t think completely switching to tight lines would benefit in the long run as under certain circumstances especially when fishing at close-range the fish would sense the angling pressure and vacate an area in no time at all so knowing how to be adaptable with your approach is key to catching more fish.”

Lewis Read

"Cut through the marketing bull"

“It’s all horses for courses! In some circumstances a slack line will keep the fish relaxed and unaware. In other circumstances the fish will resolutely ignore a tight line and feed anyway (especially in a competitive feeding situation on heavily stocked waters).

“There are other times when a tight line is inevitably better (or the priority is on control of the fish right from the off); long-range or fishing near snags for instance. A slack line is obviously a compromise in terms of bite indication – especially if you do not fine-tune your bite indication to maximise the sensitivity – but to my mind it’s better to suffer the consequences of this and get the bite to start with.

“It’s up to us as anglers to look through the marketing bull and decide in each individual circumstance what is best.

“If there is one positive thing to come of the current marketing on tight lines, then it should be a more flexible (non reliance) on slack lines and a better understanding of bite indication for different situations.”

Rob Hughes

"Doing the opposite may help"

"You know, I’m not sure every man and his dog do advocate fishing slack lines! I for one certainly don’t and following the fantastic opportunities we have had with the Below The Surface features and the ability to actually check rather than guess, it’s fair to say my findings and constant questioning has been responsible for the re-think on the slack line debate.

“A lot of anglers now fish tight. I will say though that bite indication is desensitised by tight lines fished badly as well as slack lines fished in the wrong situation so you need to fish the right lay for the situation you are in to get the best indication.

“To answer the crux of your question though, like anything, animals evolve to protect themselves and if everyone is doing one thing, the opposite may well be the best opportunity of catching. Conditioning is one of the biggest reasons we don’t catch. Find a way round it and your catch-rates will increase.”