When fishing a tight line, is my line really off the bottom?
When fishing a tight line does the line near the rig sit on the bottom or off it? Rob Hughes investigates...
“When fishing a tight line does the line near the rig sit on the bottom or off it? Also what is the situation regarding leadcore or unleaded leaders: many anglers think that if we fish leadcore it’s flat on the bottom but does it really lie flat?”
There are a number of variables that affect how the line lays when fishing tight, the main two being water depth and also distance cast. If you are fishing a reasonably tight line at long-range the end nearest the rig will be on or pretty close to the bottom. Conversely, if the water is deep and the cast is short there is more of a chance of the line rising up off the bottom. You can picture what it looks like by thinking of a triangle. The deeper the water and the shorter the distance cast, the more likely the line is going to be off the bottom. If you are fishing an obvious leader such as leadcore or one of the new soft unleaded leader materials, a bow-string tight line is going to lift the leader off the bottom at whatever depth or distance you fish as the pressure from the tightness is likely to be more than the pressure exerted downwards by the leader material. It’s less obvious at distance and in shallow water but at the end of the day it’s all about striking a balance. Water pressure and saturation also have a bit of an effect in that if the line is in the water for a long time e.g. 12hrs or more, it will gradually sink down and lie flat or at least flatter than it was just after you cast out.
As a general rule of thumb, if I am fishing leadcore or unleaded leaders I will fish a semi tight line with a small drop for the bobbins, i.e. I will tighten up then slacken off a little bit to let the core drop down, but I will only do this if I know that there are no obstructions between the rod and the lead. If there are, I will do away with the obvious leader and go for something like a fluoro or just fish naked all the way through as the line will be off the bottom at the lead end and I prefer to use something less obtrusive.
