Why Nigel Sharp loves fishing in weed

I like fishing in a weed, as I find it a challenge – a challenge to find a decent spot to fish. What I have found on weedy lakes is once the area becomes too big, it’s very difficult to get a bite off it; the art is to find a small area, or a relatively new area to fish too, and then manage it, baiting it correctly so you don’t open it up too much.

Often, the smaller the area and the deeper it is, the trickier it is to feel for a drop – and again this goes back to my casting accuracy. There’s a number of different ways to feel for a drop – quite often you can let the lead swing in, but if you’re only fishing a gap which is 2 or 3ft wide in 10ft of water, it’s quite tricky to get a lead to drop straight through it. In a way you have to follow it down with the rod – almost like threading a lead down a drainpipe but without touching the sides. And at distance that’s pretty tricky! Again, it’s all down to practise.

Fishing in weed has become easier over the last few years, since the Chod Rig became mainstream, but one edge I have at the moment is to free-lining a Chod Rig. It works devastatingly well when you find fish fizzing and moving around in the weed at close-range. You can drop it on the heads with zero noise and disturbance.

Dropping a lead into a small hole in the weed is an art form!

Weed-related edges

To ensure I get my line gets down quickly after making my cast, I now soak my line in washing up liquid; it helps your line cut through the surface film and it also makes your line sink better.

Just how precise casting is needed when fishing to small holes in weed, precise baiting is a must too