Watercraft

Gravel pits are stacked with features both visual and those on the lake bed.

With the aid of a feature finding outfit it is possible to make a detailed map of the lake bed, you can locate gravel bars,weed beds,plateaus,silt, gulleys and find out the depths in which you intend to fish, in a relatively short space of time, purpose built rods can be purchased however a descent carp rod of approximately 2.75lb testcurve will do the job. When making your map enter each swim on the venue and all the features such as bars, gulleys, pads, etc.

I recommend using braid in your set-up purely for the fact that every little derformation on the lake bed can and will be felt through the rod a rough guide will be......... 1. If you feel a tap tap sensation that will be gravel.....2. A plucking sensation will be weed........3. If the lead is hard to pull out then glides smoothly that will be silt or clay.....4. If however it drags this could be fine weed or deep silt.... This you will find comes easy to recognise with a bit of practice and experience....Below is a simple feature finding set up the lead is a gripper type lead this I find helps, this is attached to approximately 12" of 30lb b/s monofilament and on the other end is an oval ring, thread the main line through the ring follwed by two rubber beads then tie on your marker float I prefer the MCF range they are very bouyant and large enough to see at extreme range.