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Touch Ledgering - is it worth it?

When you touch ledger alot, if you excuse the pun, you definately get into feeling for bites and as such timing your strike accordingly. With practise you get better at it.

I was touch ledgering a huge (50mm) paste bait laste night, this was the first time since last winter and I was defintely rusty. Chub can still be infuriating when you touch ledger!

And as Steve says, I am often suprised when a chub bite turns into a barbel.
 
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Id rather strike at a twitch then regret not striking it. The disappointment of not landing a fish is always overshadowed by the fact that im down the river surrounded by natures beauty (and not stuck indoors with **** tv on babies cryin, and the washing machine droning on and on and on )
 
I enjoy touch legering because it is tactile and an enjoyable experience. Whether or not it catches me more fish is irrelevant to me.

I do it because I enjoy it.

Those who question touch legering without trying it first are misguided souls destined to wander the Earth never knowing the supreme happiness that comes when something alive attempts to steal your rod - and fails :)

Conrad
 
Steve Williams said:
Not disagreeing with you totally Steve, but it is amazing how many of these 'chub pulls', when struck at, suddenly become Barbel.....



Steve
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Hi Steve, just been going over your little ditto, ref Trundling on that thread i started this spring, great advice. I take it those little pulls Steve are when you are trundling?.

Jon
 
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To anyone who fishes regularly with a quivertip, this thread will bring a smile. If you don't believe me try it, you will be amazed at the action on the tip before/if the 3ft pull comes

Best Regards
Dave
 
I used to touch leger alot. As many have said on here, even if it makes no difference to what you catch, it adds to the excitement of getting a bite tenfold. As has also been said, it allows you to watch the the river/wildlife etc without missing bites which you might otherwise do so.

I don't touch leger for barbel much anymore unless I am roving, not because I don't enjoy it but due to a bad back which means holding a rod even when it's supported, can be painful. I almost always use hair rigged baits and did so when touch legering, and as long as the bait is against the hook bend I have hooked the majority of the bites I have had. I virtually never strike at plucks. Most of the time these do tend to be a precursor for a proper bite. On occasions when plucks have not developed I have sometimes struck at them to see if I can hook anything. On these occasions I have never had anything more substantial than monster gudgeon or dace and roach.

I know this proves little but thought my experience of the method may help.

I still use touch legering when targeting chub or perch but these trips are pretty rare. The difference here is that I tend to hold a loop of line rather than just have it hooked over my finger so that I can give line before the strike if necessary.

Cheers
m
 
Good luck to anyone touch ledgering. It's something I used to do and gave up on long ago. I'm sure it does have its time and place but without practice it can be useless. I lost count of the number of swims I ruined by striking inappropriately. My hook up rate was such that I'd have been better off waiting for a wrap around.
 
Huge fan of touch ledgering! Although it can get uncomfortable at times - in my opinion it is the best form of fishing - you learn so much more.

Great bit of fishing to get your 9 by the way! :)
 
Thanks for all the replies so far guys, interesting reading. I'm a massive fan of the method for winter chub, and as many have said it's a huge thrill when barbel fishing. More often than not, as Paul stated in his post on the first page, the thrill comes from having the line literally ripped from your fingers - the touch ledgering equivelent of a 3' twitch - an awesome experience i will never tire of.

In my opinion the method comes into it's own on the days when the fishing isn't so good - such as the situation i experienced on tuesday. The day before, with 2 rods on the rests the tips were flying round on a regular basis. The river had 9' on NSL and the fish were on the munch. By tuesday the river had dropped to just 2' on, and the action was much slower. I think the fish were pretty much full having fed well during the flood and were just picking at odd baits. Same stretch by the way, different swims - but the area does recieve a lot of pressure and i'm convinced the barbel are more than capable of picking up and rejecting baits presented on long hooklinks if they are not really having it. As i said in my original post, i was just getting odd taps on the tip - but i had a sneeky suspicion they were barbel and not the often thought chub or roach tap. So it proved and i added a second smaller barbel to the 9lb'er. I feel i must add, however, that i also caught a 1lb 8oz roach after one of the barbel plucks!

Great fun on any occasion, and on it's day - unbeatable. ;)
 
Dave Wingfield said:
To anyone who fishes regularly with a quivertip, this thread will bring a smile. If you don't believe me try it, you will be amazed at the action on the tip before/if the 3ft pull comes

Best Regards
Dave
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:):) So very true, so very true. I am sat here nodding to myself in agreement.;):)

But I guess its like all things, you get to understand your chosen method, only some methods tell us more than others.;)
 
After getting a few tips by pm tonight, and after this evenings rain. I will be trying this method out on a few pegs which are made for this on my local river, from this i may get an idea what all the fuss is about........ i hope.
 
Fished last night in the rain stuck under a brolly so fished 2 rods, had 5 Barbel, 3 to touch ledgered meat, 1 on 2nd rod hair rig pellet, later 1 on 2nd rod hair rig boilie. 2nd rod set up with 3oz lead, touch ledger rod with half ounce. Had 5 Chub as well all to touch ledger rod, no firm conclusions it might be different next time out!
 
Jon Frisby said:
Hi Steve, just been going over your little ditto, ref Trundling on that thread i started this spring, great advice. I take it those little pulls Steve are when you are trundling?.

Jon
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No Jon.

Its rare to get anything but a decent hook up when 'rolling'.
The 'Chub pulls' I'm referring to are when fishing more static, and touch ledgering.

Hope you catch a few on the Wye Steve;).


Steve
 
Hair rigged baits should provide good indication of a bite for obvious reasons but I did have one intsance when this didn't apply. About this time of year a couple of years ago on the Warks Avon, somewhere round about 8.30 pm the rod tip beta light started tapping fast but quite delicately. I watched it for a few seconds waitng to see what would develop then went to carefully pick the rod up. As I did so I saw the spool slowly but steadily turning so struck. The result was a pb barbel. I think the fish felt the hook but didn't panic and instead tried to shake the hook from it's mouth while slowly drifting back out of the danger area. It was almost as if the barbel realised it's mistake and tried to sneak off unnoticed.
 
Lost count of the number of gentle taps and raps that have resulted in big barbel, particularly in the colder months. Not every bite is a 3 foot twitch ;)

regards
Richard
 
What an utterly depressing thread this is ! Two rods,baitrunners, bolt/hair rigs, big leads, boilies/pellets, is that what fishing for a thoroughly absorbing species has been reduced to ? My advice ? leave touch ledgering alone, its way too involving and requires way too much effort to be bothered with, just carry on boring the bloody things out :rolleyes:
 
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