Silt

[Golden Paws]

Just got back from a weekend on a water I thought I knew pretty well. I caught a 21-9 fully scaled mirror and 13-2 common on a water that is fished 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the warmer months so almost catching is a bonus.

I've got a newish bait boat (sorry Yonny!) and it's got all the bells and whistles, GPS and sonar. The lake is at least 2 foot down as you can see the tide line on all the islands. I was getting a pretty steady 3 to 3.2 foot after the marginal shelf and sent the boat out to an island. Unfortunately I must have got a bit too close and managed to ground it! Over a grands worth of tech beached 50 yards away and I couldn't get it back to deeper water.  Nothing else for it, roped in the bloke in the swim next door to help and then stripped down to my under crackers and waded in. The marginal shelf was clear and then I hit the silt, probably up to my knee. It was so thick, I was having to breast stroke to get through it. Luckily the sonar was spot on and the water didn't go above my belly button. There was a clearish channel between 2 islands where the silt was a lot less but there are also some aeration pumps nearby which probably helped to keep it clear.

Luckily I have always tended to fish close to the islands and just at the bottom of the marginal shelf so I was probably fishing the best areas anyway.

I wasn't expecting the silt to be anywhere near that thick and the sonar was only showing a clear bottom. After I got it back, I got out the marker rod and cast out a heavy lead and dragged it through the area I had just waded through and although it did feel like silt, I would have guessed it at a couple of inches at most.

My local water is brick hard at the inlet end where I do most of my fishing and so a 3.5 oz lead is my weapon of choice and that's all I had in my bag. I normally fish a helicopter rig rather than a lead clip which is fortunate but now wonder how many times I've been buried with no chance of a bite.

Just dug out a load of 1oz leads and probably won't use back leads on there again despite liking the fact that there isn't any line cutting through the swim. I try fluorocarbon on my reels every couple of years and then pretty soon realise why I hate it as a main line! Many years ago I did a compromise and fished a 30 foot leader of 20lb fluorocarbon but hated the way the knot clattered through the rings when bringing a fish to the net and gave it up as a bad job.

Anyone else had experiences with silt?