Firstly what you see on the bottom depends on the water you are fishing. For example, if you are fishing in a lake that is dirty – if it is a muddy water - then the fish is not really going to see anything and it is doing everything by touch. However,if the water is clear and the sunlight is penetrating through to the bottom of the lake, then it is going to see everything so in practice it’s best to take it that the carp can see everything that you are doing whatever type of water you are fishing. The first thing I would say is that even if the water is muddy and that the fish can’t see what you are doing, do everything on the basis that the fish can see your rig – hide everything, get everything pinned down so that the fish can’t see or feel anything. Alternatively if the water is clear, the fish will be able to see literally everything so whatever style of water you are in, you should treat all your fishing on the basis that the fish can see everything. The only time this will not be as important is if a lake has not really seen any angling pressure and the carp do not know what angling pressure is.

One of the most visible things under water is the hook shining. A lot of people are concerned about the fish seeing the rig and some people are concerned about the lead itself being visible, but for me shine is one of the most obvious things under water. Anglers that are aware of how important this issue is use a lot of equipment that is matt and not shiny in any way shape or form. Swivels and hooks have got Teflon coating on to take the glare off and this is a big start. I remember once when I was diving at a lake in England which is a very clear, shallow lake that is, as is usual in England, very heavily fished so the fish know what human beings are and also what rigs look like. I went there to have a look at what a Zig Rig looked like underwater and was using a 14mm yellow pop-up – a fairly obvious thing – and as I was swimming towards where it had been cast out, the first thing that caught my eye was notthe bright yellow pop-up, but the glint off the hook.” From then on it was matt hooks for me whenever I fish in clear water. 

It was probably only 50cm or so below the surface so it was getting a lot of light but nevertheless even when you are on the bottom, (the clearer the water and the more sunlight penetrates), you just cannot escape from light and you are going to get hook glint. A glinting hook is the most of obvious thing that is going to stand out to the fish – more than the bait itself. Even if you use a fluoro bait the brightest part of yourset up is where the sun is shining off your swivel or you hook. Imagine a fish looking at baits on the bottom and one of them has got a silver flash by the side of it. It doesn’t take a lot of working out that the one with the shine is different to the others, and the glint will reflect in all directions off the rounded shape of the hook. So the first thing anglers should do, without question, is to try and use something that is not going to reflect light backl ike a matt hook or a hook sleeve. I was about four or five metres away from the hook in clear water, but even then you don’t have a lot of lateral visibility when you are diving and things seem to emerge from the gloom, so the first thing you will see is anything that glints – I call it the Colegate effect. You never know, that flash of light might be attractive for the fish. It might come in and have a look and then see that there is a bait available, but in my eyes, if you can get rid of that and just have the bait, it will be much more effective.


How much sunlight actually gets through to the lake bed is a major part of understanding how things appear on the bottom, mostly it depends very much on the clarity of the water. If you have got suspended solids in the water –e.g.  if it looks green because there is a bit of algae in it, or it’s muddy then the chances are light is not going to penetrate through that much. Very little light will get through muddy water because light cannot pass through solid matter. Having said that, if you were on a crystal clear lake and you look over the side of a boat, you might not be able to see very far down, but at 10 metres it could be just as clear as it is on the surface. Sunlight can travel a long way if the water is clear. If it is not clear, the light will still travel, but the visibility will be more limited. Cassien is a perfect example of a lake where there is excellent visibility on the bottom. 
 
In what we would class as an absolutely gin clear lake, your lateral visibility on the bottom is going to be four or five metres and your vertical visibility is going to be two to three metres, but the clarity of the vertical visibility will be much better than the lateral. When you look through water when you are underwater it is a bit like looking into fog; you can see things directly in front of you that are clear but the further away things are, all you can make out is their shapes. If you are looking down at something, the light reflects back upfrom the bottom so they are a lot clearer. 

The bottom of the lake is also a factor on how clears things look. When we film television programmes or videos over silt or mud the light reflecting off the bottom is alot less than when we are filming over gravel or firm sand. This is because silt absorbs light, whereas gravel and sand bounce the light back up, so you effectively have twice the amount as you have over silt. This might be another reason why fishing over silt is so effective. It is not only because there is more food there, but also perhaps because the fish’s vision is slightly more limited because the light penetration is less as you only have penetration and not reflection as well.” Do leads stand out on the bottom of the lakebed is a very important question I’m always asked, depends on the lakebed that you are fishing over obviously. It goes down to “matching the hatch” as fly anglers say. Lead companies do a variety of colours, but they aren’t always suitable. On the whole though, unless you are fishing over a verybright sandy bottom, I find the best all round colour is a darkish mottled colour like the Korda leads, as it is fairly close to grey sandy soil and also close to silt. If you want to fish on a sand bar then it is going to stick outlike a sore thumb so you want to try and match the bottom. The best thing to do is get some carpenters wood glue, spray your lead and then roll it in some silt out of the margins or whatever is in the edge or on the bank. This way you are camouflaging your own lead with whatever is on the bottom of the lake and you can customize the lead to whichever lake you are fishing on. 



For me it is not just the colour of the leads that makes them stand out, but the way that they lay on the bottom. You think from features written that when the lead hits the bottom it is sitting nice and squarely and flat on the bottom, but it doesn’t necessarily do that as the lake bed is very rarely flat. When you castout an in-line lead for example, it is going to land nose down, and unless you pull it back, the lead will be sitting on an angle of about 45 degrees with the nose in the silt and the back end pointing upwards so the tail rubber coming off it and the leader (if you are using one), or the leadcore will be sticking up like a flag.  To avoid this with an inline the best thing to do is feather the cast, let it come down and then just tweak it straight again so that you are laying everything down onthe bottom. Again if there are snags or anything on the bottom, even if you pull back and think it feels quite nice, you may have pulled back onto a small stone or other bit of debris which will then lift up the lead and make it a lot more obvious. 

To conclude on leads, the best thing you can do with them is to camo them to exactly what you are fishing over the top of, but in all fairness to the lead makers this often means leaving a lead the colour it is manufactured as it is a pretty good colour for most lakes. Only lighten them up if you know you are fishing on a clean bit of bright sand or gravel. You don’t see many bright white or yellow stones on the bottom of a lake, as most of them have been covered in silt over the years and a fresh bright new one appearing will standout like a sore thumb.