When legering on still waters, it is usual to fish with a swimfeeder so that you can introduce ground bait and loose feed into the swim near your bait.
Still water legering is a popular technique for catching Bream which are bottom feeders, but this technique will catch many species of fish, and is sometimes necessary when you need to cast further than is possible with float tackle.
As you will be introducing feed into the swim on every cast, it is important that your tackle always lands in roughly the same area to avoid spreading feed widely over the bottom which would result in the fish not being concentrated where you are fishing.
You will normally use the overhead cast to achieve maximum distance, and the first part of ensuring that your tackle always lands in roughly the same place is to choose a marker on the opposite bank, and cast towards that each time.
When you are first starting out, that is probably all you should concentrate on, relying on judgment to cast approximately the same distance each time, but as you progress, you can use rubber bands or line clips to prevent line from being taken from the spool once you have cast the required distance.
For still water fishing you should use the finest tip that came with your leger rod, and you need to position the rod in two rod rests more or less parallel to the bank, so that an angle of about 90 degrees is formed between the tip of the rod and your tackle. This will give the maximum indication on the tip when you get bites.
After casting out, wait a few seconds after the tackle hits the water to allow the leger or swimfeeder to reach the bottom, and then close the bail arm on the reel. Next position the rod in the rests and take up the slack line so that the line between the rod tip and your tackle is tight.
You are now ready to watch the tip for indications of a bite which make come in the form of a pull or tap, or a slackening of the line caused by a fish picking up the bait and swimming towards you.
When you get a bite, lift the rod out of the rests and strike with a sharp movement of the rod away from the tackle.
If bites are coming slowly you may need to re-cast regularly to get a decent amount of ground bait and loose feed into the swim.
Here are some rigs for legering and swimfeeder fishing.
