It was probably a bit deeper further out where the fish are shoaled up in slightly warmer water than shallower spots closer in, especially on big reservoirs. Well done for adjusting tactics and casting that bit further to find the fish.
Ledgering was once dubbed a 'chuck and chance' method, especially by float anglers. Well it is if an angler justs casts out waiting for a bite, but theres so much more to ledgering, especially at range where accurate casting is essential.
My dad taught me a lot as a kid as he used to love tip fishing, especially the swing-tip, which is a very seldom used method nowadays. He read all the angling books he could and i did too.
Back in the late 50s the swing tip was pioneered by Boston tackle dealer Jack Clayton out of a piece of whittled down whalebone to a 3-4" length of hollow rubber tubing. It was basically a 90° swinging hinge fixed onto the rod tip. He used it on Lincolnshire rivers and drains to fish for the huge Shoals of Bream and Roach beyond float range.
Early 60s it was developed further by Fred Foster, a local Swinton miner. He made a swing-tip from the spine of a long plastic comb and made variations of it in length, sometimes weighting it with a piece of lead flashing to counteract windy conditions. I think he developed 'twitching', where he cast beyond a shoal of bream and would lift the rod and reel in slightly ('twitch' it) a foot a so at a time to entice fish to take the bait.
I remember fishing 50+ peg matches on fishing big featureless reservoirs as a kid. My dad would usually be in the money of at least a section win, sometimes in top 3 or winning the match. We used to go on an old clapped out charabanc of a coach from Crown Point, Denton in the early 70s when i was a youngster to Rudyard lake, Bosley, Coombes, Foulridge, and Ogden, all big open reservoirs where swing tipping was very effective before it was superseded by the fibreglass quiver tip.
We'd also fish on the Trent, Severn and river Weaver several times a season. I always remember old wicker boxes being loaded into the hold of the coach and holdalls would be strewn across the luggage area down the aisle, often with the carrying straps flapping about ready to garrote someone walking down the coach. Big buckets of smelly sweating maggots would be wriggling about on the floor of the aisle combined with the waft of fag smoke and stale beer breath in the air evoke memories of friendly banter and good times: )
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Fred Foster. Notice the (then) trendy cagoule and hat.
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I like to use the fixed paternoster on big deep reservoirs and running rig on rivers.