many years ago, before some of the open matches on the south coast ( portchester open etc ) used to dig bait the day before over low water, where we wanted to fish
at the same time, used to dig in buckets of wet and dry dog food, spread pretty much exactly where we were going to fish
marked the area with a cork pike bung on a few m of line tied to / wrapped round a stone on the ground
decent size patch, of ground covered
always stayed the night before on the mark, few beers, smokes just to make sure no one else bagged it
next day, things would undoubably fall into place, just a case of casting in the general vicinity of the float
last chuck of the day would entail, wrapping a 3 hook flapper round the float n line and dragging it in, bingo, no markers anywhere anymore
wouldnt call it cheating, more like a bit of watercraft / prep work
that was in the days before the onlaught of poxy spiky silver things in the harbours n creeks, and flounder were pretty much the only target
with some rather spectacular bags possible