The tackle was not out of the ordinary; 11ft Avon type rods, 5lb Maxima line, Windbeater floats (the largest we could buy) that took 21/2 SSG shots, and Partridge Specialist hooks ranging from size 12 for maggots, size 10 for corn and size 8 for bread. There was nothing fancy about the presentation either; the floats were locked on the line with two small shots, with the bulk of the weight placed down the line and a number one shot placed about a foot from the hook. The depth of the float was set so that this last shot was just off bottom.

The first problem we encountered was getting the bait to sink quickly enough through the large shoals of rudd – rudd averaging around 1