Commercials Part 9 – Advanced Long Pole Fishing

On the drop

There’s more to pole fishing than just always fishing the same way, hard on the bottom. Let’s take another look at that basic rig. It had a small bulk plus two droppers. If your feeding was constant you may have noticed that some of the bites were coming before the float had settled properly, in other words “on the drop”. Sometimes the fish are so keen that you start to get swirls as the fish take the pellets or maggots just under the surface. What if we try a slightly different rig? Store the rig you have been using on a pole winder and make up a new rig. But this time you need a smaller float, one that only takes the equivalent of a no. 8 shot for each foot of depth. The ideal float for this has a slim body. It’s going to be much easier to fish with a light rig like this if there is hardly any wind.

This time when shotting up it is important to spread the shot down the line. Put one no. 8 right under the float, then the next no. 8 a foot below that, and the next one another foot below that, and the next one another foot below. Assuming you have a five foot deep swim, this leaves two foot of line below the last shot. Put a no. 10 shot a foot from the hook. Check the shotting. To trim the float so that just a little of the float tip is showing should only take another no. 10 or two, and these should be put underneath the float. You now have a rig that when laid on the water will give you a slow sinking bait.

Keep up the steady feeding, and start fishing with the new rig. Watch the float like a hawk when it is settling. It may bob, or slide away. You may find your catch rate improving. As it stands you are now fishing a variation of your initial rig in that you are still fishing the full depth of the swim but with the bonus of trying to catch some of the fish that are intercepting your loose feed as it drops through the water. This method of presentation is in itself very useful, and now you have two basic methods of floatfishing. To vary it more, the shotting pattern I have given you is just a starting point. It’s easy to see that by moving shot on the line and varying the size of the shot that you can change the rate that the bait falls through the water. Using a float that takes a smaller shot load and using no. 10s instead of no. 8s will give a slower rate of fall. Moving more shot under the float will also do this, though if you fish a float (attached top and bottom) with too much shot under the float it can be prone to tangle not that that should be a barrier to doing so. In this instance it may be better to change to a smaller float.

When fishing this style you will notice that when striking the bites that when you make contact with the fish it is often as if it is in mid water. In other words the fish are feeding well off the bottom. It’s time to start experimenting further.

Fishing up in the water

Start by shallowing up a couple of feet. Move the extra shot up under the float.Provided you can maintain the constant steady feeding then you should still be catching fish. It may be worth changing to an even smaller float with very small shot only, no. 10 or less. From here on it’s down to you to experiment. There are all sorts of rigs that can work, and you can catch carp, rudd and roach by fishing just under the surface. I’ve had big bags of bream too, fishing this way. It’s a case of experimenting with bait presentation, feeding, depth, hooks, and shotting, and remembering that when you are catching like this you will need to vary your tactics as the session progresses and the fish alter how they are feeding.

Once again it may be necessary to shorten the line between float and pole tip. You could end up with total rig length less than four feet. Watch out for the swim getting so worked up that you start to get lots of fast, difficult to hit bites, and perhaps you may start to foul hook fish too. If this happens you need to calm the swim down a little. Try feeding heavier but slightly less regularly. Try feeding in a less tight pattern, spreading the feed around. Try fishing on the edge of the feed area. Whatever happens, experiment as a swim full of boiling activity and fast unhittable bites can be very frustrating!

Laying on

For some fish, fishing with the bait hard on the bottom is an effective method. Big roach sometimes need time to look at your bait, and fishing caster on the bottom can be a good way to catch them. But more likely you’ll be targeting carp with this method. This brings me onto the subject of drift. In the first pole fishing articles I recommended that you learnt to pole fish in calm conditions, but the reality of British weather is that more often than not you will be contending with wind and its effects on the water.

Drift and undertow

For the long pole angler wind has two effects to be aware of. Firstly it will make the pole more difficult to handle, especially in gusty conditions. In very strong winds you may be unable to use the pole at all, being either unable to hold it still enough to control the float or in danger of damaging the pole. The second effect is that the water itself is affected. Surface drift is where the surface water pushed along. This will cause your float to drift with it. Because the drift is on the surface the water underneath may not be moving the same way, and so if you let your float drift your hook bait will be acting differently to your loose feed. But all that water moving in one direction has to go somewhere, and if the wind blows long enough you may well find that the water deeper down is moving in the opposite direction to the wind.

This gives three potential outcomes; surface drift in the direction of the wind, undertow against the wind, and surface drift with the wind with an opposing undertow. It’s certainly complex. Whichever one it is, and it can change by the minute in strength, direction and combination, you are going to have to keep track so that you can present your bait well and take into consideration where your bait is ending up.

So provided the wind is not too strong you should be able to hold the float steady and present the bait. But that drift and undertow has another effect when fishing a bait on the bottom. It will be trying to pull the line and the float. You will need a float with a thicker tip to counteract this pull which would otherwise sink the float.

The wind can catch the line too and one way of trying to stop it from pulling on the float is to have a shot on the line above the float. Exactly how big a shot and where to place it is up to you, but don’t be afraid to have a shot as big as a AAA as it won’t affect the shotting of the float.

This laying on style is useful if you have an island swim in reach of your pole. Carp like to keep tight to features like this, and this is where dibber floats are useful. It may not be very deep in the shadow of the reeds on an island but the ability to fish with little fuss and great accuracy can pay off.

Feeding – how much?

During one of the short fishing sessions that I used to get photos for this series it became clear that it did not take long for the fish present to clean up my loose fed pellets. What was happening was that the fish were coming in for brief spells, obvious by the active patches of bubbles, and then clearing off for a while. Put simply, my little and often feeding wasn’t enough to keep them in the swim. Although I was running out of time I decided to experiment by feeding much more heavily; instead of just a dozen or so pellets I stepped up to feeding three or four handfuls every five minutes. From tentative feeding within ten minutes it turned into a feeding frenzy.

Deep water considerations

Whilst most purpose-built commercials are shallow there are some waters that are much deeper. In shallow water a float that takes just a few dust shot is fine but as the depth increases so does the need for more weight. It’s not as simple as simply doubling the shot load each time you double the depth. At modest depths this will work but as you start to get depths in excess of 12 feet then it is time to start using tungsten olivettes and to consider substantial shot load increases. Don’t be afraid to consider floats that take 2 or 3 grams and upwards; you will need to get your bait down fast. And you may find that the dropper shots that are required need to be increased too simply to register the bites positively.

Rigs and Winders

As we’ve developed and switched rigs over the past two weeks you will have realised that you need some plastic rig winders to keep your rigs on, together with the little elastic hook-ups to hold the end of the line. The hook is always hooked on the winder first then the rig wound on, taking care to align the float with the winder on the deep side before using the hook-up to secure the loop. It pays to label the winders so that you know what the rig is at a glance. Everyone has their own system for doing this but one tip that I have (especially useful if you have long line rigs for rivers) is to mark each pole section with a number using enamel paint and a fine brush starting from the tip (some poles are already numbered). The length of the rig will then match this number. On a typical commercial fishery then you may find little variance in the length of your rigs but it will still pay to at least say how long the rigs are (see picture), and the line used.

Once you’ve got the hang of making up rigs at the waterside it’s worth thinking about making up some at home. For top match anglers this preparation is vital, but even for the casual angler it can save time. One thing you need is a suitable tank to test the floats and the cheapest way is to cut off the top of a 2 litre soft drink bottle and fill it with water. You now have a means of testing the floats, albeit with the shot right under the float. Once you’ve got the shotting right adjust the shotting and complete the rig by measuring the length of line needed for a set length of pole. Leave a small loop at both ends and you can add the hook link when fishing. Secure the rig with a rig anchor and mark the winder with line and length details.

Pole Fishing Conclusions

From herein on the world is your oyster as far as pole fishing is concerned. The pole is an addictive method, and not always the answer but it is deadly when used to good effect. There are few rules when fishing the pole, and as long as you keep the thoughts of accuracy through plumbing and feeding whilst matching that with delicate and precise bait presentation you shouldn’t go far wrong.

Is watercraft dead when it comes to fishing Commercials? On these venues you still need to find the fish. You need to understand what is happening underwater, and then plan how to feed and present your bait. The difference in catches on commercials between novices and top class anglers is frightening. Yet the top anglers use surprisingly simple methods. Their feeding is accurate, measured, and regular; their bait presentation is spot on and adapted to how the fish are responding. They are not afraid to experiment, always looking for an edge, and understand the prevailing water conditions.

Practice is vital to get the best out of pole fishing. It helps enormously to be shown the ropes by a good pole angler. Each time you pole fish try a different swim, a different float, a different way of fishing. Try different baits and experiment with feeding patterns. Try feeding more than one area of the swim; say a close-in line and a spot further out. Ensure that you plumb both spots carefully, and maintain the feeding for both spots. See if you can be selective in what you are catching, and learn how a swim develops over the course of a session. Consider what is happening if you regularly get a pattern of a slow start for half an hour then a short flurry of activity following by very little. This is a common pattern for novices but with practice can be changed into fishing swims that get stronger and stronger. It’s all about regular feeding compared to feeding for a short while then becoming erratic, both in regularity and quantity.

But there’s more to fishing commercial fisheries than just the pole, and next week it’s time to starting looking at rods and reels again.

Next week – Rod and reel equipment