Pole Fishing from the Beginning – Part 2

These days he concentrates on his local Hampshire Avon targeting roach and chub but still finds time to pleasure-fish stillwaters on the pole and whip in between roaming the rivers with a fly rod, split cane rods and centre pin reels.

Pole Fishing from the Beginning – part 2

Plumbing, Shipping Out, Playing and Landing Fish

Fishing the pole

Every year at least one angler manages to electrocute themselves simply because they didn’t check above their peg! Remember also that you don’t need to actually touch the cables as in damp or even humid conditions electricity will arc over several feet.

Plumbing Your Swim

After attaching your chosen rig to the pole you will need to lubricate the elastic. I use a spray lubricant, although washing up liquid will suffice but can get sticky if not washed out regularly. I give the top 3 a squirt from the bottom end and then stretch out the elastic and give another squirt directly onto the elastic.

You can now begin plumbing up in your swim but remember though that most light rigs only need a small amount of extra weight to sink the float so why cause more disturbance than you need to by using a huge plummet? These have to be one of the cheapest items that we anglers ever get to buy, so don’t be a skinflint and buy yourself a good selection. The only caveat to this is when pole fishing a river where the flow may well give a false indication of depth when by all means use a really heavy plummet in those conditions.

Choose your plummet wisely

Many anglers for some reason chose only to plumb-up directly in front of them ignoring the fact that their swim is probably about 15-20 meters wide, as well as more than likely totally ignoring the margins of their swim. I can understand this to an extent if fishing on a commercial venue as they do tend to be pretty much of a uniform depth, but on an older lake, gravel pit or estate lake I think a lot of anglers really miss out on what is actually in their swim by only plumbing directly in front of them.

I start at 141/2 meters and do a sweep with the plummet from about 10 o-clock through 12 o-clock to 2 o-clock at roughly 1 meter intervals. Then I take off a section (on my pole this gives me about 12.7 meters) and repeat the exercise, then off with another section and I am now at about 10.9 meters and so on until I am down to around 81/2 to 9 meters. This should give you a really good mental (or graphic if you sketch it out) picture of the full swim and not just a very narrow strip directly in front of you.

Having decided for example that I am going to fish my main line at 121/2 meters I then put the pole in its rests and plumb up with a line to hand whip that will put me directly over that chosen line and distance just in case the fish are really ‘having it’ which then allows me to increase my catch rate on the whip.

Next I will use the shorter whips from say 21/2 to 4 or 5 meters in the margins looking for a holding area or feature for the small silver fish. Having decided on my margin line and length I then put the other whips up the bank to keep them out of the way.

Initial Feeding

Assuming that you are on a venue that responds well to groundbait now is the time for the initial feed. On one of my local lakes the fish, whilst they will not shy away from the initial ‘barrage’ they really don’t respond too well to having bait falling on their heads while feeding. On this lake I will use the same groundbait mix but by varying the amount of pressure when making up the balls I can vary the time it takes for the balls to break-up. So, assume that the initial feed is going to be 9 orange-sized balls then I’ll make up 3 by squeezing enough to make the ball. The next 3 balls will be squeezed really hard and the last 3 balls are squeezed the same amount but then I wet my hands and ‘coat’ the ball giving it a ‘skim’ of water.

Those first 3 balls will break up in about 10 to 15 minutes, the second set of 3 will take about 30 minutes longer to break up and the ‘skimmed’ balls can take up to an hour (in the last batch I tend not to put maggot or pinkie but preferring an inert bait like caster or corn) In this way I can keep the groundbait active in the swim without upsetting the feeding fish by raining balls of groundbait on their heads.

Alternatively, if the venue is amenable, then you can simply put in your initial barrage and then top-up at intervals. My rule of thumb is to ‘feed to your bites’ with anything from a thumbnail sized ball to a golf ball size depending on the target species.

Seymo Swing Pot

If I am going to cup-in my initial feed then I prefer to use a hanging type of cup rather than a cupping kit for a couple of reasons. Firstly I find them easier to control as the last thing I want is to have bait tipping out of the cup on the way out, and secondly I am guaranteed that the cup hanging from the tip of my pole is exactly over where I am going to fish. The number of times you see anglers using a cupping kit that has been cut down (to support the weight of the cup and the feed) on a top 3 or 4 that is actually shorter than their rigged-up top 3 or 4. Then they fish at the full distance of their rigged pole and are actually fishing outside their feed.

While my first choice line is calming down and giving the initial groundbait balls time to expand and break down I will use the time to bait up my short whip line. I use Sensas 3000 Surface and/or 3000 Ablettes mixed quite sloppy as I want an attractive cloud rather than a carpet. In this I use pinkie as feed rather than maggot but nearly always use a maggot on the hook as this tends not to overfeed the small stuff but makes the bigger hooked maggot more attractive to the fish. This is more of a match tactic than one for pleasure sessions, although personally I tend to fish a pleasure session much the same way, just for fun.

Rigs and Shipping Out

I try to keep my rigs as simple as possible given the venue and the target species. In this example we have put in our groundbait so it follows that we are going to fish on the bottom. So, my rigs will incorporate a bulk of an Olivette and only one or two dropper shot. Olivettes are more expensive than say using shot but I think that they make the rig more sensitive as the weight is concentrated over a shorter length than with using shot as the bulk and also when the fish are coming fast you can easily lower the olivette to get down to the fish quicker. The dropper shot(s) are there simply to give an indication of lift bites or ‘touches’ on the float. (More on Rig Making in the next part).

Olivettes

OK, you have baited your hook and are ready to ship the pole out to your chosen length. A word of warning if using maggot, and especially if using double maggot; ship out quite slowly as you will impart a spin to your hookbait if you ship out too quickly. What is the point of having put out an enticing carpet of groundbait and made up a sensitive rig for great presentation and then ending up with a rather unnaturally whirling hookbait?

The best way that I have found is to ship out and then hold the pole up so that the hook is out of the water and if it is spinning then let it wind down before putting in.

When starting out you might find it easier to add one more section to your pole than the distance that you are fishing at as this will help to counterbalance your pole. It will also give you a far better “feel” to the pole which should help with your confidence. When you are more proficient then you can remove the extra section, although I know a lot of match anglers who keep it even after many years.

A lot of beginners to pole fishing have a problem with tangles when shipping out because they simply try to get the rig out too quickly with the result being that the pole jumps around as the distance increases and then the rig wraps itself around the pole, or worse still around itself. Other than the obvious cure of “practice, practice, practice” then you can always try the old trick of attaching a small electrical cable tie to the top sections of your pole. What you do is measure down the top sections to a point just above your Olivette and attach the cable tie cutting it off but leaving about an inch and a half spur. Then to use you simply place your rig over the tie and ship out slowly until at the full length and then turn the pole so that the rig just drops off. Whatever you do don’t tighten the tie too tightly otherwise you could crush the thin section of your pole.

The cable tie

Assuming that you have mastered the art of shipping out then you need to pay attention to the way that you lay your rig out in the water. If fishing the full depth then lower the rig vertically under your pole (which takes less time than laying it on the surface) after all what is the point of wasting that time every put-in? However, if you are fishing on the drop then you simply swing the rig in to the down-side of the tow and allow the rig to settle naturally. If the tow is pulling from say left to right then you lay your rig out to the right side allowing it to fall naturally against the tow.

Even when fishing the full depth there is still a need to move the rig every now and then to induce an enticing movement to your bait and this can be accomplished simply by moving the pole from one side to the other and lifting slightly at the same time. It is a pointless exercise to just sit there statue-like with a totally static bait lying above your active groundbait.

When fishing at anything over say 13 meters and certainly if you go out to 16 meters then the key is to keep everything you do; calm, slow and easy. Whatever you do don’t rush as the extra length will really exaggerate every little movement at the butt end and on cheaper (less stiff) poles this can take quite some time to dampen down.

Striking and Playing a Fish

When fishing I keep my pole across my right thigh so it is natural for me to ‘strike’ to my left. I say strike but the action is more like a sharp lift to the left rather than a strike you’d use with a rod and running line. In fact, if you think about the simple mechanics of striking with 14 meters of pole then it takes only a slight movement at the butt end to produce a relatively large arc of movement at the tip end, so there is absolutely no need for a hard sweeping strike to set a hook.

Ship the pole back and let the elastic do the work

With the hook set don’t try to do too much with the pole until you have established the size of the fish, and in any event let the elastic do its work and don’t try to rush the landing process. If the fish is relatively small the elastic will not stretch too much and it is a simple, but unhurried, movement to slide the pole back behind you onto your roller and ship it back until you reach the join at the top 3. Being mainly left handed I hold the section above the third joint and break the pole with my right hand placing the free end into the pole grab on my platform. The fish can then be either swung to my right hand or slid across the top of the waiting net which is also held in my right hand. When in the net I tuck the top 3 under my left arm and lay the landing net across my knees where it is easy to then lift and unhook the fish and carefully slip into the keepnet.

If swung to hand I use the same method as I employ when short whip fishing and that is to swing the fish to my waiting right hand, and keeping hold of the top 3 with my left hand I use my left index finger and thumb to unhook the fish which is slipped into the keepnet. This saves valuable time in putting the top 3 down which makes for quicker re-baiting and a lot less time with my baited hook out of the water. This whole process is achieved sitting down, although I know a lot of continental match anglers who stand up to net their fish. Personally I don’t see any advantage in this and view it as a purely personal preference. All I would add is to try each method and see which one works best for you.

A few words of warning

1. When shipping your pole back even if it is just to change your bait don’t be tempted to throw it backwards really quickly across the roller as when you stop it around the top 3 or 4 joint you will be loosening that joint.

I remember fishing in a match on Akerselva in Norway which was really hard going and typical of an early season Norwegian event inasmuch as you were fishing for about a dozen bites in the whole 4 hour match. I had been literally flinging my pole backwards across the roller to change bait, etc., and on hitting the first real bite of the day I lifted into a decent sized bream which took about 8 feet of elastic before moving off towards the centre of the lake. Before I knew it my top 4 had sprung out of the main pole and was gliding across the surface of the lake. Now at about £ 130 for a Milo 10-10 top 4 kit you can imagine how happy I was that the Bream came back within reach and the angler in the next peg snagged it for me, and as the Bream had left the confines of my peg I had to release it under NMU rules.

2. If you get your rig snagged on the bottom please avoid the temptation to ship back and take hold of the elastic to pull straight back for a break. If the rig does become loose then it will come flying back directly in line with the pole tip with every probability that the float stem will end up stuck in your hand! This is also one of the reasons that I deplore this relatively new practice of hand lining fish on the elastic.

3. Muddy boots and wet fishing platforms are a guaranteed slip hazard. Not so long ago I had got off of my box to have a chat with Ron but when climbing back over it I slipped and ended up with both boots full of water and a pretty decent gash on my leg as well.

Next time: Rig making, lines, hook lengths, and balancing elastics to rig lines, elastics, connectors and bungs