Purely For Pleasure

A new series from the keyboard of Dave Cooper, and all-round angler resident in Cardiff, who fishes for most species but with a particular penchant for pleasure fishing.

The emphasis on this new series is how to enjoy your fishing no matter what you’re fishing for.

On the Pole
I’d turned up at the lake at dawn. Luckily the morning was looking as though it would be clear and warm, rather than our seemingly usual ‘summer’ days of grey sky and rain.

Having prepared my tackle I was ready to start fishing a favourite swim. Everything I needed was neatly laid out around me. Baiting up the size 20 hook with a single maggot I shipped out the pole and laid the rig tight against the dwarf lily bed where 15 minutes earlier I had dropped in 3 orange-sized balls of red groundbait laced with hemp and casters.

The little pole float came upright and started to settle in the water. As each of the tiny number eight shot, that were shirt buttoned down the line, reached its level the tip dotted down a fraction more until just a couple of millimetres showed above the calm surface.

I settled comfortably on my box and laid the pole across my knee. Suddenly the tiny float tip dipped below the surface. A steady lift of the pole and the familiar thumping of the first fish of the day was encountered. No elastic stretcher this one, a small roach. A quick unhooking and the rig was shipped back out, followed by a small pouchful of hemp, casters and maggots from the catapult.

The rig settled again and for a full minute remained motionless. A gentle lift of the pole drew my single maggot bait 2 ft or so off the bottom and I let it fall naturally down again. That drew attention to it as intended and a skimmer bream couldn’t resist sucking it in. A bit more elastic was pulled from the tip of the pole this time but the fish was quickly in the net.

Out with the rig again and another small offering of loose feed from the catapult to keep the swim topped up. For a third time the float tip disappeared and this time more solid resistance. A bigger fish this so I swiftly swung the pole to the left and applied firm pressure through the elastic, dragging the surprised fish away from the lilies before it realised it was hooked. Suddenly the fish was aware of its plight and turned back for the lily’s, the number 10 elastic pulling several feet from the end of the pole. But the elastic was too strong and the fish didn’t make it back. Having turned it again from its sanctuary, I raised the pole tip over the top of the fighting fish. This really confused it and it couldn’t decide which way to run. Keeping a firm pressure on, letting the elastic do the work, I started to feed the pole back over the roller behind me and I unshipped it at the number 3 section. The elastic had tired the fish sufficiently now, and it was drawn to the landing net. A plump tench of over 2lbs.

The action carried on for several hours and eventually I finished the session with 25-30lb of mixed fish, mainly skimmer Bream and tench with the odd roach and perch for good measure.

Now, the story of this session is, I hope, as nice to read as it was a pleasure to fish. But as with most successful sessions there is far more to the success than just turning up, so I want to share with you my thoughts on why I came to fish this pleasure session on the pole in the first place.

On arriving at the water I hadn’t really fully decided on how I was going to fish. I had a float rod in my bag and I could have chosen to set up a waggler. I had a feeder rod and carp gear and could easily have decided to fish groundbait feeder or ‘the method’ for the lakes carp and tench. But I chose to fish the pole.

Why? Let me explain. Looking at the water that morning, the pole just felt right. I wanted a method that had a bit of action to it as I didn’t want to sit behind carp rods and doze, so the beefy rods stayed in the bag. The groundbait feeder I dismissed because I had been throwing a feeder in the river on my previous session and wanted a change. So, almost by default, it was going to be a float method.

The lily beds looked really ‘fishy’ that morning and as several fish could be seen moving amongst them I wanted a method where I could optimise them as a fish-holding feature. A waggler set up would be okay, but with the position of the lily bed it would always be a compromise between getting ‘near’ and running the risk of snagging up with a stray cast. But a pole rig would allow me to get really tight to the lily pads and intercept fish making their patrols along the roots.

The lake, I knew, held a good head of skimmers and small tench going between 8oz and 3lbs. A number 10 elastic set-up was good enough to deal with fish this size. Being a peat-bed lake, the bottom was dark and the fish generally shied away from light coloured groundbait, hence the red. Bream and tench often don’t like groundbait being introduced over their heads in shallow water, so baiting up with three big balls initially and loose feeding hemp, caster and maggot would get the fish feeding and keep them interested.

It wasn’t a particularly deep swim, only 4ft or so next to the lily bed, so there was no need to get the bait down quickly. In fact when they really get feeding the skimmers often intercept the bait on the drop anyway. So a light, carbon-stemmed pole float with a string of number 8 shot was the order of the day. Maggot or caster on a small hook and the job was set.

So that was my thinking and why I finished up having a thoroughly enjoyable pleasure session on the pole. Not just for the sake of fishing the pole because, in the circumstances, it was the right tool to use, but I honestly have to say that fishing this way is a very satisfying and enjoyable method.

So, if you don’t have a pole in your armoury, or think they are only for crunching carp on commercial waters, think again about getting one because they are definitely worth the initial investment. They can give you an additional option to your fishing tactically and make the most of a pleasure session. In circumstances like these the pole definitely adds to the pleasure.