A Worm OOE

I havent used one of these things so maybe I am wrong but the way the pole is being held in that picture is all wrong. Even if the claw is taking some of the weight, holding a pole that way results in poor posture and does not allow the angler to feed or move the pole to accomodate wind or to move/follow floats etc. Learn to hold the pole comfortably then position a spray bar so that it helps take the some of the weight of the pole whilst in the correct position.

The only type of pole support to use are the "spray bar type" these types of rest allow you to hold the pole as normal but for some of the weight to be taken for you, if you have a seat that allows you to sit on the pole but then this can allow more of the weight too be taken by the rest.. The hook type supports are fine to hold the pole when balling in but I would never put a pole in one whilst actualy fishing. I would however say that the most important aspect of avoiding aches and pains in pole fishing is gettiing a level position and the box at the right hight. I have never found the need to use a pole support of any type except when balling in as over the years I have learned the right angles to allow me to comfortably support the pole between my forearm and thigh. When i need to use a catapult or feed or even tie a new hook length I can still do so without putting the pole down. I want my thigh to have a very slight incline up to my knee. thats my way but you would need to experiment to find the exact positions for yo. To achieve this you need not just adjustable legs but also a foot plate (unless on a totaly flat platform or towpath) this to me is a much more important piece of kit than any pole rest.

Yes. Its the skin that floats and it doesnt matter if you crush them they will still float.

Am I going blind all I could see was some un identifiable fish/dolphins jumping about. Where was the shark?

If memory serves me right the dink dink was a feeder rig devised for catching lots of small tackle shy fish on the Trent in the 80s. The basis of the rig was that the hook was above the feeder and that the hooklength was very short. Efectively we are talking about a sort of self hooking rig to catch fish interested in the feeder itself.

As others have sugested Match fishing is about making the best of your situation, it can be an overstocked lake where all the fish have their own view on how they should decorate the inside of a keepnet or on a venue where the fish have never seen a hook, it dosent matter. The sense of achievement however is the same when you get a result as that of catching a PB. Personally I have won a National championship and for a while I had the largest ever catch in a National. That was a day to remember but in terms of satisfaction not far above the day when I won a 10man section in a SE Super League at West Drayton. I had Will Raison one side Dickie Carr the other one of the Vincent Twins in the section and Pete Vasey and Paul Uddel .... That day I had about 2.5lbs. The challenge was in the situation I found myself in not in how much I caught. That said I have now given up match fishing and a large part of the reason is the lack of variety. So many of the matches in my part of the world are now focused ona small number of artificial waters of which I am bored. Personally I long for the times when I might fish a match on saturday on a London canal followed by Sunday on the Thames or Wey Nav or Moat Park or ..... In those days match anglers had to be more of an allround angler than now, however the current comercial specialists could all still adapt to a range of venues if they had to. Will raison is supreme on comercial venues but when England calls he can compete on bloodworm or whatever method he needs. As for the origional contention that the match anglers would strugle on a " neutral club water" that is pure rubish, the whole point of match fishing is to be able to adapt to the situation that you are put in. The best match guys do that better than any other disciplin. The only suprise would be by how much the "comercial Matchmen" would win.

I was also going to sugest the Sensas Bernard I use little else for trotting in heavy flows be it a flooded Medway, Thames or the Tidal Stour (Kentish). They are without doubt the best pole float I have ever used on flowing water. Something I have had a lot of success with is fishing relatively light floats 2-3 grammes but overshotting them heavily. By adding up to 2 swan it is possible to get these light floats to go through a swim very steadily but without resorting to big floats. It is not for the lazy as the bristle has to be constantly heald out of the water but bites are better than when holding a bigger float and you should connect with more of them due to the lighter float. They work a bit like the lolipop being eased through but as a tide increases or decreases rather than changing float you can add or remove the extra shot. I used this tactic long before the Lolipop floats turned up and would still prefer it to the lolipop in a situation with variable flow such as a tide or the Medways ever changing automatic sluices. Now I would only use a lolipop in extreme conditions and when I want to hold a float dead still. The same technique also works with running line but again its ahrd work. A general point about fishing strong flows (and in general) is to constantly keep adjusting untill you hit on a winning formula. I am constantly adding and subtracting shot moving the Oli up and down alltering the depth that the float is set........ Dont just set the float at or abit over the depth of the swim.Very often the depth at which the float is set has little to do with the depth at which you fish. I won a round of the kent League on the Stour with 38lbs of Roach and Skimmers a seson ago, the swim was five to eight feet deep(average tide), the float a 2.5 gram set at between 8 and 11 feet deep held back to less than half the speed of the surface flow with up to 4bb over shotted. I arrived at this after much experimenting, the flat float produced very little a 5 gram float the same but the small overshotted float got the bites in the end.

Personally carp stuffed comercials arent my cup of tea but I would sugest that maybe you take a visit to one where a lot of fish can be guaranteed just to give yourself an intensive practice session in playing carp. This is especially true if you want to try the "non confrontational" method of playing fish, as it does go a bit against your natural inclinations.

In my experience, in anything but snagy water ten elastic will do for any fish up to 5/6/7lbs and I have regularly landed them up to twice that size. The big problem is, as you have spotted, stopping them bottoming the elastic. Whilst doubling up some elastic will help if a carp is bottoming out the elastic the best tips I can offer are: Firstly always have some spare sections ready to add or better still have them attached to the pole ready to come into play when you hook a fish. If you are fishing close to the bank still fish a long pole just go along the bank. Second if you are at the limit and the elastic is about to bottom out lay the pole on the water(dont let go though!!). The change in preasure or whatever it is will often/usually slow the beast down, dont know why but it works. When you strike try not to do so too hard. Lift into the fish gently and as a rule the fish will not charge off. My whole approach to playing carp on the pole (and to a degree with running line) no matter how big, is only to pull when they dont. If a carp goes charging off I will take preasure off and point the pole at the fish rather than add preasure and as a rule the fish will stop pulling. When the fish stops pulling I will add preasure, eventually the fish will charge off again so I cut the preasure and point the pole at the fish and the fish will slow down. I then start applying preasure again. And so on untill eventually the fish is ready to net. Obviously there are times for hook and hold but most of the time the gentle aproach will land far more fish

Are dendrobenas just another name for Brandlings. If so then they are a very grood bait, however if Iwas offered a kilo of dendra's or a Kilo of Reds it would be reds every time.

I will just add that Ihave fished against him and next to him and have not a bad word to say of the experience other than mild ear ache. With regard his allround angling Knowledge I can think of no one that compares in the breadth of his knowledge and contacts throughout the angling world. As for his list of achievements, ask people who remember match fishing in the 70's and 80's he was awesome . His record on the Thames when it was a mecca for match anglers is second to none, he was involved in the evolution of match fishing when thuings started to get serious. I am sorry but I really dont know why we are having a debate about the guy, yes if we disagree with something in particular he says fine but this I cant understand.

The only thing I would use in this instance is a loop to loop conection. I have never liked tying mono on to a mono loop. That said when I use hook to nylon I dispence with the loop and use a simple 3 turn water knot.

I holiday on the West Coast every year and whilst I have caught them on every conceivable type of lure all my best(to 8lbs) fish have been taken spinning a Frozen sandeal behin a small weight .

Ive got the rod youmention and would hapily use it for the purpose you describe, it is fairly beefy when used at 13ft but use it at 11ft and it is good "bomb rod" which I often use on the upper Medway for Roach and Chub. The fast feeder would not be a good choice they are aimed at big river big feeder work. Good rod though.

To be honest I wouldnt set them up at all. They are fixed rigs and on many waters they will be banned and even where allowed they should be discouraged. I think the dangers of fixed rigs are overplayed but why take the chance unnecisarily.

Personaly i always use a soft quiver for still water fishing even when there is a tow. I can think of countless ocaisions where I have fish pulling the rod round one moment , )in which case the sensitivity does not matter) and the next cast providing a 1/4 centemeter pull for which a fine tip is essential. The only circumstamnce in which I would err on a stiffer tip is when fishing a river looking for drop back bites where a springy tip is of an advantage. One thing I have done is to find or adapt tips so that they have a gradual curve rather than a fast taper. That way if a curve is put in the tip by any tow there is still some flex left.

Henda11 there is no one answer to such a question. When I set out to fish the wagler for any fish I will invariably use a couple of floats before I find the correct one or i will change float as conditions or the fish's movements change. The answer will vary dependent on depth distance style of feeding wind tow how the fish are biting etc. What conditions had you in mind.

I have had plenty of Bream in shallow water casting feeders over them however unless they are really having a go you will need to cast gently and consider dropping the size of the feeder as the sesion progresses maybe switching to a bomb. Also as the session progresses consider casting to the edge of where you think the shoal is sitting rather than right on top. Make sure your groundbait is light and fluffy and not overwetted, use a cage feeder and make the cast gentle. Doing this it is possible to plop a small feeder onto the water with less noise than same people can send a poorly cast lead into a swim especially if you feather the line as the feeder aproaches the water. You can also consider having the first few casts with a lead before putting on a feeder just to see if there are allready fish about, if so you can continue with the lead or switch to a very small feeder and save the groundbait until the fish go. If you are really unsure about casting a feeder over fish then put some feed down at the begining. If you have a strong enough rod a large feeder as large as a small tumbler allows a lot of groundbait to be put in accuratley and quickly. Before I recently gave up match fishing I experimented with Spods for this purpose on a carp rod. Alternatively use a catapult to put feed out. To make this more accurate attatch a large carp-type float in place of the feeder cast this out and drop the groundbait just short of the float. The initially barrage will be more accurate and if you clip up you can repeat during the session if needed.

I always froze my leftovers from matches and used the left overs to bulk out my groundbait when I needed to use large quantities. I was never happy to use the left overs in matches however. The one exception was when "balling it in " on venues whith lots of small fish that needed to be avoided. In such situations it was a benefit as the freezing wold make the groundbait less active. When fishing the Medway where Bleak can be a real problem I would often use frozen groundbait for this reason.

Chubb on the wag and mag

Most of the time it is a matter of sinking the line putting some shot on the bottom and using bigger and longer floats. One alternative tactic that sometimes works is to fish a slider so that the bulk of the shotting (dont use a loaded slider) is down the line in the tow whilst the float is in the surface drag so the two are effectively pulling against each other. This can sometimes be achived with a fixed float, putting most shot down the line rather than round the float. Casting will not be easy but it may slow down the movement of the float or allow less shot to be put on the bottom. If putting a lot of shot down the line dont be tempted to put on one or two big shot go for lots of smaller shot maybe as much as a dozen number 4s. If I really wanted a bait that did not move I would either fish the lead or the pole. That said some of my best wagler catches on still water (maybe all of them) have come letting a float trot through at a controlled spead in windy conditions. Like on a river it is a matter of getting the float to travel at the same spead as the water at the level where the bait is. To get theat it is a matter of experimenting with the size of float the amount of shot down the line and the amount of shot on the bottom.

The only time to use pole floats on a running line would be when fishing moving water on a long rod and when fishing the margins on a lake. In these situations they are great but I cant think of any other time I would use them.

I used to fish lots of matches on the canal in East London and can remember very good catches especially around Kingsland road and Camden Lock. I once weighed in two perch for 6 lbs at Kings Cross. The only reason that the match guys dont go there any more is the rise of the Carp puddle and the increase in towpath activity. I walked down the towpath at Camden Lock Tuesday before last, to the swims oposite the TV studios. I drew there once in one of the Raven clubs sunday Opens and had a cracking days roach fishing. it could not happen now, the amount of bikes runners etc would have made fishing an efficient fast match impossible .

It might not be very practical but my bigest bream from the Medway(6lbs) came to 5 bloodworm. Its the only venue where I have used bloodworm much that has any bigger bream so I cant compare it to elsewhere but I rememeber a conversation with a guy who fished for Dorking. He regularly used bloodworm in venues where the bream targeted were of a good size both on the hook and as part of his groundbait. As for the initial problem of catching bigger Bream I think the bait is of less importance than venue. My bigest ever Bream (9lbs) was caught on two maggots where all the other smaller fish(4-7lbs) that day were caught on either three Dendrobenas or two pieces of corn.

When carp are moving it is common to get a lot of bites that result in nothing because they are simply the fish swimming into the line. This could have been made worse by using a float that brings line up in the water at a time when fish are showing near the surface. With regard the rig, why are you using a polaris? there are a few circumstances where I can see a use for them but only in very specific situations. To my mind they are just a complication and a hinderence though I must admit to having used them very little. Tell us more about the nature of the venue that you are fishing and I am sure someone will be able to come up with rig sugestions, but all we know at the moment is that it is a pond with some carp.