This week's guest blogger is Craig Pickles. Craig hails fom Wakefield and is 28 years old, among his fishing achievements are some new personal best carp caught recently after a change from match fishing. This week Craig tells us a little about pole and elastic selection.
Where do i begin with the pole? well the most important thing about using your first pole is to get a pole that is suitable for you, theres lots to think about length of the pole and weight you will see all these fancy 16m poles but unless your going to pay an absolute fortune they will be saggy and useless at full stretch so get the best you can for the money.
You have to make sure you try a few different poles and see which pole you feel comfortable holding for 10mins at least while your sat in the shop make sure its got good balance and is not hurting your back while holding it. All modern poles are designed to be fished with elastic running inside the top one, two or three sections, this elastic provides a shock absorber between the pole and a fighting fish. The pole elastic must be matched to the strength of the line and hooklink that you are using, and that should be matched to the size and species of fish that you are expecting to catch. To give you a couple of examples of elastic strength, number of pole sections, target venue and species see the table below:
No 1 - No 3 Top-1 kit Canals. Gudgeon, bleak, small rudd, small perch, small skimmers, ruffe.
No 4 - No 6 Top-2 kitRivers, canals and lakes. Roach, rudd, perch, skimmers, small chub, carp and tench.
No 8 - No 12Match top-3 or power top-2 kit River, canal or lake. Carp, tench, chub, bream.
No 14 - No 18Match top-3 or power top-2 kit Lakes. Tench and carp in open water.
No 20-plus Power top-2 kitLakes. Big carp or for margin fishing close to snags.
At the end of the elastic there are 3 types of connecters that can be used, but the easiest for begginers is the stonfo conecter all u need to do is attach a rig close to the stonfo and plumb your swim up. Get some free offerings out with the aid of a tosspot or catapult then fish into that depending on how you shot your float rig up you can make your rig either sink straight to the bottom or flutter lightly down but be ready if your doing the last method because 80% of the time you will get a hit straight away its all about feeding small but regular and most importantly enjoying it .......tight lines. Craig
Why not view our beginners pole combo for a cracking bargain?
