Fishing Milestones

[robinta]

I was thinking about changes in fishing and tackle that have come and gone, in my 40 year involvement in coarse fishing.

So I was thinking, what can you remember that made a big difference to your fishing?

It can be a type of fishing or species, or a type of tackle that is still current, or has long been superceded.

All comments are welcome (?)

So, here's a few things that jump to mind for me :-


Seat Box Legs.

I, like probably everyone else fishing in the late 80s had a Shakespeare plastic seat box (no cushion as I was still young!) and that was a game changer in itself, but then came the option of fitting external legs and a footplate (iirc via octaplus). Being able to sit comfortably and be level on any terrain was amazing, and lead to being able to pole fish properly.


'japanese' pre stretched lines -

On my early pole rigs I used to use 2lb maxima to 1.1 bayer perlon hook length, then I read about the new pre stretched lines in match fishing mag, that were so much finer but stronger. At first I couldn't get any locally and used to buy stuff mail order from Leslie's of Luton.. I think silstar match team was my favourite for a long time.


Kamasan B520 hook.

All my fishing had been using horrible, brittle hooks to nylon, that went blunt and snapped with a bigger fish. The B520 has a tiny barb for the natural venues I fished, but was strong, light and razor sharp. Comparatively it kept its point so much longer. I don't use barbed hooks at all now (as I don't fish natural venue's) but I still have a collection of B520s in 18,20, & 22..just in case.

Over to you folks!

 

[derwentboy]

Well what a good post, interesting to think about...
Off the top of my head...here's a few 'light bulb' moments I can remember..

1. The first time I put a pair of Polaroids on...vowed to never be without them again.
2. Learning to whip hooks with a Mathchman hooktyer (a brilliant device) and realising just how better presentation was compared to eyed.
3. Learning to use a loop tyer making my loops smaller than I'd ever had them before...who invents these devices?
4. Reading Kevin Ashurst's Pole Fishing....the first bible on the subject where he put his thoughts and methodology clearly on the written page..still read it now. Ditto with Ivan Marks on float fishing and shotting
5. Learning about feeding (still learning and have got a lot still to learn) and realising that it is the absolute key.
6. Getting a box with a platform and suddenly realising all the things you could now do......without banksticks!
7. Learning to twizzle a boom....another simple yet effective idea..no more tangles
8. Stopping boiling hemp over a stove for ages and doing it in a flask overnight instead
9. Preston/Fox/Matrix Winders....thank god nomore elazzy bands which went in the bin pronto
10. MAGGOTDROWNERS FORUM!
Looking forward to learning more, the lads on this forum have helped me and answered many of the questions I've had whilst I've been getting back into coarse fishing over the last 2-3 years. So thankyou to all of them regulars on here..tipitinmick/wiseowl/warrington63 etc..am always listening

 

[The Landlord]

Like you...I always used 2lb maxima & perlon combined for my pole rigs. I also had a shakespeare box (came with a cushion though!!) and as the Octoplus gear came out, I more or less packed up fishing. Oh how I would have loved a set of legs for those weeks away on rocky Irish banksides or the sloping muddy banks of the River Dee in the winter league.
My first proper pole made all the difference though. Most of our club matches were on canals & I'd be envious of people who could drop a float, hard against the far bank reeds. With a rod, you could sometimes drop a canal dart where you wanted it but then the canal would start towing & you'd have to cast again. I briefly had a 9.5m pole that was droopier than a droopy droopy thing. A month later, I'd had enough & bought a proper Diawa Jaguar Matchlite from Bennetts on the never never. A couple of club match wins & winter league section wins soon followed

 

[derwentboy]

Like you...I always used 2lb maxima & perlon combined for my pole rigs. I also had a shakespeare box (came with a cushion though!!) and as the Octoplus gear came out, I more or less packed up fishing. Oh how I would have loved a set of legs for those weeks away on rocky Irish banksides or the sloping muddy banks of the River Dee in the winter league.
My first proper pole made all the difference though. Most of our club matches were on canals & I'd be envious of people who could drop a float, hard against the far bank reeds. With a rod, you could sometimes drop a canal dart where you wanted it but then the canal would start towing & you'd have to cast again. I briefly had a 9.5m pole that was droopier than a droopy droopy thing. A month later, I'd had enough & bought a proper Diawa Jaguar Matchlite from Bennetts on the never never. A couple of club match wins & winter league section wins soon followed

Still got my Daiwa Jaguar ! My lad has learnt onit and it is still going strong

 

[The Landlord]

Still got my Daiwa Jaguar ! My lad has learnt onit and it is still going strong

Still got mine as well. Bits of tape covering a split in the No2 section though. Wouldn't fancy hitting a carp on it

 

[Chris Calder]

Seat box legs would be my number one as well.
Flat bed rollers

 

[robinta]

A few more.. I also had owned and read Kevin Ashurst's Pole Fishing, and my first pole had a crook for the elastic (anyone remember these!), bloody heavy and horrible.

I'd then 'progressed' to having elastic running up the length of the top kit externally through mini eyes, before someone had the amazing idea of internal pole elastic... Wow. Elastic that wasn't exposed to the elements and ran freely (mostly!)

Also.. The first pole pots. Instead of out and out loose feeding, someone found out you could make small pots by drilling a hole in a kinder egg plastic shell.

(I remember buying some on my way to my brother's wedding to convert later. However my 5 year old found them and scoffed the chocolate before we got there. My son is autistic and milk used to make him go insane. He spent the wedding running riot, screaming and dragging my pregnant wife around, and I couldn't help her as I was so involved with the wedding itself (ahem). She was exhausted and an emotional wreck by the end, and even now 18 years later, I can't mention kinder eggs without getting daggers for leaving them lying around?)

 

[The Landlord]

We used to make pole pots by glueing a cut down cable clip to the bottom of small aerosol caps.

 

[Silver fan 82]

I was thinking about changes in fishing and tackle that have come and gone, in my 40 year involvement in coarse fishing.

So I was thinking, what can you remember that made a big difference to your fishing?

It can be a type of fishing or species, or a type of tackle that is still current, or has long been superceded.

All comments are welcome (?)

So, here's a few things that jump to mind for me :-


Seat Box Legs.

I, like probably everyone else fishing in the late 80s had a Shakespeare plastic seat box (no cushion as I was still young!) and that was a game changer in itself, but then came the option of fitting external legs and a footplate (iirc via octaplus). Being able to sit comfortably and be level on any terrain was amazing, and lead to being able to pole fish properly.


'japanese' pre stretched lines -

On my early pole rigs I used to use 2lb maxima to 1.1 bayer perlon hook length, then I read about the new pre stretched lines in match fishing mag, that were so much finer but stronger. At first I couldn't get any locally and used to buy stuff mail order from Leslie's of Luton.. I think silstar match team was my favourite for a long time.


Kamasan B520 hook.

All my fishing had been using horrible, brittle hooks to nylon, that went blunt and snapped with a bigger fish. The B520 has a tiny barb for the natural venues I fished, but was strong, light and razor sharp. Comparatively it kept its point so much longer. I don't use barbed hooks at all now (as I don't fish natural venue's) but I still have a collection of B520s in 18,20, & 22..just in case.

Over to you folks!

The knotless knot. Easy to tie and very strong. It wasn't all that long ago that if you wanted to use a hair rig you were faffing around with bits of dacron or cotton to use as the hair. Whoever came up with the concept of the knotless knot as we know it today is a genius!

 

[Arry]

My first go with a pole... took to it immediately... got pole-itis and then gave up match fishing 2 years ago as I'd started using vintage gear previously and I prefer to fish that way now... cane, pins, old school is old's cool

 

[Maesknoll]

Carbon fibre rods, made a huge difference when you held them for a whole match trotting the river.

 

[robinta]

My first go with a pole... took to it immediately... got pole-itis and then gave up match fishing 2 years ago as I'd started using vintage gear previously and I prefer to fish that way now... cane, pins, old school is old's cool

Ironically, my original username on this forum was poleitis ?

 

[rd115]

Overpriced bright Orange tackle / accessories, the bank would look drab without it now

 

[Arry]

Ironically, my original username on this forum was poleitis ?

I love pole fishing, but now I use a cane pole... (won't get rid of me carbon one...) most of the the other carbon rods have gone now

 

[robinta]

I keep thinking of more!.... 'continental Groundbait'

The only Groundbait I'd ever seen in a fishing shop was this stuff called kestrel? In white or brown. I bought some of the 'white', which seemed to be a combination of concrete, sand and wallpaper paste and caught nothing an binned it.


Again, years later I would read of continental Groundbait in match fishing, as used by the French and Belgians from sensas and van-den-eyende, that seemed to be an art form.. Filled with seeds, spices and maybe a bit of bird poop!

I eventually got some van den eyende supercup and almost wanted to eat it myself ?I used it for small roach and other bits and it seemed to work brilliantly.

Even now, in the era of fishmeal and pellet GB, I always feel unprepared If I don't at least carry a few bags of puddin

 

[derwentboy]

Sensas Lake and Canal smell so good I'm tempted to add milk and have it for brekky

 

[The Landlord]

Anyone remember when the lead ban came in? It was 1985. I remember they held some big matches all over the country, sponsored by the Daily Mirror & I fished the one on the Leeds Liverpool. We were all given gift packs containing all sorts of substitute lead shot, tubing & putty. I didn't get a bloody bite all day & the weather was atrocious.

 

[derwentboy]

Yes I remember that..there was suddenly allsorts on the market initially wasn't there...some of it was huge

 

[The Landlord]

Can't remember the make but there was a brand that had a little bit of wire that acted as a hinge. Terrible stuff that never stayed on.

 

[MarkW]

Anyone remember when the lead ban came in? It was 1985. I remember they held some big matches all over the country, sponsored by the Daily Mirror & I fished the one on the Leeds Liverpool. We were all given gift packs containing all sorts of substitute lead shot, tubing & putty. I didn't get a bloody bite all day & the weather was atrocious.

The lead ban came in in 1987 but there were some experimental matches that had lead bans before this as I had to use tungsten putty down the line at Longleat (circa 1985) which was fun in the rain as you couldn't even use no. 8s and below.