Match fishing - any point entering without a pole ?

[Marker50]

Casting my mind back - he actually cried, packed up and I do not recall ever seeing him again!
Mind you, did see a good few pleasure anglers who admittedly could fish try their hand at match fishing but only the once! Also seen specimen anglers turn up and fish rather well sitting on a chair with a waggler and or feeder rod!

Why do you think the pleasure anglers only went once

 

[rudd]

Why do you think the pleasure anglers only went once

Match conditions v pleasure fishing - two separate things.
We fished club water's, general mixed stocking, low to medium density, many natural and clear water - they did not respond well to 30ish anglers turning up at once.
Most days the waters only saw a few anglers dotted about.

 

[alsur]

Good angler with an average pole will beat a s**t angler with an expensive pole.
The cost of a pole is irrelevant.

The first point might be true but the cost of a pole does make a difference when you have to fish long , I consider myself a good pole angler and I've got an average pole and have experience it's limitation a few times. I no longer fish opens and only fish a few matches now but it I was still fishing opens regularly as I once did I would buy a better pole.

 

[CarpCatcher86]

What an odd statement, match anglers will fish whatever method is going to give them the best chance of winning, be that pole, or rod and line, I can’t say I can think of anyone on the open circuit that would purposely fish the wrong method on the day.

My statement was not odd in the slightest, considering that when I was encouraged to fish in the junior matches on my local club waters in my early teens (something I can thank two of my mates for) The idea of using a float or feeder rod or anything other than a pole was pretty much unheard of and unseen.
If I wanted to fish the matches as I did, I had no choice but to use a float and feeder rod as they were all I had. Not that I ever had any interest in pole fishing or even thought about buying one.

 

[Mike atkinson]

I hate pole fishing, I’ve never fished the pole for 3 or 4 yrs, I fish the feeder, waggler or stick float, I don’t fishing commercials, I like large natural waters or rivers, but in winter, I do fish certain open water commercials for silvers, I still fish the feeder and waggler, I won me section on the first silvers match last week, I won’t be taking a pole with me, kojak on here, Paul kozra,, who’s sponsored by cadence, fishes the waggler all winter, at the oaks, sessay, often beating the pole anglers round him, and frames quite regularly. Do what you want, practice it, and just enjoy the craic ???

 

[mickthechippy]

Who was the fella who used to turn up at Colemans Cottage with an old rod and whoop all the top rods.

the farmer

but he did use a pole, but in a strange way, he had a old centrepin type reel attached to it and ran his elastic through that

and had a magic bait, known only unto him, "cowslick" he called it, used to pot it in at the start and fish through it

ended up being banned as he won to much, upset the regulars

 

[carphauler]

Good angler with an average pole will beat a s**t angler with an expensive pole.
The cost of a pole is irrelevant.

Exactly, I've fished against many a bloke with ancient poles only using 2 sections and watched them win plenty of open matches.

 

[bushey]

Bottom line is do you want to give it your best shot.After a 17 year break I got the urge to go fishing again.Joined my local club and decided to just fish matches on the river.Thought that I could get away with no pole.
Wrong !!
Bought a cheap pole thinking that il be ok and then had to fish 16m all day.
Wrong again.
The mistake that I made was that club fishing has changed
The people I fish against are all ex open match anglers and are very competitive.
Bought a new pole and now no bloody matches

 

[ukzero1]

I've fished many a match without a pole, and with a fair degree of success. It's one way of learning your waggler and feeder techniques, fairly quickly.

 

[BBear]

I would have thought that if you want to get into serious competitive match fishing then yes you need a pole. However if you just fish the odd match for the social and fun side of it then there’s no need - though I would pick my venues to suit.

 

[Whisker]

It very much depends on the venue and time of year so I wouldn’t worry too much about not having a pole.

I’ve been beaten by guys fishing feeder many times. I remember a club match when I was nowhere with an hour to go. With nothing to lose, I picked up the pellet wag and won my section. And our very own @nutmeg won his lake fishing waggler on last years Pork Pie match, so put your name down and have a go... you never know!

 

[Alantherose]

This is a great thread

 

[chefster]

Depends on your venue, what standard/level match, how good you are at other methods

 

[chris1967]

I can name a bloke he only has two tip rods fishes pole venues and he takes some beating ,to start with folks laughed .they dont laugh any more

 

[chefster]

I can name a bloke he only has two tip rods fishes pole venues and he takes some beating ,to start with folks laughed .they dont laugh any more

I know a few guys that win a lot on the tip , but they are brilliant on it, you’re average Joe angler on the tip is never going to compete with top level open anglers on the pole on pole venues , hence my above post

 

[chris1967]

yeah he is vey good at it

 

[OldTaff]

Depends on your venue, what standard/level match, how good you are at other methods

I’m fairly competent at most methods of fishing but still a bit rusty at the moment. Prior to my “retirement” I’d been fishing about 30yrs and towards the end of that on average was fishing 2 or 3 matches a week, either local opens or matches at my own club and sometimes as part of our works team.

Whilst I had a pole back then it wasn’t my ‘go to’ method as we hardly ever fished commercial venues and when we did they were very different to what today’s commercials are - don’t think the F1 had actually made it into Wales in 2004 when I packed up

At this point in time I would like to drop in on the odd match for whatever club I manage to get into and from what I’ve seen on various club sites these tend to be on home natural waters, stretches of the River Medway and occasional commercial outings.

 

[HawkerMan]

For close in just use a pole float with your rod instead of a waggler works well for catching big fish.

 

[BBear]

I can name a bloke he only has two tip rods fishes pole venues and he takes some beating ,to start with folks laughed .they dont laugh any more

People used to laugh at me fishing as well...trouble is they still do

 

[Line Clip]

90% of my club match fishing is done using the feeder, On our waters it all depends on the peg you draw, some pegs are
not suitable to use the feeder, so your on the back foot from the word go.
All told you need to like fishing the feeder, and have the mind set to watch a tip for five hours .even if it dose not move.
On balance I can hold my own against our pole anglers,
As the others say there are always other methods give match fishing a go, you will not find it disappointing .