Fitting Your Pole Elastic
Part One: Cutting Kits Back To Fit A PTFE Bush

The first thing to point out is that if you are a complete newcomer to pole fishing, or if fiddly jobs aren’t your forte, you don’t have to set up pole elastics yourself. Any good tackle dealer will do the job for you for the price of the raw materials plus a small fee, probably about a fiver.

However, as you progress in your pole fishing you will no doubt acquire more kits so as to handle many different situations, and you will probably want to go down the DIY route.

The first job of cutting back the hollow top kit to fit the PTFE bush is the crucial one. You need something sharp and serrated, and the key to getting a clean cut is to apply steady pressure as you slice through, turning the section as you do so.

As for where to make the cut, well take a reasoned guess at where the diameter of the kit matches the diameter of the PTFE bush – but err on the side of caution. It’s easy to take little sections of carbon off until you get a snug fit, but you can’t add anything back on later.

On the subject of bushes, you can buy external types which fit over the carbon, or internal ones in which a long, thin section goes inside the hollow part. Our advice at tcf is to stick with the external ones.

If you’re looking to fit heavier elastics you may want to copy what many anglers do –remove the whole of the No1 section and fit the bush directly to the top of the No2 section.

If you do this obviously there’s no cutting back at all, but you need quite large bushes for this. To find the right one for your No2 kit, measure the diameter of the top kit in millimetres while the packets will state the diameter of the PTFE bush.

What you are looking for is a really snug fit so the bush has to be pushed firmly onto the top of the kit. Once you’ve got the right fit you can Superglue it in place, although if the fit is perfect you won’t really need to. The rest of the process of fitting the elastic and connector will be shown over the next two issues.

tcf Tool Box
To fit your pole elastic you’ll need:
• A sharp tool for cutting the carbon
• Sandpaper or a file
• A PTFE bush
• Your chosen elastic
• Scissors
• A bung and bung remover
• A diamond eye threader
• A pen
• A Stonfo connector

Step 1 Choose the elastic you wish to fit and select an external PTFE bush through which the elastic will go easily.	Step 2 Line up the bush against the section close to where you think the diameters match – err on the side of caution.
Step 3 Using a sharp, serrated instrument, start sawing through the carbon, applying gentle pressure.	Step 4 Cut to about a third of the way through, turn the section and cut through again.
Step 5 Keep turning and cutting part of the way until you are right through.	Step 6 The bush here is too loose, so we just need to take off a little more.
Step 7 Repeating the process, we’ll try taking another inch of carbon off at a time.	Step 8 That’s perfect – the bush fits snugly over the kit.
Step 9 Smooth off the top of the section with a file or sandpaper.	Step 10 Now just push the bush on hard. If it’s a snug fit you won’t need to glue it.
Step 11 Now for the bung. Push it into the bottom of the kit and mark the last rung that goes right inside with the pen.	Step 12 Pierce here with a sharp, pointed knife.
Step 13 Work the knife or scissors around the marked area.