Modern baits and antique tackle meet as John Andrews goes in search of tench in London’s historic Bushy Park. But it doesn’t quite go to plan… The day is hot. Not as hot as the previous day which had broken all records by becoming the hottest July day on record with temperatures reaching 36.3 degrees […]

What Exactly Is A Pop-Up?It’s a buoyant bait that’s held down by a weight, be it a shot or rig putty. Most of the time, anglers pop up a bait only a matter of inches off the bottom, but any bait fished sub-surface is effectively a pop-up, so a zig rig is effectively a bait […]

Bread is very visual bait in clear water, and is also very easy for the fish to suck in and digest, making it first-class bait in winter when the colour drops out of many commercial fisheries as fish activity slows. As it’s full of air, you don’t need to use anything to help it pop-up, […]

Sweetcorn is very visual, and when popped up it becomes even more obvious to the fish. It’s important to use the correctly coloured foam – yellow with natural corn, red with red sweetcorn and so on. One major advantage of the foam is that it takes on flavour well and, therefore, can give the bait […]

Although this method will catch all manner of fish, it’s recognised as a deadly method for targeting quality perch – a species that simply can’t resist the lure of lobworms. The idea is to inject the head of the worm to make it float, but hold it down on the bottom with a weight (usually […]

Bob James has come across a deadly way of putting together big bags of quality chub on the float on the Wye, one of his favourite rivers. I HIT upon the success you can have float-fishing with boilies kind of by accident. One of the customers I was guiding on the River Wye had brought […]

Why Use Artificial Baits? Durability is the key as is their ability to avoid problems from so-called nuisance species. A classic example would be when there are millions of small silver fish about when bigger creatures are your target. On a river full of minnows, for instance, live maggots are attacked constantly, whereas rubber maggots […]

The Caster Cocktail Casters are great bait for quality fish, but the problem with them is that they are all-too-easily ‘smashed’ up by small fish before the specimens can get a look in. This rig allows you to retain the attraction of real casters. Combined with the hardiness of artificials, they have the added bonus […]

The Maggot Clip The maggot clip is a very recent development that allows the angler to easily fish a ball of maggots off a hair rig. They are made by Korda and come in four sizes: extra small, small, medium and large. We used the smallest one for this sequence, paired with a size 10 […]

Artificial Mixers One of the main advantages of an artificial mixer is that it will remain very buoyant. Conversely, a real one will take on water and sink further. It’s better to retain the buoyancy because fish need to suck harder to get it into their mouths. Thus, they are more likely to take the […]

Why Use Artificial Baits?Durability is the key as is their ability to avoid problems from so-called nuisance species. A classic example would be when there are millions of small silver fish about when bigger creatures are your target.On a river full of minnows, for instance, live maggots are attacked constantly, whereas rubber maggots are left […]

If you pole fish, you’ll probably have a large pot for kicking off your swim at the start of the session, but some pleasure anglers out there haven’t cottoned on to the benefits of having a small pot mounted on your fishing kit permanently.One of the tricks you learn as you fish commercial fisheries more […]

Fitting Your Pole ElasticPart 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 […]

What Is A Groundbait Feeder?Another phrase used is ‘open-ended feeder’ and that best describes what it is. Unlike a block-end feeder for maggot fishing, a groundbait feeder (usually) has both ends open and groundbait is used to carry the feed into the swim. As you can see on this page, there are many different types […]