SPILL-FREE POTTING ON THE POLE
QI’ve started to use pole pots, but I have a problem with the bait bouncing out as I ship out my pole – what can I do to stop this? Tony Francis, via email
Steve says: Using pole pots for the first time can be a bit tricky until you get used to fishing with them. My advice would be to try to slow everything down a little.
Ship out nice and smoothly, as it’s those jerky movements, even small ones, that cause the bait to fly out of the pot. Pole roller positioning is crucial too, as you don’t want any sudden drop as the pole leaves the roller.
Finally, when using baits like meat and pellets, just press them down lightly in the pot. Then, when you reach the point where you want to deposit your feed, just turn the pole over and give it a tap to release the contents.
A little tip regarding choice of pot is to try and get one that sits low on the pole as opposed to high up.
The higher a pot sits up, the more prone it is to spilling the contents on the way out.
A low-profile pot such as the small Guru model makes shipping in and out at speed a lot easier.
QWhat is ‘dump potting’? Frank, Essex
Steve says: Dump potting basically means introducing large amounts of bait into the swim in one go. For instance, in the height of summer when I am margin fishing, I will dump pot maggots and groundbait in large quantities.
This normally involves using a big pot on your cupping kit of, say, 250ml or even 300ml capacity, filling it and introducing the whole lot in one go. It’s a very positive way to fish and can be extremely effective on its day.
QHow many hooklengths do you tie before a match? Is there one ‘go-to’ style you use for general fishing on stillwaters? Colin Davies, via email
Steve says: This depends on the venue I’m fishing. On a commercial, if we are talking pole hooklengths, I tend to find two hook patterns that I like, one spade-end and one eyed, and tie these accordingly.
An example would be Guru Super LWG hooks in eyed and spade-end. I’ll choose the eyed for hair-rigging and the spade for general work. I’ll then tie them on line diameters from 0.13mm to 0.17mm to cover myself for a variety of situations.
I’ll then simply keep these two patterns well topped-up – as a guide I always like to have at least 10 of each ready prior to a match.