Keith reveals why the roach poles of 60 years ago were something to be treasured
ACOUPLE of weeks ago I noticed a social media post by that super roach angler and writer, Mark Wintle. He was trying to track down
‘B Gent – Tamesis’, and the post concerned an old cane roach pole purchased by a collector.
Now, Brian Gent happens to be one of my oldest mates. I even fished with him for a few years in Tamesis, a club formed primarily to fish the London AA Challenge Shield, so I contacted him, and what a story came out!
This was Brian’s reply: “The pole in question was indeed a Sowerbutts pole, which I persuaded Edward Sowerbutts to make for me. He was the last of the family to make poles, and was Honorary President of Tamesis AS. He had a workshop in Walthamstow and it took him around two years to make the pole, having had a hell of a job to find suitable cane for the butt section to make up the pole’s 21ft length. In all it cost me the princely sum of thirty quid.”
These cane roach poles were genuine works of art, with the cane matched, bored out by hand and each ferrule having to be individually made, normally out of brass, sometimes from German silver.
The poles were usually supplied with two tips, one with built ‘split’ cane spliced into bamboo, the other, stronger top made from genuine whalebone. Brass loops were whipped on to carry line, which was twisted around the pole and through another brass loop on the tip to make the rig.
The two butt sections had threaded brass caps so that the other sections could be carried inside. Some of the great pole anglers such as Bill Gardner and Reg Hadsley made their own poles and, believe me, at 21ft they took some holding!
They were mostly used to fish ‘laying-on’, with a crow quill float set a few inches overdepth and just enough BB shot 6ins-8ins from the hook to hold bottom. It was a source of pride to be able to fish with as little ‘topping’ — line between the pole-tip and float — as possible. That helped hook lightning-fast dace and roach bites. Hooking a big fish often meant getting up and walking it along the bank until it could be netted unless, of course, it broke the line!
“They were used for ‘laying on’, with a crow quill float set overdepth...”