Dave Harrell

How to take advantage of increased silverfish stocks this weekend

Whip up a roach frenzy

JUDGING by the number of companies now selling long whips, it’s a style of fishing that’s becoming more and more popular with anglers all around the country.

The reason for this upsurge in the popularity of the style is all down to fish stocks.

Many of our rivers are as good as, or better than, they have ever been – and there are a lot of silver fish like roach and dace to now go at.

It’s also a really enjoyable way to fish and if, like me, you compete in river competitions, it’s a way to build a good weight very quickly.

My best-ever long whip weight was 114lb of dace from the River Wye at Hereford, and I’ve had loads of weights between 20lb and 60lb fishing this way.

If you’ve never tried it, I’d urge you to give it a go. We’re coming into a time when the lomg whip will work on a variety of venues.

I can’t guarantee you 114lb every time, but I can guarantee you some very interesting fishing sessions ahead.

ELASTIC OR FLICK TIP?

I know several good anglers who swear by flick tips, but while I admit that these do help in terms of being able to cast out light rigs, the negatives outweigh the positives for me.

I prefer to remove the No1 flick tip section and run elastic through the No2 and No3 sections.

I have recently been experimenting with elastic just through one section, and for lighter elastics it’s worth doing it this way as it avoids having too much elastic coming out of the whip and little or no control.

WHICH ELASTICS?

I use Daiwa Hydrolastic for all my long whip fishing. For big weights of good quality dace and roach I use the Grey. For lighter work I use the White or the Blue. I use a wide bore PTFE bush in the end of the No2 section and an adjuster bung in the No3 section to tension the elastic to suit the situation.

CONTROL

If there are a lot of fish present and bites are coming quickly, it’s often beneficial to use a shorter length

and fish past the end of your whip, – but most of the time that’s a big mistake.

For perfect control I find it much better to fish the rig on the same distance as the end of the whip.

That way you will be able to run it much further down your swim and maintain perfect control all the way.