PASTE FROM THE PAST
I've always liked pictures like this. They are pretty much all that is left to inform us about the use of cane poles. They were presumably used by the class of people who never wrote books because while there are many famous books of that era written about angling in general and Roach fishing in particular, cane poles were deemed worthy of an occasional mention at best. Truth be told, back in those days, pole fishing was probably only a regional pursuit being used mainly on the Lea and with slightly longer versions, on the Thames. If there's an old book out there about pole fishing I'd love to know about it.
The only real alternative to reading directly about their use is to look at the many books written about the fish they were used to catch - Roach. It is worth remembering that they were called Roach poles not just Poles or worse still as their modern day descendants are usually described, Carp poles. In these books one of the most striking things to have changed are the baits used to catch them. Some are clearly still used today with great success; think bread, maggots and worms, but some have fallen by the wayside somewhat. Caddis grubs for example used to be sold in tackle shops. Well as far as I'm concerned they will be staying on the wayside. I don't feel any inclination to scratch around in muddy ponds catching them one at a time even supposing there enough left to warrant the effort. The shortage of urchins available to collect a day's bait for tuppence is also a problem.
Three traditional favourites, little used these days, interest me though and I have decided to use them regularly over the coming summer. Wheat I have given a run out already with some success. Cheese is awaiting my attention but the one I decided to use today was bread paste. It was the favourite way to fish bread in years gone by, often flavoured with aniseed and/or coloured yellow or pink. These days it is mostly used as flake or punch. After today, I can see why.
Rule one, actually there is only one, it must be soft. The anglers of yesteryear invested a lot of effort in making it as soft as possible, but soft is good enough. I made mine for today very simply by cutting the crusts off of half a dozen slices and soaking them wrapped in a piece of clean linen. Then I just squeezed all the water out and kneaded it relentlessly (still in the cloth) for about five or ten minutes. In use it was easy but comparatively time consuming to mould a piece onto the hook.
Initially, immediately in fact, bites were bold and unmissable producing not Roach but three Bream to about two pounds, but equally quickly, a swim full of tiddlers proved a complete pain. A few unhittable digs on the float and the bait was gone. Equally frustrating to start with was the ease with which I could knock the bait off while shipping out. Obviously I'd passed the softness test at the first attempt but although I found it testing to start with, I gradually realised that it was improving my technique. My shipping out became slower and smoother. Instead of flicking the bait out I was lowering it or gently swinging it into place and irritating tangles became a lot rarer. After an hour or so the improvement in my fishing was clear and I started to enjoy myself.
In retrospect my pole fishing has a tendency to become more frenetic as bites increase and become harder to hit; slowing everything down made it all so much less demanding and productive. My feed was a mixture of liquidised bread and ground/crushed hemp stiffened as necessary with a little Gros Gardons. I cured most of the lightning fast, tiddler interventions by stepping up the feeding to 'choke them off' and more importantly I made the groundbait less stiff so that the balls broke up higher in the water to get the small fish up off bottom. It seemed to work and the fishing settled down. Paste sinks very quickly and bites on the drop were few and far between.
I had over 8lbs of Bream, Roach and Hybrids by lunchtime which was not bad for a first go in a cold North Easterly. This could be my new favourite bait for pole fishing but I still have the cheese to try and a combination of the two is not off the cards.
The only real alternative to reading directly about their use is to look at the many books written about the fish they were used to catch - Roach. It is worth remembering that they were called Roach poles not just Poles or worse still as their modern day descendants are usually described, Carp poles. In these books one of the most striking things to have changed are the baits used to catch them. Some are clearly still used today with great success; think bread, maggots and worms, but some have fallen by the wayside somewhat. Caddis grubs for example used to be sold in tackle shops. Well as far as I'm concerned they will be staying on the wayside. I don't feel any inclination to scratch around in muddy ponds catching them one at a time even supposing there enough left to warrant the effort. The shortage of urchins available to collect a day's bait for tuppence is also a problem.
Three traditional favourites, little used these days, interest me though and I have decided to use them regularly over the coming summer. Wheat I have given a run out already with some success. Cheese is awaiting my attention but the one I decided to use today was bread paste. It was the favourite way to fish bread in years gone by, often flavoured with aniseed and/or coloured yellow or pink. These days it is mostly used as flake or punch. After today, I can see why.
Rule one, actually there is only one, it must be soft. The anglers of yesteryear invested a lot of effort in making it as soft as possible, but soft is good enough. I made mine for today very simply by cutting the crusts off of half a dozen slices and soaking them wrapped in a piece of clean linen. Then I just squeezed all the water out and kneaded it relentlessly (still in the cloth) for about five or ten minutes. In use it was easy but comparatively time consuming to mould a piece onto the hook.
Initially, immediately in fact, bites were bold and unmissable producing not Roach but three Bream to about two pounds, but equally quickly, a swim full of tiddlers proved a complete pain. A few unhittable digs on the float and the bait was gone. Equally frustrating to start with was the ease with which I could knock the bait off while shipping out. Obviously I'd passed the softness test at the first attempt but although I found it testing to start with, I gradually realised that it was improving my technique. My shipping out became slower and smoother. Instead of flicking the bait out I was lowering it or gently swinging it into place and irritating tangles became a lot rarer. After an hour or so the improvement in my fishing was clear and I started to enjoy myself.
In retrospect my pole fishing has a tendency to become more frenetic as bites increase and become harder to hit; slowing everything down made it all so much less demanding and productive. My feed was a mixture of liquidised bread and ground/crushed hemp stiffened as necessary with a little Gros Gardons. I cured most of the lightning fast, tiddler interventions by stepping up the feeding to 'choke them off' and more importantly I made the groundbait less stiff so that the balls broke up higher in the water to get the small fish up off bottom. It seemed to work and the fishing settled down. Paste sinks very quickly and bites on the drop were few and far between.
I had over 8lbs of Bream, Roach and Hybrids by lunchtime which was not bad for a first go in a cold North Easterly. This could be my new favourite bait for pole fishing but I still have the cheese to try and a combination of the two is not off the cards.
Comments
Post a Comment