I thought I'd try something out of necessity, the last few trips have been hard as the pain of my Angler's Elbow* hasn't abated. The fishing has been pretty good on the ponds of late but I feel I've lost fish I shouldn't have, it's amazing how much power you have in your good arm compared to the other. Oh and if anyone says you'll get used to fishing the other way round, you won't, I tried it last time and lasted ten minutes, ok maybe I should have tried longer but it felt awful, didn't help the pain and was frustrating bordering on the comical, I'm about as good as fishing ambidextrous as I am at spelling the word I concluded.
Thinking of ways around this made me remember fishing as a kid on rivers like the upper Lea, Gade and Beane, tying the line to the bottom ring (no doubt after a stupid tangle by the reel) and fishing for the last hour or so for dace and small chub, with a lightness of tackle and crispness of the fight that made everything seem large, I wondered if I could use something similar on ponds where the carp don't go that big.
So here's the plan, I'm going to fish an old rod with no reel as it will be ultralight to hold with either hand, the line will be threaded through the opposite way and connected to a length of pole elastic which is tied to the rod butt, this will be my shock absorber for larger fish, but I still want the crispness of rod and line for silvers so will hold the line when playing them. My thinking is it will be similar to the makeshift set up I used on those rivers as a kid, much like fishing a whip, but with the bend of a rod and the elastic of a pole for larger fish.
I won't need to cast far (I never do anyway) and hopefully any carp will potter about in close quarters like they usually do. The safety is the elastic which is much heavier than I need just in case and also fishing a small fine wire hook which will should bend out before any kit gets snapped off, failing that there's 3lb bottom, 4,4lb mainline and the 9-11 rated elastic.
Here's the connection between elastic and line, I used a standard dacron connector the way pole anglers do after watching several Youtube clips, but I removed the stop bead and used a couple of thin pieces of silicon tubing so that the connector can pass through the rod rings smoothly.
I started fishing in a quiet corner of the pond and thankfully there was no one else there to see me make a twat of myself, the weather wasn't ideal with a sharp wind and it felt pretty cold when the sun dipped in, all pre loaded excuses for the inevitable failure even if in my mind it could work, the new margin rod whippy pole thingy (I'm still working on a catchy name) would be on everyone's shopping list and it would be a solution for those in pain who can't hold a heavy rod or pole all day.
Yeah right.
The weird thing is it did actually work, my tiny pole float was swung out, I then pulled the line in with my hand like a fly angler until I had no slack, mending any surface bow, if anything I could have had less line tied as I had more than enough to swing fish in and a bit too much for where I was fishing. Bites came from the off with the customary shyness for this time of year, the float went under I struck each time whilst holding the line as a few roach put a crisp bend in the rod. I soon got into a rhythm.
I was conscious of having line getting tangled by my feet so placed a second mat there and I think this would be negated by having around two feet less line but the test would come when I hooked something bigger than roach. I may need that extra line I thought.
If the roach were fun the f1's were another level, although none got even close to stretching that elastic which left me wondering if there's more control gained by feeding the line in and out by hand with a fish on, they weren't big though but a lot of fun.
I wanted a test of a larger carp and it came in the shape of a good one, however the unmistakable feeling of a foul hooked fish is there no matter how you fish and after a brief battle the hook pulled from the fin. I did turn it several times and stopped a foul hooker going into the middle which was kind of impressive even if it didn't prove the theory. Sadly it was the only test of the day, although getting those f1's and bream was direct and fun, why do these gaunt looking bream always look so big in the water?
I had hoped for some nice perch but only a few small ones showed, the roach action was non stop but a bit frustrating as getting through small ones to the better fish was a problem, changing more to on the drop a few netters succumbed and once more gave me that crisp bend in the rod I wanted.
I packed up early to beat the rain as it got really cold, finishing with 30 roach, 5 f1's, 2 perch, 2 bream and a rudd in around three hours although it seemed half of that was setting up, I did bump a few and had a couple of foul hookers but that can happen anyway, I didn't get snapped up and felt in control of all the fish.
The verdict on this experiment? Well it worked surprisingly well and yet it didn't work the way I wanted it to. It caught fish well and looked like it would handle the larger fish just as well as my usual rod and line set up, however I would have caught the same amount on rod and line of that I am pretty sure. Where it failed was it was just as painful fishing this way despite being lighter, I think it was because I was holding the rod along with the line instead of resting it on my leg and that I still played every fish with my bad arm despite using a set up that could be used by my left hand, force of habit I suppose.
It's probably not a style I'll try again, but it was fun experimenting, although I know with a bit of fine tuning it would work better, perhaps on a warm sunny day just whittling out a few fish for fun, who knows. However The Beast Thruster Margin Pole Rod Whip Carbon X F1 is unlikely to feature on Dragon's Den soon.
* They've got Tennis Elbow and even Golfer's Elbow so lets have Angler's Elbow. After chatting to quite a few online sufferers it seems it's quite common in the rod arm. More painful than you would think and rather persistent. I would be quite cautious if you feel a little niggle in your arm at any stage like I did as it kind of lets you know it's coming. Before long you may be in pain and thinking up wacky inventions.
