POLE,CHECK,LIQUIDISED BREAD ,CHECK,BREAD SLICES,CHECK.PUNCHES...ERM....

[TrentFisher]

Yesterday was to be a sit down pole session.
Chasing roach with liquidised bread and punched bread.
Arrived at my chosen swim a nice 7-8ft at 6 metres ,perfect.
The old Shakespeare take apart assembled.The float a home-made whipped crow quill.
Depth plumbed and in with 5 bait droppers of liquidised feed.
I always use my Shakespeare seat box on these trips as it is fitted with adjustable leg system and side tray.I must admit this is getting a lot of use these days as I find it perfect to fish the Trent in comfort ....that's another story.
Reaching for the bread punch but nowhere to be seen or found....light bulb moment I had left the pencil case with all my punches at home when I removed a similar one which contains a quantity of feeders......B.....!!!
Press on, small folds of flake may work OK.
For the next half hour I managed 3 roach and too many missed bites......think.
I put the pole in its rests and rummaged through the seatbox,lurking in the float box was a clear bodied waggler.....bingo!
Two minutes later I had a 6mm punch cut from said float and a handle formed by wrapping some red electricians tape round the cut down float body.I keep this to mark the pole with depth etc...
Not ideal but I could punch the slices of bread and immediately the bites where more positive and a steady stream of roach from 3-12 ounces followed throughout the session .most enjoyable.
A set of punches is now housed in my main tackle bag ,an old Ikea zip up bathroom wash bag which houses all the key items !!!!

I hope your fishing is going well.
-Nige.

[Jeremy Croxall]

Yesterday was to be a sit down pole session.
Chasing roach with liquidised bread and punched bread.
Arrived at my chosen swim a nice 7-8ft at 6 metres ,perfect.
The old Shakespeare take apart assembled.The float a home-made whipped crow quill.
Depth plumbed and in with 5 bait droppers of liquidised feed.
I always use my Shakespeare seat box on these trips as it is fitted with adjustable leg system and side tray.I must admit this is getting a lot of use these days as I find it perfect to fish the Trent in comfort ....that's another story.
Reaching for the bread punch but nowhere to be seen or found....light bulb moment I had left the pencil case with all my punches at home when I removed a similar one which contains a quantity of feeders......B.....!!!
Press on, small fol ds of flake may work OK.
For the next half hour I managed 3 roach and too many missed bites......think.
I put the pole in its rests and rummaged through the seatbox,lurking in the float box was a clear bodied waggler.....bingo!
Two minutes later I had a 6mm punch cut from said float and a handle formed by wrapping some red electricians tape round the cut down float body.I keep this to mark the pole with depth etc...
Not ideal but I could punch the slices of bread and immediately the bites where more positive and a steady stream of roach from 3-12 ounces followed throughout the session .most enjoyable.
A set of punches is now housed in my main tackle bag ,an old Ikea zip up bathroom wash bag which houses all the key items !!!!

I hope your fishing is going well.
-Nige.

Necessity, the mother of invention.....Well done Nige

[Moley]

At least some decent Trent Roach eventually showed Nice. 'tis funny how they do show such a marked preference for punched bread at times and nothing else will do.

Fatty has two sets of those Drennan punches and secretes them in his two coats, winter and summer coats. That way disaster is avoided.

Now all Fatty has to do is remember to take his rods, reels, correct bag, pies, slurping tea, landing nets. unhooking mats and triple signed permission slips from Waffen Command.

Sometimes , just sometimes it all gets a bit too much.

Trying to minimise tackle always ends in disaster too.


Oh well.....

As ever,........

Moley

[EricW]

I drove an hour to the river recently, walked half a mile across the fields - no reel. I don't have senior moments any more, I'm coming round to the fact that I'm just a full time senior who doesn't need an excuse to forget stuff. Nice catch Nigel.

[MWithell]

That was very instructive, not just because of your improvisation but because I never knew punched bread could be so much better than flake. I've never used a punch. I still have my 6.5 metre LERC telescopic pole which I haven't used for decades. The biggest fish I caught with it was a 3.5lb bream at Teddington in about 17ft of water at high tide.

[Grumpy]

A fine bit of fettling to save the day.Well done.

[Catfish.017]

It is quite extraordinary how deadly the punch can be. I've got one of the aluminium bodied types with brass punch heads. For larger sizes old brass ferrules and bits of fibreglass rod section have all been used over the years.