AS an angler, I’m always open to change. Take, for example, the way we bait up and place our rigs. Only a few years back we chucked out bait by hand or, at best, used a catapult or throwing stick.
A lot of anglers my age reckon it’s cheating to use bait boats, but if I need one to get my bait and rig placed safely just where I want, that’s what I’ll do. Note I said ‘safely’, because so many of those who condemn baiting tools will cast to an overhanging tree, make an inevitable mistake and end up with tackle left hanging in the branches, posing a danger to wildlife. With a bait boat that will never happen.
On a lot of big waters abroad, where it’s allowed, I’ll use a dinghy to get my bait out there, and it’s helped me catch carp to over 75lb. Rowing out your bait, rig and freebies and positioning them by hand has to be the ultimate in presentation and, as I see it, it’s not cheating at all.
In the picture are a few of the baiting tools that I use to get me a few extra takes. There’s a bait dropper, which is way better than the old-fashioned cage version for getting feed to the bottom of my swim. Beside it is a baiting spoon, which I use for margin baiting with pellets or particles – much better than doing it by hand. Next one along is a great invention from Nash, the Ball Blaster, a sling that will fire big balls of groundbait more than 100 yards. Why haven’t more carp and bream anglers discovered this piece of kit?
Then there’s the Spomb. I remember showing this to a group of old match lads in Ireland a good few years back, and they realised its worth straight away.
Now they never go breaming across the water without a couple of Spombs in their kit.
Next door to that is my Wave Runner bait boat. I use this for all species, but for getting out soft deadbaits for pike it beats standard casting hands down.
I remember carp fishing with a bait boat for the first time many years ago, and the lake record fish picked the bait up even before I could get the boat back to my swim – that’s how good they can be. But I still had to know where to drop the bait and rig to get the take, so I have no hang-ups about cheating, or whatever the keyboard warriors want to call it.
Last but not least among my tools is the Bushwhacker baiting pole system. I’ve used this in various forms for years, but this latest model is the bee’s knees.
I recall fishing a water in Shropshire where we used to cast a lead over to the dam, where a mate would then attach a baited rig and lower it under the trees with a pole pot on the on the end of a 10ft pole.
With the Bushwhacker you can take rig, bait and freebies over from your swim and drop it into spots it’s impossible to cast to – but beware... It’s not unusual to get takes before you’ve shipped the thing back.
In fishing, a lot of the time, you make your own rules. You can remain in the past or be as modern as you like – the choice is yours, and the only thing that really matters is that you enjoy what you’re doing.
I’m certainly enjoying my fishing as much as ever, and I’m always on the lookout for any clever innovations that will help me continue to do so!