Pole Fishing Magazine

The competition angling of 2012 is getting into its swing across the UK. And many anglers enjoying some cracking sport already this year Pole Fishing caught up with some of the stars that make up the mighty Garbolino consulting stable to see where they will be competing in the weekend ahead.



Jason Le Bosquet

Reigning UK Champ Jason is concentrating all his efforts on the canal this weekend – and was actually pleasure fishing the venue when PF caught up with him.

“I’m not out on Saturday, but I’m looking forward to Sunday when I’ll be out on the Stainy at Thorne fishing a pairs match with my mate Adam Wakelin,” Jason told PF. “It’s the second round of a five match series on the canal. IN the first match we managed to take ninth spot out of 49 teams, hopefully we can do better at the weekend.

“The water’s a bit cold at the moment, and it was frozen up till Tuesday, but the fishing's not to bad today. In Sunday's match I’ll be fishing two lines at 7 and 13meters with groundbait and bloodworm and joker.”



Ian Didcote

Ian’s not straying too far from home this weekend, fishing an open match at his local Manor Farm Leisure.

“I’ve fished a few matches there over the winter and it’s a nice venue to compete at when it’s cold,” said Ian. “I’ve got a two day pairs match the weekend after this one so it’s also a good chance to see what’s working. My tactics on the day  will be targeting the F1s and carp on the pole fishing soaked 4mm pellets with a hairigged hard 6mm pellet on the hook.

“When you fish expanders on the hook the fish come in and they can knock your hook bait off and it’s a bit of a mess about,” he continued. “With the hard pellet you get much better bite indication, you can strike as hard as you like, fish overdepth with no worries of losing your hookbait and if you miss a bite you just drop it in again knowing that you’ve still got a pellet in place.”



Rich Hull

Rich is in the middle of a serious campaign at Makins Fishery at the moment, competing in both the individual and pairs winter leagues.

“This Sunday I’ll be on Phase Two fishing either Lagoon or Lizard in the individual league,” Rich told PF. “It’s the second round and after winning my section and lake in the first round I’m looking forward to competing again this weekend.

“It’s pole only, so depending on which peg I draw I’ll either be fishing for a bite at a time for the carp or looking to put a good bag of roach together, hopefully with the odd bonus perch which are coming out to up 2.5lbs.

“If I draw a peg where I know the carp are I’ll be looking to Kinder pot in half a dozen micro pellets at a time and fish corn on the deck. Six of seven fish can win you a match and you’ve got time to search for the them in your swm.

“If I’m not in a carp swim then it’s roach, and there is some great roach fishing at Makins. I’ll be feeding 10 to 15 casters with a few red maggots over a caster hookbait until the fish start feeding and then back off to half that. Once the roach move in they don’t tend to move out again during a match.”



Kian Wardle

Kian will be fishing one of his favourite venues, taking on the Stainforth and Keadby in the same pair match series as fellow Garbolino consultant Jason Le Bosquet.

“I love fishing bloodworm and joker, and the Stainy is a great venue so I’m looking forward to the second round of the league on Sunday,” said Kian. “In the first round individually I came fourth overall and my partner Bradley Titmus did pretty well so we’re towards the top of the league at the moment.

“Fishing wise I’ll be working two lines at 7 and 13 to 14.5metres. I’ll stick four balls of groundbait and joker over these and hopefully do as well if not better than the last match.”



Simon Fry

It’s Larford for Simon this Sunday, fishing the Classic Qualifier on the venue’s Speci Lake.

“I haven’t fished the Speci Lake at Larford for a while so I’m looking forward to it,” said Simon. “I’m not too sure on tactics yet, but I imagine I’ll start off on the method looking for a good carp. If that doesn’t work after around 45minutes then I’ll move to a groundbait feeder for skimmers. I'll be feeding a pole line though, probably with pellets, again to try and get the skimmers feeding.”



Steve Cooke

Concentrating on honing his winter F1 fishing at Lindholme over the colder months, Steve's looking forward to entering the open weekly at the fishery this weekend.

"I've not done a lot of fishing for F1s in the winter before and it's a steep learning curve, but something I'm really enjoying at Lindholme," Steve told PF. "It's an area of my fishing that I want to work hard on as there are a lot of younger anglers out there that are so good on the commercials now and I want to be up there as well, so I'll be in the Sunday match again this week.

"Lindholme's also got the added adrenalin rush of having a few trout in the pools as well. And when you hook one of those you know about it!
"My tactics for the weekend will depend on how I draw, but I'll have a waggler set-up at half depth ready for the trout, twitching a corn hook bait always gets a bite. Then down the edge I'll feed a steady trickle of maggots for the F1s and also a pole line with micros, again for the F1s."