More fun at the local club water (before I start barbel fishing this year).

On the margin pole again and this time I took my grandson Calum now he's off school for 6 weeks. It would be his first taste of fishing with a margin pole.

And boy, did he enjoy it. He caught carp to around 10lb, but it was the variety of species that made it a good day for both of us.
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Crunch!

That was the sound of my number 4 section of my Daiwa Yank and Bank margin pole when I lifted into a fish.

The section just shattered at about the midway point. I think it was my own fault as I was reaching for my flask and took my eyes off my float for just a second or so when I felt the pole being pulled from my grasp and overreacted.

I still managed to land the fish, a carp of around 8lb, but now I've got the inconvenience of waiting for my new pole...

Had a great evening's tench fishing on a Cheshire mere with EC (Eddie Cardus) the other week. We fished the mere together a number of times last year with both of us catching quite a few tench to over 6lb.


Ed playing a tench



Graham and a nice male tench

Last year I stuck to conventional...

Me, Ed and Eric are still having a lot of fun catching carp on the margin pole, but before I tell you more about it let me make a comment about margin pole fishing in general.

There seems to be a misconception that all margin pole fishing is about fitting a stiff pole with very heavy elastic and mauling carp out with no finesse at all. Yes, I do know that happens, especially in some matches where it's only the winnings that matter.
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I'm currently re-introducing my old mate Eddie Bibby to coarse fishing. Ed hasn't coarse fished for a few years now and I thought it was about time he got back into it.



Although he's enjoyed the occasional fly fishing trip there's still nothing like coarse fishing for the great variety of methods it can offer.

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