| If there is one man who can be described as a master of this method then it is Mark Pollard so who better to get together with for a day so he could share his secrets with the talkangling readers than the MAN himself, the mighty "Polly"!!
The venue was Castle Ashby lakes in Northamptonshire and I joined Mark on one of the regular Wednesday matches which on this occasion was on the Scotland Pond. Castle Ashby is one of the many venues up and down the country that is full of small roach which can make up impressive catches providing you do it right.
Mark had drawn an average area yet he assured me that he could do doubles figures from just about anywhere such is his confidence in the method. The first thing that Mark stressed was that to build big weights of small fish you must be organised, sounds obvious but you would be amazed at how much tidier Mark looks when sat at his peg than just about everyone else on the bank. The fact that everything is in exactly the right place definitely helps two pole rollers for smooth unshipping, spare top kits close to hand on a pole roost (not caught up in the grass!!) and all the spare bits and bobs he needs already out of his box and on his side tray help Mark with his silky smooth style. Mark assured me that getting into a smooth rhythm is of utmost importance with this method and you can't let anything disrupt you. Sounds obvious I know but believe me upon walking the bank I can assure you that not everyone gets organised properly.
Onto rigs and elastics it was interesting to see that Mark still favours rigs weighted with the unfashionable style leads. Mark explained that to make this method work you must keep feeding and the more delicate drop through the water that styles provides helps fool the fish that move up in the water to compete for the loose feed. To really exploit this you need to lay your rig out to the side rather dumping it into the water thus allowing for a really natural drop. These points were proved during the session as Mark caught numerous fish which he described as taking literally 6 inches under the surface. These fish would have been impossible to catch with more crude rigs and/or an incorrect laying of the rig. The floats that Mark employs are from the Image Cut range which are perfect for this style of fishing. Main line is 0.08 usually through to a 0.06 hooklength, although on this occasion Mark fished with 0.08 straight through due to the number of fish was going to catch..Oh such confidence! Mark only uses one type of hook for this method and it is the Image IM1, a hook which has cult status on the southern canal circuit, in anything from a 22 to a 26. Again on this occasion Mark opted for a 22 due to the number of fish he was expecting.
Elastics need to be soft and Mark favours Image number 2. The obvious reason for this is to avoid bumping small roach off the hook on the strike but it all serves two less obvious purposes. The first one and probably most important reason is that using a soft elastic that comes out a fair way on the strike stops any hooked fish from splashing on the surface, remember that these fish can be competing for bait right up in the water. The other reason is that the very soft elastic actually helps Mark to ship back at high speed. As he whizzes the pole back the elastic absorbs everything and his fish are in the net in an absolute flash believe me! To achieve the perfect elastication Mark recommends that you elasticate through your top two and that your tip section has plenty cut off so that it is nice and stiff so as to allow the elastic to flow freely.
Groundbaits are very much a personal thing and any of the fine groundbaits by the big two will do. For obvious reasons Mark uses Van Den Eynde groundbaits and on this occasion he opted for VDE Superlake. One ball was cupped in on the line Mark was going to fish about eight metres out. This line was then going to be fed with about 20 squatts every single cast without fail.
This was when the lesson really started as Mark layed the rig in, fed, struck, shipped back, unhooked and shipped back out again for every single cast of the match. His silky smooth style was not interrupted once as everything he explained before the match was demonstrated again and again. The regular feeding was so important as it really revved the fish up and...he emptied it!!
250 fish later the final whistle blew and Mark duly deposited over 11 pounds of small fish on the scales for a well deserved third place. Mark was only beaten by a couple of weights of Skimmers, and he really demonstrated the power of this small fish method
Mark made it look really easy, however, that is because he is so good. There are no deep dark secrets about what Mark does and follow his advice and do the simple things that he explained right and you too could be bagging up on squatt and Pinkie this winter.
Many Thanks Lee
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