2021 update – I changed how I tie and store my pole rigs, Although I’ll keep this post live on the website, for the latest way I organise and tie my pole rigs please lick HERE

Where do we start with commercial poles rigs? What’s pole type float? Which line?, stotz’s or shots? What Shotting to use? What size hook length and what type of hook? Its all very confusing and you can get lost spending many hours watching Youtube clips from the Country’s leading matchman. There’s lots of content out there and I’ve spend hours watching and learning from these excellent video’s from the likes of Jamie Hughes, Des Shipp and the like. 

These anglers will run though all their float selections and shotting patterns, better than I could even do. So with this post I just explain how I organise my pole rigs in a way best suited to me. Giving me all the options I need.   

So there do you start. Well for a start as commercial venue match anglers we need to have pole rigs ready for all types of pegs we may draw. You can spend hours tying up rigs but I have condensed these into just two trays in my seatbox. These rigs cover 95% for my fishing and I carry close to 100 pole rigs in my seat box. I keep track of these by keeping a excel spreadsheet. This gives me a good overview as to what I have available and what I need to tie up.

Pole float choices are vast and I just use 10 pole float patterns now. I’ve returned to the readily available main brands of Preston innovations and Guru now after using handmade or hand assembled ones in recent years. The big tackle companies have really stepped up to the plate now regarding their pole float patterns and the days of poorly made, mass produced pole floats have long gone. The same can be said about pre-tied lengths and I’ve stopped tying my own now completely, just buying the Preston GPM’s and SFL ready tied ones and the Guru SLWG banned ready rigs for hard pellet fishing. The quality of these main branded pole floats and hook lengths are excellent. I read reports on social media as to them breaking easily but I think this is more down this anglers using unbalanced tackle and if used correctly there aren’t any problems. 

20cm Tray – (Preston Absolute box) This gives me the option of storing 28 winders of Guru Diamonds and Wire Pingers

Rig choices really depend to the weather, the time of year and what size/type of fish you are looking to catch. But to keep it easy for me all my long and short line summer carp rigs are tied up on 20cm winders using 0.19mm Guru N Gauge main line. Guru Wire Pingers for windy days because of their rugby ball shape and wire stem that gives good stability and for the short pole line my choice is Guru Diamond again tied up on 0.19mm mainline. The long glass stem and Diamond shape gives me the stability I’m looking for and the 1.7mm hollow tip also allows for large carp baits to be used. So all these summer carp pole floats are stored in just the one tray in my box ranging from 0.15g to 1.0g using the rule of 0.1g for each depth of water. This way I have all depths of water covered and if its a windy day I can cut down a heavier rig to aid presentation. For calm summer days with little wind and no tow I go to my 2nd tray where I have all sizes of the slim Preston Carp Pellet rigs tied up, again on 0.19mm mainline. The 2mm tip is ideal for supporting a large pellet. 

All these rigs are shotted with Preston Stotz’s because you can easily get no.11 stotz’s onto 0.19mm mainline and these can be moved up and down the line to adjust shotting patterns without damaging the line. Using an 0.19mm mainline means hook lengths can go up as high as 0.17mm in the height of summer. 

18cm Tray – (Preston Absolute Box) Stored on double winders I can get 60 rigs stored in the tray

My 2nd tray consists of all Preston innovations pole floats tied onto 18cm winders meaning I can get 60 rigs in the tray (Preston Absolute box) this has the bulk of my other rigs for F1’s, Silvers and winter Carp. Using the full range of Preston innovations commercial pole floats. F1 fine, Chianti’s, F1 Maggot, F1 Pellet, Carp Pellet, F1 Shallow, Dibbers, and Edge floats. One of the big advantages of returning to using the Preston pole floats was that they print the name of the float on to the body of the float. This just means selecting the right float on the day without having to rummage though my pole rigs is even easier. Sometimes the simple things are best! 

Apart from the Carp pellet and the Edge floats which are tied on 0.19mm mainline I drop the mainline diameter to 0.15mm for the F1 Pellets and F1 Maggots which are a better option when visiting venues holding small Carp or F1’s as hook lengths go from 0.13mm to 11mm. but I step up to 0.17mm for the shallow rigs as it’s more durable and leads to less tangles when slapping.

In the depths of winter when bite detection is harder I drop the mainline diameter down to 0.13mm. You have to use a sensitive float and get the tip dotted right down. I use the F1 fine’s because of it’s 1.2mm tip to show up the smallest of bites with small baits like maggots and pinkies. Silvers come into play in the winter especially when the Carp aren’t biting and I also have a few Chianti’s tied up in all the sizes. 

So with these two trays of pole rigs available in my seat box I have most of my options ready to go for any time of the year. Yes I have a few paste and margins rigs in another box but these two trays of rigs mean I’m well organised and ready to fish a match when ever I wish. 

I couldn’t fish affectively without my excel spreadsheet !!