| Considering Rob Gandley has only been match fishing for some three years or so, his track record speaks volumes in itself. Winner of countless opens on both commercial waters and the canals of the Midlands, the 28 years old, Dudley, West Midlands, based angler was invited to give us all the benefit of his knowledge on the art of Chopped worm fishing. Rob is individually backed by Preston Innovations and fishes for the prestigious MAP Garbolino Starletts side, a side full of knowledge and experience. It is no wonder then that he is gaining a lot of respect on the open match scene around the Midlands with the likes of the Downes brothers, Darren Cox and Norman 'Stormin' Carpenter, amongst others, giving him the benefit of their knowledge. Based with a little bit of ingenuity of his own, Rob is sure to go far within the match angling world. So without further ado, lets find out how he tackles the much fancied bait of chopped worm.
Preston Innovations backed Woodland View fishery, Droitwich was the chosen venue and I travelled down there to meet Rob one Thursday afternoon at the beginning of April (2002). The sun was shinning but I was astonished to find the venue solid with anglers. I couldn't believe it. Yes it was the Easter break, but with only FIVE available pegs left on the main complex you would have thought it was the height of summer, not the beginning of spring! A lot of match anglers were on the venue practising for the individual leagues that fishery owner Mike Mason is running over this coming year. Mike has approximately one hundred anglers signed to date, all split into three leagues. It costs NOTHING to enter, that's right nowt, and Mike has put some excellent monetary prizes up for grabs, but the bonus is that having signed to a league you can fish for FREE during the week, providing you pledge to fish a league match on the venue either Saturday or Sunday of that week. That way if you are absent from the venue for a few weeks for one reason or another, you can get back up to speed with the venue fairly quickly with some free practise sessions prior to a league outing. No wonder the venue was packed to the gunnels and no wonder the only pegs that were left that day were the un-fancied pegs in the bowl on Arles! Pegs 24 to 28 were not the place to be drawn in a match to say the least. A section win was hard to come by from this area so Rob was not looking forward to the challenge of putting together a good net of fish for the cameras.
Rob set his tackle down on peg 26 and was soon un packing his gear trying to feel a little optimistic about the session a head. It didn't give him much confidence when anglers around were struggling to get a bite. Okay some of these were on a pleasure trip and to be fair it appeared to be their only form of sport, the pleasure scene, but some looked as though they knew what they were doing even if they were struggling. Out came his Lerc 9151 and carefully shipped out to 13 metres. Two power kits were also placed by his side, one for up in the water and one for the deck. Inside both kits was Preston Innovations fluro 10's which were lubricated. 
Mike Mason
 Out came a Preston PB2 float, 4 x 10 with a blacked out tip for the shallower of the two rigs, along with a PB 15, 4 x 16 float with a modified tip for the deck. Rob had in fact removed the original tip and replaced it with a slightly thicker bristle of the same material. Rob reasoned that by doing so it gave the float a little more buoyancy enabling him to not only see it a lot better in choppie conditions but also prevented it from being dragged down with the under tow that is occasionally encountered on Arles pool.
Both these floats were carefully threaded onto 0.13 Preston power line which was the approximate length of his power kit for the deeper rig and a Mustard still water power hook size 16 was tied to the line.
Rob attached a plummet to the hook and shipped out to his chosen distance of 13 metres. " Couple of thing here Rob, Why are you plumbing up before placing any shot on the line and why only one line at 13 metres?" I asked. " A number of reasons. Firstly to establish that I have estimated enough line for the depth and secondly to set my depth, once I have done that I will place my shot. I don't like the idea of moving shot about the line unnecessarily." He replied " If you move the shot you may well be damaging the line in the process. " He continued " I am only going to fish one line because of the bait limits imposed on the venue. Having only 1/2 kilo of worm to play around with if I feed a number of lines I will be spreading my fish instead of getting them to feed in one area. In other words I will be wasting a lot of bait by spreading it about! " He chuckled.
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PB 15 (modified orange tip.) ....................... PB 2 with blackened tip.
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