Fish Caster
The
Paul Evans
Way
As written
by
Gary Plant
| Paul
Evans is a much-respected Midlands match angler. Living in Bewdley, near to
the banks of the river Severn, he learnt the art of caster fishing from that
formidable match man of yesteryear, Clive Smith. Since doing so he has
developed his own style of caster fishing on the commercial fisheries of
to-day, winning countless matches at places such as Moorlands Farm and
Boldings pools. Paul is regarded by many, as perhaps the finest caster
fisherman on the circuit. He states he owes a lot to Clive.
I met up with 'Evo' at Octoplus backed Boldings pools, situated in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, to see how this man fishes the chrysalis. It had been decided to see him in action at an open match and in doing so learn some of his tricks which have been helping him win matches at the venue over the summer months. When I arrived at Boldings, the draw had already taken place and Paul had drawn peg 14 on Beech, a corner peg. " I don't like corner pegs this time of year " said Paul " I don't believe they hold as many fish during the cooler months as they do in the summer. Having said that this peg produced a fair weight on Sunday last, So we shall have to wait and see." Paul removed his tackle from his van along with 4 pints of caster and half a pint of red maggot. " Caster is going to be my feed to-day, but I've also bought the maggot in case a change of hook bait is called for. Caster as a main bait, is coming to an end here at Boldings and maggot and corn may soon be dominating more." I helped him with his tackle to his peg and on arrival he set up his platform in the edge of the water. " I've done this for two reasons', he says, ' It will give me extra sight of my margin swims (which were growing out either side of him) and secondly it allows me to get lower down to the water, which as it's fairly clear to day will help me not to spook fish so easily." The day was clear and sunny with a light warm wind, which was hardly causing a ripple on the water. "This isn't ideal carp fishing conditions here to-day. The carp respond better when there's movement on the water. I would prefer to be on Chestnut, it's higher up and less sheltered. There will be more movement on that pool." Out of his pole holdall came his Lerc Aerotex carp pole, rated to 18 elastics, and three top kits. Two of which were kitted out with Number 12 'old' green Preston elastic, and the other with number 12 'old' Maver yellow elastic. " Both elastics have a lot of stretch and are very forgiving ", He said. " I will be fishing three lines to-day, one out and two inside, but not tight inside. The out line will be about 7 or 8 metres directly in front of me, which is very flat, and the two insides about 1 - 11/2 metres from the bank fishing at the bottom of the shelf. " So out came three rigs from the numerous ones in his armoury. |