UK Coarse
Pole · Technique journey
A pot of chopped worm over a worm or worm-and-maggot hookbait. Perch, tench, skimmers and bonus fish — especially in a lock mouth or against a feature.
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Chop on the pole is a feature method. You pot a small amount of chopped worm into a hole, against brickwork, or on a silty shelf, and you fish a worm, a worm-and-maggot, or a piece of worm over it. Perch are the honest target; tench and skimmers gatecrash.
It is not a pint of chop in the first five minutes. Little pots, a strong enough elastic for a surprise, forceps for perch.
Canal lock mouths, commercial features, tench silt, coloured water, perch.
A silver-only whip line. A gin-clear canal of tiny roach you will never sort. Heatwave pike by accident — wire if you are in pike country.
From the graph
A starting point, not a shopping list you have to finish. Match the water in front of you.
A pole you can hold, elastic to match, a dotted float, a short hooklength.
On the peg
A small pot of chop, topped up when you have had a fish or when the bites fade. Not a bed for bream unless that is the job.
A stable deck or feature float, 10–12 elastic, size 14–16, worm on the hook.
Lock mouth, far-bank hole, against an aerator, a silty tench shelf.
On the deck or just off it, over the chop. A tail, a head, or worm-and-maggot.
One small pot, a worm, wait. If perch arrive, keep a little chop going. If nothing, a different feature.
Colour helps. Features help. Cold water still works for perch.
Pot a thumbnail of chop, lower a worm onto it, wait. A rattle is perch; a slow slide might be a tench or a skimmer. Forceps for perch. Do not pile chop in because you are bored.
Starting routine
0–10 min
Get a bait in the water on the line you intend to fish. Do not search the whole venue in ten minutes.
10–30 min
A small pot of chop, topped up when you have had a fish or when the bites fade. Not a bed for bream unless that is the job.
30–60 min
If nothing, change one thing — depth, bait or spot — not three. Read the troubleshooting on this page.
Perch rattle. Tench lift or slide. Skimmers dither then pull.
Wait for weight on a rattle. A clean lift on a slide.
Net anything with size or spines. Wet hands, unhook, return. A photograph is optional; the fish in the water is not.
A pint of chop. No forceps. 4 elastic and a 2lb perch. Throwing eels up the bank.
Tiny perch only: less chop, a bigger worm, or you are in a nursery. Eels: unhook and return, they are not a nuisance to be thrown.
Beginner setup
A lock mouth, a small pot of chop, a worm on a size 14, 10 elastic, forceps.
More advanced
Change depth, bait or feed before you change peg.
No linked on-the-bank problems for this method yet.
Catches
Nobody has shared a catch using this technique yet. When someone does, it will show up here — we do not invent anglers or photos.