Ladies and Gentleman the Winner is -
Carbon Fibre!

Ok, a strange way to start an article but after the amount of thought I've given to a certain topic over the last month I needed to say it out loud - or my head was likely to explode. It had all started innocently enough during a post fishing, or shall we say, liquid discussion with my three friends PF1, 2 and 3.

PF3, from nowhere, posed the question 'What is the single most important technological advance that has ever happened in angling?' We mocked at first, conversation between us is rarely this sophisticated and PF3 is not usually noted for his intelligence. I site as an example an occasion when I had spilled about half a pint of maggots in my garage. He turned up whilst I was trying to sweep them up, took one look and asked if after our last session, I had 'dropped a pregnant one?' I sat him down and patiently explained that usually when there is a mummy fly and a daddy fly, that love each other very much... the look of shame on his face when he realised what a dumb thing he had said was priceless.

Best technical advance though, this level of intelligent conversation was indeed new territory for PF3, and we all decided, on balance, that as he may never achieve such lofty heights again we should give it our best attention.
After much gnashing of teeth PF1 came up with monofilament line, PF2, the fixed spool reel and PF3, returning to usual form offered 'the method'. Cue much laughter and derision as we attempted to point out to PF3 that the method was simply a new way of tying things up that already existed and so technically didn't count. PF3 was decidedly crestfallen and looked as disappointed as a French angler who has just discovered for the first time he was not allowed to eat the contents of his keepnet. I instantly went for carbon fibre and stated that I was right and, as usual, they were all stupid.

Before I go on, I should explain about PF1, 2 and 3. These guys have been my friends, and fishing partners for many, many years and as men they are a fantastic bunch, as friends they are without parallel, but, as anglers? Lets just say they are to angling what Dick Clegg is to diplomacy. Despite my best efforts they are so woefully bad that they have been deemed not worthy of names and have been re-christened, by me I should add, as 'Pools Fodder'.

1, 2 and 3. Don't feel sorry for them, it's a title that they are all comfortable with, particularly PF3. He takes some perverse satisfaction from the fact that after years of regular sweeps, he has never beaten me. Ever. He has stated for the record, that if some strange planetary alignment takes place, or I perhaps lose an arm in a random threshing accident and he actually manages to win, even just once, he'll streak naked round Leicester town centre with the butt section of my Spectron on his manhood. Trust me on this, if it ever happens it's a sight worth seeing, PF3 weighs about 17 stone and has the aerodynamics of a cooker.

Once, we all deliberately fished the first half of a session with no bait on the hook and let him surge ahead, his face was a picture as we all assured him we would hold him to his pledge. It looked to be on on the cards with ten minutes to go, but I fluked a carp (hooked in a fin) and did him, and the citizens of Leicester, a massive favour by beating him by no more than a couple of ounces.

PF1 and 2 are a little better, and, when they can stay untangled and sober, they do manage a very, very odd win, but, overall it has to be said that they have proved to be as reliable a source of income for me as a bung to a football manager. It has never ceased to amaze me how my friends continue to turn up, month in, month out, and line up to give me a tenner each. One year I saved up all that I had won and bought a new front fence, complete with a pair of shiny new wrought iron gates. I called it my 'Fodder Fence', PF2 was so disgusted by the name he threatened to knock it over, and then reverse over the debris, repeatedly, in a stolen car before calling the police and blaming me. But anyway, more about those unfortunates in later articles.

Instantly ditching PF3s suggestion of 'The Method' left us with three candidates and they are all worthy of deeper consideration having all contributed, in varying degrees, to the betterment of angling. Monofilament, for example, was a huge step forward from catgut which, despite its name, was made from stretched bits of sheep and cow intestines. It was fished by attaching short hook lengths to a much longer length of flax and from what I've heard and read, it was as unreliable as a Blair manifesto. At the tender age of 43 I have never had the pleasure of fishing with it, but according to our angling fore-fathers it was thick, non-flexible and had a wet not strength akin to a piece of cooked spaghetti. Catgut knots were prone to slipping under pressure and what they needed was a blob of superglue, but sadly, the venerable Isaac Walton missed the opportunity to glue his fingers to his eyelids with this foul substance by many years.

Monofilament was actually invented in the 1930s but the British cow population couldn't breath a sigh of relief until it was popularised in angling in the 50s, and there is little doubt it has contributed hugely to an anglers ability both to get bites and to land fish.

Which is more interesting, monofilament or this clothes peg?

But, from where I sit it has a major problem in context to this debate that means it must be dismissed. You see no matter how hard you try, and after years of further development you can't get away from this fact, it is still the weakest link in any anglers set up. I've no doubt that small pale skinned men in white coats and thick national health glasses have sweated long and hard over this problem, but still, if you lose a fish then probably its because the line broke, frayed, tangled or the knot slipped, hardly the stuff of technological excellence.

What I really want from mono to make it truly great, is that it is as thin as spider silk, invisible to the naked eye and has the strength to support Bernard Manning from a gallows, yet, after decades of development we are still a long way away from that scenario.



Reels, beautifully engineered, but as vindictive as a scorpion in your pants
The fixed spool reel is a similar conundrum. They have been around in some form or other for centuries with the earliest known depictions in Chinese paintings from around the 1200's so you would think that by now the pasty-faced lab coat brigade would have got them sorted as well.
Its undeniable that modern open-faced reels are indeed superb bits of engineering and some like the Mitchell Match and Shimano Bait Runner have justifiably reached legendary status.
Relentless years of design and development mean some reels can now throw several ounces of lead almost across the channel, others have more ball bearings than an F1 Ferrari and some cost so much you could change your mind on a whim and buy a small Scottish island. And get change. Others have gearing and slipping clutch systems so sophisticated you can land big, heavy, hard fighting carp simply by gently turning the handle whilst at the same time sipping tea from a china cup.

But, and here's the rub, take your eyes off a reel, and I mean any reel, no matter how many islands its worth, for one second and the vicious swine will leap up at you in a devastating over-run and leave you with something resembling Jeremy Clarkson's hair wedged in the butt ring. As a result of this violent jam the other end stops dead in the air, twangs backwards on the tip and repeats the process round the base of the float. Marvellous, complete devastation and a total re-tackle, and usually at a vital point in a match. And when its raining. And when someone's watching. Again, a bit of extra work needed on that idea then chaps.

Carbon Fibre...
So that leaves us with carbon fibre. Of the items mentioned so far it has the shortest history, only really breaking through into angling in the 70's and 80's and yet, lets face it, thanks to more spotty, socially isolated blokes in labs, its now pretty amazing stuff. I could bore you with tales of the Sohio process that is somehow involved in the forming of the carbon. Not to mention the baking of the resultant product at 2500 degrees, at some point, before it becomes a usable bit of kit, but really after a full two minutes research on the Internet I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, such is the complexity of making the stuff.

What I do know though is without it we wouldn't have poles. Even low priced poles are superb bits of kit, such is the quality of modern carbon fibre. Most are now cigarette paper thin, weigh less than one of Victoria Beckham's arms and could lift small wrecks from the sea bed if required.
Shell out a bit of cash and the performance becomes nothing short of remarkable. My present tool has taken some incredible punishment and although it's a standard Spectron, which is essentially a match pole, I've had carp to almost 20lbs on it, and it has never once got out of shape or run out of power. But there's more. Far more important than this indestructibility, and without even mentioning their ability to target and catch fish, is that they are also very, very sexy.

In my NFA coaching role I work with a lot of lapsed anglers returning to the sport, as well as new anglers, and during tackle introductions they don't get excited about the latest hi-tech lines and the newest shiny reels, Oh no. Get a pole out though, set it at it's full length and place it in their hands and the look of astonishment on their faces and the amount of drool collecting in the corners of their mouths is amazing. It's like strapping a monkey into the space shuttle.

If, as an experienced angler you get the hang of smoothly flinging a pole around with an air of mild disdain, like most of the top boys do, you are admired from far and wide. I've had the privilege of being slaughtered by Bob Nudd off the next peg after he fed all my fish off me in the first two hours but it was totally ok, because even a mildly portly and not very attractive Nudd has a pole in his hands he looks as cool as a long green salad vegetable in shades who I could watch all day.

So there you have it really, Carbon fibre has to be the clear winner. Without it we wouldn't have the amazing poles we do. They are almost indestructible, sexy as hell and more importantly as cool as it's possible for fishing tackle to get, for once the back room boys got it right, as have I, and I won't be argued with!

Dave Charlton
The Angry Angler

Opinionated? Me? Wanna argue about it?