New fishing club to ban poles in all its competitions

A new northern matchfishing club is to be formed that is planning to ban the use of poles in all its competitions.

Formed by three Yorkshire-based match anglers, the club, Bradford Pals, is planning to run its first match next March and will hold monthly competitions for just rod and reel anglers from then on.

“We formed the club as a reaction to the dominance of the pole on the club matches we all fished,” said co-founder Steve Vaughan.

“Basically if you didn’t fish the pole you’d never win, and for those of us who like to fish the waggler or tip, or who can’t manage 16m of pole for a whole match, it just wasn’t fair.

“Our plan is to hold a match a month at various waters including Lindholme and Brafferton, and also a few different waters like Sally Walshes and Southfield that are a bit more suited to rod and line,” he continued.

“Don’t get me wrong, we all own and fish poles, but we just want to enter matches on a level playing field where we can use tactics we enjoy.” One man who understands the reasoning behind Bradford Pals is Barry Habgood, who took a similar stance against polefishing when he founded the club Addingdon Rods and Reels some three years ago.

“Good luck to them,” said Barry. “We took the decision for almost the exact same reasons. It was the same old anglers winning every week - the guys who didn’t have poles just didn’t have a chance.

“The members voted to ban polefishing from matches and now it’s loads better. There are more and different winners and it’s also just nicer fishing. We wouldn’t change it back.” David Faulkner, owner of Brafferton Carp Fisheries which will hold a number of the ‘pole-less’ matches, agrees that the move could be good for anglers, but not necessarily for commercial fisheries.

“From a fisherman’s point of view it will probably be great and I can see it really taking off,” he said. “I see loads of guys here who can’t compete with the poles, and they’re lucky to get within 50lb of the winning weight week in, week out, so it will give them more of a chance.

“The downside is that it might not be so good for the commercials, though, because they tend to be designed to work best with the pole.

“I think guys fishing the tip and waggler will want bigger, more natural lakes to fish on so they could end up arranging their matches elsewhere.” Venue Information For information on joining Bradford Pals contact Steve Vaughan on 07823320765.