Cups

For many, many years I have been making allsorts of pole pots. Starting with pots which had sliding side linkages which hung swinging from the end of the cupping set (I did see one being used recently). I remember spending hours cutting sections of old top sets in half and gluing them to various would be cups – plastic bottles and plastic bottle tops being the most favourite, however, they could damage the top set if not used carefully as did many of the designs that fitted this way. Over the years many of the top tackle manufactures have marketed various designs based on the above concepts. I have now found two types of pots that suit my way of fishing and have been fishing with them for five or so years now and haven’t had a problem.

This first pot is one that I use all year round and most often in some form or other, so I carry ten – all basically the same. I make them myself from children’s “Kinder Surprise” egg containers. In the unlikely event that you haven’t heard of them – see picture top left. The cups are very simple and quick to make. I use both halves the Kinder pot – however, one will be deeper than the other. The deeper ones I tender to use for testicle size GB. To make the cups I heat up the shank end of a 2 mm twist drill and make two clean holes in the base of the cup at approximately 6 mm centres equally spaced about the cup centre. I then get a short length of old no 16 solid elastic and thread it through and tie a single over hand knot so it is just tightened to the cups base (don’t use lubricated elastics as the knots can come undone). It is very easy to move the knot to tighten further to suit the top set, that is until the knot is fully tightened. I then trim of the ends of the elastic. See pictures right of two completed pots. There are many advantages to the application of these pots:

• Very easy to make – just a few minutes.
• Very quick and easy to fit to the top set.
• They will not damage the top set.
• They can be slid up and down the top set very easily. I often slide the pot down the top set after feeding close to the end especially if the wind is a problem blowing the line over the pot.
• If the line does catch over the pot when positioned close to the end of the top set a decent size fish can pull the pot off on to the elastic. I have landed a few Carp like this!
• I use the pots for both loose feeding and when slid down the top set I can use the same cup for shipping out paste hook bait. My so uses two in this mode one for the paste and the other for loose feeding.
• They float.
• C-h-e-a-p – 79p for 2 cups (or as KC has commented - 2 for 64p in Tesco's, even better)!!

The manufacturers have recently made the two halves of the egg hinged. If you buy this type then you need to cut off the hinge. Alternatively you can keep the lid on and burn out holes in the lid. I have made a "Salt" and "Pepper" pot this way, which I used when I fished the canal for very light feeding and to ensure I didn't feed too many swims!!

The second pot is one everyone will recognise which is the Drennen Polemaster pots (the middle size is pictured right). These come in three sizes. However, I only use one size which is the 150 ml (I do carry the smaller one as spare). I mainly use this for feeding GB. If I am to feed six to eight balls on the long pole at the start I sometimes loosen off the screw which holds the pot to the top set. This allows the pot to rotate freely about the pole. This helps prevent early ejaculation!