John Bailey: 'The bolt rig has been the death of coarse fishing'

Yes, we were catching coarse fish, but what I tried to do was to give them a 'game' experience, even though the target was chub, barbel and perch even. I attempted to teach the lessons that I had learned as a kid on the more northerly rivers like the Dane, the Weaver and the Trent and more especially here in Norfolk from the likes of Len Bryer, Jimmy Hendry and of course, John Wilson.

What am I talking about, these mysterious lessons? Nothing magical at all actually, just approaches that most coarse anglers used routinely last century in their every-day fishing sessions.

There was a time when coarse anglers travelled light, with skeleton gear, so they could remain mobile and fish a dozen swims in a day. They used to stalk fish and use natural baits for chub or carp that they could see. Surface fishing was popular and float fishing the go-to method, especially on rivers where they would trot a stick float or stret peg (remember that anyone?) or lay on. Touch ledgering was popular as was freelining with no weight on the line at all. Centre pins were much used and overall, far lighter lines were the norm, often it is true, for smaller fish. These were the tactics I saw every day of my fishing life, until perhaps the 90s, but today, in the coarse world, for most, the arts of the sport are largely forgotten.

In part, this is a reflection of the state of our rivers. There were problems with water quality back in the 60s for sure, but I’d go back to those days like a shot. I reckoned recently there were 12 major disasters afflicting our poor, ravaged Wensum and the net result is a dire decline in fish numbers.

Since the 80s most of our rivers and our natural fish stocks have been in terminal decline and so, of course, coarse anglers have stayed away. What has taken the place of wild fisheries are commercial ones where the old methods are largely redundant and there seems little hope of change.

John Bailey and Feargal Sharkey - united in river conservation (Image: John Bailey)

If anyone saw the last episode of Mortimer and Whitehouse on Friday night, you’d have heard Feargal Sharkey telling you about the abject greed of so many water authorities that has brought us to this state. It’s truly enough to make an angler weep and I’m not sure there’ll be any serious answers soon.

But there is more, and in my eyes, we have lost the best coarse fishing methods because of the irrepressible rise of the bolt rig, the concept that a heavy lead on the line will result in a self-hooked fish that the angler does not need to strike at. The fish takes the bait, tries to run but the weight pulls the hook point into its mouth and the angler merely winds in.

Around the start of the 80s when the bolt rig was becoming popular, I took that grand old Norfolk angler Michael 'Robbie' Robbins to Erpingham carp lake to show him how it worked. He watched wide-eyed as I cast out the monstrously heavy rig and shook his head in puzzled wonder as 20 minutes later the electronic buzzer screamed out ”Fish On”.

I offered to set him up with a bolt rig of his own but Robbie, bless him, would have none of it. Thanks, but no thanks. Not for me.

There was widespread bolt rig condemnation at the time and heroes like Chris Yates agreed with Robbie completely, but as is the way of things, anything easy gets adopted, especially if it levels the playing field. Anglers of lesser ability than John Wilson found that the bolt rig caught them the fish they had dreamed of so why should they look back?

I appreciate that long-stay carp fishers need their sleep during a weekend session and the bolt rig allows them that, but this scene apart, in my eyes the bolt rig has been the death of coarse fishing, or at least has obliterated the arts that once graced it.

Much of coarse fishing has become robotic, predictable and tedious. The skill factor has become minimised and along with that the fun factor has diminished too. It’s hardly a wonder that bolt rig boredom doesn’t entice kids off their Playstations and into the sport. If I have a mission any longer in life then it is to remind fishers that coarse angling can be as mobile, tactile and challenging as fly fishing and that we need to get back to the essence of what makes it so compelling when done right.