Dave Coster's How To - Pick The Right Tools

This entry was posted on 3rd September, 2018

A sharp pair of scissors are essential when out on the bank. Fine pointed designs are best for trimming knots, particularly on hooks, where you don’t want a long tag end that fish can feel - potentially causing them to reject the hook bait. Scissors with non-slip rubber overlays on their handles are good, because very often you will be using them with wet hands. Thinner bladed scissors are also excellent for trimming down baits like soft pellets, meat and corn, which often brings bonus bites when the going is tough.



Standard slotted head plastic disgorgers cover most requirements when fish have swallowed your hook bait - not too deeply. These are kinder than metal versions and most float if you accidentally drop them in the water. When fish are deeply hooked, Slammo style disgorgers, with a forward slotted loop - which traps the line - are better to use. These help to avoid the mono coming adrift as they slide down to the hook, releasing it easily, also stopping the hook point from snagging on the way out of the fish.



Elongated Preston Stotz weights are easier to install on fine lines than round micro shot. There is a special Stotter Tool to apply them, but many anglers find good old Styl Pincers even better. The trick is to spill a few Stotz weights onto a flat surface, and then using the pincers, the ones with their slots facing down can be gripped and nipped straight on the line. This is far quicker than messing around with tiny and fiddly round shot.



Multi tools are very handy tools that can get you out of all sorts of bother when things go wrong at the waterside. These compact tools are easy to store in your kit, but offer an amazing range of uses. They can provide you with penknives, pliers, wire strippers, files, bottle and tin openers, different types of screwdrivers and saw blades. Whether it’s a loose screw on a reel, a broken pull ring on a tin of bait, or stubborn branch in your way…it can be fixed