When you purchase your pole a lot are pre elasticated you have different rateing of elastic depending on the size of fish you’re targeting and the strength of the pole.
So what size of elastics do you set in your top kits?
Well this depends on a few factors that include:
1) The size of fish you are aiming to catch
2) If the venue you fish is one where there is a lot of snags
3) River fishing requires a slightly heavier elastic if the flow is fast.
Fitting the right elastics for the fishing situation you are likely to encounter is crucial. It would be silly to use a very light elastic for carp fishing as any self respecting carp would stretch the elastic to its limit (also known as: Bottom the elastic out) immediately and probably snap the elastic too leaving a fish swimming around with a length of line that could possibly snag and result in a death.
You can also get a whip this has no elastic in it and is ok for small silver fish
A regular question from beginners is “How do I know what size float to use?” This is a fairly simple question to answer with this easy to remember guide. Use 0.10gram per one foot of water you are fishing. An example of this is if you are fishing four feet of water use a float with 0.04grams. Another example is 10 feet foot of water would equal 1.0gram float. It’s important to remember that this is a guide and weather conditions will mean you might have to go heavier in windy conditions. This is one more advantage to having more than 1 top kit.
