So for the purposes of this article, the title is quite apt

I’m not posing this question to knock the time and effort that went into unifying rod numbers as I do believe it was a fair and beneficial move, but how many more fish have you caught? Although you can use four rods, I don’t see many anglers making use of this in my part of the world. Obviously, a lot of fisheries only allow three rods, but even on those that do allow them, three still seems to be the norm. So for the purposes of this article, the title is quite apt. Now whilst it might not catch you more fish all of the time, what about using that third or fourth rod to do something a little different, a bit of prospecting if you will? Rather than fish all three rods in a stereotypical manner, what about doing something completely different with one of them? This probably won’t hurt your chances and might find something a little out of the ordinary. Unless you are a masochist, you will probably be ledgering with bite alarms with your three matching rods. Have you ever tried to watch more than one float at a time? If you haven’t then take my advice, don’t do it as it will guarantee a migraine in double quick time. What about winding in one of those leads and swapping it for a float rod, pint of maggots and waggler? It is amazing how many boring hours you can while away quite oblivious whilst catching the smallest of fish on the float, and hopefully every so often, off will roar something appreciably bigger on one of the ‘proper’ rods. Sounds like too much work? OK then, what about ledgering for a different species? So many of our carp fisheries contain huge fish that rarely if ever see an angler fishing for them. All of those monster tench/bream/roach/rudd/eels/pike/perch, that are swimming around blissfully unaware of your presence. Why not have a little try for those? All lakes and rivers contain species other than your target and if one species grows large then they all probably will. Of course, there are a few disadvantages to having a go for other species. For a start, you might have to get out of bed more often to hook, play and land specimen fish which others around you will not appreciate. Your fellow anglers might even think you quite mad for fishing for other species. Your shiny matching three rod set-up will no longer match and you might even be forced to use single banksticks, which in turn will lead your mates to believe that you have finally joined the ranks of the floppy hat brigade. Still, the worst that might happen is you catch no more than you would have done in the first place. More often than not though something will turn up that will put a smile on your face.

Who knows, that single prospecting rod might be joined by another, and then another, as a whole new world opens up before you.