Fishing to hand with long whips really has come to the forefront over the last couple of years and is a very effective and busy form of fishing.

Places like the River Severn at Shrewsbury, the River Wye at Hereford, River Don near Doncaster and River Thames near Oxford have all seen matches won fishing with long to hand whips.

Where there are vast numbers of dace, weights can be colossal, with one match at Shrewsbury last year won with 70lb, with some great backup weights too.

Alan Scotthorne says: “In my book, this is a fantastic and very enjoyable way to fish and I recently won a match on the River Don putting the Drennan Acolyte Pro Whip 800 through its paces.

“Last week, I put together an article for my overseas magazines, again on the River Don close to where I live near Doncaster. The dace had not arrived on this deep stretch of the river yet, but local anglers say that they will arrive shortly with the cold weather now firmly on us the fishing should improve.

“Throwing small balls of groundbait with hemp and casters is normally the best way to target these fish and with extra water now in our rivers this will be a great time to get out for some great line to had fishing with long whips.

“Although the dace didn’t show that day, I caught a good net of roach plus a few bonus skimmers. One little tip is that these fish come right under the feed, even when loose feeding so it is vital to always feed a couple of meters downstream especially with groundbait.”