Pallatrax -  Sshh!  Don’t tell everyone the secret……..

Talking to “Pom” the other day, the genial and ever enthusiastic inventor of the Stonze, which I do on a frequent basis, as he has become a very good mate and is also a very good angler, full of ideas, he asked me if I could pen a few words about the ethos and development of Pallatrax as it had effected me.

Firstly, anyone knowing me or Pom, would know we are both big, bluff, humorous and far too straight talking for our own good, me even more so, and on that note don’t ever expect The Pons to be appointed a UN ambassador to some tin pot country run by a Presidential despot. The whole world would soon be involved - well they would if oil was mentioned.

Do I digress?  Alright, back to the plot.

Like two strangers on a dusty railway platform, our eyes met, narrowing, sizing each other up, friend or foe?  You know the scenario, knowing something is going to happen, dodgy Mexican music playing, passengers quickly melting away, the dried spindly grass blowing down the now deserted platform, the big, round clock about to strike three, as two big, mean dudes know there is only going to be one winner, as the undertaker rubs his hands, the station board blowing, swinging, creaking and squeaking…………..

Perhaps I have seen too many Westerns.  I used to love them, where are they now?  All in my DVD collection, that’s where.

Actually, it was at the NEC Fishing show where Pallatrax were exhibiting, and Tini, Simon’s better looking half, errr, much better looking actually, was drawing in the crowds.  The stand was full of eager punters, all fascinated by the products on display, most leaving with a bag of Stonze, and other fishy goodies.  Pom was there, of course, how could you miss him?  Six foot plus of English beef, and he tells me I look like Shrek!  And can he talk?!  Worse than me, more than Russell Brand, mind you he hasn’t got so much hair, and he is slightly  heavier…..

Years before, when working in Dorset, I used  to fish Chesil Beach, feet crunching on the plentiful pebbles, never once thinking that these would become the alternative to lead weights, and in those days “green” or EU Directives were only in the thoughts of then Prime Minister, Ted Heath, he himself long sailed off into the sunset .

And yet here they were, the pebbles that is, now on the Pallatrax stand, attached to swivels, holes through them, fishing weights to keep the greenest of folk happy.  Simon must have been going to the beach every night in his pick up truck, stocking up - big ones at Chesil Cove end; smaller ones at Abbotsbury.  At least, that’s what I thought, and like many anglers, thinking, nah, they will never catch on.

Well, I was wrong!  And what’s more, they actually help you catch more fish, which is why I know use them, pretty much exclusively for all my ledgering.

You see, as a fisherman, I want the best gear and edges I can get hold of.  Goodness knows how much gimmicky and rubbish gear I have tried in my 40 odd angling years, so when mates who had caught all the giant Barbel on the Great Ouse and elsewhere showed me the Stonze method, and eulogised at length about it, then I had to know more, and Simon being the inventor was just the man to tell me.

He told me that everything is designed to help anglers catch more fish, and that is what drives him, so be it bait, terminal tackle, line, rigs or weights, it has to work.

He wants the anglers to use his products, which are all tested on the lakes at Pallington and by well known anglers elsewhere, and use them because they will not be made out of inferior and cheap materials, but the quality will show through, the anglers having the very best product he can design and produce.

It was while making a Barbel DVD on the River Teme , “Teme Tigers”, that the power of  the  Stonze method came to my aid, as did Dave Mason, well known Barbel guide, who like me was struggling in the heat and gin clear water conditions at the time.  You see, we both had to catch barbel in the bright daylight; me for the cameras, him for his customers. 

Dave had a ticket at Adams Mill, on the Great Ouse, the premier big barbel stretch, the home of the record, and told me that nearly all the successful anglers used the Stonze method, and Pallatrax baits, as they were was so deadly and effective, the record fish  and others constantly being fooled by the presentation. Graham King, Vince Rogers, Stuart Court, Paul Hale, Leanne Janes, Dave Mason - just some of the names relying on the method.

Well, suffice to say, once I used the method and the bait, after enjoying Dave’s hospitality and generosity, we quickly put the DVD to bed, so to speak, and I now use the Stonze for all my Carp, Barbel and specimen fishing.

The facts are that Pallatrax products are designed and used by anglers, for anglers, to catch more fish, and that’s why I use and happily endorse them.  If they did not work, regardless of my friendship with all at Pallatrax, rest assured I would not use them.

Simon and Tini are passionate about what they do and, as anglers, we are lucky to benefit from that, and long may it continue.

Chris “The Pons” Ponsford.