Umbrellas can be erected in seconds, protecting you from downpours, wind or bright sunshine, which is why they are essential for pleasure and match fishing. In a nutshell, they let you continue to operate smoothly and comfortably, no matter what the weather is doing. While match anglers only use brollies, pleasure and general coarse anglers will switch to even more protective bivvies, and shelters like carp anglers use. So there is a wide array of choices to protect from you the worst of the UK weather. However, if you are organised, even horrible wet conditions won’t stop you from fishing.
The big problem with spending many hours out in the open air is it can be sunny one minute, then suddenly turn wet and windy the next, risking getting all your fishing equipment and bait drenched. This can quickly ruin a match or pleasure day.
There’s a wide range of brollies on the market, including flat back umbrellas that sit on the ground, providing enough space not to impede your fishing. These are one of the most common designs coarse and match anglers rely on. The advantage is that you can place your chair or seat box at the back of the umbrella, leaving plenty of room to keep dry while fishing, no matter the weather.
Fishing umbrellas have adjustable poles to configure their height and tilt mechanisms to set them at the ideal angle to cover both you and your equipment. In addition, umbrellas can be securely clamped to chair or seat box legs, which is handy if you can’t get their spiked poles into hard ground.
The good thing about changing the set-up of an umbrella is that you can customise everything towards your style of angling. For example, if fishing with a pole, you can position the umbrella, so there’s enough room behind (off the ground) for sections to be unshipped underneath. Some brollies even have zipped vents to allow pole sections to pass through them. Alternatively, with a rod, the tilt can be set in such a way to allow casting while at the same time keeping you, your gear, and your bait as dry as possible.
Preston, Matrix and Guru are well known for coarse and match fishing umbrellas. Other brands include Rive, Drennan, and Sensas. For those who coarse and match fish in all types of weather, having a decent fishing umbrella to protect them keeps everything dry and acts as a shield from potentially harmful UVA rays and sunburn.
Well-known brand name umbrellas compliment other related tackle and luggage items from the same companies. So it makes sense if you have a Preston seat box to use a matching Preston adjustment arm that clamps a Preston umbrella to the legs of the box.
The components used in umbrellas and other day fishing shelters often include lightweight fibreglass and aluminium parts, waterproof and less weighty materials, in many cases weighing next to nothing. This helps to reduce your tackle footprint, making shifting gear about, particularly long distances, less tiring.
Umbrellas have a central boss that affects the amount of headspace underneath. Ideally, it helps if you select an umbrella where the boss is flush with the shelter's roof, providing more space to operate in. If you are tall, you can always adjust the angle lock, providing more room for you and continue fishing comfortably.
Some umbrellas have built-in storm sides with extra pegging down points, which allow the shelter to be fixed even more securely to the ground, which is very helpful in case of strong winds. The benefit of flat back umbrellas and tilt mechanisms is that they help stop chilly drafts and swirling rain, allowing you to continue coarse fishing in all weathers.
Match anglers using a seat box can have arms clamped onto the legs to hold a match umbrella even more securely. Brolly arms allow your seat box to anchor the umbrella in place. These useful seat box accessories can be purchased separately.
Bright unshielded sunshine can damage your skin and eyes, causing heatstroke and serious sunburn. Umbrellas act as a fantastic sunscreen on hot sunny days, keeping you dry and warm when the weather is bad.