Fishing polls - damn lies or statistics?

The Current Poll - How to get permission from your FPO?

Picture the scene, you've promised your FPO you will mow the carpet and hoover the lawn at the weekend. On Friday evening you receive a text from Mickey White asking if you're up for a spot of angling over at the gasworks tomorrow.

You need to obtain Fishing Permission - and quick... What do you do?

Previous Polls - Your fishing sidekick...

In our last poll we asked you to imagine you've just landed a job as televisions new face of angling. You're going to be paid literally pounds to travel the coast creating fishing programmes that make the British coast look sunny, and the catches bountiful. You're going to need a sidekick, who are you going to choose?.

The results were as follows:

In first place was Carol Vorderman with 10x4+4+5 percent of all votes cast. Carol is the natural choice for a fishing sidekick, making plenty of room for gags like "Pout for me Carol" and "Hmmm, nice Bass...". You may have your own ideas of what constitutes a funny Carol Vorderman fishing gag - please feel free to submit them here! We will publish the best ones we receive.

Bill Bailey was runner up in second place, this is probably due to his natural tendency towards mammals. Also he wouldn't look as good as Carol in a tight skirt (YMMV).

Despite his magic fishing skills, Jesus only managed to pull 3rd place. Not surprisingly he wasn't first choice as it would steal one's thunder to be doing a piece for camera about bait presentation, only to have a dress wearing hippy do a Michael Jackson moon-walk across the surface of the water in the distance behind you.

It would also seem that good looks are important in choosing a television fishing buddy, with both Alan Yates and Gollum being in the bottom three.

Previous Polls - The best shore fishing bait...

In our second poll we posed the question "Which is the best shore fishing bait?". A whopping 361 kind soles responded to the poll, though we suspect that some of them may have been imposter dabs.

The results were as follows:

With an incredible quarter of all votes cast, Ragworm has been well and truly crowned the wriggley king of shore fishing baits.

Not too far behind was lugworm with 21%, and peeler crab squeaked in (or bubbled) at 3rd.

Flank of kitten was highly popular with 12 out of 100 anglers that expressed a preference stating that their fish preferred it.

Bringing up the rear, in a manner of speaking, was tapeworm with a mere 1% of the vote. Not surprising as it is increasingly difficult to find a tackle dealer that stocks this unusual bait.

Previous Polls - The car park challenge...

In our first poll we asked "Who would win in a fist fight over petrol money?". The response was stunning with a total of 141 votes cast, a few of which went well over 200 yards.

The results were as follows:

So we can officially say that the hardest angler on television is Rex Hunt. The mix of Aussie grit combined with years of playing Australian football (which is really just fighting over a ball), give Rex a distinct edge in the fisticuffs and booticuffs stakes. When Rex holds his hand out and says "Yibbida-yibbida" you know it makes sense to cross his palm with silver.

One of the biggest surprises in this poll was the low ranking of Paul Young. One would think that good old Scottish tight-waddery would have spurred him into a berserker-like state when faced with dipping out on a few shillings.

Of the veteran combatants, Mike Millman was no match for Ted Tuckerman. We put this down to Ted's christmassy pullover acting as a decoy, and the fact that Mike's hairstyle will have slowed him down a bit.

Thanks to everyone that voted, you have all helped us to answer one of the fundamental questions in modern angling.