It may not seem like much, but never underestimate the impact of how adding backshot to your pole rig to your catches. With all my rigs, I like to add two number eight shot that stick above the float.
The advantage of this, is that in windy conditions I am still able to use the same size float but hold the rig much more stable. These backshot allow a lot of movement of your pole tip that doesn’t affect the pole rig. It also gets rig of that horrible bit of line that floats on the surface.