We could always try the spring tip again. If I recall correctly, it was a method that was made popular at the time by Tricast. I think they also did another method of indication called "The Sidewinder"
The Tri-cast rod, called the Springer, iirc, came out in the mid 90's and it was a nice rod. It came with 3 springtips and a quiver tip or two, and the springtips were the best of any commercially produced. There had been some screw-in tips available previously - a Middy one, I think? - but the Tricast tips had push-over sleeves avoiding the clunky screw-in fittings, nicely graded springs and better proportions. If you wanted a decent one prior to Tricast, you had to make your own. I kept one of the Tricast tips when I sold the rod, and it's in the pics, modified a bit, below alongside a home-made one.
Anglers from the Bolton area like Vinny Smith and Mark Addy - you might recognise the names for their connections to the England team - were experts with springtips, and that fed into the Tricast product.
Springtips weren't the right tool for every job, but for certain things, they let you hit twice as many bites. We used to fish a paper mill lodge about 15/16' deep at 11 or 12m, and with awkward steep banks and trees all over, a little wand and a light bomb was the way to catch the fussy roach. You would miss countless bites on a quiver, but when we made some little springtips, where the spring folds rather than tightens on a bite, you could come back with a fish nearly every time once you got the hang of it. The fish hung onto the bait much longer. I've still got a soft spot for fishing like this, but apart from an occasional go with the springtip on a windy or towing deep marina, I don't fish anywhere that plays to its strengths.
Sidewinders? Were they those butt-indicator type things with a soft quiver tip angled away from the rod between two rings? I think they were put out by a bloke from Sheffield who devised them, with those Polaris floats, for fishing big windy waters like Irish lakes. There's one here, somewhere, along with a few other unused contraptions, and could have been very good, for all I know.