Weird Tackle...

MaNick · Oct 24, 2004

Over the years we must have seen a few wierd items of tackle... i remember my mate having a rod rest that grabbed hold of the butt and took the weight of the rod as you placed it on...

So what else?....

Whats the longest Rod youv'e ever seen?..... (other than a pole)

I think the biggest iv'e used is 14foot.... there must have been bigger ones, and if not, why not?...

MaNick · Oct 24, 2004

SWING TIPS!... remember them?...

does anybody still use them?...

Ron Troversial Clay · Oct 24, 2004

I have an old swing tip rod. It works a treat on Fenland rivers for bream.

The weirdest bit of tackle I have ever seen is the two hook rig that is used in South Africa. It is designed to hook fish twice, once in the mouth and again on the outside of the head.

It is called the "Baby Shoes" rig!

Then there is the centrepin reel specially adapted for night fishing. Not only does it make the squeal of a wailing banshee, but it lights up, looking for all the world like a catherine reel as it spins.

The longest rod. The one I have now - 20 feet.

Ron Troversial Clay · Oct 24, 2004

And oh yes, the worlds loudest bite alarm.

You do a little wiring job on the hooter of your car and insert the line between the contacts.

MaNick · Oct 24, 2004

20 feet RON?... seriously?.

Ye, the swingtip for bream.... i havn't used one for years, and when i did i probably didn't use it properly.... (i was probably about 11 last time i tried it!)

Mark Wintle · Oct 25, 2004

Longest rods were the Bolognese rods - 8 metres (26ft+?) was the longest they did from memory. 20ft rods available from Daiwa in current range amongst others.

Nigel Moors 2 · Oct 25, 2004

20ft's the longest I've seen but only used a Shakespeare 15' carp float. Swingtips - still have a screw in swingtip in the bottom of my tackle box. Why? God knows...

Jeff (Cheeky Monkey) Woodhouse · Oct 25, 2004

I just ordered a 16-18foot Middy rod after seeing Mark using Andy's 18 footer on the Thames this summer.

And btw, Mark, you've convinced me to buy a Stradic. I will order it soon.

Stangest gear - I had a bankstick that split like a letter Y with a V rod holder on both tops. You could adjust how wide the Y tops were apart, but it used to twist around in the lightest of winds.

Other than that, people took the p*** out of my original home-made extending bankstick, but only because they hadn't seen one before.

Coops · Oct 25, 2004

MaNick - 20ft float rods are not uncommon. I have an Abu 18/20ft rod. DB's for dropping a stick float off the end. Line is always directly off the back of the float. Gets a bit heavy after a couple of hours though....

alan · Oct 25, 2004

people are staring to use 18.20ft rods for sea fishing, it takes less effort to cast big baits a long way with them.

jason fisher · Oct 25, 2004

i use swing tips quite often when the wind is light and i'm on a still water they are hard to beat for registration of shy bites from roach and bream.

Baz · Oct 25, 2004

Swing tipping, a lot more sensitive than a quiver tip. I still use this method today for bream and tench.
Wierdest gadget was a bread bait press. The sides were one inch square and about an inch and a half tall. There was a wing nut on top that when you wound it down it lowered a steeel plate which had two short spikes in it for piercing the compressed the bread,
I used to put my sisters fingers in it.

Mel Crighton · Oct 25, 2004

I have a 18' backcaster which is made by Normark it is basically a 13' rod with a 5' butt extention, good on those no wind days but a beast on windy ones best thing about it is i can dispense with the extention and use it as a basic rod on the pier or beach, and used with an old swing out Scarborough reel.get them extra yards.

Alan Tyler · Oct 25, 2004

I still have a truly awful Marco (Modern Arms Co.) Marauder, 16.5ft, glass.The blank is nearly two inches in diameter where it meets the handle, and a gust of wind spins you round like a weather-vane. It was meant to be a "ring-up pole" for fishing the overshotted float in the Thames margins, but after about two goes, it was back to the Taperflash. How's that, a rod that made a 14' taperflash feel light?

Anyone remember a forerunner of the polaris float comprising a biggish, sliding, cork-on-dowel "Thames" float with a line-trapping hinge whipped onto the side, worked by a pair of horizontal floatlets,one on each end of the wire that formed the hinge, so that as the line tightened, the line was gripped and the float could be sunk by the lightest touch of a famished barbel. Anything more subtle, no chance. This might be "sour grapes", though; I couldn't afford one. Occaisionally one comes up on ebay - and I still can't afford one!

Ron Troversial Clay · Oct 25, 2004

Does anyone remember the Mak Wood Lever float?

It had a hinged section about 1 inch long. You shotted it so that all the float was below the surface except the hinged section . A bite was registered when the hinged section popped up.

Ron Troversial Clay · Oct 25, 2004

And what about the "Auto-Strike"

This device was tied on beteen the main line and hook length. Before you cast out you had to set it in the manner of a mouse trap. When a fish bit, it released the spring mechanism which made it strike.

It came out ca 1960.

MaNick · Oct 26, 2004

Strangely RON....

My club book clearly states...

NO AUTOMATIC STRIKING DEVICES

do you think they are refering to similar types of devices...

Ron Troversial Clay · Oct 26, 2004

I wonder where the bolt rig comes in on this rule.

Peter Jacobs · Oct 26, 2004

Bollo rods were quite popular in Scandinavia and Europe, more so than in the UK I believe.
I have a Milo 7m which was reasonable but suffered (like all bolo's) in the rain as the reduced number of rod rings caused "line sticking" which was a real pain.
I upgraded to an MAP 15-20 foot rod which had 2 butt sections and 3x5'other sections.
The rod performed very well, and I still use it from time to time, although a broken tip section caused severe friction between MAP and myself which has prevented me from ever buying anything else from them.

Talking of wierd, do you remember the Newark Needle float?

I still have one of those somewhere.

Merv Harrison · Oct 26, 2004

Newark needle floats, never had a fish on them, but the Leger pin's ???, perhaps worth trying again, hellish bite indication.

Weird Tackle...

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