ledgering questions

Please will some one help me please in trying to understand what i need in a rod for ledgering and feeder fishing. I do have a very decent 12' float rod with screw in quivertip at 1,2 &3 oz. I not sure however what this is useful for can i for instance use it say with an open end feeder on a smallish stillwater for the larger silver fish. Failing that what is the benefit to having a purpose built feeder rod, what are the diferences. Lastly is fishing this method on a large river system any diferent in tactics or tackle .

People will reply saying that on a dedicated feeder rod with a spliced in tip you will get untold benifits the main one being better bite detection or more acurately less chance of a fish feeling the rod and rejecting the bait. They are quite correct but you will catch all the same with your screw in tips! We used to ok before having purpose made rods!Use it untill you have the spare cash or inclination to buy a dedicated rod.Remember as well you wont be able to swing tip with a feeder/quiver rod!Still a great method for Bream.

There are basicly two ways to quiver tip.One is to set up for "pull round" bites.For this the softest glass fibre quiver conditions will allow is best.

The other (realy only used on rivers) is to set up for "drop back" bites.I wont go into all the details as there is loads about this on various sites all ready.Basicly though it entails positioning the feeder/lead (which is only just heavy enough to hold bottom)directly opposite the tip with the rod parralel to the bank facing up stream.Bend the tip (best to use a powerfull carbon fibre one for this) well into the lead/feeder.When a fish takes it will dislodge the feeder/lead causing the tip to spring back.

Float rods are for casting 'light' floats, they are not designed for casting feeders weighing 2-4 ounces. If you use it for feeder fishing just stick to light/smallish feeders fished at close to medium range. You should be able to judge whether you're risking it too much.

You can call me a 'tackle tart' or a feeder fishing nutcase, but I have 3 float rods and 7 feeder rods.

Each rod has a slightly different purpose, just like in a set of golf clubs. Yes you can manage with just one float rod if you don't go feeder fishing a lot, but it puts that rod under a lot of stress now with modern methods of feeder fishing.

Look up this or this for nighttime and ignore the catty comments in it from Mr. Marsden. If he can't catch it's not my fault, I gave him the best swim.

Addendum - I said over ten years ago that by having just two rods you could cover 95% of your coarse fishing needs.

Those are A) a good float rod, which you have and B) a John Wilson Avon Quiver rod (now they are 11' - 13' I believe). The quiver top for most of your feeder fishing and with the Avon top will catch you decent sized carp and pike.

I think one thing we need to bear in mind is that if the "float rod" has a "screw in end eye" you can have a good bet that it isnt an ultra fine,spliced tip modern carbon match rod!A very good bet (correct me if Im wrong Glen) its an older good quality glass model.

When you first start fishing or indeed just start expanding your fishing methods there are a lot of more important bits of gear to buy.Im sure the rod will do the job (used sensibly of course,no one is sugesting he starts chucking around 4oz feeders) for at least long enough for him to get a feel for the method before spending out on a specialist piece of tackle that he has no experience to help him make the right/best choice.

Screw in eye float rods are certainly more suited to the occaisional bit of quiver tipping than an Avon is for Piking as sugested.I base this on seeing several (JW's as well)Avons broken whilst trying to cast pike baits.

Who knows it might work out that it will be better for Glenn to put any cash into a better match/float rod and "convert hois existing rod into a spliced in feeder rod (its what we used to do before dedicated "long" feeder rods were available.This will be dictated by what he decides once getting a bit more experience of ledgering.

Having purpose designed/built tackle for different situations is obviously the ideal situation but better to get a bit more hands on knowledge before commiting to such tools.Like I said caught plenty of good fish and had plenty of match results on the old screw in tips before I made/brought any thing else!