Tackle Tweaks

Alan Tyler · Jun 18, 2011

On Steph's "is it worth refurbishing?" thread, I pointed out that a refurb is a great opportunity to personalise your tackle.
With rods in mind, I listed:
- changing the ring positions/numbers
- putting whippings - or paint/ink marks - at one-inch intervals along the butt section, so you can check your depth quickly (e.g. "second ring up the tip section, down to the butt ring, plus seven inches")
- keeper rings
- second butt-rings for centre-pin work
- matt varnish (or not, according to taste)
- stains/paint
- your name in Indian ink
-and anything else which makes it more useful, more beautiful, and more personal.
I'm sure there are more, so may I ask what are your favourite "tweaks" - not just to rods, but to any items of tackle?

steph mckenzie · Jun 18, 2011

I'm not sure about it being a favourite, but my most common tweaks are to the Colour of my Float Tips. Taking a simple orange coloured float and colouring the Tip Black with a Permenant Marker Pen is quick, simple and cheap oh and practical.

I don't have the experience or the courage to start to mess around with Rods or Reels as i wouldn't know how to correct it if it all went horribly wrong.

Peter Jacobs · Jun 18, 2011

Favourite tweaks . . . . .

Adding an extra butt ring to my trotting rods for those terribly windy days when line control with a centrepin is difficult

Running the line off of the top of my centrepin as well on those windy days

The good old favourite of using bristle grease on pole floats when needed

Removing the drag on my closed face reels

I'm sure that there are more, I just can't think of them at the moment . . . .

Ray Roberts · Jun 18, 2011

Peter Jacobs said:
Removing the drag on my closed face reels

Me too, absolutely crape aren't they. I bet there would be a good market for a well designed closed face reel with a drag that works properly.

Rickrod · Jun 18, 2011

Peter could you explain why you would remove the drag from your closed face reel please

watatoad · Jun 18, 2011

I really believe that we should all mark our more expensive tackle (bags, rods and reels) with our names and/or postcodes in the hope of getting them back in these days of lack of police interest in personal stolen goods and house burglaries.

EDIT:
Even more important if you store your tackle in the garage or shed or even leave some in the car while fishing.
END EDIT:

flightliner · Jun 18, 2011

When making the switch from ledgering to trotting slinging the shimano's and reaching for the old mitchell match----------- ssuuuuuuuuuuuupeeeeeerb!!!!

jack sprat · Jun 18, 2011

I remember removing the anti-reverse from closed-face reels so they would backwind as opposed to removing the drag. Then in 1976 I realised that there is only one reel for trotting, as Flightliner says, the Mitchell Match. I butcher them as well by sawing off half the anti-reverse switch so it does not catch my clothing.

I change the reel fittings on my rods to have a cork bulge so that it is more comfortable than the too narrow standard Fuji fitting, and replace the heavy rubber butt cap with a rounded cork.

steph mckenzie · Jun 18, 2011

jack sprat said:
cork bulge

jack sprat said:
rubber butt

Blimey, what is going on around here ..... i was shocked

Sorry, back on track again now, i just saw the humour in it and acted impulsively, no harm meant

Now, does swapping one reel for another constitute a Tweak or is it just a swap ?

For me a Tweak is when you physically alter something from it's original state, whether that be by Butchering or Painting or adding to etc etc

flightliner · Jun 18, 2011

steph mckenzie said:
Blimey, what is going on around here ..... i was shocked

Sorry, back on track again now, i just saw the humour in it and acted impulsively, no harm meant

Now, does swapping one reel for another constitute a Tweak or is it just a swap ?

For me a Tweak is when you physically alter something from it's original state, whether that be by Butchering or Painting or adding to etc etc
__________________

Steph, Tweaking your gear is, to me, fine tuning your tackle, be it a particular bit or a whole set up, but I do take your point.

Rubber but, bulging cork---- Shame on you!( lol)

JS, re your tweeks to your "matches". Once by accident I lost the anti reverse pawl on one of my reels, I know where it is, its between my woodworkers vice and bench in my garage but even tho it no longer functions as it should it makes no differance to me when in use.
At the risk of censure I would even go further and say that when trotting for roach it would not bother me much if my reel had no clutch either. I sometimes think of them like ash trays in cars , you have to buy them even if you dont smoke.

jack sprat · Jun 18, 2011

I only use the anti-reverse on Matches for when the gear is hooked up; match fishing it was normal to have several rods tackled up in pre-pole days. I screw up the clutch on them as well as they aren't sensitive enough for roach fishing but the backwind method works OK with them for roach when needed. if I floatfish for something that does take a lot of line fast then I'd more likely use a Shimano.

Alan Tyler · Jun 18, 2011

Any chance of getting one of you Mitchell fans to explain how you fish with a reel whose flyer goes round the wrong way? A little video on youtube, perhaps? Maybe another thread..

flightliner · Jun 18, 2011

jack sprat said:
I only use the anti-reverse on Matches for when the gear is hooked up; match fishing it was normal to have several rods tackled up in pre-pole days. I screw up the clutch on them as well as they aren't sensitive enough for roach fishing but the backwind method works OK with them for roach when needed. if I floatfish for something that does take a lot of line fast then I'd more likely use a Shimano.

Jack, seems like you and I think much the same, reckon you have done your share on the river roaching scene!.

Alan, sorry I cant oblige but to me they are fine, but I'm led to believe that its because i'm left handed that my"match" is so suited to my needs. Its nice for a change to have something to suit as all my life i've had to learn to live with all the right handed stuff that leftys like me and others have no other choice but to get on with.

Alan Tyler · Jun 18, 2011

I'm with you on the lefty bus, but to get the line paying off onto the ball of my finger, I'd need to use a 300 rather than a 301 - and then the handle's onthe wrong side!
My boldest tweak with reels has been to take the flyer assembly off a 300 and stick it onto the body of a 301 -I seem to recall having to invert half the body as well - to get a reel with the pick-up going the right way (left to right at the top), and the handle on the right.
The only problem is, you have to wind backwards. Still, if you can switch between centrepins with line-off-the-top and off-the-bottom, it should be easy enough...
So far, I've only used it with a slider, so not much practice!

flightliner · Jun 18, 2011

I once stripped my match and a 301 together at the end of a season for a good clean. There they were on the table in two halves so to speak and after a good clean re-assembled them. The 301 was fine but after a little use the match just played up and was impossible to turn with any of its normal smooth action. I re-stripped it and then re-assembled it thinking it was 0k but the problem just came back, It was so frustrating. Eventually after a great deal of searching for an answer it transpired that I had somehow inadvertantly put the main shaft of each reel into the other one. Turns out that it appeared the shaft on one is longer than the other by something like a tiny part of an inch (25.4mm to you europhiles!) that made all the differance. A quick switch and all was well. Wouldn't even try it with a modern reel there would be springs and shims flying everywhere!!Thats the nice thing with the Mitchells- so easy to maintain, they are bomb proof last forever and perfect for my kind of fishing with a float on moving water , sorry-- back to thread.

ravey · Jun 18, 2011

I have added an extra ring/runner on the tip section of my Daiwa waggler rod, and had someone shorten the handle, as well as adding a keeper ring and screw reel fitting. Spot on now.

Made a carbon push-over quiver tip for my TriCast Trophy Multi-tip for river fishing (the fibreglass ones do not really suit the blank, in my opinion). Just the job.

There's not much I have found that doesn't benefit from a bit of thoughtful tinkering. Most of my older rods have been modified in one way or another. Even the Normark had to have the end ring replaced for one that did not catch the line when casting out.

jack sprat · Jun 19, 2011

ravey said:
Even the Normark had to have the end ring replaced for one that did not catch the line when casting out.

One fix that I forgot; many years ago my local tackle dealer pointed out that if you carefully bend the tip ring so that the eye part is at an angle of less than 90 degrees to the rod (they were often set at an angle of 120 degrees, and still are) then the tangles would disappear, and I've done this ever since to my match rods.

As for the Match going the 'wrong' way I guess that like thousands of other match anglers I just practised until I didn't notice. My finger gets out the way in the split second when needed.

Alan Tyler · Jun 19, 2011

Tip rings - I was almost going to start a thread about that! a friend is reduced to a blaspheming simian* at regular intervals when he sets up one of his (well respected) rods; he's convinced that they didn't do that in the "old days".
His "old days involved" Sowerbutts...
But still, a tangle's a tangle, and a pain, I foresee much tweaking of tip rings.
Does this also work for the tiny end rings of quiver tips?

*Mind you, that's his basic mind-set. You wouldn't believe how personally he takes the transit of a duck through his swim.

---------- Post added at 08:11 ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 ----------

As to practicing till you get the hang of it, I do prefer tackle that's on my side, not the fish's, straight out of the box, or after a minor fettle. I can't help feeling that if a reel doesn't feel right early in its first outing, it's a wrong 'un!

jack sprat · Jun 19, 2011

Alan Tyler said:
[/COLOR]As to practicing till you get the hang of it, I do prefer tackle that's on my side, not the fish's, straight out of the box, or after a minor fettle. I can't help feeling that if a reel doesn't feel right early in its first outing, it's a wrong 'un!

Look at the alternatives in the late 60s, 70s and 80s for a match angler - ABU 505/6, ABU Cardinals. That's about it. The Match was faster, had brilliant line lay and operated one-handed, and the proportions were right. Whilst many anglers used the ABU 506 (especially in the West Midlands) it was slower and the line bedded in - the Trent and East Midlands anglers preferred the Match. The Match felt right enough in effortless casting and excellent line feed with high speed to boot so it was the best by far. It still can be better for roach trotting in that you can fish with the anti-reverse off and not worry about out of control reel spins that occur with modern reels.

flightliner · Jun 19, 2011

jack sprat said:
As for the Match going the 'wrong' way I guess that like thousands of other match anglers I just practised until I didn't notice. My finger gets out the way in the split second when needed.

Jack,so true, like I said earlier, left handed people simply have to get used to right handed implements. Take a simple pair of scissors for example, over the years its become perfectly normal for me to use them and not think for a second that they are wrong handed for me so I suppose for you it was the same with the match. One hears so often from anglers that they are no good for that one reason (another is that they have stripped the gears which in reality means that they have either abused the reel or have used it to fish for something bigger than it was designed for-- poor angling).
I live not far away from an ex Sheffield match angler who is right handed and he swears by the match, if its good enough for him its good.

Re your comments on out of control reel spins my angling partner has a shimano exage and has been using it to fish for tench with the float. During the time waiting for a bite the reel handle,if left in any angle from slightly below horizontal to vertical will take it upon itself to fall forward or backwards where on the one hand the float is pulled under/or towards the angler who strikes thinking he has a bite or on the other hand falls back leaving a whole heap of line that is free to blow wherever-- usually with the help of sods law finding its way beneath the line spool. He is so frustrated by it he wont use it anymore and because it is so complicated a bit of "over engineered kit he cant tweak it?

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