Spring tips

[Alan Tyler]

The time the spring-tip really scores is when the line leaves the rod too near vertical for a swing-tip to work - too close, too deep, or both.
The spring's ability to collapse once the bend has started can (note "can", not "will always") trip up fish that will feel the increasing resistance of a swing- or quiver-tip and spook.

 

[ian g]

Might be a memory thing but I thought the screw in quiver tips acted like spring tips.

 

[sam vimes]

Might be a memory thing but I thought the screw in quiver tips acted like spring tips.

Spring tips have an actual coiled spring built into them. I'm pretty sure that some folks have never knowingly seen them. I recall seeing them at some point in the eighties. I don't recall ever using one myself.

 

[nottskev]

I feel like something I know has come up on University Challenge

Your springtip is a different animal to the screw in quivertip. I first met them on the Weaver - a deep, canalised river in Cheshire - in the 80's. Blokes using these mysterious home-made indicators were getting the same number of bites as everyone else from the finnicky roach - but hitting twice as many.

There were a few versions that appeared in tackle shops, but most were a bit too clunky and involved springs with too heavy an action. They work best where deep water means the roach can be caught fairly close. The big advantage? The roach rattled a quiver tip and dropped the bait. The springtip folded without the resistance increasing, and the fish held on longer.

They're probably only of interest to someone who fishes for shy roach on places where they don't call them "silver fish" :wh



The top one's home-made and the spring is glued to a cut-down quivertip. The middle one is a modified Tri-cast one, with a short sleeve - a bit of pole tip offcut - to let me attach it to a rod top. Underneath are the makings of a third - a spring and a piece of pole tip offcut which will be cut to fit into the spring.

For what it's worth, I found that putting a ring between the spring and the tip reduced any unwanted casting wrap-overs or snagging.

 

[nottskev]

You post something on a thread. And a couple of weeks later you notice the thread and post much the same thing. Is there a word for that?

 

[sam vimes]

Is there a word for that?

Alzheimer's.

 

[kenpm]

As pointed out the spring tip was originally developed for use on the river Weaver in the late 70s by Benny Ashurst amongst others for sensitivity and the "angle" between bite and tip when fishing close in deep water where the swing tip is less effective.
The idea was exported to similar venues like the Gloucester canal where it proved to be deadly for catching the smaller fish like Roach etc.
There is no more sensitive way of indicating a bite at the rod tip other than watching the line move or if the depth/distance allows a swingtip with a soft rubber.
Vinnie Smith was very keen on the springtip and working with Tricast and extended the use of them in more recent times certainly but as the swingtip fell out of favour so did the springtip.
Last few times I used mine was on the Weaver but I used them at deep stillwaters like Patshull Park fishing close for skimmers with good effect but they are no good if there is any degree of flow.