Quivertip Fishing

The Basics

In a world dominated by big carp, and where other fish are often overlooked, even unloved, quivertipping is a great method to add some heart-stopping excitement into your fishing and to catch the fish of a lifetime.

What exactly is it, though? To some, it can look unwieldy and mystifying to watch an angler sit behind a rod with no bite alarms or without a float in front of him. It is, however, one of the most sensitive fishing methods that you can use if done properly. Big bream, tench, roach and several other species can be effectively targeted by ‘tipping. It is a system that comes into its own during colder winter spells, in clear water and when the fish are being finicky, because it presents a stationary bait just where the fish expect to find it.

The rod itself becomes the bite indicator as each tiny twitch or quiver of the tip tells the experienced angler precisely what is going on beneath the surface of the water. A thin rod-end transmits to the angler every movement of the hook bait as the line is shifted by the fish. When the bait is taken properly, the tip will ‘wrap around’ or spring back, giving the opportunity to strike and set the hook. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is.....

A quivertip rod can be anything between 9-13 feet long and often has up to 4 interchangeable tips. Made usually of modern carbon fibre or graphite, it will have a slim blank and a through action to assist with bite indication and playing fish. It may have a cork or ‘duplon’ handle, and most rods now have a fixed reel seat. Many rods might also have a 'dolly’ section, which can be added or removed to change the length of the rod to accommodate tight swims or bigger waters, or when additional ‘grunt’ is needed to cast heavy weights. Some rods will have a casting range (usually in grammes) stamped on the blank.

Shorter rods are often called ‘bomb rods’ to describe how they are used to fish with a small bomb or other lead weight at fairly short range. Rods up to 13’ long are better suited to fishing with a swimfeeder or heavier weight at greater range, and then the ‘Method’ rod is designed to cast a large heavy ball of feed containing the hooklink up to 100 yards.

Each ‘push in’ tip gives the angler some flexibility. A 1oz tip is the most sensitive and is ideal for short/medium range or small species fishing with light lines (3-5lbs). 2oz tips can be used with 4-8lb lines at greater distance and the 3oz tip is frequently used to provide bite indication when fishing a smallish method feeder.

Other things to consider; wind may prevent the angler recognising a shy bite, so switching up to a 2oz tip may give better stability and make bites easier to detect. Keeping the rod tip almost on the surface of the water also helps to make bites easier to see as the wind is acting only on the line exposed; less line out of the water means fewer disturbances. A ‘target board’ can help to make bites more obvious as the tip moves across the pre-painted target bars.

Rod position on the bank is vital to spotting bites; the mainline should be at an angle somewhere around 80-120 degrees from the rod tip. Aligning the rod near the bank, and providing just a couple of degrees of deflection on the tip by tightening the line slightly, means that the angler can see if the bait is moved. If the fish moves away, then the tip will move towards the water; if the fish moves towards the angler, then the tip will drop back; either positive indication should be hit immediately!  Sometimes the tip will shift both ways or suddenly shoot round as a ‘line bite’ is caused by fish swimming into the line; only experience will tell the angler when it happens, and even then he may get it wrong! Other movement could be caused by fish sucking in and spitting out bait as it tries to determine if there is hook present.

Better bite signals may be achieved by changing one or more components of the terminal tackle. On some days, fish are just not in the mood to take a bait, adjusting the distance between the feeder and the hook, altering  the hook size or bait, swapping the feeder for a lead, or substituting a different style of feeder can all be enough to provoke a feeding spell.

To begin with, a size 16 hook to nylon attached via a ‘loop to loop’ knot to a mainline of around 5lbs holding a small cage or block end feeder filled with ground bait would be a good way to start in water up to 6’ deep. The loop of the pre-tied hook length is passed over a simple overhand knot in the end of the mainline, then the hook is dropped through the mainline loop before drawing the two together; done in this way, all the pressure is on the mainline, and the hook length is not weakened by doubling over itself. Deeper water requires a heavier swimfeeder which sinks before discharging its load on the lake bed. (Swimfeeder choice is covered in a later article).

Attaching the feeder can be done in a variety of ways. Using a split shot to prevent the feeder sliding down to the hook is the most basic method. The shot can be replaced by a specialist leger stop, often made of hard plastic with a peg to jam it in position, or protected by a rubber buffer bead to help stop it moving during the cast. A triple loop can be tied to give a ‘bolt’ effect as the feeder or weight reaches the end of its travel within the system, or it can be used as a paternoster to give a fixed rig. A short piece of monofilament tied with a four turn water knot gives a boom that the feeder is connected to. A paternoster can be used in weedy swim as it leaves the hookbait sitting nicely on top of the obstruction as the weight sinks through. Shy biting fish can often be trapped using the triple loop system or by using a hair rigged bait.

Cage Feeder Ready To Cast

‘Building’ a swim is something which may take time for the inexperienced angler. By choosing a far bank marker to aim at, and ‘clipping up’ (trapping the mainline using the line clip on the reel spool) after the first cast, then it becomes possible to ensure accuracy. Over a period of time, bait from the feeder results in a carpet of feed in a tight area within the swim which will eventually attract fish to the hookbait.

After a few sessions, practice will see even the beginner become a competent ‘tip’ angler. Learning what each tiny movement means, is part of the fun of fishing, and when confident, the fish will leave you in no doubt when they are hungry! Try it, stick at it, and you may be very surprised what you discover about quivertipping!

Clint Walker -  October, 2009

A Feeder Caught Bream