tincatinca

Den, I do not dispute what you say regarding the springloks as I believe that I have a very good idea as to how they work however I am not trying to simulate what you have done but to adapt a very simple principle of utilising a captive peg running through the length of the bobbin body which should be very simple to make. I totally accept that in your design you can utilise as you put it a spring with just sufficient strength to keep the pin up which does not release until until it is in tension irrespective of the loading. The design I am looking at whilst similar in overall principle utilising a spring loaded pin does rely heavily on the spring being able to cater for different loadings hence the need to apply various elements of spring data in order to ensure the pin holds under load and also releases the line easily on the strike. One could apply trial and error as I am sure many do but a little bit of calculation does tend to narrow the possibilities down considerably. Whilst I would happy to spend over a £100 on a rod, reel or a bivvy or bivvy for example, I just cannot justify that amount on 4 bobbins. Having said that, they are a very good design and just like you, I do like to play about with ideas.

Den, I have no doubt whatsoever that the springloks work and indeed they are an excellent product however it is a lot to pay out for 4 and I reckon material wise I could knock something workable up based on the monkey climber principle for less than the price of one plus the fact that it is a challenge and I do not want to butcher the rest of my mk11 swingers as I most probably will have a need for them when I retire later this year. The other thing is that when it is really choppy, I can have a fair bit of weight on the end of the arm and as I am sure you know spring rate and loading are key elements and whatever I finish up with will need to cater for light and heavy loading with every thing in between. Nice Carp you had by the way and you really did me when you said you were just starting to feel the cold. God knows what I will be like in a few years as I have a hell of a job trying to keep warm now.

Rob, I think that the hinged clip would suffer from the same problem i.e. the vee between the balls. Movement of the bobbin head is not an issue as it is hinged at the bottom so it is always vertical. It is the line drag on the bobbins that is the problem particularly when the bobbin is lightly loaded.

The silly part about it is that the smaller the ball the lesser the problem would be at the vee and I am sure that with the right sized ball it would then do job with braid or nylon but with the solar clips as they stand at the moment the line can certainly become slightly pinched if you look at the picture where the balls are untouched you can see what I mean. I have just had the dremmel out and modified a spare line clip and as you can see I have removed a fair bit of material. The result is good though as the line whether nylpn or braid now passes fairly freely. Just a bit of polishing is now required and it should be ok.

Yes Budgie, it is working toward the same principle of reducing the vee so that the line is not entrapped in any way. I can visualise it working on the plastic bobbins but with the Solar stainless ball bobbins where you have in effect two beads, it still requires a bit of material removal to get rid of the vee problem. It really does act like a wedge particularly with braid as it is softer/less dense than nylon

I think that it would be beneficial to persevere with a counter balance as it gives you total control over the weighting of the arm and is easy to make fine adjustments. I am now getting my head into gear on spring sizes available and spring rates then it is off with a balance to work out the maximum and minimum loads that can be applied to the swingers which will in turn give me some indication of what forces are involved when pulling the line free.

With not being able to go fishing for some time due to several problems at home I have managed to spend a bit of time looking at the problems associated with line release and line clips on long swinger heads. I have been intrigued by the issues that Anderoo has had with the line not moving freely through the line clip and have looked into the possible reasons why this should be. The most obvious thing is that whether the clip is made from plastic or metal the line runs in an area which is tapered which in itself can lead to possible trapping with the line working its way into the vee which can be further exaberated dependant on the tension that is applied to the line clip. This tends to be more pronounced when setting the swingers to a light loading as Anderoo has found and when the tension on the line clip is set to its minimum resistance. One possible solution would be to reduce the angles on the vee for the line to run on as . I have in the past butchered some Fox mk11 swingers for the heads with the gate latch mechanism and these have worked well but you also have to put a bend in the wire to ensure that you get the right angle to ensure that the line releases cleanly when the swinger is at its highest point but at the same time make sure that it does not release prematurely. If you look at the principle applied to monkey climbers and could re produce that in a bobbin head then that would be ideal as the line release is excellent which is what I am currently playing about with although the main problem is keeping the weight down whilst at the same time ensuring that it works over a wide range of loadings which can be considerable with long arm swingers. The principle of a spring loaded captive pin is very common and widely used in engineering and in principle would be fairly simple to make but calculating it all out is another thing. At the same time I will be modifying some existing line clips so that the line has clearance in the area that it runs but making sure that the surfaces are smooth and polished and if successful should be within most peoples capabilty.

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I think the above depends on whether you are American or not

The original blue diaflashes came from eighties early nineties. There have been one or two reincarnations since then but not in the opinion of many not as good as the originals. If my memory serves me right a lot the original Diaflash rods were in the £200 area although in the specimen range they could be obtained for £100 when running the range out. I recall the Angling Centre at Derby selling them off at £99.99 but at the time I could not afford them.

Must admit that I did think hard about this one. The Diaflash match rods are very good although I do not know how they compare with Normarks http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Unfortunately things have changed considerably since I was last there and it is very expensive now with the fishing let through an agent as opposed to dealing with the site direct We managed to get in there for several years before it got off the ground. There was also some of the original Mirror Carp in the lake which went to mid thirties at the time but I believe it is now producing high forties. Don't want to say too much as we want another trip as it is a stunningly beautiful place. The River Lot Carp are stunning fish and well worth going for.

I know that both personnel choice comes into the equation and also what one can afford but I do tend to find that accross a range of different types of rods that some of the older models feel spot on compared with their modern day counterparts. You only have to look at the prices commanded by the Normark 2000 range as an example. I still deeply regret not buying a second hand pair of the original Maddox KM1 11 foot 21/4 lb Carp rods which felt absolutely gorgeous, were fairly cheap and bought Ballistas instead. The same rods now command silly money on the very few occassions that they become available. The Hutchy IMXs were another that were superb to use and my mate who had them still bemoans selling them. I keep looking for a Drennan IM8 bomb rod but they have now got pretty scarce although the Shimano Technium specialist quiver is a pretty good substitute. Again personal choice but I am not keen on rods that are tippy although it can and does affect accuracy sometimes when trying to get an extra few yards. Rightly or wrongly I will sacrifice distance for the fish playing ability. I do find it strange though that whilst their is a demand for specialist rods there is very little on the market that covers the range like it did and you are right in that the people who have the older rods very rarely let them go.

Harrison rods in the lower test curves don,t hang around for long and two 11/2 lb rods at that price was a steal. Last year I was looking at e-bay when a pair of Shimano Diaflash 13/4s came up for £60. I think I hit the buy it now button straight away as they are really like the proverbial rocking horse pooh. I had been after some for years and the only time they had previously come up they went for serious money.

Sorry about the crap photo but it gives people an idea what the river Lot is like. I used to do quite a bit of Carp fishing at a lake not too far from Villeneuve which was mainly stocked by the owner with commons caught from the river Lot. Beautiful fish which went like stink and no need for special baits or rigs. He had access to a few private for want of a better word moorings which gave good access which for Carp fishing was brilliant but from memory I think that if I had been fishing the float then the pole would have probably been my first choice. As you say, it is deep and the bottom can be a bit rough.

For anyone who is looking for a top class set of all round specimen rods suitable for Tench, Bream, Barbel and which will handle good sized Carp it would be well worth looking at these. They do not come up very often in fact if it wasn't for the fact that I already have some I would have them myself. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Excellent fish Andrew and well deserved. What is the potential for a big Roach

Some links to posts on other forums http://www.cemexangling.co.uk/forums/showt...d.php?p=1584138 http://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/general...rd-angling.html http://www.carpforum.co.uk/Shared/Messages...?TopicID=253711

Isn't it just. Every time I look at this one I start wishfull thinking

It was just a thought that if close in features are within the range of a 16m pole then it should be fairly easy to get a picture of depth variability fairly quickly and probably more accurately than with a marker float. The only drawback being not to be able to feel the bottom.

Sounds like an hour or so with the pole just plumbing around could be helpfull. I have thought of doing this on a few occassions but never got round to actually doing it. Could also be adapted to accurate feeding.without too much disturbance. Food for thought.

Nice one Elton. Thanks. Just ordered it

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The other way of looking at it is that if you were to make for example a limited production of say 100 units by CNC then it could make a similar hand crafted reel reel look cheap. As with all automated machining and assembly processes, high volumes are required which does not for one moment detract the quality that exists in reels such as the original Okuma centrepins which are an excellent fishing tool. When comments are made re the cost of a reel say £400, I personally would certainly not like to earn my living on manufacturing them at £10 an hour cosidering the all the costs involved in terms of material, tooling and equipment needed.

Err you forgot about canoodling