upstream worming

[Vagabond]

. So far I've been using my 11' 9" 1.25lb tc 'Avon' rod, which I find ideal apart from one thing. In some of the more overgrown swims it is too long. It can be difficult to cast in confined spaces and it's only a matter of time before I damage the tip whilst climbing through undergrowth to get to the river.

 

Ahhh, that takes me back a long way - about 1945 , at the age of 11, I acquired a three-piece "general-purpose" rod - 10' 6" whole cane with a greenheart tip.

 

Like you, I found it too long for upstream worming. My solution was to use just the two top joints, and bind the (centre-pin) reel on with a yard or two of sticky tape of the type used to bind aging cricket bats.

 

A few years later I got some tonkin canes, fittings, and much good advice from J B Walker of Hythe, split the canes, and built myself an seven-foot trout spinning rod (2 piece) which was ideal.

 

I still have and use it !

 

The best rod available over the counter at present is probably the ET "Flipper" - a 6'6" two piece spincaster. It has not got the character and soul of my split cane, but it will do the job.

[Newt]

ALLENM - as an alternative you might check the US tackle sites for things labeled as 'Crappie' rods. Light and through action and a wide range of shorter rods to choose from.

 

Before you hurt yourself laughing, the crappie is a well liked fish with a large following of anglers. Very delicate mouth and a liking for smallish lures and live baits which are about the only things they will eat.

[Vagabond]

Before you hurt yourself laughing, the crappie is a well liked fish with a large following of anglers.

................and the American anglers I know pronounce it "Croppy"

 

....its just that they can't spell over the pond

[Newt]

It's a regional thing. Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and that area do say croppy. Elsewhere (such as North Carolina where I live now) it is said just as it looks - crappy.

 

Similar to pecan - said Puu con in the croppy area but pea can in the crappy places.

[bloomin'reedsbarnard]

Bluerinse, are these the bombs you were describing BOUNCING BOMBS ON EBAY

[ALLANM]

Newt, I've had a look at the 'crappie' rods you mentioned. The reel seat seems to be positioned half way down the cork handle on these rods, as opposed to the usual position near the top of the handle. Is there any reason for this? Also, I've seen some other rods available in 8ft-10ft that might be an option, listed as 'noodle' rods. With these, and the crappie rods, the casting weights given are very low (anything between 1/32oz to 3/8oz), would you consider them too 'flimsy' for light legering on small rivers/streams and handling fish up to 4lb or 5lb (I hope!)?

[Vagabond]

AllanM The ET "Flipper" I mentioned has a casting range of 10-30g, and has the required "poke" to set a hook.

 

Beware of too soft a tip - in small streams you need to be in contact with your fish like really, really quickly, otherwise the fish will reach a snag by virtue of rod-bend. Most small telescopic rods suffer from too soft a tip.

 

I bought my "Flipper" as an insurance against the day my trusty split cane might suffer accident, theft or some such. First day out it landed a dozen chub up to just under 4 lb

[ALLANM]

Vagabond, thanks for your reply. I actually have the ET 'Thriller' (15-40g), which is a nice rod, perhaps I should give this a try. I was ideally looking for something a little bit longer (around 9ft) to enable me to fish over/around undergrowth and weedbeds. If the 'Flipper' was a couple of feet longer it would be ideal.

[Newt]

The reel seat is placed as it is for balance.

 

Crappie & Noodle rods are all through action. They will handle fish larger than you mention and as is the case with most rods, you need to make sure it will cast the weight you want. The noodles are used for some pretty large fish that just happen to like a delicate presentation. Severus lives up in the area where they are common and can give you more info than I know since I am familiar with those rods by reputation only.

 

Vagabond is probably the most likely to have experience with crappie rods since he visits the States pretty often and also knows UK conditions.

[corydoras]

I just had a read through this topic and found it very interesting. I was using this technique when I was a nipper and I did not even know, until now that it had a name. I used to use a 9' spinning rod with just enough lead to keep the bait close to the bottom, cast as far upstream as I could and then let the current bring the worm towards me whilst I tried to retreive line at roughly the same speed as the current.

 

The main venue that I used this technique was on the River Leven. The river Leven is a different kind of river than say the Clyde or the Thames. It does not start off as a small stream and gradually get bigger as it makes its way to the sea or a loch. (We have some quite big rivers that flow into lochs in Scotland) it is a fair sized river at source as it is basically Loch Lomond's overflow. This means that in the early spring the river will be flowing really fast. I am not sure how fast it is, but it is reputed to be the second fastest river in Scotland. Sorry I digress, but you get the idea, this is a fast river and you need to be able to retrieve your line in a hurry or you will deep hook your quarry.

 

Another passion of mine was to seek out wee lochs and lochans in the hills and fish them. This was probably 'poaching' but who cares when you are just 14. Some of these lochs had a burn running out of them, usually full of water so peaty it had the colour of black tea. Often I would catch more fish in these wee burns than in the lochs and lochans the were born from. The fish were usually quite small, if you got a brownie big enough to eat (about 1lb in my book) that was a bonus. When fishing the burns I would just use my fly rod, stick a size 6 hook with a worm on it and just freeline the worm.

 

A couple of good baits (at least IMO) for this technique apart from worms are caddis fly larvae and pinkies. Pinkies are frozen baby mice, sold in pet shops as food for snakes. Deadly for brownies just as a spate is running off.

Source_of_R._Leven.kmz