Ultimate bobbin

[wayne baker]

monkey climbers were wind proof but ofcourse "old" so obviasly crap

Nothing wrong with monkeys Chesters, I still got mine and i still use them. They look so fine with the 55s and the cork handles. Proper carping days lol

[tincatinca]

Budgie, you mentioned earlier about attaching your bobbin cord to the ground. I tried that arrangement when I first started bream fishing at Wingham but found I couldn't get the lightweight bivvy peg to stay in the ground on some of the swims at Wingham. If you recall there's hard gravelly ones on the near bank and very soft peaty ones on the far side. Any suggestions?

 

I think I'll probably stay with the clip on the bankstick though as I position this half way up the bankstick. This means I need less cord/wire with even less risk of tangling.

 

I know what you mean about the theoretical risk of an anchor shot creating a change in resistance. Like you though I haven't found it a problem in practice.

 

Tinca, I like the idea of swinger type indicators as they'd be even more windproof. The only thing that put me off is that they'd have to be very long (the equivalent of a long bobbin drop) to differentiate between line bites and real bites when bream fishing. This would make them more cumbersome to transport. Derek Skeet kindly gave me one of his long home-made versions that fitted the bill nicely.

 

Like Andy Mac I rate the Fox Pike Swinger design, although mine are the early models with the naff line clips. I've therefore replaced these with Gardner Freeflow ones.

 

As the arm on the Pike Swinger extends behind the attachment clip you can slide the weight right back behind the bankstick when you're fishing at close range with no undertow. The slightest touch then registers. Derek's counterbalanced design works in a similar way. The picture on my review shows what I mean: http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/Tackle-And-Bai...ke_swinger.html

 

Just in case anyone's thinking of marketing something similar to the Pike Swinger I'd mention that Cliff Fox phoned me up in the early 90s to talk about this, and I seem to recall it was decided that the idea wasn't new but hadn't been patented. I bet it is now!

 

Steve, on the question of tying down the bobbins at Wingham, this can easily be done by using wire type tent pegs with the ends closed down to a loop for attatching the bobbins and threading the tent peg in between the wire on the stages. Where the ground is too soft or too hard then why not use a weight for example this could be a bait box filled with water with a ring through the top in fact any container that is easily transportable to which water can be added and which will withstand pulling the line from the bobbin clip.

 

With regard to swinger length, I totally agree on the comment that they would need to be of a long length. I was looking in B&Q and found both ali tube and ali and fibreglass rod. One will slide very nicely into the other which would give sufficient length and also be adjustable. Making a swinger which attatches to the rear rod rest does not present too many problems but I need to find a way to extend the rear of the swinger behind the rear rod rest to accomodate a sliding balance weight of some description in order to ensure the weight at the bobbin can be fine tuned

[Anderoo]

Steve, on the question of tying down the bobbins at Wingham, this can easily be done by using wire type tent pegs with the ends closed down to a loop for attatching the bobbins and threading the tent peg in between the wire on the stages. Where the ground is too soft or too hard then why not use a weight for example this could be a bait box filled with water with a ring through the top in fact any container that is easily transportable to which water can be added and which will withstand pulling the line from the bobbin clip.

 

With regard to swinger length, I totally agree on the comment that they would need to be of a long length. I was looking in B&Q and found both ali tube and ali and fibreglass rod. One will slide very nicely into the other which would give sufficient length and also be adjustable. Making a swinger which attatches to the rear rod rest does not present too many problems but I need to find a way to extend the rear of the swinger behind the rear rod rest to accomodate a sliding balance weight of some description in order to ensure the weight at the bobbin can be fine tuned

 

It depends on what you use for the bobbin heads Tinca - if you used, for example, something from Solar or one of the other manufacturers, you could attach the bottom of the bobbin head to the swinger arm, and then add/subtract the screw-in weights as you would for any normal bobbin.

 

I really like the idea of long, light swingers for bream and tench - basically, they'd just be bobbins that couldn't move in the wind. Better get the thinking cap on!

[Dick Dastardly]

Budgie, you mentioned earlier about attaching your bobbin cord to the ground. I tried that arrangement when I first started bream fishing at Wingham but found I couldn't get the lightweight bivvy peg to stay in the ground on some of the swims at Wingham. If you recall there's hard gravelly ones on the near bank and very soft peaty ones on the far side. Any suggestions?

 

You must have missed this in one of the earlier posts I made Steve-

 

"I still prefer to peg my bobbin down directly under the rod. I carry a couple of "cup" screws to do this and have a simple loop in the end of my cord.This can then be retained by the cup screw on soft or hard ground or even on wooden platforms.On platforms covered by wire I just loop the cord through itself on the wire."

Edited January 20, 2009 by BUDGIE

[Dick Dastardly]

I really like the idea of long, light swingers for bream and tench - basically, they'd just be bobbins that couldn't move in the wind.

 

Yes exactly mate.I had to go back to Ashford today to pick up my trailer.Whilst there my mate helped me put some stuff up in the loft.Whilst doing this I had a look for my origonal "Queenford" indicaters but couldnt find them.The good news though is that I found a supply of white fibreglass rods that can be used for making some new ones.Not quite as thin as my origonals but should still be ok.When your down doing your work party let me know and I will bring you some over.

 

Take a look at the links I put up about making the various indicaters and from those Im sure you will be able to easily see how with a bit from each you can make your MkI version!

 

Any one else want some fibre glass rod to play with just say.

[Steve Burke]

I like the idea of telescopic swingers. However I'd much prefer to have a sliding weight as per the Fox Pike Swinger as that would be more adjustable than screw on weights and would also allow me to use sunken float paternosters. This sliding weight would have to be on the thickest part of the arm of course.

 

It's interesting that Derek Quirk mentioned sunken float paternosters on page 97 of his book (although he didn't call them that), and I believe others also used them at Queenford. Budgie?

 

Another plus of the telescopic design is that I might be able to dispense with my Pike Swingers and use just one type of indicator for all my stillwater legering. They'd just need to telescope to the same size as the Pike Swingers otherwise I'd need a new box for them and a new holdall!

 

The right line clip would be important. It would have to be adjustable for lines from 4lb to 15lb, and allow the line to come clear with an adjustable amount of force. This would mean that many carp ones would be unsuitable.

[Dick Dastardly]

I like the idea of telescopic swingers. However I'd much prefer to have a sliding weight as per the Fox Pike Swinger as that would be more adjustable than screw on weights and would also allow me to use sunken float paternosters. This sliding weight would have to be on the thickest part of the arm of cours.

 

It's interesting that Derek Quirk mentioned sunken float paternosters on page 97 of his book (although he didn't call them that), and I believe others also used them at Queenford. Budgie?

 

Another plus of the telescopic design is that I might be able to dispense with my Pike Swingers and use just one type of indicator for all my stillwater legering. They'd just need to telescope to the same size as the Pike Swingers otherwise I'd need a new box for them and a new holdall!

 

The right line clip would be important. It would have to be adjustable for lines from 4lb to 15lb, and allow the line to come clear with an adjustable amount of force. This would mean that many carp ones would be unsuitable.

 

Yes I think it would be quite easy to add a rubber "stopper" add sliding weight on to the arm so it was adjustable.Just used to wrap leadwire around my old ones as was needed.

 

The "off bottom" type bream rigs are more like the pat rigs you use for perch Steve than the pat rigs normally used for pike.But that said not that different to a free running pat rig. And as you rightly say being able to adjust the weight of the indicater when using this type of rig is very handy.

 

Im not to worried about their transport length but totally agree about the line clip.The production models of the Queenford ones that I mentioned earlier had a really fancy moulded plastic head that had an ultra resistance free line clip system.Bit awkward to set up in the dark till you got the nack but it was soon sorted. Maybe the gate type system that the more modern Fox type Carp Swingers would be the way to go? Hmmm have to keep my eye out on Fleabay for some knackered ones or do Fox sell the heads/line gates seperately as a spare?

[Anderoo]

When your down doing your work party let me know and I will bring you some over.

 

Yes please Budgie, I'll be down there this coming weekend. If that's not convenient, the zander fish-in would be fine too. Thanks!

 

Re the line gates on the Fox drop-offs, I'm not a fan. I thought they looked really good, but having bought a pair for piking (my old ones have finally given up) and tried them a few times, I wish I could swap them for the old Gardner line clips. For stillwater piking they require too much pull to open, and on the rivers, there's not enough tension in faster flows. Basically, the tension is set and there's nothing you can do to change it.

 

However, for bream/tench bobbins that may not matter too much? I'd still favour a decent line clip though. You can have a play with them at the zander get together if you like.

 

By the way, are those sunken paternoster bream rigs really free running?They look pretty complicated, and I suspect in practice they're more like bolt rigs (especially as the fashion was to fish with closed bailarms and the anti-reverse off).

 

What I'd like is something like this:

 

 

 

The rod would need to be approx 3ft long I guess. And I have no idea where to get the little hinges, any ideas?

 

Edit - these would just be for bream and tench and the major benefits they'd have over normal bobbins are (1) no or limited wind movement, which somewhere like Wingham is important (it can get a bit breezy!) and (2) they can be struck off the line without tangling, a problem with bobbins on a long cord (especially if you choose an inappropriate cord material )

Edited January 21, 2009 by Anderoo

[Andy Macfarlane]

Wine-cork, Gardener line-clip, John Roberts rig tubing & shrink tube (both of which can be manipulated and set to your desired shape with hot water and cold water....easy), terry-clip....indicator.

I just use this as a spare in case my Fox one's bugger up but if I thought about it for more than 3 minutes, I'm sure I could come up with far better.

 

[Kappa]

And I have no idea where to get the little hinges, any ideas?

 

Make them! A simple loop at each end with a bolt through it would make a decent hinge!

 

That said I'm not sure swingers would be more stable as at that length the hinges would have to be very rigid laterally whilst be very free funning vertically if you see what I mean!

 

Budgie I think I've managed to scavange some of that (gold plated) conduit from work I'll let you know how it works out! BTW I think I now know how to make a robust cheap version, more details later!

 

Rich

Edited January 21, 2009 by Richard Capper