Back to basics

Over the last dozen or so years of my intermittent eel fishing I've tried all sorts of bite indication set-ups (apart from float fishing). I started out fishing open bale arms using light weight rear drop-offs with the Gardner clips I use for pike fishing. Then I tried the same bobbins at the front on a long drop and baitrunner engaged just in case.

Next it was short drops and heavier bobbins sometimes even straight off the 'runner with no bobbin. All worked to a degree, all failed to a degree. I know that the 'Rollover' indicator is supposed to be as resistance free as you can get. But have you seen one, let alone tried to set three of them up on a rod pod? I was given one and can't fathom out how the bloody thing works - even after watching a video! Another over complicated angling solution.

One evening when the eels were taking a couple of 'clocks' off the baitrunner I had a flashback. Way, way back my eel bobbins were a short length of balsa dowel with a hair grip glued in one end and a screw eye in the other. On the ends of the hair grip prongs were glued plastic beads. They'd started life being used off the front rests as old school bobbins for tench after I got fed up of Fairy Liquid bottle tops! I couldn't remember having dropped runs using those. I'd actually found them a few weeks previously.

 I reckoned they worked because they were lightweight and that meant the clips didn't have to be set very tight to prevent the bobbins falling off the line. This has always been how I like my drop-off bobbins. The trend in pike fishing for heavy bobbins to show slack line takes results in the clips having to be tight, offering more resistance on the more common run. Drop-back indications have never been much of a feature of my piking, and even less of my eel fishing. If you use cord to attach the bobbin to the rear rod rest you can see a slack liner even with a light bobbin. That's another story though.

I was sure I could make a more modern version of this indicator if I could find the right components. The clips would be the hardest part. Map pins are too short. What about hat pins? They proved elusive with beaded heads, but a bit more internet searching turned up something similar. Florists pins.

How to turn them into a clip was the next, easily solved, problem. Initially I thought of simply pushing them into a polyball or similar.  A bit crude. My old friend glue-lined shrink tube came to the rescue. Put two pins in a bit of tube, grip the ends in a pair of pliers and blast the tube with a heat gun. I did some dry tests to determine how much of the pins should protrude from the shrink tube before getting the heat gun out.

The MK1 bobbin was hastily assembled from a polyball and a swivel which was also heat-shrunk onto the pins. This was just to use as a proof of concept. 

It worked a treat first time out. I had a take on one of the other rods that was dropped. It was a quiet night and that was the first take. I swapped the bobbins over and when the same bait was taken again the bobbin softly fell from the line and a 'proper' run progressed. The eel was hooked, landed, weighed and returned. Success!

Now to neaten the bobbin up. Quite simple. Chop a clip down with a pair of side cutters, glue the clip into a polyball with a swivel opposite and iMK2 was ready for action.

White polyballs show up surprisingly well after dark but I thought an isotope would be easier to see. Clear shrink tube came in handy for this. I shrunk the isotope onto the nylon coated wire I was using as a 'cord'.

The wire isn't ideal for the job. It doesn't tangle like a thin braid can, but it's difficult to get straight too. I know exactly what I do want for making the cords, it's level fly line. The original bobbins had that and it's flexible yet tangle proof. Alas I can't find any in my boxes of 'stuff that might come in handy one day', and it seems rather expensive to buy to use about three feet!

The MK2 bobbin plus isotope worked a treat. Even with the alarms switched off a falling isotope catches the eye. They looked a bit unrefined though. Not that it bothered me. I still thought I could improve things.

More searching on-line and acrylic tube was discovered. Marvelous. A 150mm piece of 4mm inside diameter tube was cut into three equal lengths. A swivel had one eye squashed and covered in the magic glue-filled shrink and then glued into one end of the short tube. A cut down clip would go in the other end. That would look a bit unsightly so to cover the eyesores I wrapped some reflective tape around each end of the tube. To stop the isotope rattling about - and to centre it - I poked a piece of foam into the tube. A dab of hot-melt glue secured the clip in place and the MK3 bobbin was ready for action.

You might ask why I didn't just use the old bobbins in the first pics on this page. The answer is that light as they are, they're not as light as the ones I've made. Simple as that. For the time being I have 80lb Kevlar braid attached as the cord until I find something better. In practice it works as well as the originals. Despite appearances the clips can be adjusted. Pulling the beads apart slackens them, twisting them around each other tightens them. The aim is to have them as slack as possible. Using 50lb PowerPro on the reels I'm finding them to work great. The line release is 'soft' for want of a better description, and I'm getting far more actual runs than the other indication methods gave me. So far!

That's the story of one of my eel fishing improvements this season. Stay tuned for a couple more! You'll have to wait a bit longer to see if I've actually caught anything....

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Two steps back

Overconfidence is a terrible thing. There was I thinking I'd got this eel fishing lark sussed and was eager to have another go, this time to succeed big time. The eels brought me back to reality.

Conditions had changed. There was a nice breeze coming from the west putting a ripple on the water. Cloud cover was partially obscuring the watery sun. I needed a sweatshirt to keep the wind chill off me and selected a slightly sheltered swim. Not for the shelter but because it gave me a number of options for positioning the baits.

 

 

The semi-fixed leger rig has been swapped back to a running one and a wire trace had replaced the hard mono hooklink. I'd dug some deadbaits and squid out of the freezer, both to give me a bit of variety and to eke out the worm supply. You get through a lot fishing three or four on a hook on three rods when pesky eels are pinching or mauling them.

 

Currently I'm suffering the results of chilblains on my right hand last winter. It seems to have damaged the fingernails on two fingers and the damage has now grown out to the tips causing the nails to delaminate like a badly wrapped rod blank. The flaky nail edges catch on things and break. So I'm taping the fingers up with plasters. Which makes picking up small things like crimps and hooks a real problem. Baiting up the hook points also love to snag in the plasters causing even more cursing!

 

All three baits were out 8 o'clock, the first take being a strange one at a few minutes after nine to the legered worms. Although the baitrunner was slack the tip kept pulling round. of course there was nothing there when I struck, and the worms were intact. Odd. It didn't happen again. Almost an hour later the craziness and frustration began with three takes, one after the other, to the three rods in succession. Almost simultaneous takes happen quite frequently, despite the baits being spread over quite an area. It feels like the eels are conspiring to drive me mad from not knowing which rod to strike.

 

It was gone half nine when I eventually swung an eel ashore. Another sub-pounder to the off bottom worms. This was not to be the first of many. Takes and runs came in bursts as the light left the sky fell and continued well into darkness. It was only at five past eleven that I connected with another eel, this time to the legered ball of squid.

I didn't need to retackle or make any fresh traces so didn't have the chance to try my swim lighting set up, but it was fine for baiting up. Although I only used it once as my headtorch was doing me OK for that after putting fresh batteries in.

 

The action didn't slow after midnight. Encouraged to stick around I stopped until quarter past one. The takes were still coming. I was still failing to connect with them. With no eels landed worth weighing I've not bothered photographing any either. So here's a pic of my latest eel rods. They're 10ft 2.75lb Ballista Stalkers which have a tippier action than my P-4s making them better for casting leads and small baits. The only time I've had a decent bend in them so far has been 'playing' a ball of weed. There feels to be enough in the butt section to cope with decent fish.

I went for a low profile look with all black fittings from American Tackle and a different look to the abbreviated Duplon. Thread is my favourite shad of grey and all (minimalist) lettering is on the underside of the rods. They balance well with the near perfect 6000OC Baitrnners.

There's rain forecast. I might dust the barbel rods off and give the eels a break for a couple of weeks. Or I might restock the worm tub and keep the roll going...

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Hard Nylon eel traces

Making hooklinks on the bank, in the dark by the light of a headtorch, isn't the easiest thing to do! So much so that I've packed an LED light to put on my camera tripod for my next session. It'll only be needed if I run out of the spares I'll be making at home!

Years ago I bought a spool of Mason Hard Type Nylon to make leaders when I was fly-fishing for pike. Leaders, not tippets, the flies were attached to wire which was attached to the leader. It's strange stuff. Very tough, very stiff, and very 'coily'. It's also difficult to get hold of in the UK. Mine came from Veal's, and while they still have it listed on their website it is currently out of stock and has been for some time. There must be an alternative but buying unseen could lead to a lot of money going down teh plug hole. Is the stuff carp anglers use for Ronni Rigs the same? 

Other than the nylon everything else is simple. One hook, two double barrel crimps, a rig sleeve.

 

Not all of the tools shown below are essential. In fact the crimping pliers are the only ones you cant do the job without. I use the lighter to put a blob on the tag end of the nylon before pulling it snug into the crimp at the hook. It isn't a big deal to leave it sticking out without a blob. Crimped correctly the line won't slip. The tag end can be left longer at the loop end as that will be sleeved over.

The nail clippers are what I use for trimming all nylon lines. they're especially good on tougher and thicker monos I find. The knot testers are used to test the connections, and have the added benefit that when doing that the curve in the nylon is pulled out.

 

 

Just a close up of the jaws of the pliers. 

 

The crimp should be placed 'crossways' in the groove of the pliers, so it squashes the two barrels together flattening each barrel. Ideally the crimp should stick out of the jaws at the loop end to give an angled transition for the nylon. I suspect this is more critical when using heavier gear to big game fish than it is with this sort of tackle. The crimps I'm using are very small and fiddly enough to align correctly in the pliers without having to get a bit to stick out - the crimp length being the same as the width of the jaws. There's no chance in the dark! To give an idea of size these are one inch squares on the cutting mat.

I'm using quick change swivels on the end of my mainline hence using a loop on my hooklinks, but a swivel can be attached just as easily. Crimping is ideal for people who have to have all their hooklinks exactly the same length. Much easier than trying to do that with knots - although having a loop at one end works.

These are only used with worms or other non-fishy baits. Anything that I think has a greater chance of being picked up by a pike is fished on wire.

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Progress?

The tight finish in the opening Ashes test match left me needing to chill. I rigged up two of my latest eel rods, sorted the gear, put the worms I'd bought last week into a bucket and set off. There was no rush, I wasn't expecting any action until half nine on a still, hot, and sunny day. After a short look around I took the easy option and started setting up in the peg nearest the car park.

My approach hadn't changed from last year. the running paternoster was dropped close in to my right, the running leger cast out close to the pads. What had change were the hooklinks. Both were much shorter than in earlier years. I've been reducing the length of my eel hooklinks for some time, but now they are only about four to five inches long. It's quite tricky tying such short hooklinks in any material, but the Hard Nylon I'm favouring is a bugger to knot at any length. It can be done. More on that later.

By 8.30 I was all set up and settled in listening the the birdsong and watching the sun sink low enough to stop dazzling me. Bang on cue, an hour later, I had a take on the legered worm and soon swung my first eel of the year in. Only about a pound, probably less, it was still a start.

The second eel took the off-bottom worms at ten past ten. One eel each to the new rods on their first outing. So much for the new tackle jinx! From then on indications came regularly. Some the annoying twitches that resulted in pinched worms, some proper runs that spun the reel spool. Most were coming to the leger rig.

It was half past eleven before I landed another one, half an hour more until the third, and ten past midnight when the smallest of the evening came in. All to the bottom fished worms. I packed up twenty minutes later to the sound of a distant owl hooting.

One of the eels had mangled my hooklink forcing me to tie up a replacement. This didn't go well in the dark. First of all I had run out of the size 6 hooks I'd been using. Go larger or go smaller? I went smaller for an eight. The first knot was messy. So was the second. Eventually I got a rig tied up. Then I had a light-bulb moment. I'd used the hard mono to make lead links by crimping it. Why hadn't I thought of crimping it to use as hooklinks? D'oh!

Wednesday morning saw me sat at my desk crimping up hooklinks. I couldn't find my cup-to-cup crimping tool so used the one I'd bought for crimping wire traces with single barrel crimps. It's not supposed to work on double barrel crimps but I couldn't pull the mono out. With a few hooklinks made up I rigged up my third new rod and swapped all my hooklinks to the crimped ones with size 8 hook.

Another empty car park saw me take a longer walk to look at swims. One looked really inviting but cramped for three rods. It could wait for another night. In the end I chose one where I could cover a lot of water with the baits spread out. As I was setting up a very loud bird sang briefly in a hawthorn behind the swim. Not a song I recognised but I guessed it to be a warbler. Once more it was the paternoster in the right hand margin, the two legers out to pad edges. 

Another thought I had during my first session was that a semi-fixed leger might be worth a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I had one in operation on the longest cast. After a later start I was fishing by 8.45 only having to wait half an hour until the spool spun on the off-bottom margin rod. I failed to connect. 

 A couple more times I was startled by the loud birdsong. Eventually I caught a glimpse of a little brown job flitting away. I made a note in my diary about the call, a visual interpretation of it that only I could understand,, and resolved to search Youtube to find it.

It was shortly before ten when the indications started to come frequently and a sub-pound eel fell for to the paternoster rod. Twitched, runs, and everything in between. eventually the takes dried up and I packed away the rods at midnight. the semi-fixed rig hadn't been a success. Winding it in for recasts the three dendrobenas had disappeared every time. Stick with it or not?

Thursday morning I was on Youtube searching for 'warbler sons UK'. I found one video that claimed to haev the songs of every British warbler and clicked 'play'. I decided not to watch it but just listen. A few song in there it was! I replayed it. Yes, that was the song. I searched for other videos and other sites for the bird's song just to be sure. No doubt about it. I'd heard and seen my first Cetti's warbler! Not too uncommon a bird these days, in the right places. It was still a new one for me.

In the afternoon I did my 'big shop', calling in at the tackle shop near the supermarket to see if they had a pair of pukka crimping pliers before ordering a pair off the interwebby. They did. And they were cheaper! With the freezer filled for another month, and my bank account depleted by more than I expected (that's food inflation for you) I set about making up another batch of hooklinks. Tea eaten, the miserable Archers saga listened to (if only Helen could have a freak chess-making accident to put an end to it), I was eager to try my rigs out.

A couple of vehicles in the car park this time but nobody in sight in the area I fancied. I still had a look around before climbing down into another peg which offered a range of opportunities. This time the running paternoster was cast to my left, to a gap in the pads. The running leger went straight out to a pad edge, and the semi-fixed rig was cast the farthest to a gap between to lots of pads. I must have been keen because it was only eight o'clock! As I was setting the rods up I heard the Cetti's Warbler again. Not having been on this spring I'm left wondering if it has been around for long.

An early start didn't bring early action. Well, not too early. ten past nine saw a proper run to the running leger. Fishing three small worms I always wonder if it is an eel that has taken the bait when I strike at these runs. Anything is liable to pick up worms and there have been quite a few carp mooching about.

Ten minutes later the only sign of action to the semi-fixed rod was very small twitches of the rod top. Even with my Delkim on maximum sensitivity there was no sound and the bobbin moved not a millimeter. I picked the rod up and... There was an eel on the end, neatly hooked in the bottom lip! I stuck with the rig as the only way to judge its efficacy is to give it a long enough trial. I know other eel anglers are making it work.

After ten the action picked up apace. I landed five more, yet again all a few ounces either side of a pound at a guess, bar the final one which was most definitely a bootlace. Around eleven I had three takes at once and missed all of them. All the takes cam to legered worms, and one on the semi-fixed rig was a proper 'screamer'. I was sure there'd be a carp on the end when I lifted the rod!

All told an interesting few sessions. Eleven eels is a good start in terms of numbers. Not so good on teh specimen hunting scale though. The short stiff hooklinks are working a treat. The small hooks haven't proved detrimental. Quite the opposite. Semi-fixed rigs do work. Not much action to the off-bottom bait, which is unusual. Eels do have the ability to make you think. The rods have all been christened, but are yet to be tested with something worthy of landing net, let alone a photo session.

The next step? Get some different baits. Fishing three rods with worms is boring!

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Different day, same result

I got the eel urge again yesterday. A warm day with a sprightly southerly blowing it was over 20 degrees when I arrived at the water. With the lake deserted my swim choice was unlimited. Fancying a change I plumped for one I haven't eel fished very often, the reeds to my left keeping the breeze off me and with a few features to fish to.

The usual rigs and baits were in place by eight fifteen. Two fishing the margins where eels are supposed to be caught, one in open water where I have more success on this venue. No instant action this time. It wasn't until just before the stated time for sunset in my tide table that the first worm snatcher made off with a free meal from the leger rig in no-man's-land. Twenty minutes later the same thing happened to the off-bottom worms in the margin.

It wasn't a case of cast out and an eel homing in straight away. It took half an hour before the suspended bait was nabbed again. This time I connected. With another bootlace. One that did a Houdini in reverse and tangled itself up so badly it became almost rigid. That didn't make it any easier to unhook though. I still had to chop things up and re-tackle after returning the pest.

The air temperature stayed up as the sun set, the wind swung to the west a little before swinging back and maybe easing off. A flock of starlings swirled briefly over what used to be one of their roosting sites. A large conifer which has been chopped down. They must like the location because they dropped behind the tree line in roughly the same place as the tree had stood. There must be another roostable tree or hedge there for them.

The large mallard flock wasn't in evidence, small groups of them were sitting in a couple of swims, heads tucked under wings, beady eyes alert, as I had a look round before choosing my swim. A great crested grebe and it's near grown offspring were cruising a lily bed.  Other than that bird life was quiet. 

While re-tackling the rod that was out of action, I had to tie up a hooklink as I 'd come unprepared in that respect, another worm snatcher attacked the leger rig. Ten minutes later the same rod was in action. For once an actual run that took line and showed no sign of stopping! Result a slightly larger bootlace than the first one, but lip hooked and easily released. It must have hooked itself.

Haws and blackberries were ripening in my swim making me think of autumn. August is a strange month in the turning of the seasons. One the one hand it can be hot and sunny, a time for summer holidays, yet on the other fruits and berries are starting to appear as the leaves begin to darken and grasses turn straw-coloured.

That bootlace was my lot. The bites and twitches, which hadn't been frequent, became more sporadic until they stopped altogether. By eleven I'd given up hope, but as it was still warm I hung on for another half an hour before calling it a wrap. Time for a change of venue or species I think.

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The bobbins never stopped moving and a new rod

Thursday saw my eel fishing going to the opposite extreme. Even while I was setting up the third rod something was chomping on the bunch of worms dangling from my running paternoster. And so the evening progressed. It was one of those sessions when the bootlaces were homing in on worms almost as soon as they settled. In one case before I could get the bobbin clipped on the line.

As usual when eels are in this mood it was a case of scant rewards. I'm pretty sure that the eels were too small to get the whole bunch of worms in their mouths and so a strike only serves to rip the worms and leave an almost bare hook. Out of who knows how many indications I hooked two eels. Both of which were the size I expected. Less than a pound in total weight and far more trouble to unhook than a single eel of three times that weight.

Despite the frustration, enhanced by twice retrieving the legered chunk of bluey to find it missing (soft and cast off?), the evening was enjoyable. I think I was in the hauling out spot for the forty or more mallards drifting about in front of me until it got properly dark, but a kingfisher streaking by shortly after I arrived and dozens of mostly young swallows feeding low to the water lifted my spirits as did the lone swift which fleetingly swooped by.

After getting the foot operated shutter release I treated myself to a new compact tripod. It took a lot of internet searching to find one that was as compact and short at it's highest height which also had a ball head, or allowed one to be fitted. Most of my searches for 'small tripod' resulted in the table top sort which are less than a foot high when fully extended. The rest were 'full size' when extended but compact when collapsed. I was left with two choices and went for the cheapest one.

Folded up it's nice and compact in length, but a little bulky. Because I had one spare I swapped the ballhead for a slightly smaller one. Doing this and folding the legs 'the other way' so they don't cover the ballhead it packs up slimmer and not much longer, still taking up less room than my old tripod and weighing a few grammes less.

As I'm eel fishing at the moment I can't see it getting much use for trophy shots so it'll be used for daft selfies or moon photos like the ones below! 

In other news I have added a new rod to my predator range, a rather niche rod. The P-6 has come about after being asked to make a beefed up P-5 by one customer to fish big natural baits for pike. When a second customer asked me for an eleven foot rod to troll large artificial baits on Irish loughs I thought of the big bait rod, which I had been using as a spod rod to pair with my 11ft tench and carp rods a few years back. I reckon it could also make a useful UK catfish rod.

The action is similar to that of the P-5 so it will bend if you have something big enough on the end of your line that you aren't afraid to give some stick. Anyone who thinks the Loch Tamer is a broom handle not only needs to tighten their drag but also avoid The Beast like the plague!Price and spec can be found on the Predator Rods page of my DLST website.

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The bobbins hung motionless

A blank was guaranteed for my first eel session of the year. Three new rods rigged up with three new reels was enough to enforce the new tackle hex, but a new foot pedal release for my camera to make self-takes easier was the cherry on the cursed cake.

It being a Monday I had the place to myself when I rocked up around eight fifteen on a warm evening with sunshine between the clouds being blown in on a moderate westerly. I was going to set up where I'd left off my pike fishing but the lilies had encroached and made the swim a bit tight so after a wander around I settled slowly into the swim next to it.

There was plenty of time before I expected the eels to start showing any interest in my baits, the usual offerings of legered and off-bottom worms, plus a trial run for a chunk of bluey on the leger with the wire trace. Once the rods were out I started playing around with my camera. It took me an age to get the flash gun working with the remote trigger for some 'arty' shots.

Being just a week after the Summer Solstice it felt like it would never get dark. Fiddling with the camera gave me something to do. Around nine there was a bit of action on the bluey rod but only a couple of bleeps from the Delkim. The bait was still intact.

With nothing happening I thought I could spend a while trying out the foot pedal. Better to get to know how best to set it up before trying a self-take with a monster eel. As if that is ever likely for the world's worst eel angler!

 

It's just 'plug and play' really, much less fiddling around than with the bulb release and bracket system I've been using for years. A boring 'sat by the rods looking vacant' picture was the result.

Available from Rhino Tech (no affiliation) the pedal costs £25 and is available to suit a range of cameras - for those who haven't abandoned cameras in favour of the convenience of a smart phone... I had tried making something similar myself some time ago and it didn't last long! So I consider this one money well spent. A Velcro type cable tidy seemed like a good idea, and I found an old camera pouch which the pedal fits in to prevent it getting tangled up with the rest of the junk in my rucksack.

When the light did eventually begin to fade the eel action hotted up. I had the legered bunch of worms stolen following a couple of bleeps, then an hour later another few bleeps and squawks saw the worms come back unmolested. That was my lot. It's great to be back eeling...

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The final straw

Regardless of the stream of small eels continuing to pester me I was still keen, although running out of cunning plans, following my post last month. It was on the third session that I finally had enough. If I'd done what I usually do and fished a swim out of sight of anyone else I'd have carried on in blissful ignorance, but I reasoned that the angler tench fishing across the pit would be packing up shortly as I'd arrived late. So why not fish a swim I fancied rather than one which was out of sight?

 
I got my rod pod set up, baits in position and had settled down on my low chair in what was a reasonably spacious peg, for a change. Then I looked up and saw the tench angler was playing something and having a fair old tussle. He was in a swim I always fancy for eels but which has never thrown anything much up for me.

The tench kept on fighting until it broke surface. That was when it's snake-like head became obvious. Maybe he was just making a meal of it. After a couple of attempts the eel was in the rather too small for it landing net. When it was lifted ashore its size, even from 100 metres (Google maps) away, was obvious. After looking at it for a while the angler removed the hook from the eel and put it back. Unweighed. It looked as big as any I've caught from the pit, maybe bigger. Who's the idiot who said effort equals reward? At least the eels were feeding, I supposed.

Dusk fell and I had the place to myself. And the eels. It was no run fest. I had a few runs and finicky takes before I connected with one. Yet again to the off-bottom worms. It didn't feel all that big. It wasn't. Possibly the smallest eel of the year. But what it lacked in size it made up for in tangling technique. The lead link on my off-bottom rig was over three feet long, but somehow this tiny little bootlace managed to wrap itself up in the link sufficiently to have the lead dangling directly below it';s jaw!

I tired letting the tying untangle itself in the margin. To no avail. I had to resort to cutting the bloody creature free just so I could get my forceps on the hook. A complete re-tackling was called for. I fished on with waning enthusiasm until midnight when I was glad to see the back of the place.

Since then it's been a case of work turning up (at long last blanks are beginning to trickle through) followed by a wet spell which further reduced my eeling drive. I've taken a break and done some photography top revitalise my fishing mojo.

The ring situation caused by the change I've mentioned before is still causing me confusion as to what is available and what isn't. SiC rings being the latest ones to have me baffled. I think I've got that sussed now and should have some back in stock soon.

With the new 'grey' (which is similar to the old gunsmoke) frames on the standard rings I use I'm going to change my standard thread colours on Axiom rods. I've no blanks to build for them at present so can't show a photo of what they'll look like but I have built a couple of X-1s using the thread colours. Shown below with an 'old style' gunsmoke reel seat.

I think the grey thread tipped with metallic pewter looks good along with the grey reel seats and rings on Ultra Matt blanks. It's as near as I've managed to 'invisible' whippings.

In other news I have some new size four and six trebles in stock to replace the Partridge hooks I used to carry. These are a round bend treble with a round eye and a slightly shorter shank than the Partridges. Wire thickness is a bit heavier but not excessively so and the barbs are small and crushable. Available from my webshop - www.dlstshop.co.uk at £4.50 per pack of ten. More sizes might follow later in the year.

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Everything merges with the night

 

 

After my last blog post I thought the rot had set in when I blanked on yet another evening into night session after eels. I had runs and missed them all. 

 

A couple of days later and it was back to the familiar sessions of old. Lots of twitchy bites and some runs, this time some I connected with. During this session I was getting far more positive runs than I had on earlier sessions for some reason even though the eels were no bigger. In total five were landed, but nothing over a pound and a quarter. I weighed that one because it had felt double the weight when I was bringing it in and I wanted to get a gauge for future guestimates. It didn't look the heavier weight though. I'd been fooled by teh lad link of the running paternoster dragging a load of weed.

Each time I've gone eeling I've fished a different swim. A week later I was in a swim I'd forgotten had an ant nest in it last time I fished it. Luckily the ants weren't making themseleves known if they were still at home. The eels weren't either. It was a slow session resulting in one more sub-pound eel to the off bottom worms. I got more bites from the mozzies. The following morning my hands and back of my neck were covered in itchy red lumps.

Two days after that, when the itching was easing off, I fished a swim I like a lot, but which has never matched it's initial promise. It did produce though. Four more eels not worth netting, never mind  photographing, fell to worm baits with one bumped to a deadbait. Most of my action has been coming to worms, but I've been putting that down to me fishing two rods with them as bait and only one with a deadbait chunk.

 

Fancying a change of approach I picked up a packet of squid and settled into a swim I've never fished before for my first session of July. There was a glorious sunset casting a red glow on everything, including the moorhen which seemed to want to join me. I was wondering if I had taken up it's night time resting place, and if it was a young bird because of it's lack of fear of the big ugly creature on the bank.

My landing net must have been propped up in its usual hauling out spot as it  clambered on the bank and tried to walk under the mesh. After drifting about in front of me for ages it got out at the other side of the swim. It wasn't keen there so ambled back to the water, where it eventually gave up, after squawking loudly at me from within the reed beds and making me jump!

The moorhen interlude was the highlight of the session. When I checked the weather forecast before setting off it had looked set fair. However, when I spoke to another angler near the car park he said there was rain forecast to arrive around dusk. The sky did look slightly threatening and it felt muggy. I always have a set of waterproofs in the back of the car so I stuffed them in my folded low chair. It was around ten thirty when the drizzle started. Five minutes later I missed a run to the squid chunk.

That didn't herald the start of a mad feeding spell. At eleven fifteen yet another bootlace snaffled my off bottom worms. With the rain getting heavier I packed up shortly after that. One benefit of finishing early was that I didn't need an afternoon nap the next day!

All these short eel session are starting to merge into one fuzzy session of missed runs and small, slimy knot-tying eels. Without my diary notes I'd never remember what happened on which session, or how many sessions there were! Still, I was back again last night but this time in the first swim I'd fished this year.

This turned out to be another slow session. Proper runs were few and twitchy takes the norm when there was action. The only take I connected with came to a piece of squid fished close in to the edge of a reed bad. It was yet another bootlace which somehow managed to tie the rig and itself in a great slimy tangle when I foolishly netted it. Things were so bad I had to cut the line and the hooklink to get the eel free. I did get the hook out of the eel - somehow. If eels weren't supposedly endangered (there seem to be plenty round here!) I think I'd be sticking these bootlace tangle-masters in the freezer for pike bait!

 

Despite the frustration having returned I'm sure I'll be back again soon. At least for one more try. If it's another bootlace-fest I might give the eels a break for a week or two and try for something else.

I had intended posting a rod advert on here, but no sooner had I listed it on The Pikers Pit than it sold. Which surprised me as it was an 11ft 1.75lb Torrix more suited to small river barbel or stalking carp.

I'd ordered the blank for myself during my summer of carp fishing but it arrived after the short-lived interest in carp had faded away. Hence I only got round to building it recently. Actually I started it during lockdown one but gave up when paying work started coming in again. As I'm in a lull at present waiting for blanks ordered months ago to turn up I passed a day finishing it off.

It's a shame that Harrison's aren't supplying brown blanks any longer because built up whipped in sand tipped brown they look rather nice. The newish Vortex rings also look good on slim blanks like the lighter Torrixes.

As I spent some time trying to take some vaguely professional looking photos of the rod (shiny things are tricky to photograph) I'll post them anyway - despite the fact I can't replicate the build.

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Downhill all the way

Full of new-found enthusiasm I couldn't wait to get back after the eels. Two nights later I was walking round looking for a swim to fish. one problem with this particular place is that most of the swims are made to accommodate someone sat on a seat box fishing a single rod. If set up to fish 'carp style' with self hooking rigs and rods on pods this isn't an issue as the fish hang themselves and sat up on the bank you can still get to the rods without fish dropping the bait. Same for piking really when even an 'instant' strike doesn't have to be as instant as striking  a quick dip on a float from a shy biting rudd.

Eel fishing for me is all about striking takes quickly. I don't seem to get the non-stop runs that I used to. even when I did a smart strike might be required to hook an eel before it found sanctuary. when I first fished the canal for eels I was casting baits tight to far bank reed beds. By the time I could grab a rod the eel would be deep in the reeds and everything was solid. I switched to fishing my baits under the rod tops to give me time to strike before sanctuary could be reached. Even sitting close to the rods some eels still made it all the way over the far side!

 

 

As the pegs here are all nicely stoned getting individual banksticks in, my preferred way of fishing, it has to be a pod. Some of the pegs aren't even wide enough for that, let alone have room to put up a chair. This all limits my choices. I didn't want to fish the same swim as my first session so ended up dithering between one I've never fished for eels and one I have caught from. The one with previous got the nod.

Conditions were similar to two nights before and I was soon having to replace missing worms. The eels were active again. As predicted my initial success was not to be matched and the average size of the four I landed was well down. I was catching though, which was encouraging. Despite some activity to the deadbait it was the worms getting the majority of the action, both on and off the bottom. By half twelve my stock of worms was getting down to the regs so I packed up satisfied and planning to restock at the earliest opportunity.

That opportunity came on Friday. Get worms in the morning, fish in the evening. Sorted. That was the plan until my car packed up on the way to the tackle shop. Bugger. I was going to change the motor last year but when Covid arrived there wasn't much point as I wouldn't be using it much. Anyway, long story short the car was fixable but the garage had one in that suited my needs and budget. Rather than spend money fixing the Zafira I chopped it in. problem was I couldn't get my hands on the replacement until this Thursday.

A whole week later than planned I was heading back to the lake. Normally I'm not keen on Friday night sessions as it can see carpers setting up for the weekend but as there was a football match of some sort being mentioned all over the internet and news media I thought I might have the place to myself. As it turned out there was one carp angler setting up near a swim I really fancied. I fished my second choice instead.

It was a few degrees cooler than the previous week, but still plenty warm enough as I arranged my gear in one of the more accommodating swims. This one gave me a good choice of features from pads to marginal rush and open water. All easily fishable from a pod.

Baits out by quarter to nine and the bleeps and twitches started soon after. This time it was a night of frustration as even the steady runs were missed. Fishing the off bottom bait close in my strikes almost saw the rig flying out of the water at me a couple of times! Plenty of takes from twitches to runs but no eels landed.

After my first session I'd been rethinking my rigs. In particular my hooklinks. While I like the Kevlar catfish braid I've been using for worm baits it is a bit tangle prone. Rooting in my eel/catfish box I thought it might be worth tying up a couple of hooklinks with the 20lb Mason's Hard Mono I used to use for making pike fly leaders (the bit before the wire leader the flies are attached to before you get the wrong idea...). It's tough, abrasion resistant and stiff. Not easy to knot though. While I was at it I had a change of hook pattern to a shorter shanked more round bend hook. Owner C-5X in fact. Using this hooklink on my leger rig caught me a couple of the small ones on my second session and damage to the mono was negligible. Certainly an option worth persisting with to see if it does significantly reduce tangles.

This is the rig I use for fishing off bottom. The boom is glued into a drilled out John Roberts Paternoster Boom, the end of the boom being flared over after heating to stop it pulling right through. The lead link is heavy and stiff mono for a couple of feet ending in a loop to which I tie a weaker link to take the lead. The length of the hooklink is shorter than the boom to go some way to reducing tangles on the cast. I've been using 70lb Kevlar catfish braid for the hooklinks when using worm baits, but when this does tangle it can be a real bad tangle. I'll be giving 20lb Mason's Hard Mono a try next time out.

 

Whether the blank session was a result of some change in conditions, the presence of only small eels in the swim or a new tackle curse I'm not sure. Does a 'new' car count as tackle? if not maybe it was the new box I'd got to keep my spare batteries in. It's a neater solution than the box I used to use. takes up less room and stops the batteries rattling about. Although it's designed to hold four PP3 batteries the slots in the rubber insert will take two AAs for my radio and just about three AAAs for my head torch. I was glad of the PP3s when the sounder for my Delkims started making the low battery noise.

Now I'm stocked up with worms I'll be out eeling again soon. I have two swims in mind which I have yet to fish which I think might produce. At least they'll be a change of scenery!

On the rod building front I've had a few unusual builds to keep my interest up and which are options for future consideration.

White painted rod tops are not my thing but I get requests for them on a fairly regular basis. After many years I've got a technique sorted for doing them which I am happy with. It's time consuming but gives a good looking result. I still can't decide if white tips look better with white thread on any rings that go on it or with the same thread colour/s as used on the rest of the rod. This one has two small isotopes added. The customer went with the black/copper thread option.

At he other end of a rod, in this case a lure rod for bass fishing, I came up with a way to fit a full shrink tube handle to a slim blank and make a Fuji butt cap fit and look good. Again a bit of a faff but worth it. Putting the shrink over a hard Duplon cone at the back of the reel seat is another neat and functional touch, I think. If I ever rebuild my trusty P-5s I'll be going for something like this for the handles, only with plain rather than X-weave shrink tube.

Finally, don't ask me to build float rods. Not only do I hate fitting all the fiddly little rings while trying not to break the delicate tip sections I can't find a set of rings which meet my aesthetic preferences. Thankfully I only get asked to build one or two a year, so reducing this to none at all, ever, won't be much of a loss!

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