Foamy Drifter

Drifters don't have to be used simply to get as far out as possible on huge water, they can be used to cover water on small venues, and even on them there can be places just out of casting range. Also on very shallow waters, say four feet, a standard drifter always struck me as having too long a stem for fishing baits set at a couple of feet. The standard vanes also struck me as too big and can also move the float too fast at times. On small waters a large vane isn't required for visibility in the way it is on big pits and ressies. I made my first mini-drifter back in the 1980s for fishing a shallow sand pit and it worked a treat. As with my big drifter I fished it bottom end on a boom. This set up was my preferred rig, but meant having a rod dedicated to it, or putting up with the faff of rigging it up when required. Threading the boom was a real pain when on the bank.

More recently I made a small drifter that could be used on my normal stillwater float leger without having to break the rig down. That worked but I do like tinkering. Plastic vanes have never seemed ideal to me. They crack, fall off, and are just generally crap. I've seen carbon vanes somewhere, but they struck me as unnecessarily heavy. A few years back I bought some 3mm EVA (Duplon) sheet to make an attachment for a flash gun. Why it took me so long for it to click with me that it might work as a drifter vane material I put down to a lack of interest in drifting. Or old age! last week the lightbulb lit up when I was thinking of making some more pike floats. I only had black foam sheet but gave it a try. While I was at it I bought some foam eggs and some line clips. I'd used line clips on my last model drifter so I knew that bit would work.

This was to be a cross between my previous version, which was based on a design which appeared in Coarse Angler many years ago and the much imitated ET design. First time out it did what it was supposed to do as far as drifting a bait, unclipping under pressure, and being easily swapped to a bottom end float for fishing static.

The construction is dead simple. The only tools required are a pair of scissors, a craft knife, a heat source, and possibly a fine saw. For the illustrations here I am using orange foam sheet. The materials are the EVA sheet in a colour of your choice, a foam egg, a bamboo skewer, a swivel, some 3mm glued heat shrink tube and a line clip (I used a Tackle Box own brand this time). The only glue I used was some Gorilla Glue Clear to fix the line clip in place, although I'm not sure it was required. I coloured the foam egg and skewer using a UniPaint marker pen. Less hassle than a brush or spray can!

There's not much to the construction. Colour up the skewer, or not, and push it through the pre-drilled foam egg to get the dimensions you fancy and cut it to length. Attach the swivel to one end of the skewer using the shrink tube. This is a surprisingly strong connection and I'm sure would work for making leger stems, provided long casting wasn't required.

The line clip is screwed into the foam egg just above the waterline. I didn't bother to make it adjustable but set it to a tension that I thought would unclip under a bit of pressure before screwing and glueing. If you did want to retain the adjustability then you'd have to keep the glue off the mechanism.

The egg can either be glued to the skewer, or wedged by building up the stem with more shrink tube. I opted for the latter approach on the prototype. Finally cut the vane to your preferred size from the sheet of EVA. Use the sharp end of the skewer to poke a couple of holes in it for the float stem to go through. The vane will hold in place.

That's it. This photo shows Prototype 1 in use and should explain how it is set up. A one ounce weigh is just right to cock the float and a bomb clipped to slide on the line as for a float leger might look a bit uncouth but works well enough. I'm sure the pike won't care as that's what I used to do when float trolling! The float's swivel is attached to a snap link on the line as for a float leger rig. If you're paranoid and use an uptrace for drifting the lead can be clipped to the mid-trace swivel using a paper clip which will open out should the lead snag up. Alternatively use monster split shot squeezed round an open loop of weak nylon in link leger style.

As yet this float hasn't sunk in anger. But it has been quickly swapped over to fish a float legered bait which caught a pike. And that was half of the thinking behind it's design.

Variations on the theme are, of course, possible. The same design will work at a more usual size but will require a different longer stem, probably using a different material. There's no need to use orange eggs, drab coloured ones will also work. The only concern I have is how long lasting the vanes will be. I wonder if too much abuse will see them split where they are pierced. If they do then I have a cunning plan to overcome that drawback. But given the price of the EVA sheet, it's probably easier to cut a load of spares.

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Return of the mojo?

There's nothing like catching to make you want to catch some more. So after my first session of the year I was keen to have another try. When I pulled up to the gate another car pulled up behind me, and the angler was in a hurry to get to his swim. It wasn't where I'd planned on going so I wasn't bothered. It was, unfortunately, near a swim I planned to end up in on dark but not wanting to be seen there I had to change my plans a bit.

 The rest of the pit was free so I was spoiled for choice. First off I dropped in a swim that looks as pikey as hell but has only thrown me one small jack to a lure. I'd soon lost confidence and moved to a swim that's been much kinder.

 

 

After an hour or so I'd lost interest in that swim too.Off to the third spot, another productive one. This was more like it. The left hand margin float, in the best spot, bobbed. Then it fell over and as I got to the rod it was dithering. Something had picked the bait up for sure. As soon as I picked the rod up the float lay motionless. I wound down to just the bait. Seemingly unmarked. I wondered if it had been a take at all. I just don't get finicky takes. I sat it out until dark without any further action.

A few days later I was due to have a cataract operation so spent the days before that working hard(ish) and knew I wouldn't be able to fish for a few more days after the op. It only took a couple of days before I was able to drive again, but I was still supposed to be 'off work' and unfit for gardening (not that I ever do any gardening but that's what the medics said.). No lifting heavy objects either. I was bored. To relieve the tedium one afternoon I tried my hand at some lure portraiture.

 

 

Yesterday I cracked when the air temperature rose and the sun shone. I put the rods in the car after an early lunch. This time there were three vehicles in the car park, but nobody fishing where I fancied. Walking to my Plan A swim I got the urge to fish a different one. This one has been hit and miss. It's another that screams 'pike' but doesn't throw them up to me too often. This time was another failure. I do wonder if I should give these less productive swims longer, maybe a whole session, to give them a fairer chance. Not this time though, after an hour and  a bit I was on my way to the swim I'd first had in mind.

 

 

The day was just about right. Not too cold, sunny with a stiff breeze blowing to put a nice ripple on the surface.Three baits went out, one on the paternoster Id started using as a change of tactic without any attention from old esox - so far. I'd not been settled in to the swim for long when one of the Delkims set up a continuous fast warble. I jumped up but none of the baitrunners were spinning. What?

Locating the culprit it was clear the thing had developed a fault. I tried a fresh battery. No joy.I think I'd got water in the alarm when I moved swims. Bugger. I'd have to keep a watchful eye on the float. With the gusting side wind catching the braid the bottom end floats were alternating between standing proud and leaning at a rocking 45 degrees. As the wind gusted strong the float's stood up, as it dropped they keeled over. I was pondering how I'd know a take if it came because the float action would be different because a float would stab down sharply, when the float on the now silent alarm stabbed down, rose, stabbed down and stayed down. Then the baitrunner began to spin like fury! 

One great benefit of braid for pike fishing is the direct contact it gives for setting the hooks. Before I had the rod up enough to put a curve in it I could feel the weight of the pike. It's been a long time since I sold the pair of P-4s I used when boat fishing, but this season and last I've had a set rigged up to use off the bank. I'd forgotten how useful they are. The one in my hand had cast the mackerel head and two ounce bomb as well as my beloved P-5s and was now well bent and giving this pike some stick as I pumped it towards me.

The weight felt respectable but the fish wasn't doing anything so it was hard to judge. It could have been a high single with it's gob open. Once under the rod top it woke up and did a bit of charging around and thrashing of the water before I slid it over the net. As I'd netted the pike I couldn't see the hooks, but when I peered down at the fish from above the hooks were in the net mesh. The bait had long since been lost. I made a better guess at the weight of this one, being optimistic to the tune of three quarters of a pound.

 

The dilemma I now had was to stay or go. Part of me felt like sticking around in the swim until dark, the other part felt like a move to another favourite for last knockings. In the end I compromised by stopping a bit longer than my usual hour in a swim. The final move did me no good.

There had been a lack of bird life all afternoon. Which surprised me. Maybe the wind had kept them down. I did wonder where all the mallards which had been around on my previous two visits had gone. There had been dozens, but I only spotted four this time. It's not yet February and the days are lengthening noticeably. Still no sign of the chinking of great tits heralding the approach of nesting season though. It can't be far off.

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Long time no fish

Back in November I began my winter pike campaign.  Before I'd got my third bait in the water on my first session the second bait I'd cast out was taken. A lack of practice saw me wind down from an unfavourable angle and not hard enough only to feel the pike (not big) and fail to set the hooks. Not to worry, the conditions were good and the pike were feeding. I'd get a chance or two more before dark. Three swim moves later I packed up having blanked. There ended my piking for 2021...

I hadn't really enjoyed myself. Moving swims was a pain and failing to catch anything even more of a disincentive. I have no patience for blanking these days. In the past I'd happily settle into a swim before dawn and stay there all day regardless of how little action I had, then pack up after dark. Now I get bored if nothing has happened after half an hour. This only seems to be the case with pike fishing though.

Since that November session I've come close to getting the pike rods out again, but something has always seemed like a better option. From going out with a camera or staying home and putting the kettle on again. Today was different. I had vaguely planned to have a pike session when I got up by getting something quick to heat up for tea out of the freezer. Then I went to the Post Office and off to pick some work related stuff up. When I got back it was time for lunch. I nearly didn't bother putting the rods in teh car but I got that autopilot feeling as if something was making me get eth gear sorted. By one thirty I was unlocking the car park gate. The day was fresh and bright. A gently cool wind was rippling the water and I had the place to myself.

I went for Plan B and walked to get the wind off my back. The first bait, a lamprey head, was dropped in the margin to my right where I've had pike from before, the herring head went out to what will be a lily bed come summer. The third rod needed re-rigging before casting another deadbait out to my left. The float stops had perished and fallen off. I have a feeling they were cheap, unbranded, ones I'd bought in bulk rather than the ones I have always used in the past which last for ages. That'll teach me. It was getting on for an hour before I gave in and moved to a swim I'd been looking at across the water. A swim that had been Plan A.

 
One time this swim did me proud and from one spot. The lamprey head went straight in there. There are a couple of other spots which look like they should produce, but haven't done for me to date. With all three rods fishing and the alarms set I settled back in my low chair, my mind not thinking about fish. I was soaking up the scene. All the leaves were gone from the trees and bushes, and the hawthorn berries which had been abundant in November had disappeared, no doubt down the necks of winter thrushes. They were mostly gone too. I only saw a single fieldfare.

My session in November had been the debut outing for a new winter hat. A peaked affair with faux fur ear and neck flaps. New hats are always a curse so I should have expected to blank. thinking of this made me doubt my choice of headwear. A new woolly hat. While this was it's first fishing trip I had worn it a few times when out with a camera and just going to the Post Office. Maybe that would help?

With these idle thoughts in my head, and despite having gone deaf in one ear recently (I suspect a build-up of wax) I heard the warble of the sounder box. A quick scan of the floats and it was the lamprey on the move. This time I remembered how to 'strike' a pike run. Pint the rod at the fish from as low an angle as you can, then wind down hard. Success! I felt the weight of the fish and a head shake. Then it did a good imitation of a wet sack and was straight in the net. It looked about eight pounds so I left it there while I got the unhooking mat and forceps ready. The forceps live in the same rucksack pocket as my scales and sling. Pulling them out I decided I'd check the weight for the hell of it.

This was one of those fish that saved its fight for being on the bank and gave me a severe case of knuckle rash. It's amazing how much blood spills from the graves across the top of your knuckles.

I got a pleasant surprise when the needle on the Avons did a full sweep and a bit more. Not only out of practice with hooking pike, out of practice at estimating their weights.

Now I was feeling confident. Confident of another take from the same spot. Ordinarily I'd have made one more move before dark but something kept me where I was.

The wind was dropping and the sun dropping lower. I found myself looking at the colours of the reedmace against the sky reflected in the calming lake. Painters' colours. Reed stems of Naples yellow, burnt umber seed heads and pale, Payne's grey water. Wintry but not melancholy. 

As the light faded a robin visited me briefly. I had nothing to tempt it to stay longer. Then it was time to leave myself. Should I have made that last move?

I'd enjoyed this session more than the last. I hadn't gone because I thought I should, I went because I couldn't help myself. That's how I am with fishing these days. It shouldn't be a chore - or a habit. It isn't compulsory.

Happy New Year!

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No fishing, just rod and tackle news

Having lost my mojo, yet again, with a few agricultural shows finally taking place over the last month, lots of work to be caught up with and a week of illness I've been away from the water with no great desire to get back to it. This is a period of transition. It's too early for pike on my pit and the river is still short of water. Can I face some back-end eeling, or should I set my stall out for whatever comes along to a set of feeders on the pit? Indecision and lack of enthusiasm has kept me indoors trying to up my game at the product photography job to update my website to show the new look rod fittings from Fuji. This is just a post to put some of them in one place. More will follow as I get more builds done using them.

First off my standard bait rod handle.

All these are the new 'black chrome' finish. This is the trigger reel seat I fit to baitcasters.

 

 

18mm DPS used on standard cork handles.

And on a set of custom full slim Duplon handles.

 

I've changed the standard thread colours on Axiom rods to a tricky to photograph dark grey tipped with metallic Pewter. Shown here with the new Gunmetal finish on the SiC rings. It's a bit shinier than the old Gunsmoke.

 In addition to the new trebles I introduced a while back I now have some traditional bronzed ones in bulk packs. Sizes 4 and 6, barbed or semi-barbed, in packs of 25. Available here.

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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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