MAGIC WANDS

     My first attempt at making a cane quivertip rod was with one goal in mind; something that I could use to fish the far bank of a canal. The plan was to make a wooden equivalent to Shakespeare's superb Wand; in fact for this project, I employed the lightest tip from mine when it broke. The rod was built from the two bottom sections of a 3 piece, light cane fly rod. It's lovely rod to play fish on; perfect for Roach, Hybrids and Bream to around 3 or 4lbs. I did once land an 8lbs plus carp on it but I can't honestly say that the rod was involved in the battle all that much.

     While it was fine once the feeder had hit bottom it turned out to be under-gunned when lobbing a loaded 10 gram cage so a heavier version was deemed necessary for fishing bigger waters like the club lake and for a while, the rod's use was restricted to fishing free-lined baits with just a BB or two pinched on the line. For the heavier version, a scrap Sealey Octofloat was re-purposed and provided me with a handle that I grafted onto the middle section to make a longer butt. A tip section was donated by an un-named broken float rod and another Shakespeare tip grafted onto that. It was better, undoubtedly better, with the ubiquitous 10 gram cage feeder and for a while I used this one on the lake.

     An upcoming trip to the Waveney prompted a third version. Basically the same design as the first two in that I added a handle to make a longer butt section and a proprietary quivertip to lengthen the tip but using thicker split cane still. It failed at the first hurdle. The tip was too light to cope with the Waveney's modest current and it was too short to keep an angry Chub out of the marginal weeds. While it was a let down on the river it turned out to be a perfect lake rod.

     What it couldn't do properly was deal with Carp and Tench in the Syndicate's much more weedy lake. I needed a fourth so it was back into the bits box for some stronger cane and a suitably stronger quivertip. The former came from some apparently horrible old sea trout rod sections and the latter from a defunct John Wilson Avon Quiver. It's had one run out so far and dealt admirably with a couple of moderate pond pigs as well as one of the half decent Bream that I hope it will be used for.

     So there you have it; a set of four cane rods all sporting built in quivertips, each perfect for a precise set of circumstances. I must say I'm feeling pretty smug about my efforts, especially since I took the time to make some smaller 5gm feeders which absolutely transformed the two lighter rods. Here are the specs:

The Barrett: for canals using hooklengths down to 1lb, with cage feeder up to 5gm plus load.

The Jubilee: for snag free lakes using hooklengths of 2 to 3lbs with 5 to 10 gram feeders.

The Leam: for snag free lakes with 3 to 4 lbs hooklengths throwing 10 to 15 gram feeders. And finally:

Abramis: for weedy waters with 6lbs plus hooklengths using 10 to 20 gram feeders.

     Today I used the Jubilee with a 5 gram feeder. I'd intended to fish mainly maggots and groundbait for Roach but although I had bites from the off, I couldn't hit them and if left, they never developed. The number of skins coming back suggested small fish so I juggled baits in an effort to improve things. I tried Maggots,casters and worms in all manner of combinations with worms being the most successful by a country mile and although none produced the better Roach I had hoped for, I did squeak out a couple of nice Crucians. All the nicer for having been caught on home-made tackle as well. A very nice, if very wet, morning really.