Bits, Bobs & Groundbait

I thought it may be interesting to take you through a few of the odd items in my tackle box, some that I have made or adapted. A couple may surprise you.

The groundbait is stuff I make myself and may be of interest.  Put it in this post as I couldn't work out where else it would fit.

Secateurs and weedcutter

As I have mentioned in my Carp In The Margin post I carry these two implements so I can do a bit of gardening when needed.

Primarily for margin fishing, I find that it can be useful to use the secateurs to prune bushes overhanging the bank preventing me from getting the pole tip and float where I want to. I will also use them on bankside grass and rushes that may be preventing me from seeing a margin. I do like to have a clear, unobstructed view of the float. Secateurs are also useful on the canal. Most stretches of canal I fish (Grand Union, Northants) have hedges behind. It can be tricky getting the pole shipped back through. A few snips with the secateurs can clear a path for the pole and make life a lot easier. I can also find overhead branches a nuisance. Again the secateurs make short work of these.

The weedcutter is for tidying up margin plants like rushes and reeds. I have invested in a cheap telescopic landing net handle. A few times I have come close to losing the top section of my take apart handle. So the tele is a must in my opinion.

 

Block of Wood

Yes honestly I carry a six inch length of two by three. It has two uses. First is to steady my feeder arm on the odd occasions I use it (its a cheap one). Second is when fishing the pole at length. I find that I need to raise my knee a couple of inches to compensate for the droop of the longer pole. The block of wood allows me to do that easily by placing it under my foot.

 

Counters

With most commercials having a net limit you need to keep track of your weight. Many use a clicker. I'm too stingy to buy one. My alternative is seven wooden clothes pegs. Five have the numbers 1/6, 2/7, 3/8, 4/9 & 5 the other two have 10/20, 30/40. Simple to just clip them on a bait box and move them around as I catch. As well as being free (I don't think The Boss has noticed them missing from the peg bag) if dropped in the water they float, unlike a metal clicker.

Yes I know some of the numbers are upside down. 

The pegs on the right would indicate I have 26lb in the net.

 

Bread Punches

I haven't made my own but I have adapted the shop bought ones. For me the stubby handles are too short, particularly in Winter with cold hands. I bought some Bic ballpoint pens, the basic clear plastic ones. With the ink tube removed you can glue the brass punch heads in. I then bought a set of foam pencil grips off Ebay and added these to the pen tubes. Two benefits of doing this. In time you learn which size is which pattern/colour and the foam keeps the punch afloat should you drop it in the water. 

 

Bread cover

Also for bread punch. I made a simple cover for the bread out of a square of thin timber and added a piece of strip wood as a handle. This helps stop the bread drying out too quickly.  I only tend to have about an inch square of flattened bread on my tray at any one time.

 

 

Knot Picker and Band Hook

I made two useful little tools out of a pair of plastic disgorgers and two pins. For the knot picker I just took off the head of a pin and heated the blunt end up and pushed it into the disgorger handle having first cut off the actual disgorger part.

The second tool helps pull bait bands through drilled pellets. I have tried Quickstops and got hacked off with having them ripped off the hook when the pellet got stuck in the landing net. So now I drill 8mm pellets and pull a bait band on a hair through the hole. That way if the pellet gets caught in the mesh it just pulls the band through. To get the band through the hole I made a small hook. Again taking the head off a pin I then heated the blunt end and bent it over using very fine needle nose pliers (jeweller's type). The hook just fits through a 2mm hole, the size I drill in the pellets. I then heated the pointed end of the pin and pushed it into another cut off disgorger.

 

 

Hooklength Storage

Years ago I was looking for a way of storing hooklengths. I hit on the idea of winding them round foam pipe lagging and have used this method ever since. For barbless hooks I cut a length of the lagging and run one piece of electrical tape down the length of the foam. This is so I can write on the details. I then hook the hook into the foam, wrap round and hold the loop in place with a plastic headed pin.
 

For barbed hooks I wrap the foam in electrical tape, red for canal and blue for river. I use one pin to hold the hook and a second for the loop. Cheap, easy to handle and no kinking of the line.

 

 

I also keep a made-up supply in my desk so I can replace losses quickly when fishing on consecutive days.

Pellet pump

As a confirmed skinflint I hate that a simple thing like a pellet pump costs the earth. So I have made my own for under £6. I bought a wine saver vacuum pump from Ebay, £4.99 post free. The type that has two rubber stoppers for wine bottles. I then bought a 400 mil. cliplock lid cup from Morrisons for 80p. I drilled a 20mm hole in the cup lid (carefully as it is easy to split the plastic if you rush). This hole takes the bung snugly. No need to seal it in as when you pump the bung pulls tightly into the hole. Works excellently for £5.79.

 

 

Hooklength Sizer

I'm sure most know that the way to get consistent length home tied hooklengths is to use a board and two pins or nails. I have made one simply out of a piece of scrap pine and three blob headed pins (taken from my hooklength storage). Done gently you can tap the pins into the wood at the required lengths (I only use 10 & 4 inches) and then break the heads off the pins with a pair of pliers.  The wood was painted with blackboard paint as its easier to see the line against a matt black background.

It doesn't have to be pretty. 

Note the three pins, one with a head still on is for the hook,

the other two for looping the line round at 4 & 10 inches.

 

 

Spring Balance

OK, not something I have made but an essential piece of kit for me. I am useless at estimating the weight of fish. Up to around three pounds I am fine but bigger than that and I struggle. Given that most fisheries have net limits and I need to get the weight accurate or risk losing the net I like to be sure. So I carry this small spring balance that weighs up to five kilos (11 lb). Unfortunately I couldn't find one on Ebay of the right size in imperial. All I do is weigh the fish in the landing net with the end of the handle resting on the ground. I know that empty the net weighs 400 grams. I then have a conversion chart taped in my side drawer so it is quick and simple to weigh the bigger fish and thus keep accurate track of my weight. I am now not normally more than two or three pound out by the time I reach my limit (10lb less than the fishery limit).

I also carry a £2.99 set of digitals from Ebay for days when bigger fish are expected or for weighing my canal catch at the end of a pleasure session.  I wouldn't use them to weigh a match but good enough for the occasional use.

 

Tosspots

I make my own. Simple design and adapted from something seen on the Maggotdrowing.com website. I like to have a variety of sizes and carry around twenty in an ice cream tub. I find that if the fish want differing amounts of feed then switching sizes of pot means you don't get it wrong. Its a good way to discipline yourself and regulate your feeding.

I use any container that looks likely. I have used caps from aerosols, toothpaste pumps, Prittsticks, water bottles. Basically anything that will act as a pot.

I punch a couple of holes in the side between a half and one centimetre apart depending on the size of pot and pass a length of elastic through the holes and tie into a loop. The elastic can then be wrapped around the pole and the pot making it sit to one side. This means you can swap pots without having to remove the rig.

 

 

 

How they are made and attach

 

 

The range I carry

 

 

Threader

I make my own threader for getting elastics through a pole.  I did this for two reasons.  Firstly the shop-bought ones were too short, second I was away on holiday once and lost one so made my own.

 

I use garden wire, the type that looks like green sandwich bag ties but on a long reel.  You will find it in most pound shops.  If you cut off about four metres you will end up with a roughly two metre threader.  First job is to strip the plastic coating off.  I find the simplest way is to run a sharp knife along the wire crosswise and just cutting the plastic without nicking the wire.  It can take a while but with some patience you will end up with four metres of bare wire.  You then need someone's help.  I fold the wire around a piece of dowel, broomstick is ideal.  With someone holding the dowel grasp the two ends in a pair of pliers, mole grips are better.  Start twisting the wire with the pliers and continue until the twist reaches the dowel.  The two ends in the grips will form a very tight twist and will not come undone.  You can get the person at the other end to twist the broom handle but not too much as the loop will tighten and you will struggle to get it off.  When you are satisfied the twist is enough, and it doesn't have to be excessive to hold, remove the dowel and flatten the loop.  Cut the two ends to form a neat finish and the threader is ready to go.    

 

Stotz Dispensers

Only a minor thing here but I mark the size on all sides and bottom of the dispenser with a marker pen.  This means when they are loose on my side tray I can still pick up the right size without delay.  And I keep a duplicate set in my fishing desk for when making rigs up.  So no danger of taking them out of my box and forgetting to put them back.

 

Groundbait

I use fish flavour dry catfood.  Used to be Morrisons but they changed their recipes so now its Tesco Premium Cat Crunchies, salmon, trout, tuna & shrimp - £1.35 a kilo.

 

I liquidise the catfood and pass it through a flour sieve* I then mix the powder with brown crumb, also sieved.  Two thirds cat food to one third crumb.   It takes on a lot of water but makes a nice friable mix that is good for both balling and Method feeder.  I have caught carp, bream, tench, roach, and even small catfish (in France) using this mix.

 

I have also enhanced the mix occasionally when targeting larger bream or bream dominated waters by adding a tin of fish flavour catfood that has been pushed through a maggot riddle.  Mix the groundbait first and then add the catfood. 

 

With the brown crumb usually at less than a pound a kilo this makes a very cheap but for me effective groundbait.  

 

* Both liquidiser and sieve are mine and not the ones from the Boss's kitchen.