Rod tip reflection, broken tip rings, fishing fast tides

SEEING IS BELIEVING!
I'm constantly amazed at how some beach and rock anglers are content to struggle through a night session relying on a few inches of plain white paint to highlight their rod tips for bite detection. The better you can see your rod tips, the better you'll be able to recognise bites.

About ten years ago I came across some excellent reflective tape sold in automotive shops for highlighting the backs of caravans, boats and trailers. There are several makes, all much the same, but I find the Scotch 3M reflective tape especially good. It comes in a variety of colours, the white is okay but is startling against a black sky, and yellow, which diffuses slightly and is easier on the eye. I use both, but tend to prefer the yellow. This tape reflects any available light available right back at you and can be clearly seen on a rod tip even if you're 30 or 40 metres away and shine your headlight back.

Reflective tape is a big help

Having two rods, one with yellow and one with white tape allows you to play the two tips off against each other. If you're fishing two identical rods at the same range, they should behave identically too. If one does something different to the other, then it's likely to be a fish.

What's more, this tape is excellent value. It costs between £2.99 and £3.99 for a metre and sticks like glue to the tips. I've had the same stuff on one rod for the past five years.

The tape has other uses too. I'm often well away from the seat box if wading out in the surf at night. A short length of tape on the front of my box gets picked up easy in my headlight and relocates my base camp for me. It's easy to get disoriented in nighttime surf when wading. I also add some to my rod rest legs for the same reason.

Its also worth sticking a little of the stuff on important items like pliers, scissors, sharpening stones, and anything else that you use frequently that has a habit of getting dropped and forgotten in the excitement of fishing.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Sooner or later you'll need to repair a broken tip ring. It's easy!

If there is whipping thread butted up against the tip ring tube put a few turns of masking tape over it right to the very end of the tube. The masking tape helps protect the thread.

Gently heat the tube of the tip ring with a cigarette lighter. Do this slowly, but keep moving the flame up and down the middle of the tube. Only heat it for about 15 seconds or you'll start to cook the fibreglass inside. Gentle heat will soften the glue. Have a cloth ready and put it around the ring tube and slide it off. If it is still stubborn apply a little more heat until the ring slides free. Remember, the heat will transfer along the whole tube so there is no need to go right to the edge of the masking tape.

Hot melt glue is ideal for replacing a ring as it comes off easy. Never use Araldite or other permanent glues. Melt the melt glue enough so that it can run inside the new tip ring tube. Now heat the tube to melt the glue again. When it is suitably soft, slide the tube over the tip of the blank until the glue forces out and the tube reaches the whipping thread. As the tip ring tube starts to cool roughly align it with the first intermediate ring. The glue stays semi soft for a few seconds and you can realign the eye perfectly before it fully cools. When the eye is straight, wash the tube with cold tap water to set the glue.

FAST TIDE TACTICS

Handling big, fast moving tides

To get round this, walk uptide about 20 to 40-metres, depending upon how fast the tide is running, then cast out as normal. As the lead hits the sea walk back to your peg letting line out as needed. Back on the peg, retrieve line until it comes tight and you'll see that your line if fishing straight out in front of you. This only works if you can comfortably cast further than your neighbouring anglers, but is worth remembering.

Modifying lead weights can also increase anchoring efficiency in fast tides if the lead keeps pulling free or bouncing. First thing is to switch from a normal eyed lead to a long tailed version. The long tail acts a little like an anchor chain and can help dig a lead in deeper.

The wire on a release wired leads can be improved too. The average commercially made wire leg is only about one inch long, which is fine for normal conditions. Make some with wires two three inches long and flatten the end inch or so with a hammer. These dig in and hold much better in a fast tide run. Also lock the wires down with rubber bands, which can be adjusted with extra wraps to fully lock the wires in place if need be.

Leads with flat sides like the DCA Aquapedo tend to bury in the sand rather than bounce and are a better bet than standard torpedo shapes.

If seabed conditions are very clean, then dropping down from standard 15lb line to just 12lb mainline in one of the low diameter types can reduce tide friction on the line and increase holding power.

All these things can help dramatically, but if all else fails and distance is not necessary, then you can't beat a 6oz lead with fixed nose grip wires. It's a last resort, and uncomfortable to cast, but sometimes it's the only way to fish.