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DIY Rod Tip Betalite / Starlite / Isotope Sight Adapters – Quivertip / Carp / Barbel Fishing Rod Hack for Night Fishing

Fishing rod tips with night light adapters for betalight, isotope, starlite, etc. Quivertip feeder night fishing - barbel carbelling

Isotopes (also known as betalites, betalights and Starlites/starlights) are an essential item of tackle for night fishing when watching the rod tip for bite indication is required. To attach these to the tips of your rods you’ll need some kind of adapter, or something to attach them to. There are a few products on the market which offer a temporary, removable solution – such as the Korum Starlight & Isotope Holder Kit, Enterprise Tackle’s Avon/Barbel Rod Tip Nightlight Adapter & Quivertip Nightlight Adapter and the Drennan Isotope Kit – but if, like me, you do a lot of fishing in the dark, a permanent holder is a far superior option. If you have the money for a custom-built rod, several rod builders allow you to specify a night light adapter. But if, like most of us, you’re using off-the-shelf rods or if you’d like to retrofit an adapter to your older rods, you can achieve the same thing with a little bit of DIY. I’ve come up with a solution, which I’ve added to several of my barbel rods, zander rods and quivertip rods over the past couple of seasons (they will work for any rods where you may need …

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Prologic Quick-Change Bankstick Adapter DIY Hack Video: Make Old & New Versions Fit Each Other!

Prologic quick change bankstick adapters - DIY hack to make all 3 designs fit one another

An instructional video describing the method required to convert Pro-Logic quick-change bankstick adapters (used with fishing rod rest heads, bite alarms, rod pods, etc.) to make them universal-fit. This makes the old and new versions of these very useful adapters fit each other. Frustratingly, Prologic have changed the design of their quick release adapters very slightly over the years. To my knowledge there have been 3 versions: mk1, mk2 & mk3. The male part of the mk2 adapters will fit into all 3 female designs but the mk1 & mk3 male parts will not fit into the mk2 female parts, which were spring-loaded to pop out the male part on release. The mk3 (left) and mk2 (right) versions of the Prologic quick change bankstick adapters. Note the difference in shape on the male parts in the centre of the pic. I have these adapters fitted to all my bank sticks, bite alarms, rod rest heads, etc. and I have all 3 designs. I find them really useful and surprisingly reliable. My only bugbear with them over the years has been the backward compatibility of new versions. It would be expensive to replace all of my adpaters when a new design …

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First Cast – Angling Coaching Sessions – Learn to Fish!

First fish! Fishing is ideal for families. Learn to fish with First Cast angling coaching & tuition

2019 UPDATE – Unfortunately there have been some major changes since I published this page, so I intend to replace it soon with a new resource to help children and beginners get into fishing. Kevin Miles no longer offers angling tuition. Barlow Lakes is now under new ownership and has been rebranded as “Barlow Country Club“. They are hoping to offer their own angling tuition & tackle hire and will open an on-site tackle shop in the near future. Exciting times ahead! There are now many events organised in school holidays where children can try fishing for free or learn to fish for free – with tuition and use of tackle included. Sadly we’ve moved into an era where independent fishing tackle shops are closing down (or being bought out by massive tackle shop chains) and there is a general decline in the fishing tackle trade, mirrored by a rapid decline in junior rod licences issued. Therefore, it’s never been more important to encourage new blood into angling. I’m passionate about this and I don’t believe the “big-name” anglers or the tackle industry do enough to encourage our nation’s youth (obviously there are a few exceptions). That’s why I’m devoting …

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Spring Tench & Carp Overnighter

18lb mirror carp caught on light tackle in the spring from Higham Farm fishery, Alfreton

I managed to pick a couple of days break in the early-May rain, to fit in a 24-hour session with Shane Calton.  We visited Derbyshire’s Higham Farm Lakes and tackled up primarily for tench, but with the head of carp, bream and other species in there, we knew it would be difficult to target them solely. Higham is pretty local to me, so I used to fish this place quite regularly for the carp when I was 15 to 18, but I worked out that I have only been there once in the last 12 years! I was field testing a fair bit of Cyprinus night fishing gear, including a bivvy, a memory foam bedchair, a 3-5 season sleeping bag and a tackle barrow, which all performed superbly (Reviews on FishingMagic.com here). Before I arrived Shane had already landed a few bream in the 4-5lb bracket and as I was setting up he landed a tench of exactly 5lb, which was a very promising start. It was to be the last tench we had between us, but we each notched up carp overnight and I also had a bream and a strange fantail brown goldfish-cross thing, which I should have really taken …

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Home-made buoyant leger stems – DIY tackle tutorial

DIY Tutorial make your own buoyant leger stems for pike & zander fishing

It’s often good practice when predator fishing to keep your mainline up and off the deck, to avoid bottom debris (especially around autumn time when there are lots of fallen leaves & twigs) and ensure a truly low-resistance presentation. Many anglers achieve this through the use of pop-up/buoyant leger stems to attach their leads when deadbaiting. Buoyant run rings and pop-up leger stems might also be useful in carp fishing and other specialist angling. For example, a floating run ring could be the perfect way of attaching a surface controller float when floater fishing for carp; whilst a buoyant leger stem could be used an alternative to a sunk float – to allow a running lead rig to be used over weed (instead of a fixed lead on a chod rig, for example). Buoyant leger attachments have been on the market for years, most notably in the form of Middy’s Buoyant Leger and Fox Leger Stems. Annoyingly, the Middy ones have become difficult to find and the Fox ones tend to just fall apart! They’re way too fragile for me to use with any confidence, so I started modifying them. Then I thought, instead of paying so much for a …

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A River Predator Hat-Trick!

Pike zander & eel fishing river Trent

I got this season’s predator campaign off to a great start last week, when I tackled the Trent near Nottingham.  After fishing elsewhere all day to try and catch perch, river carp and barbel, I arrived at the river about an hour before sunset, having caught none of the species I‘d been trying for.  I hadn’t managed to catch any fresh deadbaits either, so all the zander bait I had with me was a frozen pack of 5 small roach.  It was going to be tough to make them last, but targeting zander I was only expecting a couple of runs anyway. My simple deadbait rig for zander, incorporating a buoyant leger boom I setup two rods with low-resistance run rings, which I’d adapted and added some small pieces of foam to pop the rig up and keep the line out of the Autumn debris on the riverbed.  There are similar items on the market, called leger stems, but I’ve never been happy with their quality so I make my own.  They’re simple and cheap and I’ll go through exactly how I put them together in a future feature.  The run ring rests on a run rig rubber, which incorporates …

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Carp Surface Fishing Rig – Make your Korda Kruiser Controllers “Quick-Change” Using KOP Swivels

Korda controller float - surface fishing for carp

I know the weather’s about to turn chillier for a few months, so surface fishing for carp won’t be high on many anglers’ agendas, but I’m going to share a rig with you which enables great flexibility when using Korda Kruiser surface controller floats. The great thing about blogs is that they’re on here indefinitely, so come next spring anglers will be searching for surface rigs and ideas and this may just help them out. The Kruiser, which is a very robust, solid plastic controller, creates a semi-fixed “bolt-effect” due to having a rubber insert which the hooklength swivel lodges into. I have a few issues with this controller design – it’s off-centre shape can be tangle prone on casting (despite what the packaging states) and it also makes much more of a splash than I’d like upon landing – however, it offers brilliant presentation, casts easily when coupled with a light, through-action rod and is very unobtrusive once the float has settled. The Kruiser is available in 3 sizes and if you’re travelling light around a venue, trying to locate different pockets of feeding carp, you can never say 100% which size you’ll need, as you may find fish further out than you anticipated …

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A Beginner’s Guide to “Traditional” Freshwater UK Lure Fishing

Lure fishing advice guide - Zander caught on a lure

Lure fishing really is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours and if the predators are in the mood, it can be even more productive than bait fishing for them!  By frequently moving swims – and of course by fishing a moving bait – a lot of water can be covered in a relatively short space of time, meaning you’re sure to be pulling a lure past a fish before too long and if it’s hungry, it will generally have a go.  The range of freshwater species you can target with lures in is amazing; besides the usual suspects pike, perch and zander, you can also catch chub, trout, salmon (if you’re really lucky!) and if you get really adventurous, even carp, barbel and bream! Lure fishing in the UK has been a massive sport for a few years now and seems likely to continue to grow in popularity, but knowing where to begin can be bewildering.  As with any faction of angling, everyone has their own preferences toward methods, tackle and of course, lures; so with this article I’ll try to cover some basics of lure angling, so if you’ve never tried it you’ll get an idea of …

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Locating Predators – How to Locate Pike, Perch and Zander on Rivers, Drains & Canals

Double figure pike caught from feature fish on rivers, drains & canals

The majority of my predator fishing (although the term “predators” could be expanded to chub, catfish and eels, in this instance I’m talking perch, pike and zander) is spent on the banks of rivers, drains and canals. I have never done too much predator fishing on stillwaters, so rather than pretending I know something I don’t, I’ll leave that article to a more qualified person. That said, many fish-holding features are universal, so many that can be found in rivers, drains and canals can also be found in the margins of ponds and lakes. The relatively natural waters I concentrate on offer anglers a constantly evolving challenge, where fish can potentially move unimpeded for miles, making use of any features they come across, as safe refuges and ambush points. With the changing seasons and natural events such as floods, these features – and the significance of them – can change frequently.  This offers anglers both a challenge and a helping hand when locating predators on such venues. Predators can have very prominent feeding spells and often the only difference between a great day and a blank can be as simple and clichéd as being in the right place at the …

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How to Tie a Wire Trace for Pike & Zander Fishing (Video)

How to tie a wire trace for pike & zander fishing

How to tie a wire trace (instructional video) In this YouTube video I show you all you need to know to tie strong, reliable, safe 2-hook wire traces (also refered to as “snap tackle”) for pike & zander fishing with deadbaits. I go through the tools and components you need and then show you how to tie a wire trace from scratch. I have used this type of quality home-made wire trace for the majority of my pike & zander fishing, for over 20 years and caught countless predatory fish using them. I also wrote a step-by-step “how-to” article on making a wire trace here. Related Video: How to unhook pike safely If you are relatively new to pike fishing, you should also view my video to show you how to unhook pike. These fragile predators need good fish care and handling skills to ensure they are not damaged in the process. Approaching the unhooking process with confidence is a key part of this, and hopefully my short video will help with this. More DIY fishing tackle making tips & hacks I’m quite a hands-on guy and I’m regularly tinkering with things to improve them, adapt them or make them …

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