With river anglers around the country about to get into some serious fishing, Alan Tomkins gives his opinion on Quivertips...
Top Tips From Tomkins | Specialist World
Top Tips From Tomkins
Quiver Tips
I use quiver-tips quite a lot, even at times when some people would argue that I probably don't need them. I'm referring here to their use for barbel fishing. However, I still find them useful as barbel are quite capable of being finicky, and don't always pull the rod right round. I also catch plenty of chub while barbel fishing, & here the quivertip often helps. I use them habitually for roach fishing at times when the conditions, or nature of the swim, or even the mood of the fish demand I put away the float & switch to lead or feeder. In this instance I have to say that the quivertip is possibly not the best form of bite indication. I miss an amazing number of seemingly un-missable bites on it when after big roach. However, alternatives, such as swing-tips, spring-tips and bobbins don't seem to be any better, and are often fiddly to get working properly. I guess too I could be accused of being a bit lazy! It's so easy to have the quivertip permanently attached to the rod & use it all the time. I have a selection of 4 tips ranging from 3/4 oz to 2oz for my feeder rods. However, it's rare for me to change the tip during the course of a day's fishing, which often means that the light tip I'm using is bent right around when I'm fishing across quickish water into far bank slacks. Sound familiar? I console myself with the thought that big roach don't always mess about, and at times are as likely to pull your rod in as a barbel!
What does puzzle me about quivertips is why it is so difficult to buy them in the most visible colour. To my mind, quivertips should be white, and the first thing I do when I buy a new one (invariably black, with an inch or so of fluorescent paint at the tip) is to paint them. A white tip is visible against almost any background, and highly visible against most. A black tip isn't, and even an inch or so of fluorescent paint doesn't make it much easier to see against difficult backgrounds. At dusk, again white is easier to see, and if, at night, you view the tips by shining a torch on them, white will show up far more clearly in the torch beam. While on the subject of torches, for the past 2 years I've been using a red LED torch when barbel fishing. I have mounted this on a rod rest and angle it so it catches the tips of both rods in the beam. It works brilliantly, illuminating about 18 inches of the tips in a red light. It also looks very cool indeed! And despite many hours of use, I'm still on the original batteries.
Back to quivertips themselves. Another question I have to ask is why so many carbon tips? How many of you have had the experience of hearing that fatal "tink " at the rod top as yet another carbon tip breaks? I've broken them while just setting up the rod; they've broken on the cast (& the Wallis cast in particular puts quite a strain on them), & on the strike. I can't recall that I've ever broken a glass tip, nor found myself in any way disadvantaged in using them.
So - a plea to manufacturers - please, please, please can we have more white glass quiver tips!!!
One last thing - screw-in tips - they are a real pain aren't they? Yes, I know the old trick of putting some rubber tube on the thread so you can tighten them up in a position where the rings are aligned with the rod rings. They don't stay that way though do they? I find I don't notice this until I've actually cast out, then I have to sit there looking at the tip rings pointing in the opposite direction to the other rings on the rod. Worse - at night, the betalite on the end of the rod hangs upside down, or sticks out at some awkward sideways angle. OK, I know it makes little difference to the fish, but when you have to spend hours staring at it, it's bloody annoying, and does give potential for tangles. And you never seem to get around to straightening it do you, it being largely out of reach. You always tell yourself you'll do it next time you cast out, but as many re-casts follow a bite, you usually forget in the rush to get the bait back out again. You'll do it next time yes, I know...
I no longer use screw-in tips. Even if bought as such, I convert them to push-on tips. This is very easy to do. You can make a sleeve from an old piece of broken rod. If you don't have any go and ask your tackle dealer - they invariably have a "cripple " section somewhere in the shop. I make these sleeves about an inch-and-a-half long. Remove the screw thread from the quivertip (use a fine saw or small file - be careful to avoid splintering) & then glue the tip halfway into the sleeve. Carbon sleeves don't usually require any form of reinforcement in the way of whippings, but I often whip them anyway, just to be sure. Remove the tip ring from the rod by heating briefly with a match & pulling (you will of course have done this first to make sure the sleeve fits... won't you??). You can keep the tip ring in your tackle box should you want to replace it - they mostly work fine when just pushed back on. I have a good selection of these sleeved tips, and they work very well. And they are all made from glass, and all painted white..
