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Pike Floats working out expensive for you too….? Well a few months ago i thought to myself about following others and making my own pike floats for deadbait fishing and also for bob floats for when livebaiting.

First up were deadbait floats, and i even impressed myself!  I purchased a few strips of balsa doweling 3/4″ from the local art and craft shop.  I think 3 strips were £1.80.  Enough to make six floats as each was 12″ long.   I cut them all in half and with some fine sandpaper began to round off the ends.  This took little more than 5 minutes per float.  After half an hour they were all ready for painting.   I drilled a tiny hole in each and inserted a size 8 swivel ( next time i will try 10′s ) Then after supergluing them tight I painted the entire float with white exterior glass that we had lying about in the garage and left them to dry for the night.  The next morning i masking taped them at the approxiamate half way point of the float, and proceeded to painted orange tops to them with some day-glo acrylic paint i found for £1.50 for a tube.  I barely used any in painting them all.   Another day went by to let them set and i coated them from head to toe in exterior gloss varnish £4.99 a pot ( plenty to easily do atleast a 100 floats ). 

I was astonished at just how easy the whole process was.  And cost savings that are unbelievable!  A normal pike deadbait float retails at around £2. 

My costs were :
- Piece of balsa required for float 30p
- Swivel 10p
- Paint   5p worth of dayglo orange (estimated – probably even less)
- Exterior Vanish 5p (estimated on amount used)

Total cost – 50p  

I think you will agree that it is more than worthwhile to try it yourself!  Let me know how you get on and i will try to post pictures soon! 

Next week i’m going to try making my own pike bob float, for paternoster and roving livebait rigs!!!

After just heading over to Sportfish to compile a shopping list for upcoming ventures look what i have just found… new spinners from Blue Fox – maker of some of the best built spinners on the market.  These will definately be added to my lure bag!  I’ll let you know how i get on…!

 New Vibrax Hot Pepper Spinners

Have you ever used spinners for pike and perch?  Just lately i’ve been out trotting the river banks and using a wide variation of spinners and lures, and one type of spinner keeps producing more than the rest put together.  Its the Abu Reflex spinners and boy have they thrown up some suprises!  When i think all is dead in a swim and its time to move i chuck one on and give it a go!  So far its produced perch to 2lb, chub to 3 and half and pike just seem to whack it for fun.  Albeit at the moment only jacks its still good fun!  Last Sunday jacks were hitting it on the drop, i thought it was just luck so tried other spinners after to no avail.  Even on moving tried the others with no results, back on went the Abu Reflex and low and behold another pike.  Was it just sheer luck or was this one hell of a special spinner!  I guess i’ll just have to keep experimenting!  I’ll let you know how i get on.  And if you have a fav let me know what you’ve caught and we can post it up for others to enjoy.

If you wish to try these spinners have a look here

If like me you enjoy strolling the river bank with spinners and small lures this is ideal for you.  Before i purchased this i always struggled to keep my lures and spinners in order, near on every visit i’d be trying to seperate them.  Since adding this bag to my setup the treble tangles are a thing of the past!  For £19.99 this is a must have luggage item.  It is extremely well built with zipped 4 pockets for any additional items, such as wire, forceps etc, and included in the price is 5 adjustable lure boxes.   It really is a great item for travelling light!

Check it out!

At last someone has decided to make a decent piece of kit to hold your pike trace, a big well done to Savage Gear . It seems extremely well made if not a little fiddly to start with, you will soon be wondering how you ever survived without one. And all this for the bargain price of £9.99. I have been using a conventional rig bin but always struggled to get many traces in without tangling them up a little, this will save me a lot of time and grief!

One of my aims this year is to catch some pike, perch and chub on spinners & lures!  So far so good, i’ve had pike to 6lb, perch to 1lb 8oz and chub to 2lb.  Fingers crossed it will start to improve! 

For anyone else who fancies a go, i can highly recommend an ABU Diamond Crest Spinning rod from England Angling, for £16.99 Delivered it is an absolute bargain!  I phoned a few places on the web to discuss rods and what they would recommend for someone starting out… “You definately need this rod atleast” was common place, and when enquiring about prices they were all over £50.  Now to start out i didn’t really want to spend that much, main reason was i wasn’t sure how much time i’d get to go!  When i asked about cheaper rods i was told time and time they were useless and a waste of time.  Disgusting really as i could have been a total newbie to fishing and this wouldn’t have been the greatest of starts. 

So i thought the £16.99 cheapie from England Angling would suffice for now!  I opened the parcel and first impressions were good it seems well made with a nice solid cork handle.  I was going to go for a lighter outfit but i thought at 20-60g i could play with spinners and larger lures if i want, whilst at the same time having a bit of a backbone incase i hook a croc!  So far so good i would recommend this for anyone wishing to have a go.    I have many friends who now own one and are thoroughly happy with their purchase!

Click the link to take a look!
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This section is here to show new developments and innovations in pike fishing!  The lures, spinners, rods, baits, floats, luggage and all other tackle that you may not have seen or simply just not tried yet!