I gave up buying fishing magazines regularly some time ago. A few weeks ago, while out with the missus shopping in the supermarket, I picked up a copy of Angling Times that appeared to have a reel of line attached to it. I did not want the line and did not buy it just because it had it attached. I assumed it was one of their periodical give-aways. Wrong. The cover price had been inflated by 50% to £2.99 instead of £1.99 to cover the cost of the line. This I had not realised until I got home and looked at the receipt. To say I was annoyed was an understatement.
I vowed then not to buy another copy of Angling Times. As it is the first week of the river season, when the Missus asked me if there was anything I wanted while she was out today, I asked here to get a copy of Angler's Mail. I did say if they did not have one, a copy of Angling Times would do, not thinking that would pull the same stunt again. Wrong, for the second time. Today's issue has a cheap method feeder and mould packed with it, and the cover price has been inflated to cover it.
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| Not so free freebie |
The clear plastic bag the magazine is wrapped in, to retain the feeder and mould, is printed along the top which conveniently hides the inflated cover price. Surely this practice can only alienate the readership further. If it said in nice clear print that the magazine is dearer this week because it has more pages and contains a feeder, I would have probably still bought it, but at least It would have been open and honest.
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| The feeder and mould |
After I accepted I had been 'had' again, I took a closer look at the feeder. It is marked as 10g. For me, that is utterly useless. I find the 15g ones are two light for my style of feeder fishing. I decided to make it work, after all, I had paid for it! I needed to make it heavier. My preferred weight is 30g, so it was out with the tools, lead sheet and Araldite.
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| 10 gr(rrr!) |
The bottom of the weight has a raised "10GR" moulded into the weight. I decided to flatten it off to make the contact area greater. This is a simple case of rubbing it on a file. An abrasive paper would do, if you don't have a suitable file to hand.
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| The bottom is flattened |
A piece of lead sheet (an off-cut of roofing lead flashing) was cut roughly to shape, and with careful trimming, I got it to my target weight of 30g when weighed with the feeder. Okay, I am sure a few grams either way would not make that much difference, but I can be a bit anal about such things.
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| Spot on 30g |
The additional weight was burnished using a burnisher intended to put an edge on a cabinet scrapper - it is hard. But a good quality screwdriver or spanner will work just as well with the soft lead. Make sure all the sharp edges are rounded off, we don't want it to damage the fish or the line, should it come into contact with either.
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| Burnish the edges to remove any sharp areas |
The additional weight was stuck to the feeder using a two-part epoxy resin. The resin is mixed up on a small piece of glass using a chisel-bladed craft knife. Both the glass and the blade are easy to clean by first removing as much as possible while it is still wet, and then scraping the rest off using a utility knife blade.
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| The additional weight is glued onto the lightweight feeder using an epoxy resin |
While I was at it, I added extra weight to a 15g Preston feeder to make it up to 30g. Once the glue was set, I left them to cure and checked for any sharp edges. The feeders will be left overnight to cure fully.
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| The finished feeder and the Preston one made up to 30g |
I am off to the lake again on Thursday and will give them a try. I don't envisage any problems, but I will let you know how I get on. These
doctors orders are great, fishing at least once a week is something I could get used to. I am also out on Sunday with the other bloke, dropshotting for perch and maybe some short pole fishing...
Ralph.
