tangle tubing or lead
Many people keep their rods permanently made up these days, often leaving them in the rod holdall untouched from one session to the next. I always worry that when rods are put in a holdall with a tight line, a kink might form in the line where it doubles back on itself between the top and bottom sections, leading to subsequent line failure. As a precaution I always slacken the clutch, or switch on the baitrunner, feeding a little slack so the line isn’t tight, and no kink is formed. On my carp rods, I always wind the anti-tangle tubing or lead-core through the tip ring before securing the hook in one of the eye rings. Again, this avoids a sharp kink being put into the line as it is then protected by the tubing/lead-core.While on the subject of carrying made up rods, my rod bag was supplied with stitched in ties to secure the rods in place. The tapes were made from a black ribbon-like material which was quite difficult to tie or untie in the dark, simply because you couldn’t see it. At the time I was fishing early morning sessions on a very shallow lake, and didn’t wish to use a torch. So I replaced the original ties with some thick nylon cord which was far easier to deal with in the dark. Being quite thick, and round in section it has another advantage – if you thread one end between the 2 sections of rod before wrapping it round and tying it, it helps protect the rods by preventing the sections rubbing against each other while the rods are in transit.
Alan Tomkins