| SEAN MEEGHAN | |
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Fishing the Yorkshire Rivers for Barbel Part 5 – The Kiss of SuccessTODAY I LOST a good fish. It had surged powerfully towards a sunken tree, but the tightly set clutch had slowed it just in time, allowing me to clamp down hard on the spool seconds before it reached the tangle of branches. Ping! Once I’d stopped cursing I took a deep breath, sat down and tried to work out what had gone wrong. The curly tail on the end of my line told the tale of a failed knot. But I check my knots carefully; so what’s gone wrong? Something niggled at the back of my mind….. this has happened before. In fact once I’d had time to think I realised it had happened twice before in the last 18 months. Something is wrong. The obvious culprit was the link between my main line and the short braid hooklength. I’ve been using oval rig rings for this for some years now. Could there be something wrong with this? I take my rig roll out of my bag and take a close look at a couple of hooklengths I’ve got stored on it. The rig rings are Teflon coated oval rings marketed by a well known manufacturer. Ah…. I remember when I first bought these I had some misgivings as the rings had an obviously square cross section. Being a manufacturing engineer I recognised the tell tale signs of a ring that had been punched from sheet using a simple die rather than a more expensive manufacturing method. The rings had been barrelled to take away the sharp edges and coated with slippery Teflon, and they were from a reputable manufacturer, so surely they would be OK. Well, to be fair, they were almost OK, but when tested to extremes they failed me.
So why did I use them? A guy called Shigeo Shingo once worked out that if you asked why five times you would almost always get to the true cause of a problem. ‘Five Whys’ is one of the cornerstones of the system that the Japanese car industry used to take our home car industry to the cleaners. I’m not one to bear grudges so let’s use ‘five whys’ to see if we can get to the cause of this problem: 1. Why did I buy these rings? Because I had almost run out of the ones I had and I needed some more. 2. Why did I buy these rings? Because they were attractively packaged, presented in an easy to use display unit and branded with a name I could trust. 3. Wh….. hang on a second, did I really do that? ‘Fraid so. And I used them even though I had some reservations about them. That is the power of the brand: ask anyone who is in marketing! OK, so I’ve laboured the point a bit heavily, but it is an important one. The tiny ring was a vital link between my hooklink material and my main line and it failed me. When I tested one of the rings by tying it on to my 12lb main line and pulling hard I realised that the squarish edges of the ring didn’t allow the half blood knot to snug down securely. When pulled really hard the knot opened out slightly and allowed the tag end of the line to slip out causing the knot to fail. Which brings me to the point of this article: KISS! Keep it simple stupid! If there is one thing I’ve learned in over 40 years of fishing it’s the value of simplicity. OK, anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a bit of a tackle tart. But not at the business end of my tackle. Providing your rod bends a bit and the drag on the reel works reliably then you can more or less use what you like for small river barbel fishing. You don’t need the latest, high modulus, celebrity endorsed, aerospace developed super rod. A beautifully engineered, craftsman built centrepin would be nice. If it adds to your enjoyment then use it or at least aspire to it, but don’t lose any sleep over your 20 year old 1  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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