All Activity

Are you talking about Europe rather than the UK? I'd say a minority use boats in the UK, although they are growing in popularity al the time. And I'd certainly say that (UK) anglers consider big pit reels a priority.

I have long been using TICA reels—great value for money—but I'm not sure if anglers here are familiar with the brand. I came across some business reports from Taiwan suggesting that today's Okuma was founded with the help of several technicians who had left TICA. Of course, Okuma reels have since far surpassed TICA in performance. And sometimes I wonder: in this age when almost everyone uses bait boats, are long‑cast carp reels still the top priority? In most situations, a reel like the Shimano Spheros SW (which I learned about from an angling enthusiast named Alan Hawk, who disassembled and reviewed it) is a better choice. In my country, it costs only about £70—exceptionally good value. Carp angling (European style) is currently booming in China. Many leading brands regard 2025 as the inaugural year for this style of fishing in the Chinese market. Although Daiwa ran a promotional campaign back in 2002, it didn't gain much traction. It wasn't until around 2018 that a Chinese angler systematically compiled a large body of reference materials on carp fishing. After several years of groundwork, combined with the introduction of China's new fisheries regulations (which in principle restrict each angler to one rod, one line, and one hook), this eco‑friendly method—which also blends camping and outdoor lifestyles—has seen explosive growth nationwide. Many local brands have emerged as a result. Quite a few of these brands simply repackage products that were originally designed by European companies and OEM‑manufactured in China. However, thanks to their low prices, there have apparently been no intellectual‑property disputes so far—and that has greatly helped expand the market. China is the world's largest single market, and it's also where many well‑known fishing products are manufactured. With abundant water resources to test designs, I am confident that the design and pricing of carp‑angling gear in this market will continue to improve, benefiting carp anglers all over the world.

I have long been using TICA reels—great value for money—but I'm not sure if anglers here are familiar with the brand. I came across some business reports from Taiwan suggesting that today's Okuma was founded with the help of several technicians who had left TICA. Of course, Okuma reels have since far surpassed TICA in performance. And sometimes I wonder: in this age when almost everyone uses bait boats, are long‑cast carp reels still the top priority? In most situations, a reel like the Shimano Spheros SW (which I learned about from an angling enthusiast named Alan Hawk, who disassembled and reviewed it) is a better choice. In my country, it costs only about £70—exceptionally good value. Carp angling (European style) is currently booming in China. Many leading brands regard 2025 as the inaugural year for this style of fishing in the Chinese market. Although Daiwa ran a promotional campaign back in 2002, it didn't gain much traction. It wasn't until around 2018 that a Chinese angler systematically compiled a large body of reference materials on carp fishing. After several years of groundwork, combined with the introduction of China's new fisheries regulations (which in principle restrict each angler to one rod, one line, and one hook), this eco‑friendly method—which also blends camping and outdoor lifestyles—has seen explosive growth nationwide. Many local brands have emerged as a result. Quite a few of these brands simply repackage products that were originally designed by European companies and OEM‑manufactured in China. However, thanks to their low prices, there have apparently been no intellectual‑property disputes so far—and that has greatly helped expand the market. China is the world's largest single market, and it's also where many well‑known fishing products are manufactured. With abundant water resources to test designs, I am confident that the design and pricing of carp‑angling gear in this market will continue to improve, benefiting carp anglers all over the world. --- Let me know if you'd like a more polished or formal version.

Get some pics up mate.

Do they not look like this?

Hi , just reading through this proper old thread and I have a set of dxrs that I bought off eBay second hand . All the same colour, the info here has helped me to no end as stated by another user there isn't much info on the web about them. I have a question though , will fix mk2 illuminated swingers work on them ? My dxrs are the flat type speaker not the domed type , duck ai says they would work but I'm unsure , my alarms have two holes on the bottom either side of the thread but they don't look like jack ports, I can see little contact points inside but due to lack of interinfo I cannot confirm what they are for . Any help would be very much appreciated 👍 thanks in advance Riks

water level well down!

Lovely looking commons mate, great condition too 👍

I used to use Gardener Insizor hooks for my PVA bag rigs on a 'german' rig. Now gone back to Drennan Super Specialist Wide gape hooks for my current style of fishing, short hook length on a very simple stiff knotless hair rig, just seems 'lighter' and tbh not had any problems with them at all. It's really what works for you I guess, just makes me think about how much people waste money on so much rig things too. After all, isn't a Chod rig actually just an old fashioned 'Helicopter' set up? But of course you need all the 'c**p' now to be a proper carp angler? Sorry, mini rant over. Just off to search for a pot of the latest £45 pot of hookbaits!!!! 😂😂☹️

Great report and well done on the fish! 😎👍

Good morning all, so the last 3wks have flown by in a sleepy haze of sleepless nights, nappies, bottles and sterilising bottles, however yesterday wifey told me it was time to get the rods out! Trying to overcome my surprise, after all I hadn’t planned an overnight trip for many months into the future, why the free pass? My wife wanted a practice run of looking after the children alone for when I return to work next week, so I was banished to the lake! well you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth do you?? luckily, if you saw my “playing with bait” thread, you’ll see that I had a bag of bait tucked away in the freezer, so the gear was dragged from the shed, food and bait loaded and I was off to the Kent boarder to fish a lake I’ve christened “zombie sheep lake” I needed to pop into the tackle shop to pick up a few bits and while browsing the shelves, my eye wandered over the racks of bivvies all in a row… now my JRC STI 1 man bivvy has finally died a death after far too many years to count, indeed it had been coughing up blood for at least 10yrs and now I’m in my 40s, the thought of doing winter sessions under my trusty oval brolly and storm sides really didn’t appeal! 13yrs of Army service, sleeping under a poncho in a ditch had meant that I was pretty used to kipping in less than favourable conditions, but any fool can be uncomfortable can’t they? so I ended up going in for a few packs of hooks and pva bags and left with a JRC Defender bivvy… oops after a 20min detour to the bailiffs house to pick up a part of my carp porter barrow that I left behind on my last (blank) trip 6wks ago, I got to the lake about 1pm, happy to see that I had it all to myself. I barrowed my gear round to the point swim, as I can see and cast to a large portion of the lake, where there was a nice gentle breeze drifting in, and set up the gear. I rigged up a pair of Fox Horizon X4S TT 12ft rods with my Fox EOS 12000 Reels spooled with 12lb synchro XT mainline, to a length of Korda leadcore fished helicopter style, hook links being 10” fox cortex soft coated braid, fished to a size 6 ESP Clawhammer hook fished slip D style and a 1” length of shink tube, line-aligner style. Bait was my fishy boilie offering. breaking out the marker rod, I found a nice silty hump with 7.5ft of water over it, with the surrounding lakebed 9ft deep. It was plenty big enough for the 2 rods that I would be using, although what was obvious was the lack of water, it was at least 2ft down from its usual summer levels. As a result, the lake hadn’t been fishing well, but who cares! I’m out on the bank in the sun and a carp just came out up to the wrist of its tail only feet from my marker float bobbing about. i catapulted about 100-150 baits over the hump and cast both rods to their respective spots. One on a 7 bait stringer and one in a pva bag. Now obviously, a soft coated hooklinks 10 inches long aren’t ideal for for pva bag use, and I really couldn’t be bothered to faff about trying up soft coated braided links, so snipped off the corner of the large pva bag and threaded the hook link through the hole so the hook link dangled out the bottom. After filling it with 1 & 2mm pellets and crusher boilie, I sealed it all up, then nicked the hook into the bag opposite the lead. It looked a bit noddy, but it was worth a try! with the rods out, it was time to get the base camp set up! You can see how low the water it as that gravel shelf is usually under water! now it was time to break out the new bivvy!! I lovingly unpacked it from its bag, laid it all out, fanned out the poles and started clipping it all together, only to find that one of the poles was snapped! Nightmare! Despite all my bodging attempts, this bivvy was knacked, so in an absolute huff, I wrapped the bivvy back up, reeled in the rods and trudged back to the car to chuck the bivvy in and grab the oval brolly, no decadent abode for me tonight! returning to the swim, I redid the rods (again!) and threw up the oval, still muttering to myself about the injustice of it all, a quick brew soon sorted me out though. the night soon drew in and the carp were getting more active and I retired to the carp cot around midnight confident on some action to christen the X4S rods that haven’t had a decent carp on as yet! at 1am, the left hand pva bag rod gave a flurry of bleeps, with the dinky esp bobbin tight to the Neville, so I struck and found myself into a plodding weight. After a pretty unspectacular fight, a carp was now nestled in the folds of my landing net. at 23lb, I was buzzing! The dodgy tied pva bag had done the job! with that working, another found it’s way back out there, and I got back to sleep. At 4am, the same rod absolutely flew, the Neville was screaming as I made my way to the rods, one shoe on one off. This one started beating me up from the get go, and after a spirited battle, a 21lb common hit the net, along with 20 tiny perch. with the pva bag working, I pressed repeat and got it back out there. As the sun was rising, I made another brew and watched the water as the sun came up (proper carpy that) once dawn had arrived, I climbed into the bag to get some kip, although it wasn’t to be, as the pva bag rod dropped slack. Winding down i soon felt the weight and soon had the carp boring down the margins, where it promptly beached itself! I couldn’t get it in the net, so gently guided it into deeper water where it rolled into the net first time. At 26lb, it was an immaculate common! (Check out the realtree MC Hammer pants!) I redid the rod and had a celebratory cuppa, when 4 day anglers arrived, that was my sign to wrap up and head home, slightly earlier than planned, but I had my share, it was time to let the day guys enjoy this delightful little pool. swinging into the tackle shop on the way home, I exchanged the defective bivvy for another one, which is sound, so alls well that ends well.

I used Daiwa Sensor for sea fishing and carp fishing, and before that Sylcast for both. Come to that Gardner Pro has been used by me for sea and carp fishing. I knew that many lines on the carp market are the very same line under different branding. Makes you wonder why line costs of some are so expensive. Same with hooks, different brands come from the same factory, although I think that Drennan/ESP manufacturer their own and Kamasan. A change from the time of Drennan Super Specialists being the only mainstream carp hook.

So after being on a red warning for water usage since May, we've run out of water again??? I mean seriously ???? This not bleeping funny 3 billion ltrs they waste every day apparently... Shareholders can't go without their profits and we wouldn't want just any mug as CEO, or whatever to miss his bonuses. That wouldn't be right??? How is it then, when in reality we're surrounded by water, on our little island, they tell me not to wash my car, water the garden, even avoid baths... Now I can't even wash the dishes.

@salokcinnodrog and @InteraX Sorry guys, no disrpect about age thing, I am slighty older 😂 Can understand why you want a good bedchair for session fishing 👍 On the subject of reels and line: Before 'Big pit' reels were even thought about. I used big sea fishing reels to do the same job. as for line, well used to fork out for some 'Tryline'' maybe a typo stuff. However, bought some 15lb sea fishing line after and did exactly the same job and if you think about it, sea fishing line needs to be more abrasion resitant? Don't think AI that has now crept into search stuff is 100% reliable but: AI Overview There is no exact global count, but dozens of primary factories manufacture raw fishing line worldwide, while hundreds of companies brand and distribute it. Actual Line Extruders vs. Brand Labels The Makers (Extruders): Only a relatively small number of specialized chemical and polymer plants worldwide actually extrude the raw nylon, fluorocarbon, and polyethylene (braid) filaments. Major manufacturing countries include Japan (such as Sunline and Momoi Fishing), China, the United States, and Germany. The Brand Owners: Hundreds of tackle companies market and sell fishing line under their own names, but many outsource the actual extrusion and spooling to these specialized manufacturing plants.

A couple for you, aimed at the American market

Can you share that YT video. That might be interesting to see. I agree that I prefer the modern bedchair. Thankfully I missed out on the sunlounger heyday. I've got a Trakker RLX flat 6 and I don't have any problem with the big snooze I've got on it. There's only 1 strap across the centre with a hood both top and bottom and no issues. I've even got one of the big trakker pillows on there with a strap around the head section, again with no issues. I don't think having 6 or 8 legs should cause problems to sleeping bags. A sleep system may be able to reduce some weight, but I suspect for the biggest manufacturers it's there to turn it into a disposable item. You can't take the bag off to wash it. If the zip breaks, you've got to replace the whole top or complete bed. With a separate bedchair and bag, you can swap out parts as necessary. As I suggested earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if a less honourable reel manufacturer tried to make it so the reel was sold with line and you couldn't replace it yourself. Anything to lock you in. Look at the way tech and the car industry has gone. I don't doubt they are much more advanced and have a lot more advanced features, but I don't want a subscription for heated seats/headlight arrays or anything else and please stop snooping on what I'm watching on my TV thank you. That's just creepy! Of a certain age? I'm in my early 50's. I wouldn't have ever thought that description would apply to me, at least not until I'd retired, but maybe we were brought up in a different world (I first came across the internet and email in 1993 when I started at Uni and the only GUI web browser was NCSA Mosaic running on Sun SPARC computers). I don't want to be beholden to the uber wealthy and tied into subscriptions for everything. It may cost me more initially, but I still buy CDs/Vinyl for music. I then have it for a lifetime. If we just allow it to happen then we'll loose everything we gained over the 20th century. The NHS, social security, extended lifespans etc. We've allowed our politicians to be influenced by those with money too much and that's on all sides.

Without going on and on about the old days (late 80's and 90's) but remember when an Argus bed chair and blanket were fine, might have said this before on a HorseShoe thread tho! Anyway, can see the way 'carp fishing' is or has gone now, it's big business for a lot of companies, I am not bothered about the latest super bedchair/bivvie/bait boat/rod/reel/ bait etc etc..... Sadly I feel the pastime I really loved in the past is now for the social media generation, sign of the times I know. As for me, now given up the use of boilies this season, I am doing purely a particle approach, have had a few and just feels nice to me to do something different for a change 👍 Not sure about that😂 I'm mid 50's if that qualifies, so yes probably. I've seen the change of carp fishing, or fishing as a whole. I don't mind the increase in comfort, a sunlounger that would collapse at the most inopportune moment... I do much prefer the modern bedchair, even modern bivvies, but I do feel that the prices have made it ridiculous. I still prefer an umbrella system, although I will admit to having used a few domes, and very nice too; Hutchy Apotheosis, Fox EasyDome 1 and 2. I think it was Rod Hutchinson and Shakespeare who brought the domes onto the market, Cyprydome and the Apotheosis, quite probably the first switch from the camping market. I caught up with a research video on YouTube this morning, there are only 2 independent reel manufacturers, (Daiwa and Shimano), every other brand is made pretty much made under the same factory roof, whether Okuma, Sonik, Nash, Penn or whoever. The same reel can be sold under multiple brands and names, and at various prices.

Guessing you guys must be of a 'certain' age? Without going on and on about the old days (late 80's and 90's) but remember when an Argus bed chair and blanket were fine, might have said this before on a HorseShoe thread tho! Anyway, can see the way 'carp fishing' is or has gone now, it's big business for a lot of companies, I am not bothered about the latest super bedchair/bivvie/bait boat/rod/reel/ bait etc etc..... Sadly I feel the pastime I really loved in the past is now for the social media generation, sign of the times I know. As for me, now given up the use of boilies this season, I am doing purely a particle approach, have had a few and just feels nice to me to do something different for a change 👍

They're trying to create a captive market where you have to go to them. Look at landing nets. You used to be able to easily get a handle and a net separately. These days about the only people doing a reasonable carp net without handle are NGT. As for handles, they should last a lifetime if you can find a decent one. Everything is now being integrated For your convenience or to lock you in. Eventually, I can see a time when reels will come with Line and you can't reload them without specialist equipment or other things like that. You won't own anything and you'll be happy. Sorry if I come across a cynical, but it's what's happening in many other industries. Just look at cars. When most people get a new car these days, they're not the purchaser, the pcp provider is, so if anything goes wrong the dealer won't speak to them. Late stage capitalism.

I was having the typical bivvy thoughts while fishing and made a major realisation. In the days of a standard sleeping bag, it would fit onto a standard bedchair, from sunlounger to Lafuma, to original Fox bedchairs. There were some decent cold weather sleeping bags, manufactured by cold weather sleeping bag specialists. Tackle manufacturers got involved in the sleeping bag market, sleeping bags with pockets for the bedchair to hold the top and bottom on the chair, so it would not slide off. Then came the gradual switch to 3 and 4 legged bedchairs and the now universal flat bed, and tackle manufacturers discovered a problem that they had created; with the position of the legs the pocket or flap holding the bedchair was now not suitable. Sleeping bags could rip, get caught up and tear. Next innovation is the 'sleep system', bedchair and sleeping bag combined. It takes money away from other industries and puts it as a fishing essential. The 'Realisation' is that this tackle innovation is to solve a problem that tackle manufacturers created for themselves and anglers. Now having been outside at -12 in a sleeping bag, I would much rather be outside in a sleeping bag created for survival at those temperatures than a tackle manufacturers sleep system. Of the bedchairs I have had over the years, from Lafuma and springs, to Fox, Bison, Badger (heavy, but very comfortable) Saber, Chub and Solar, probably the most comfortable was the Bison, not a flatbed like the Chub and Solar. Not just in bedchairs, but in tackle, rigs and ideas, are we going forward or backwards?

on the deck at the end of the sesh

few quick hours while the girls at nursery

Six egg mix ready for the pan, I’ve dusted them with dry base mix to prevent them sticking togetherafter boiling for 1min 45secs, (timed once the waters actually boiling) they are left in the garden to air dry for half hour or so, giving them a shake every few mins baits bagged and ready for the freezer

the “screw fix sausage” gun with nozzle cut to 12mm (ish - I’m not that accurate!) my eBay rolling table with sausage ready to go rolled 12mm baits

The base attractors, 20ml salmon oil (free with the basemix) 2.5ml belachan and 2.5ml shellfish sense appeals. Couple of oz robin red and a heaped tablespoon of blood powder added to 6 eggs, then enough supermarinos basemix to mix into a slightly sticky, tacky ball. (just the basemix, oil and shellfish SA on their own would keep the cost down and still produce a decent bait, the basemix has robin red in it, so it’s not essential to add more) the flavour shelf in the shed! white basemix is the protein bird food, the reddish sacks are supermarinos