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Well I actually went back Tues to Thursday armed with particles including tigers, same swim, not a touch. Could see fish in the swim opposite, two anglers went in and both failed, watching them I figured I was pretty close and went long after them but same result. Was kicking myself for not getting maggots instead of the particle choice as they are clearly on naturals in the areas still containing surface weed or where that had recently cleared. Found 3 fish on the back of the wind on the 2nd afternoon and said to myself I'll move down here if no action for the 2nd night, with one being a good sized common, but the following day no fish in that area so a move turned into a go home early. Social at Bluebell this week but then back to the syndi end of Oct armed with maggots, worms and/or casters. Always disappointing to blank but have to remind myself it's 2 fish per acre at best so never easy.

That is the reason I nearly always make mine fresh just before casting. I do use a mix of pellets for bagging and meshing; halibut, CSL, bloodworm, koi/coarse and GLM in various sizes. Note, the Crafty Catcher bloodworm and GLM seem to be oversprayed. I managed to leave some Nash bags in my trouser pocket once, I was quite surprised that they were still undissolved after an hours 40⁰ wash. The plastic bag they were in had allowed water in, but the bags themselves were still almost intact.

I don't think it matters, but it also winds me up. I don't use bags a lot but when I do I protect the hook between a couple of little bits of corn starch packing peanuts (what most people call PVA nuggets). The corn starch is released more easily than PVA, and tends to keep the hook/barb free of debris. It also protects the hook point from penetrating the bait(s) in the bag.

I must have met you there! That's when I fished it. PigPen was probably my favourite swim, but I caught from most swims. I missed Sam's, Rocky and Digit, but had some of the other 30's. A lot of big fish from such a small water.

I am not a fan of Korda hooks! I found the standard Kranks were blunt compared to a Gardner Mugga. At Brackens Pool I had been using Muggas and an identical shaped Gamakatsu pattern with no problems, landing plenty of fish to over 30lb. One day I ran out of ready tied rigs so pinched one from a mate, identical to mine, but tied with a Krank. I kept on getting bleeps, but no proper runs. I reeled in and put on a freshly tied rig with a Mugga, recast to the same spot and had a proper run within minutes. When I got home I compared the hookpoints, sharpness. I balanced the hookoint on the ball of my thumb, with a 3oz lead I was able to lift the hooklink and lead off the desk. I tried the same with both the Gardner Mugga and the Gamakatsu's and could not even lift the weight of the lead. I did put pics on the site here! It may have been a bad batch, but it was not just one hook in the pack, every one was not as sharp. I have never bought another Korda hook since. Pretty much the only hook brands I trust now are Drennan/ESP, Gardner and my last few Solar 101's and Gamakatsu GP204's which went through a stage of not being available or in case of Gamakatsu no longer made.

Korda basics Krank Can't go wrong with those, perfect hookhold every time imo. Ive only ever had bends, or bluntness on the Kamakura versions. Standard ones, with a bit of honing have never let me down. I'm not a fan of the screws tbh, I'm afraid that could cause unnecessary tears in the fishes mouth & just wouldn't want to risk it. I prefer to use floss on a micro swivel, which has a lot more free movement than the screw set up.

Thanks for the info, I had a size 4 standard gauge Korda Krank open up on me on Sunday, gutted because it felt like a good fish. I was using 15mm pop ups. I've got some size 2 wide gapes at home and some 14mm pop ups, these are more buoyant than the 15's I was using. If 2's are ok i'll order some Korda basics Krank X's today as I prefer this patten.

Hi, I'm using small PVA mesh bags of boilie only, (2 x 15mm and 6 x 12mm baits ) with a match the hatch pop up on a Ronnie rig, barbless hook with a supple hook link on a lead clip. When using barbed hooks, does it matter if you have PVA residue on your hook where the barb is? I've tested the rig several times in a pan of water and most times there's a large visible amount of residue stuck on the underside of the barb that rarely completely melts. If I use barbless hooks the residue always slides off past the hook point. I'd rather use barbed if possible. Thanks

My funnel webs are pretty round like golf balls and I piece through the sides so I'm not going anywhere near the 2 knots, works well

Tnank Thanks for the heads up, i'll give that a try.

I use both PVA bags and meshes of boilies and 'bits', and I hate blobs of PVA on the hook. When I use bags, I push the hookpoint out of the bag in the corner so it doesn't catch on the contents. With mesh I often don't knot the end and use the hookpoint to close it and have noticed I don't get a blob of PVA as it was the knot that took longer to dissolve.

Bought a camping gas refill cylinder yesterday for cooking my particles - I'm banned from doing it in the kitchen because of the smell and an accident many years ago where the pressure valve on my pressure cooker came adrift and I managed to "paint" the ceiling! I haven't bought one for a few years but thought I paid about £35 last time, this time it was over £45. I put it down to the "Trump tax!" The price of diesel is going to have a massive impact on all prices and they are only going one way.

Still £337.50 over at Trent Baits.

No worries mate, I was referring to the syndi on the naturals 👍 Bluebell is just bags of crumb and pellet with halibut pellet wafter hookbaits.

Maggots not allowed at Bluebell mate so keep them hidden if you do 😉

I've reeled in my rigs in the morning and the funnel web bag was fully intact, complete waste of a nights fishing lol Then it was winter and the bags had absorbed oil from halibut pellets doh 🤦‍♂️

My bait company has put the price of my fishmeal and GLM bait up from £337.50 per 50k to £412.50, only that bait has gone up in price. Was a bit shocked to say the least 👀 Anyone else seen companies doing this?