bluelabel

Oh the club itself is a great well run club... and the waters are stunning (Boreham Mere is superb) you certainly get a good deal, its just the actions of a few leave a bad taste... gotta say I might be back for the river fishing in the next year or two

I used to be the club NFA coach for CAA years ago... as has been said, good waters, although the behaviour of some of its members can be improved... there is a certain cliquieness amongst some of the hardcore carpers, with a lot of "swim saving" and general rule breaking... trying to get a swim on Braxted was murder with some of the "anglers" refusing to leave a swim, despite being packed up, "cos their mate is coming in after them"... according to a mate who left last year for that very reason, it still goes on, and it seems the bailiffs are in on it...

I bought the Nash Dwarf spod rod (4.5lbs IIRC) to go with the 9' 2.75lb Dwarf's that I use... works well, lobs fully loaded spombs out as far as I can chuck 'em and basically does what it sez on the tin and for less then £60 (when I bought it) you can't go wrong

Loved the last one, but my... did the Iron Maiden Lass have a cracking pair o' baps... Nay bad for a tribute band... went to see Aussie Floyd a couple of weeks ago... they were superb as always.... I wish these guys would get back together again... saw them numerous times in the 90's

One of the things that tickles me is the way that manufacturers are making up problems to be solved with their products.... yes I know it's called "Marketing" BUT back in the 70's we roughed it... a brolly with a bit of nicked tarp, a cheap sun lounger and even cheaper sleeping bag... jeezus we are spoilt bankside now... I know a few still do it "Au Naturel" but I even saw a green carpers baccy pouch the other day .... do me a favour... Last time out at Bluebell I saw a bivvy with a sky dish and generator fer cryin' out loud... if you are taking it to that degree you might as well stay at home with yer X-Box-Boy thingy and play that BIG Fish game....

buy a tin of biscuits, eat the biccies... place 5 or 6 tea lights on the lid pierce a few holes in the base of the tin and place over the lit candles... viola....! one bivvy heater for the price of a tin o' biccies and a few tea lights... oh and if it's really cold out you'll get a ton of condensation.... oh and don't put it on the plastic bivvy table or on your plastic/rubber groundsheet

Oh fffffffffffergoodness sake....!!!!!

I have 4 moggies, Murray, Motson, Lemmy and Dave... Lemmy and Dave were Rescues, some pikey types dumped them on the doorstep of the local feed merchants, so we had them... Dave weighed 250 grams at 8 weeks old... he was soooo tiny... now the two youngsters are 2 years old and thundering round the house, whereas Murray and Motson are the two elder statesmen (pushing 13 years old now) and spend most of their time asleep... When I retire I think we are going to get a dog (as a puppy, so he's at home with the cats) Possibly a Border Terrier, Jack Russell, or possibly a Heinz (57 varieties)

Another tip is to eliminate draughts.... wear a scarf or shemagh, tuck your joggers into your socks or get a pair of boot gaiters... don't wear trainers.... get a good pair of boots, preferably thermal types that you can get in and out of quickly... after lugging your gear to your swim/pitch & setting up you'll be sweating cobs... take off your boots and put on a fresh pair of dry socks... and some dry clothes... it don't half make a difference...!

Oxlease & Manor sees a lot of pressure (as do most of the waters at Linear) I'd look at Brasenose 2 for runs or maybe Hunts Corner... midweek would be a good bet as weekends are rammed, Any quality bait... Sticky, Mainline, CC Moores, if it's a high pressure day get on the Zigs, otherwise keep the rigs simple and start off with solid bags to try and nick a bite, then put a bit of bait out in that area.... other folks may have other ideas on the place but that's how I've approached it in the past (2 years ago) and it worked for me (Brasenose 2, Active 8, & 2+4mm pellets, simple lead clip rig, just over the marginal shelf = 13 fish in 48 hours, best of 23.14) Hope this helps...

With the set of atts dongles and the reciever the reciever has a vibration alert.... I use the vibro alert and have the volume to zero.... that way the reciever wakes me up but no one else (reciever round my neck on a lanyard)

"Larkin Poe"..... superb.... the full band is even better, but I love these stripped out versions... no hiding place here.... Enjoy...!

Well, I tried using Solar Lead free and as a leader it works well, I found splicing it to be a bit of a faff at first, but once I got the hang of it it was easy enough.... that's the good bit out of the way... for solid bag work it's next to useless, as the material holds water so as soon as you start to tie off the neck of the bag the water witheld in the leader started to dissolve the PVA bag... as I said though as a straight leader for fishing in snaggy or places where abrasion is possible, it's great, it's soft, supple, follows contours and does what it sez on the bag (comes in sort of grey/green or silt black colours) Tried to find a link for Linqtek... nothing worth following... is it still made..?

it's been said many times by various anglers... and then there are the cries of the faithfull to the stuff, shouting down the arguments against it... "it's safe if you know what you are doing" is a famous argument for it..... but who is to say who knows what they are doing, it only takes the line to hit a mussel shell or gravel bar and the potential is there for a snagged fish... I stopped using it years ago, in part because of all the horror stories around it, but mainly because most waters round my neck o' the woods have banned it. Here's my take... it doesn't lie flat on the deck, it bridges dips and depressions on the lake bottom, looks blatant, can snag or tether fish if you get cut off... I can see no upside to it.... other than abrasion resistance and there is no guarantee that any abrading of your end game is going to be on the leadcore section... (I did hear tales of folks using 6' plus of the stuff a few years ago.... ) That said.... if it's that dangerous why have Korda and other companies persisted with it's sales, and I heard t'other day that Korda have brought out short pre spliced lengths in packs of 6 for use with solid bags... TBH I can see a use for a short leader for that application, but leadcore....???? (why not just use tubing?) If you take the arguments against leadcore a stage further are not ANY leaders that safe...? given the way in which it can tangle or tether... Surely the safest rig has to be a freeline with a hook and bait and nothing else, and even that can tangle and tether (admittedly in very extraordinary circumstances) so where do you go from there... ? I'd love a system where I can make up solid bags on a ready made leader and just slip a loop over it and cast it out... but if it's going to be that dangerous I'll pass on it

I paid £50 for my 9' dwarf spod rod tis a nice little rod... oh and it's a 4.5lb rod, it hurls fully loaded large size Spombs very accurately and without fuss... I have a pair of Dwarf 9' 2.75lb and the Spod rod.... it all fits in the boot with the scope ops brolly, chair, tackle bag and bait bucket.... sorted...

So there's nothing really against the notion...! I like the set up that Greekskii shows in his pic... I suppose that the extra stiffness and the overweighted base holds the pop up more rigidly giving a better presentation... I've noticed using the stock multi-rig, that as the bait takes on water it tends to keel over lessening that "cocked and ready" presentation...!

Silly question.... Can the Multi-Rig be tied using a mono instead of a coated braid.... ?

Shimano's.... all day every day... they've been making quality reels almost forever....

I use both.... Daiwa Sensor for Carp fishing and The Hyper Sensor on club matches in the match kit... like it... although the Hyper sensor gets a tad curly if you slide shot or rubber stoppers up and down it... I used to use infinity Duo, Loved it... but I can't seem to find a stockist any more... perhaps it's been discontinued

for starter kit you can't go far wrong... as others have said, as you get more accustomed to using the gear, you will find it's limitations... I concur with the other chaps that for terminal gear, it's just not worth buying cheap... as it's the last three feet of your gear that will catch you the fish... go for a named and trusted brand

Just had the link from Angling Direct for the Aqua stacker boxes.... what an absolute rip off... Aqua....! you ought to be ashamed of yourselves, the prices are not just a rip off they are taking the proverbial... The cheapest is £29.99... you can buy the same boxes from Solent Plastics for half that price http://www.solentplastics.co.uk/stacking-plastic-containers-boxes/hinged-lid-euro-containers/product/APHL64/12/24-litre-lidded-european-standard-plastic-container-stackable-straight-sided-storage-box/ just because it's green and has your name stamped on the lid is no excuse for a blatant rip off... this is exactly the sort of behaviour that makes me avoid your products...!

if you start flogging them I think Delkim might have summat to say about it

they already have a reputation for being very good reels and fairly bulletproof.... a few folks I know have had them for quite a few years and the only bad thing they say against them is the lack of infinite anti-reverse... if that's their only fault, then I could live with that.... more bearings don't necessarily mean a better reel... I've had reels with 5 bearings that were worse than an old Mitchell 400 with none...! (in my opinion of course)

are there any British made reels....? as a case in point one of the threads on the (defunct) Crafty Carper forum was on the Nash Dwarf rods (9' 2.75lb) and matching reels... the Daiwa SS2600 was the reel of choice that suited the rods perfectly... I started off using Shimano 5000 RE's (spools too small) then went to Shimano 10000 XTE's from my 12' setup (too big) settled on the Wychwoods and they suit the rods nicely, but the Quick drag system takes a bit of getting used too... otherwise they are nice reels... great line lay too....

Simple answer.....? Daiwa SS2600 I want a pair of these quite badly..... best stalking reels bar none (IMHO of course) but cost being an option, I ended up with a pair of Wychwood QD5000's I may have to spank the plastic at some point... (hopefully without SWMBO finding out) The SS2600 will cast up to 70 yards with a good punch, so I don't think you need a big pit reel with the rods you mention... it would unbalance the rod for starters and balanced tackle is what you need