Golden Paws

https://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/news/stories/the-british-barbel-record-has-been-obliterated/ That's an impressive fish. Big barbel rarely have that massive droopy belly that some big carp have. In the pursuit of big fish, is a Billy Bunter better than an Olympic athlete?

Form a loop through the eye of the hook with some dental floss, poke the braid through it and then pull - simples. I've still got to use my strong reading glasses to do it though!

Another thumbs up for Gardner. I've been using GT-HD in 15lb for several years and highly rate it.

The old saying "buy cheap, buy twice" is almost certainly true with bait boats. On the other hand £3.500 for an RT7 is probably a step too far! I still find my spots with a lead and clip up, so I'm not entirely relying on tech. I still fish a lot of margin spots and literally "place" a spod on it, which is even stealthier than a boat. I don't use a spomb as you have to smack the nose to open it, which defeats the object. On some waters they are banned but on others where the owners had to clear bushes of end tackle, I'm sure they are quietly encouraged.

"I am Noddy" (to quote Kirk Douglas!) I tutted a bit when bait boats first started to become common but when my mate had a 32lb'er within about an hour of dropping a rig and bait under a tree at about 70 yards that you dare not cast to, I started to see the potential. I've been having my best ever season and I'm sure a lot of it is down to the boat. The accuracy and stealth you can achieve is a huge edge. I'm only using a "basic" boat and no GPS or sonar. Obviously fishing to features is easy but for open water I'm still wrapping the rods out. When casting, I always hit the clip and take the sting out of the cast by holding the rod parallel to the bank and "placing" the lead down but it's still no match for a boat. You can't turn the clock back. Boats are here to stay and you can either embrace them or reject them but you are putting yourself at a disadvantage if everyone else is using them.

I've never got on with moudable putty. Either if falls off or I can't get it to sit straight. I thread on the largest size droppers as in Elmo's post above and never have any problem. I like a "heavy" weight close to the hook as I'm sure it aids hooking.

Took Elmo's advice and added some 2mm pellets to my mix and compared it against the powder only and it wasn't conclusive and they still take an age to break apart. I added some 6 and 8mm pellets and that didn't really improve matters. That said, the Baking Powder was doing a really good job and the water in my tub was very murky that was making it difficult to see the bottom. Several years ago I used to barbel fish a brilliant swim. There was a gravel hump about 15 foot from the bank and you could wade it with wellies. Just below the hump, the river shelved off steeply to form a hole. I used to stand on the hump and fish with the rod pointing directly downstream. If things were quiet, I would stub my toe into the gravel so it kicked off a stream of silt. The amount of times I had a bite shortly after couldn't have been a co-incidence and I caught many doubles to over 12lb. Sometimes it's just doing something different to the crowds that brings results.

That's a point Elmo. I use 2 teaspoons of powder and really whack the plunger on the stick down hard a couple of times so that the powder comes out of the tube as a solid lump, which makes tying it off easier. I used powders only as I wanted there to be plenty of smell and attraction in the area but no food, except my boilie. I will add some small pellets to see if that helps.

Had to do another post due to file size. The bag on the left is the side hooked version and the "fuse" on the right. Obviously the fuse wouldn't be any good for long casting.

For the last couple of seasons, I've put a small PVA mesh bag of powder on my hook before every cast. (Currently a mixture of CreAmino Bag and Stick Mix as I'm using the boilies and Sonubaits Krill Groundbait and also their Explosive Fishmeal Groundbait Mix.) Most of my fishing is done by dropping from a bait boat or on my local water, fishing in the margins. I make up about 30 bags at home and store them in an old ice cream tub to speed things up on the bank and to stop wet hands making holes in it. I was watching a video on YouTube the other day and there was a bag that was absolutely fizzing. To replicate it, I added a bit of baking powder to my mix and dropped a bag of with and without in a tub of water to see the difference. The baking powder bag definitely gave off a stream of bubbles but the most interesting part was just how long it took for the bags to breakdown, both at least 5 minutes. I made the bags up fresh so there was no oil rendering the PVA impervious to the water. A piece of the mesh only shrivelled up within seconds. I've always side hooked the bags and was confident I would be fishing within 30 seconds, not I'm not so sure. I always laughed at people who double bagged "because they were fishing in 10 foot of water", they could be delaying their next bite by half an hour! I prided myself that I could tie the 2 knots so close together, I could only just get the scissors through .(I know, tight!) Since watching the bags, I've include a "fuse" of about an inch and hook this on as I'm convinced it will be fishing properly within seconds. (Long enough to hit the bottom.) In the photo, the Baking Powder bag is on the right which is why it is a bit lighter.

Managed to catch a PB at 35lb 0oz during a 48 hour session. After a quiet first 24 hours, managed to move onto fish and also had a 26-0. Took a CreAmino wafter on a slip-D rig.

Surely you can't judge a rig by one lost fish???? I've had my best ever season, regularly catching 6 to 8 fish in 8 hour morning or afternoon sessions on a days only water. Although the water is prolific, I've been getting amongst the better fish and managed a brace of 20's a few weeks ago, not bad seeing as I had only caught 2 previously in the last 10 years. The slip D and the Ronnie aren't a mile apart but I prefer the more subtle way you can tweak it to make the last inch flexible and make a more balanced bait. To me, the Ronnie seems a bit too blatant. That said, confidence is key and if you're sat behind rods expecting to lose fish, it can be hard work.

Yes. It naturally bends a bit anyway to create the bent hook arrangement. If you use shrink tube, you wouldn't be able to change the hook at will.

I've been using this rig for the last few years and pretty happy with it. I have refined it a bit and use it Combi style with a bit of flourocarbon and a hybrid loop at the other end. I deliberately make the fluoro loop quite big so it really kicks the hook section away.

Hope it goes well Nick and it cures your problem. My daughter was getting tonsillitis about 4 times a year and it was really dragging her down. In frustration, she asked why she was getting it so often and heartless father chipped it that it was because she works in a germ factory (Nursery!) Luckily she does seem a bit more immune to it recently but it was pretty bad and frequent and I have an understanding of what you've been going through.