Golden Paws

On my local lake there was a barbed ban for many years and some of the fish are a bit "gummy". A micro barb will go in and stay put during the fight and even the idiots on my local Committee seem to have got the message as they have revoked the barbless rule.

I've been using this rig for a while. You get the heaviness and stiffness of the fluorocarbon and the supple section at the end which you can regulate by adjusting the size of the loop. Easy to change hooks and also change between swivel, bait screw or rig ring.

I've got to agree Yonny. Despite being old enough and hopefully clever enough to see through advertising spiel, I bought some Boom and Krimps to make my Ronnies like a good Korda clone!

Yes, I watched it the other day. Typical no nonsense stuff from Adam and always makes me think. I tried the Ronnie when it first came out and was convinced I was going to bag up but still found that my favoured combi rigs outperformed them and don't use them any more.

I rest my case, Your Honour! Common sense has gone out of the window and the French want to convict anyone who wants to travel there. It's got so crazy, that we on the mainland can't export sausages to Northern Island, which is a part of the UK and there are shortages on the shelves. I can see the divorce papers being ripped up if they continue to try to treat us like fools.

Very sad to hear you whinging again about Brexit again. When Britain left the EU, the intention was always to have a cordial arrangement based on mutual respect and dare I say it, friendship? The EU have tried to punish Britain for daring to want to leave and not subsidising them to the tune of billions of pounds a year. The EU is a bloated, inefficient talking shop where very little gets achieved but many bureaucrats do very well out of it, thank you very much. After the protracted "divorce" was thrashed out, I believe that if the referendum on membership was rerun, it would be rejected by a landslide. The final nail in the coffin was when Britain was awarded "null points" at the Eurovision Song Contest! I can't say I've ever heard of the bloke and if he was gigging at my local boozer I doubt I'd go to watch him but it was totally predictable. Covid is obviously muddying the waters and it's difficult to tell sometimes whether a decision on quarantine is based on medical facts or a continuation of the *** for tat agenda. I understand that your British pension might not go as far nowadays but as a full time worker and tax payer to the British economy, I'm afraid my opinion might count more than yours!

That's the sort I use, the bigger the better. The first one is far too small. When I first started using the knot, I did have a couple of disasters and ended up cutting the braid and starting again. The trick is to slip the knot on and watch it and make sure you reverse the procedure when you go to undo it. On the second occasion I put the clip on and off about 20 times in a row and my brain "remembered" it. Probably OCD but I can always do it first time now without any problems. The clip stays on virtually all the time so just slip on a lead or spod at will, only taking it off for using a depth float.

https://www.carpfeed.com/fishing-advice/how-to/carp-hack-the-two-loop-trick I use this method (shamefully copied from Tom!) I normally leave a large American swivel on the braid as I can change from a lead to a spod or spomb of different sizes as required. If you want to use a marker float, a decent sized loop allows you to slip it on. I've had the same knot on for several years now. That little tag end is a huge edge and time saver.

Just checked out the club. They have 2 waters. A match lake of 0.75 acres with 17 swims and the main lake at a whopping 1.25 acres with 24 pegs! I hope the members are friendly because you'll be sitting very close to them!

Most Committees are run by old farts who don't have a clue! My local club are run by such a fine body of men. A couple of times I've attended an AGM with the intention of "putting something back" into the sport, both times I've left shaking my head in disbelief at what I'd witnessed. The proceedings were conducted with the efficiency of the Kremlin and it was a real old boy's network. Any suggestions from the floor were treated with disdain! Another local club that sells day tickets has a long list of silly rules. Despite other waters nearby being busy and theirs is always quiet, I've voted with my feet and given it a miss.

I think that Kev is on the right track, very seldom is braid banned as a hooklength. If it is, make a small hole at the bottom of the bag and thread the hooklink through, make the bag as per usual with the lead against the hole and then nick the hook back into the bag. (Whip the hole with a bit of PVA tape if it lets bait through.) By doing that, you have all the advantages and it should be tangle free and straighten as soon as the bag bursts.

It's finally out!

Coming soon!

I think they are incredibly clever because they have learnt how to read!

I have a love/hate relationship with fluoro! Love it's heaviness (twice that of water), love it's invisibility (similar to water) but hate it's stiffness and (lack of) casting and the fact it curls for a pastime and fraps up for no reason. If you want to use it, you have to learn to treat it different to mono's. Stretch it regularly and it should behave better. Also prone to picking up algae and rubbish so have to clean it by rubbing it through a wet wipe whilst winding onto the spool. I'm currently back on mono!

I wouldn't even think about it at the moment. Things are still too fluid and you could find yourself at the mercy of new rules that come into effect virtually overnight and you could find yourself isolating on both sides of the channel. Most venues over here are rammed but if you go midweek for a few days, things should be almost bearable. Hopefully 2022 should be OK but it's still worrying the amount of younger people being infected. Last summer Covid dropped right off and it created a false sense of security. The vaccination program has been a major success and has almost certainly prevented the massive number of deaths recorded last year being repeated. The anti vax idiots will ensure that Covid isn't eliminated but they will find it difficult to travel abroad in the future. I expect the European Court of Human Rights to uphold their complaint!

They come in 2 versions of RB (rear brake) or FB (front brake) or drag or clutch or whatever you want to call it. I'm pretty sure the DL refers to Dyna Balance which is the dual handle system, which virtually eliminates any wobble.

For days only sessions I don't take the bedchair or any cooking stuff, relying on sandwiches and a flask. I've tried slimming my gear down but it just creeps back up again! I've got a large rucksack I keep most of my gear in and the barrow just makes it easier to cart around the rod bag and bait - I do like a lot of spod late summer and into the autumn. If possible I try not to put up the brolly up as that is the biggest hindrance to moving but if the sun is beating down or it's raining, it's difficult not to succumb to the comfort.

For overnighters you can't really do it without a barrow unless the car park is right behind the swim. I used to fish a local days only water and tried to do it without a barrow (about 400 yards from the car park) but the next day my back would be in agony. My mate has bought 2 extra wheels to go on the back supports and a supermarket trolly style push bar instead of the handles and that works well but I haven't succumbed yet.

You're not the first to forget to unclip but like you say, bye , bye rod if you don't. The steps you mention are pretty sound but I admit that I bypass step 3 and always rewrap. It may be more long winded but it's just a confidence /OCD thing!

Hopefully when football stadiums reopen (I know it's the last day of season today!) and foreign travel opens up again, things will return to a more normal level. I've tried to book venues near me and Fridays and weekends are fully booked for months in advance.

Watch out for the postage. He is quoting £30 which is probably realistic. I got stung a few years ago selling some rods on ebay for a mate and the Post Office charged more than some of the rods sold for!

I think the bivvy Pablo inquires about is the Trakker Tempest, a quick and easy system to put up and good for moving swims. I have a 2 man bivvy but hardly use it these days and they are heavy and take a fair bit of assembling and putting away. I use a brolly with storm sides (Wychwood Solace) but since superseded by the MHR (Maximum Head Room). I used to do a lot of day only sessions (my local water has a night curfew) and the brolly fits in a holdall with no problems. I never bothered taking the groudsheet either to save weight. On overnighters I do take the groundsheet and have a Cyprinus overwrap which increases the footprint and keeps out the elements and is pretty light. Both systems have their advantages. If I'm doing an overnight session where you can park the car close to the swim, I might opt for the bivvy for the extra space and comfort but I'm still using the brolly system more even when I do fish that type of water.

Many years ago I used to fish a shallow, clear stretch of river for barbel and after a while, they started to treat sweetcorn with suspicion. I switched to chick peas and then used just about any tin of bean or pea I could find and they all caught! Some of them were a bit bland but any flavouring perks them up and don't forgot the old classic of black eye peas simmered in oxtail soup.

On his website it's advertised at £220 but reduced to £110 so grab yourself a bargain! I've never read it but did hear reviews that's it's well over the heads of most Carp anglers. I buy my bait from a tackle shop and may tweak it a little bit by softening or adding boosters and a bit of a powder. I've found that the more read about bait, the more confused I become (or is it just me?) Bait Barons want you to catch and buy from them again and so I'm happy to let them get on with it. They may make a bit of money but I've spent too long in the kitchen playing about with baits and it's time consuming and often fruitless and you don't know if you've caught/blanked because of the bait.