coops_northants

well done Gaz, sounds like you had a great time even if the weather was not as good as it could have been. Looks a nice place with the right atmosphere. customer service means a great deal when traveling to fish, Sounds like Eddy and Val have cracked that too.

I use a balanced bait quite a bit but not because i wan the bait to shoot up into the fishes mouth but maily because of the bottom i fish over. When fishing over silk wees i think it helps the bait rest and helps stop the hook from becoming snarled up in the silk weed. If this happens then hooking is difficult. However i dont drill baits and plug them, i put the cork on the hair and trim it or the boilie untill it sits how i want it. If i fish a single but balanced its a pop up with a back shot pulled into the bait.

Gutted for him to lose that one but thats fishing i suppose. i saw the report about the half lin breaking 50lb, awsome fish and plenty of room for that one to get bigger.

Keith, how is martin getting on this week? Guess what, i picked up a copy of free spool at horseshoe this week. I got a phone call from a mate on the lake saying he cant believe it, he moved halfaway round horseshoe to get away from me and then im looking at him from the pages of free spool magazine....... Quality.

Any of you been to La Fonte? or know anyone who has? we found the fishery web site about a week or so ago and it looked great and extremely well kept. I have booked up for september next year already anyway but i am interested to see some reviews and find out a little more.

I saw Robins result on there the other week on the blog, What a fantastic result. I would say that it was suprising but the fact Robin is a class act and the lake was due to throw up a real belter for someone. I night see you out there again next year keith. Any space in september of last week of august?

I am starting to get the bug for this place, seems like its growing well from some not brilliant reviews a few years ago to a water that has great potential if you fish it right.

double strength, power line, berkley vanish(gold) any of those for zigs.

yeah some nice mouth jewlery is always best. only a few days to go an i will be reeling in some nice river warriors...... if they stay where they are at the minute.

i like to use the klips, the movement is cool when fishing the bottoms i do and the extra movement on the cast is often a good thing as it is with a helicoptor rig, you often see it clurl back but if you watch cearfully the bait comes away in flight as the rig slows down, just make sure you use heavy enough baits to make sure. i have been playing with the fox swivels with the clip end and then using half an anti tangle sleave over it for the more direct approach however i have found this needs to be on solid flat bottoms, not good on my usual slightly weedy spots.

mine are ready to go for next week. i use 1.5oz inline leads (flat pear) with 4 inch supernatural hooklinkswith a blob of putty half way, for hooks i swap between size 10 series 5s for corn and size 6 widegapes for boilies, however the new fang twister could be the new hook being slightly longer shank that most wide gapes. As for the fish not being riggy, well some are around here Jez, i watch them pick up the bait then spit it out regularly.

Nice pics lewis, i have a couple but of shots but no really good ones like tony getting a bucket of water over his head for a PB. 31lb common 24lb mirror off the heavy baited spot 5kg pellet 5kg boilies the half linear caught off the heavy baited spot 5kg pellet and 5kg boilies (topped up again) 46lb 10oz i spent the rest of that day drinking lager then the next morning caught this 33lb mirror then i blanked for a couple of days and on the last morning caught this 34lb common untill next time au revoir.

i use mine on a fluro leader, just use the atomic beads that have mini bore holes, these hold tigth enough but move when needed and go over the leader knot, i then use a large swivel, never use it travellig though (just the back bead) as this causes a loop off the bottom. clap it in place with 2 beads and hold the lead down on the tight line and keep it tight while the line settles then just slacke off a couple of feet so it all sits right. Besides chod rig fishing is cheating, its not real fishing in my book and is the easy option that gives every angler the chance of catching with the least work accutally carping.

So is a hinged stiff rig then....... All this talk on rigs makes me laugh, i spend the least part of my fishing time thinking about rigs, i use the same rig for nearly every water i fish with minor changes on a couple. too much time in anglingis wasted trying different rigs. My advise is stick with one hook pattern and then fine tune the rest (hooklink material, shrink tube, length, etc) and stick with it. Understand how it works and you can then make very minor adjustments to make it work anywhere. Basically if you continue to chop and change rigs you will never understand them and how to make them work for you.

Like said im off to moorlands in may, second trip there after an awsome trip in september, more of the same please. might even squeeze a trip in sometime in september, not sure where yet though.

The waiting is painfull, i have just paid the last of mine and i now just want to get out there and haul some monsters......

This is like my trip, i just know its going to be spawning time (may 15th) my timing for trips and breaks is always nearly right or sholuld i say only just wrong... always a week or 2 out from the best fishing week. im praying that they have either got it out of the way or are a couple of weeks away from it...... wish me luck.

I think it is something to do with mini bus has passengers so they spend money on the ferry amd they automatically think that vans belong to businesses, bit of a shame for people like me who buy a van purely for their fishing. They are after all the sames bleedin size.

That would be perfect, just went to book mine for may and it wouldn't let me. will try again shortly. I think its because of my van, if i put in minibus its ok. Do you think i will get away with it being a minibus?

What do you mean 'Stupid prices' the price hasn't changed here, it's the plummeting pound that that makes it appear that way. 1 Euro here is 1 Euro end of, the Fench (and the rest of Europe) don't give a toss that our currency fluctuates every other day If people can't do without 'Brown sauce' for a few days in France, either bring it with you or pay the price without the moaning !!!! Or God forbid try some French food and maybe enhance the whole experience Disco I thought the whole point of the thread was to show the travelling anglers what they would encounter so they could bring their own stuff if they couldn't do without it rather than have their hands forced into paying stupid price for the things they trust. I would happily try the french stuff but sometimes you need to know what your eating rather than hoping you like what you find. I have a cash and carry card for the UK, maybe i could help you guys out with some cheap goodies.....

Very good thread this, and dead handy if your planning your first trip. I found some of the prices were massive, 1euro per can of soft drinks and 2euro per 500ml bottle. The food like you say is expensive. I paid 4.50 euro for a Ham and cheese roll While travelling through. You should keep us posted through the year, that would be really useful

For me i rarely use different rigs, just stick to one i have confidence in. As for when, safety clip for weed or when you need the lead to come off, Helicoptor for distance as it is less prone to tangles, running rigs for clean bottoms at short range. Thats my generalisation, other will do different things but the golden rule is use what you are comfortable with and what you have confidence in.

Looks a cracking venue, never been but does look very good. the owner (davew) used to be a member on here and seems a top guy.

How are you attaching your maggots?? i normally fish 10lb fluro then where the hair would nomally be i dot the fluro with a lighter then i thread maggots onto a piece of cotton the tie this to the fluro and it locks on the blob, this help them to stop wriggling around and masking the hook. I normall fish a mugga size 10 for this but most hooks will do the biz. This is tied up almost KD rig style again to keep the maggots away from the hook. Try balencing the hook with a fake one or something too, just super glue one to the shank or something. or slide it up the fluro hair then blob it after...... loads of ways but hopefully you can see a way that will work for you.

Great, i like the way in the first video that the whole concept of the lead clip is poo pood in favour of the lead clip coming off the clip/swivel meaning of course that you cant eject the lead........ Basically the running rig would be best but of course they cant get you to spent £15 quid on rig bits saying that can they...... I wont bother watching the bottom link...... I cant be assed to pull that to bits as well.