salokcinnodrog

To be honest complete numpty error. When I retrieved that I was disgusted, and did give it to one of the bailiffs when he came round. The lead clip wasn't locked onto the hooklink swivel, you can see the gap. It had been forced onto the leader (I think a TFG one), and a swivel attached to the mainline end. Looking at the tail rubber, it was a Solar Soft rubber. From that same spot on another occasion I retrieved a bundle of around 6 leads and rigs, some still with bait and plastic hookbaits on. I'll have to see if I can find that pic! I've retrieved helicopter setups with rigs still attached, on leadcore and leadfree. Strangely very few on naked mainline.

I think we all forget that accidents do happen. I have seen the springback from snapped line, and yes it most definitely happens; that bundle of birds nest that tangles up around the rod tip after a snap-off, a bite-off from a pike. No matter what, we do all lose rigs, with or without the lead. Obviously we do the absolute best to reduce that risk, albeit in different ways due to our beliefs. I don't believe in using a leader, unless mega distance casting with big leads. If it is weedy, snaggy then I personally think go without the leader, and accept I can't cast as far. I have tested lines and leaders, wet and dry, pulled for a break, and it nearly always breaks at the line join, the knot, or a fraction above it where it has been tightened down. The exception is if there is damaged line above it, where it breaks at the damage. Run rings give me the thought that a larger bore, hole through the middle, will go over that birdsnest that @kevtaylor mentions, unless the break includes and goes over run ring. I now come to @yonny 's point, a run ring and running lead is only truly a running lead when it is fished with a slack line, minimal tension, the line touching the bottom of each rod ring, dropping straight down from the rod tip, no tension on the indicator. When it is fished with a tight line it becomes 'semi-fixed', or a bolt rig. Preventing the fish having line, as in the same as snag fishing, forcing the fish to arc on the take can be done with a run ring and tight line, locked up rods and reels. In weed I'm positive that lead clips can jam up, and not release the lead. Aside from some numpty attaching the leader with a swivel, I retrieved this from a snag. The lead most definitely had not released. I do not know whether they had cut off the mainline or pulled for a break but the line did reach roughly from the swim to the snag where I managed to catch up on it and retrieve it with 15lb mainline. I've fished in weedy waters, Suffolk Water Park, Taverham Mills even areas of Nazeing Lagoons, and again with testing and experiments I found a Zipp shaped inline lead catches up less weed than a pendant setup, whether a run ring or lead clip. It colours my thoughts on why I don't like lead clips in weed, and do switch back to inlines, which can be fished to drop off.

I must confess I do keep my bait in buckets, not just for rats but to keep them away from Sky. She does however act as a good rat deterrent:

I had this caterpillar crawling along the floor of my bivvy, and so I didn't kill it I picked it up and took the photo. It is an Emperor moth caterpillar and while not rare rare are not particularly widespread.

Funny thing is I am the complete opposite of @kevtaylor and have had no problems with Delkims, from pouring rain to hot summer days, with either the ST's I have (promoted to pike fishing), and the TXi'd I use now for carp. When I worked in a tackle shop we had quite a few Fox alarms had to be sent back for replacement in the original Micron range, although the Mini Micron's which had no sounder box at the time were not a problem. Hopefully Fox updates have sorted out the problems, although I always wondered why they needed to 'upgrade' and replace the range every few years.

They can be quite aggressive to other swans and water birds. Earlier this year I actually filmed swans fighting at Redgrave. I later found the slightly smaller male dead in the rushes. It's my Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19aP8t7tzH/

Other than my buying tackle because it is 'shiny', I tend to analyse every tackle item I buy, and that includes end tackle. Various purchases have been made, and the item tested and slung in the bin, line, hooks, clips, PVA. I don't like lead clips, pretty much full stop. Their original reason for manufacture was as a way to remove a semi-fixed lead at the end of the session, not as a way to dump the lead on a take. Whoever came up with that idea, deserves a place in hell for littering and pollution. If you are using a pendant lead on a lead clip in weed, it may be an idea to change to a distance shaped inline lead. The inline catches up less, a lead clip might get jammed up with weed and not release, you are then playing a fish and a weed covered lead. On one day at Nazeing I retrieved 5leads, leaders and rigs all on lead clips from the snags, and one of them may until my intervention have had a fish attached. @yonny makes a point about the safest set-up is the one that lands the fish, however it does not mean fishing in the thickest weed or up to impenetrable snags, which I think too many are still doing.

Without damaging the fish. And that is why my usual set up is a run ring straight on the mainline or tubing. Suggestions work, they are the basis of invention and problem solving. However, in every product the idea then needs full inspection and development before production, or full proper instructions for use. @elmoputney that is not aimed directly at you as Korda (in my view) were responsible for a lot of bad angling practices with lead clips. As I have said above, I don't think that it is a true running lead, compared to a standard run ring and slack line you will have resistance, the internal bore of the lead clip reduces free line movement and any detritus can jam up that movement. It will need to be fished as a standard semi-fixed set-up. However as a lead clip, it is possibly the best version available. As long as the line is still able to go through the lead clip the rig will be ejected. I should add a point that whether running lead or semi-fixed lead, tubing increases resistance and although the line should pull through, and crack-off above may cause a 'wind knot' and so stop it pulling through.

I'm not sure, you have what is essentially a 'pulley rig' system as is used in sea fishing. There is inbuilt tension, so I don't think it is a true running rig. I've seen fish eject rigs when there is no tension, and Ken Townley wrote about it in Tim Paisley's Big Carp, where a lost fish at Savay came into Snags with a rig in its mouth. 2 days later the fish was swimming around in the snags minus the rig. As I mention, the majority of the time, the line breaks at the swivel anyway, the knot is the weak point. When I hooked the swan last week, and the line snapped, it was still in the clip, so I was able to check where it had broken; the loss was minimal, more where I cut off the curly-wurly. A fish trailing just rig and line is not likely to be giving false indication to other anglers, unless there is detritus caught up on the line, whereas a lead clip that hasn't ejected, and I have retrieved a lot of them, will. Not all had the tail rubber forced or pushed right on, some were just jammed up with a bit of weed, mud or stick! Something else, the loop of line in the PB lead clip, with the lead or lead swivel butting up against it, may be at risk of damage from the lead itself. If that loops breaks you will still be losing line and the fish. I don't think it is as secure as a standard knot to the hooklink swivel.

We use boilies as a practical and easy bait as standard, although as you mention, most other baits are not carp specific. I do love particles, especially maize and chick peas. Maize can be left quite hard after soaking and boiling, and chickpeas can be coloured and flavoured, but you also have maples, sweetcorn, the list is endless. If you buy sweetcorn from the freezer, I've found it best by adding two teaspoons of brown sugar, a grind of salt (rather than straight from the salt cellar), covered in boiling water and left to steep. That is for one bag. Tinned sweetcorn is good as it is, obviously put it in a suitable container, but also slightly 'stale'. As for other baits, luncheon meat, pepperami, various meat sausages, even chorizo, although I do struggle with that, it's known as Nick loves chorizo to eat...

From the crack-off with the swan, it went at the hooklink knot, as it does in the majority of cases. It is normally only if the line gets fragged by snags or detritus does it go anywhere else. The run ring can travel up the line and off. I think every trailer I have found, has been caught up with a semi-fixed lead, usually on a lead clip... I have removed and freed a couple from snags in the past! Yet never found one with a running lead on.

I can't remember where I first bought them, but I had to replace my dwindling stock of run rings and clips. https://www.korum.co.uk/en/products/rig-accessories/kp-00170 I've lost a couple or rigs recently, blooming swans, one swam through the line and tangled up, the other picked up the hookbait, both resulted in losing the lot. On the tangled up loss, it was just after the cast, so the line was still in the clip. The swan swam towards the splash of the PVA bag. I checked the line, and it had gone at the knot. As for the running leads, and slack lines, the two carp this week were absolute screamers. The second carp during the fight I could see the lead on the run ring, and as the fish kicked right, I could see the lead eject off the clip, not losing the run ring, just the standard type clip like the picture. I'm not sure but it may be because I cut the swivel off the leads, and the wire loop can slip between the prong.

I think that the stiff coated braid was wrong for the multi-rig over that area of lakebed, and the hook sits wrong. It might work in other spots, or maybe a standard braid would have been better, but a hookpull is a hookpull, and I analysed it thus. I thought that over particles the fish would pick everything up, but I think that the stiffness stopped it being taken in properly, whereas the braided reverse combi could be sucked in. The reverse combi rig I had one take today, and the hook was well in the mouth, so definitely was the right choice for that spot. Oh, and relevant to another thread, it was cast out in a PVA bag of mixed pellets and chops/crumbled boilies. It is weird that despite the right and middle rods being at the same distance how the lakebed is different within 10metres. I do check presentation for the rigs in the margins and at times on the spots.

I'm still using both the 360⁰rig and the reverse combi rig, and both still catching. I've tried a Multi-rig for the pop-up slivers over maize and birdfood, but did lose a fish to a hookpull, so went back to the other rigs, and specifically the reverse combi over the particles. I've shortened the fluorocarbon section over particles, to no more than 10mm.

How you doing? This session was a rather decent one, despite managing to leave my hookbait bucket at home with my medium Spomb in it. I spent an hour cursing and swearing as I used the small Spomb to put a bucket of maize and birdfood in. The first night produced a tench of around 6lb on a straight out of the bag bottom bait, which somehow managed to go across the middle rod. The 2nd night was quiet. Last night around 11pm I had a strange occurrence on the middle rod, it pulled to the right, with what appeared to be a run, but there was nothing there, so I recast with a fresh stringer. At 3am I had the same thing happen again. I think that it was a goose or swan swimming through the line just in front of my rod tips, or a swan picking the hookbait up. A couple of miscasts with stringers, but 3rd time lucky. I was sat drinking coffee and eating breakfast when the rod went with a 22lb mirror, one of last years stocking, and a 10lb weight gain. Caught on a 360 rig with a meshed 15mm Nutty Bait pop-up with a stringer of 6x 18mm Nutty Bait boilies. This morning I was starting to tidy up ready to pack up when the right hand rod went, which was the rod over the maize, and managed a rather nice 26lb mirror on the 'sliver' of Monster Crab pop-up on a reverse combi rig. This fish was from the 2021 stocking and went in at 11lb.