salokcinnodrog
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Posts posted by salokcinnodrog
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2 hours ago, kevtaylor said:
I bought a new dog because of rats at fishing, having them climbing up my spod rod in the doorway and running all over the bivvy was the final straw at Bluebell lakes. I'd never experienced that level of rat infestation there before because of my previous dog largely keeping them away. I keep all bait in buckets outside the bivvy.
They've damaged cars there eating wires and getting into the vehicle for food/bait.
Not seen one on my syndi in 3 years!
For years there were no problems at Taverham, then more anglers started fishing it when Anglian Water took it on and litter started becoming a problem. Klaus bought a brand new bivvy and rats chewed their way in through the groundsheet and into his bait and food bags. He found a chewed pack of bacon dragged outside the bivvy.
We get a few rats on the syndicate now, not many, and as you can see, they don't cause me any problems, thanks to Sky. How she can wait patiently on the lead until they get close enough to her to attack them amazes me, she's normally head down and charge.
- Golden Paws, jules007 and kevtaylor
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18 hours ago, salokcinnodrog said:
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!
2 hours ago, yonny said:Agreed. I'd not even noticed the swivel on the leader on until you mentioned it! Absolutely shocking set-up.
This was the other bundle I retrieved. I think that I pulled that lot in with my marker float and lead from memory.
1 hour ago, greekskii said:At least they paid £2 for a premium lead though.
A few Korda leads in there, inline and lead clip.
This is where I think people had been fishing to the spot and getting right under or going through it to the bank. The only safe ways I could think of fishing it was with tight line and being on the rod, or being in the corner swim and keeping the rod down under the snag branches, allowing fish to run out and away. Personally I stuck with fishing to it with the tight line and using the arc to get fish away from it.
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56 minutes ago, yonny said:
Tail rubber jammed on. User error imo.
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.
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On 17/06/2025 at 12:37, framey said:
Whilst it is unlikely
it “could” still happen with a running lead.
that same wind knot “could” loop over itself pig tail and lock in the lead Ala a single granny knot.“could” pick up a piece of detritus on the bed and do the same.
unless you can take out every “could”
You will always be left with an element of risk.
i am happy to use a leadcore leader but I will use a knotless knot (Moors knot ) to join it to minimise the risk.
Use a Korda no trace bead and again take out an element of risk
i would be happy to see the no trace beads more supple/stretchy rather than hard plastic.
On 19/06/2025 at 20:02, kevtaylor said:I use lead clips all the time and will continue quite happily, I can see some danger but happy to live with that as I fish heavy gear and fish sensibly.
If we were that concerned we'd use lower bs hooklinks than the line regardless like match anglers.
Snapped line springs back into a birdsnest, so even the running rig potentially tangles and tethers.
On 20/06/2025 at 14:34, yonny said:Me too.
On the water I'm fishing there's no way you'd be able to fish a running rig. If the fish takes lines on the take you're halfway to losing it already such is the severity of the weed.
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.
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On 20/06/2025 at 16:36, Golden Paws said:
An example of what happens when you leave your boilies inside your bivvy, a visit from Rattus Norvegicus! I seen the thing quite a few times during the day and so deliberately brought the bag inside my bivvy as I thought it wouldn't come in. I'll be storing them in some strong tupperware boxes from now on!
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:
- kevtaylor, jules007, Golden Paws and 1 other
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1 hour ago, kevtaylor said:
Sorry don't know about these specifically but for what it's worth I've got the old Micron M and MX from years back and they all work great. Then bought the dream alarm 'Delkims' and they were unreliable so back to Fox - currently using MX+ - great so far.
I wouldn't have any concerns if I were you - you'll not see many bad reviews of Fox alarms as far as I'm aware if any.
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.
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On 17/06/2025 at 08:57, jh92 said:
Visited a couple mates fishing the river yesterday and seen this, how cool 👌🤣
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:
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13 hours ago, elmoputney said:
No i know, I just think everytime I mention a product I like, I then have to write a essay to justify it. 😂
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.
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16 hours ago, yonny said:
This.
The safest set-up is the one that gets the fish in the net without problems.
Without damaging the fish.
17 hours ago, framey said:Don’t care what anyone says, There is no fool proof lead set up
the best you can hope for is to minimise any problems if and when it happens
underwater, anything can happen once the line has snapped off.
And that is why my usual set up is a run ring straight on the mainline or tubing.
9 hours ago, elmoputney said:I haven't said it's fool proof or perfect or anything but I think it is a little safer than most other things we chuck out into the water, and I think it's a good product.
I agree,
I probably should just stop making suggestions.
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.
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On 14/06/2025 at 18:20, elmoputney said:
A trailer with a running lead could still leave a fish attached to a long trailer, yes it might be minus the lead but the rig is directly tied to the mainline via a swivel, with the hit n run lead clip if you got the same trailer, the rig would come loose as the swivel is free of the mainline,and therefore you will only ever leave the rig attached once the line parts as the fish can move up the mainline and be free of the trailer. It is also a running rig but neater and IMO safer.
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.
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9 hours ago, InteraX said:
Hi guys.
I've just joined a new club with a water I'm very interested in, but they have a rule for that water that says 'no boilies & no nuts'. I'm not allowed to take tins to the water, so can use sweetcorn, but I'm looking for alternatives that will allow me to focus on the carp.
The lake is an old brick works and is very deep (30m/100ft) with an old building and machinery at the bottom, so I'm going to have to try and keep to the margins. It's going to be an interesting water to explore.
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...
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4 hours ago, elmoputney said:
With a running rig you are still going to leave a trailer attached in the event of a crack off. That's why I am now using the pb ones same benefit of a running rig, but as the fish swims off the rig with swivel will travel up the trailing line and free itself leaving only the rig in its mouth,
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.
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11 hours ago, elmoputney said:
PB products hit n run lead clips have become an essential part of my set up lately. From a safety POV, they are smashing, in the event of a crack off or cut off type incident the fish will only ever be left with the rig in its mouth and not trailing loads of line,
and because it's essentially free running they can't use the weight of the lead to help eject the hook. I've had a lot of screaming takes since switching to them.
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.
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32 minutes ago, elmoputney said:
Don't admit that, when I changed from a slip D back to a spinner rig after a hook pull I got loads of beef. 😬
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.
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On 20/09/2024 at 20:08, salokcinnodrog said:
While I've had a few fish recently, i've been working with a version of the reverse combi-rig for pop-ups on one rod on the syndicate.
The 'boom' section is Kryston Snakeskin or Jackal, tied to Gardner Tripwire and a knotless knotted D-rig with putty covering the hooklink join.
The 360 rig is OK on weedfree areas, but where it is patchy, the reverse combi-rig seems to be a better option.
I've actually fished the two rigs side by side, so got a fair comparison.
On the 6 fish session, every rig produced: critically balanced 12mm pop-up over hemp, 2 carp, the 360 rig, 2 carp (the two largest), and the reverse combi 2 and lost one. That area of the lake there is plenty of clear lakebed.
This session (so far) it was the reverse combi-rig that produced and it was on the same line as the 360, about 10metres away, but last week the 360 was coming in weed covered, although that could be from where it was drifting.
It may also be bait, a bright fluoro pink pop-up as opposed to a neutral feed bait pop-up, but the reverse combi is definitely giving food for thought as I had a tench on it last week and nothing to the other two rigs. I did have a small tench last night on the multi-rig over hemp and sweetcorn.
This is the rig that landed the 33lb fish this week.
The only problem is that the VMC hook is just starting to rust by the eye.
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.
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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.
- ouchthathurt, Roughtor, commonly and 4 others
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6 minutes ago, kevtaylor said:
Put your shades on if pushing through undergrowth or climbing trees, you don't want to have something go in your eye during a trip 👍
Can you tell I'm accident prone yet? 🤣
I've done that one, and required a hospital visit for a grass splinter in the eye.
As for other stupid mistakes, leaving the tackle box at home a few times, requiring journeys home to pick it up from Weybread No.1, Suffolk Water Park and Earith.
I've left my rucksack at home, and this trip my hookbait bucket which also contained my medium Spomb.
Not checked a combi-rig knot after landing a fish, I just recast and on the next take the hooklink parted at the knot.
I've forgotten how many times I've fallen in from leaning over too far, a couple of times from a tree, and the numbers of pairs of sunglasses I have watched go 'plop' from the top of a tree, although at Yew Tree I did manage to recover a pair that fell off.
Oh yes, the wading one, I even had a wading stick in hand, but as I waded back to land a large pike decided I was invading it's territory and went for the stick and me. I fell backwards and over the top of my chesties in water up to my chest.
Oh yes, and I think possibly the worst, leaving my insect repellant at home and getting a bite that caused the blood poisoning which despite not being a disease, caused the life threatening illness I had last year.
- Golden Paws and kevtaylor
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4 hours ago, jules007 said:
For time being i am gonna stick to margins or back bay, the bay is shaded a lot so the weed dont make a lot of progress in there, may get a rake to clear some close in spots
I have been seen up to my chest in the lake raking a swim to make it fishable, plain ordinary garden rake.
I think we all go through 'the struggles' at times. I had a bad year on Nazeing on the Lagoons; I couldn't get onto fish with people in the swims as I was arriving late after work and there were full-time anglers on there as well. It made me more determined to catch.
If I had not gotten a job locally I might well have stayed on there rather than fish Alton Water, but travel time put it into touch. Not nice finishing work at 11pm and then having a 2hour drive before setting up. I even struggled on
this syndicate first year, not really getting a feel for the water, but I think that was the numbers of fish, or lack of, in 45acres. A 45minute drive is bearable, but it does mean that I can't spend time or a day watching and looking for fish. I even struggle doing a day's pike fishing as really hurt getting up at 6am and taking Sky for a walk before fishing. At least now I can spend a few days at the lake, and watch and walk Sky.
On 03/06/2025 at 21:45, framey said:I have an alternate story lol where my mate filled in his spot and caught sod all and I went in with crumbed boilies and caught all weekend lol
fish probably not on the bottom atm anyway so just go in with zigs at various depths lol
if you have an allowance of 3 rods then You can have different options on each.
fill in 1
zig with 1
and bits on 1.
the joys of carp fishing lol
I do tend to fish one rod over a bed of particles, one just off them and the third at another feature. Saying that, last year I did fish one on hemp around 10metres out, and the other two were on the edge of the weed where I was convinced that I had seen fish. All 3 rods produced!
I've also caught fish within an hour of Spombing in a bucket of bird food, or a day later when they move in. We can be trying to compete with a lot of natural food, yet boilie only or over particles both produce at times.
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7 minutes ago, yonny said:
Managed to get over to the syndi this week. Tough going but I managed to get on them eventually. Spotted 3 of the bigguns so was pretty excited. Had to wait until an hour before home to get the bite..... a little fully about 10 lb 🤣. Chucked it back without a pic.
Just on pack up I got another take.... lost it in the weed🤦♂️.
Such is life. Roll on next month for more punishment.
When I was fishing Nazeing Meads and Bromeswell I landed a 10lb carp from Bromeswell, and was chuffed to bits so photographed it. The same week I landed a 10lb mirror from Nazeing and slipped it back unphotographed, disappointed.
I did lose a fish 2weeks ago myself, the week my phone crashed, but got it right last week. I hope this week goes smoothly and the fish are over the bait I keep putting in.
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1 hour ago, OldBoy said:
Sadly whatever Ali does now will be tainted by the infamous 'twig' thing!
I acually liked the first few series of Monster Carp he was in, but I suspect as ever Social Media has turned him into some sort of monster, and with new business venture obviously needs to get all interest and purchasing he can.
As for the boilies, I won't be interested at all, in fact recently gone over to method feeders again and happy to do it with the lakes I now fish.
I must admit that Ali Hamidi went down in my eyes when he wrote an article about extending a fishing session rather than go to a family function, a parents birthday. I also dislike his 'loudness' on camera and I did find him a difficult watch, and his attitude with Korda.
OMC seemed to have missed the market with silly prices, although the 'Ali followers' will buy it.
As, despite not watching it, the Dragons would say, I'm out.
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On 06/06/2025 at 17:46, Adders27 said:
Recommend me a sensibly priced carp cradle ( metal framed one )
Ideally packs away flat and isn’t huge in size !
I have the Avid Compact Cradle Mat and it’s nice but packs away a bit bulky.
Thinking of a frame style with legs but I’m confused on what size to get ( UK waters only )
Ideally less than £100 !
I must admit I really don't like metal framed cradles, fish thrash and damage themselves, or thrash and get dropped onto metal.
I have 2 unhooking mats, a big Rod Hutchinson Cabrio Unhooking Mat, and a Chub Xtra Protection Mat.
I do struggle with a mat with deep sides due to a screwed back, lifting a fish can be painful, and having to bend over a walled cradle is a killer, so the majority of the time I use the Chub Mat. If I need to use the barrow to transport my gear I take the Cabrio mat as it makes a really handy barrow bag.
The Chub mat folds in half and stores my pod bag and centre bar, my weigh sling and sack, and a spare pair of storm poles which double as distance sticks and camera phone mount.
Rats and bivvy life
in Scenic pictures and wildlife
Posted
Rats get immune to poison, and learn to avoid traps, and as you say with traps you have to be careful with where they are put in position.
I think that that is possibly because of patrol route?
I'm not 100% sure, but they use their patrol route as the base as it were, then when finding or sniffing food expand from there.