salokcinnodrog

That ESP Boiliepult actually left me with bleeding knuckles; no matter how I held the catapult I would get knuckle rap. I do like the idea of the guard, but sadly to get any distance I had to get longer arms. Holding the catapult at full arm extension, and pulling the elastic back as far as I could across my body still didn't make the distance of Drennan Boiliepult. I know it's not easy, but a throwing stick I can get single baits around 100metres, and multiple baits the distances I need up to that.

Have you looked at the Rod Hutchinson range of short rods? Dream makers or The Ones in 10ft, or The One in a hybrid 8 and 10ft. Hutchy pulled back to Italy last year, but is now being sold in the UK again, may be worth a look.

I could make a bait probably a lot cheaper than paying retail price for boilies, although if I wanted top quality, I may find it a bit more expensive as I wouldn't want junk ingredients. Animal feed suppliers are good places for ingredients, Lamlac, Cooked cereal meal, fishmeals, birdfoods, vitamin and minerals, you think of it, we got it. The bit that works expensive can be bulk bags, 25kilos at a time of some ingredients. This may be restrictive as some ingredients have short shelf life, some 6 or even 4 months or less. So you may need to bulk roll, and that can cut down fishing time.

Drennan Boiliepult, keep the elastic away from sunlight (as any cattie elastic), tie wrap the elastic to the arms, and get a smaller pouch than the standard one, and tie wrap the elastic through the pouch holes. I usually get a few months out of each elastic I use.

Blooming heck, you lot think you've got it hard? I can remember the day of fishing an open bail arm on your reel, probably the original reason for the line clip on your rod, just in front of the reel seat From that I went to using the rear drag on Abu Cardinal Ultracasts instead of open bail arm, to the baitrunner system. Now that was fun, trying to judge when to close the bail arm either manually or by winding in! In fact I still use open bail arm frequently for pike fishing, on my Baitrunners. The baitrunner is effectively a safety feature, to stop the fish dragging your rods in, and that is what I use it as, either from the baitrunner lever at the back, or the front spool baitrunner facility, the further out I fish, the tighter the tension, unless snag fishing when it is tight! In fact on many runs I actually get to the rod before any line has been taken off the reel. From Baitrunners I went back to front drag on big pits (Aerlex's), and had no problems. However when I went back to 10000 size Baitrunners, I did have a calamity on my first run back, I hadn't tightened the baitrunner enough, so ended up with a major birds nest. That sorted I soon got used to the baitrunner again. Since then I have once again gone back to front drag baitrunner, again, no problems. Playing fish off the drag, or clutch, and allowing line to be taken off the baitrunner does cause line twist, one of the major reasons I stick to back winding even now.

If I had to pay full price for PVA, I would be using Tim's recommendation

Yonny,I think you prefer frozen baits wherever possible, but do you think shelfies are nearly as good as frozen now? Some baits from various manufacturers are exactly the same recipe from frozen to shelf life, is it just the preserve 'dip' that makes them different? In fact some bait companies release some baits in a shelf life only. What are your thoughts on these? Some glugs, like Marine 17 will coat shelfies, as well as frozen.

Come see me for a Fox Easy mat Folds into itself and bag easily after a bit of practice.

The best alarms on the market are the ones that work for you! I have not recently had the problem of my Delkims going doolally when they got wet (it has happened in the long distant past), and I use the sensitivity dial dependant on lake and weather conditions and lead style, running vs semi-fixed. I use the volume dial dependant on whether I am an overnight or just day session. Overnight I have my ATT receiver in my bivvy. A day session I have the volume on the alarm at a level I can hear it, and that means I use the tone dial to put the alarm at a pitch of tone I can hear comfortably (usually quite high tone). They work for me. Yet there will be others who prefer Fox alarms, although my gripe is that models change every few years. A Mini Micron from the early noughties should be the same now, but we have had Micron this, Micron that, Micron M, Micron MS, MR, Mr+, NTX all in the name of convincing anglers to spend more money on tackle that they should not need to. Steve Nevilles, Gardner ATTs alarms, TFG Dave Lane MagRunners as far as I can see are almost bombproof, and the TFG's are around £80 for a set of 3

I think this has opened up a number of points or even mini topics! I have a number of thoughts going on in my head, and I can't put them all into words at the moment, so if this seems disjointed I'm sorry. Air dried baits take on water faster than frozen baits I think, which means they go softer faster as well. If there is no moisture in a bait, then it goes in faster, takes on water, than if there is moisture in a bait as per frozen. It likely means they will appear washed out faster than a standard frozen bait. If you are rehydrating with a liquid, then you will be adding additional attractors and changing the bait in some way, which may neutralise some of its original properties, but increase something new by increasing the liquid attractors, which may or will leach out into the surrounding water. A vs B, a good bait which (should) work to a bait which has more attraction in liquid form. Which is better a food bait or a liquid attractor and food bait? A good food bait should work on its own merits, attractive and a food that the carp search for. Do you use the same rehydrating liquid every time? If one session you rehydrate in hempy water, and catch, then the next session in CSL water and blank was it the rehydration that caused the catch or the blank? You may be confusing yourself! Are you using the rehydration to avoid pre-baiting, or to change your bait because everyone is using the same bait? I think shelf life's have come on in leaps and bounds in the past few years, from a basic attractor bait, almost relying on the flavour to catch, at a higher level than normal, to the same bait as the frozen. There are many shelf life's and freezer baits that are now on the same base! Nutrabaits Trigga, Big Fish Mix, Solar Seafood Takeaway, Crafty Catcher King Prawn are baits that are available in both shelfie and frozen, but there are others. I think the preserving method of shelf life's is now air drying, then a sugar/glycerol liquid dip. This will likely stop or slow down glugging them in many liquids, and prevent 'rehydrating' them, there is almost impermeable layer on them. Any glug will stay on the outside as opposed to soaking in. I happily use a mix of Shelf life's and Frozen. My Shelf Life's are slightly harder than the same bait in frozen, so on crayfish free waters, I use that shelfie as a hookbait as it doesn't soften as quickly as the frozen, suggesting that frozen baits break down faster, which is something that doesn't appear to have changed over time. Shelf life's often/usually appear to be more instantly attractive than frozen, in the same recipe. This is something that various anglers have commented and written on; Gary Bayes, Ken Townley and others have all written articles about how the shelf life of the bait they have used can be more instantly attractive than the freezer bait, but both work in the longer term. Is the instant attraction from the sugar/glycerine dip? For years when I made my own baits I had a preference for glycerol/glycerine based flavours, I felt that the glycerine was more acceptable than other solvent bases, but was the glycerine an attractor in its own right?

I don't bother rehydrating air dried baits, I use them as they are, rock solid. Why change what I started with? I usually use a mix of air dried, frozen and shelf life's in the same bait. The exception to this is my hookbaits, which are glugged or soaked in Marine 17. Air dried baits I am certain take on water faster than frozen, actually making them softer than frozen boilies at a faster rate. Catapult incidents? The number of times I manage to spray myself with misfired maggots, boilies or mixers. And almost every start with a throwing stick sees a few splash down in the near margin...

I can always point you to what I use in Delkim ST's with the ATTx dongles and receiver, but that may be way out of budget at £80 + per buzzer then the ATTx system at whatever that costs now. There are definitely cheaper options, and possibly one of the best could well be the TFG Dave Lane Magrunners, I think going for around £80 for 3 alarms and receiver. As said, the adjustable sensitivity could well be a luxury, but I have found that with tight lines and semi-fixed leads that a single bleep at maximum sensitivity is worth investigation. With running leads and slack lines, any indicator should give proper notice, a decent run. I also use my Delks for pike, roach, tench and bream fishing. While roach fishing earlier in the year, a single bleep lead to a number of fish.

Abbreviated handle, basically just the reel seat with a bit of duplon or shrink tube along at the butt. Full handle, the reel seat and then duplon or cork all along to the butt end. Proper tarty is a set of rods with full cork

I know the River Soar received a comprehensive chapter in Neil Waytes River Carping when that was published a few years ago, with some spots, rigs and baits etc. One thing I have found in keeping crayfish at bay, armour or stocking mesh does not always work, the big Signals will cut through it, even in four layers deep around your baits, and at Armormesh £10 a pop is an expensive way to deal with it! On Nazeing I had to resort to drilled wooden balls soaked in bait dip, in my case an emulsifier/sweetener, Marine 17 liquid and Hold'em Liquid. The Hold'em Liquid is an aniseed based oil used for holding game birds in your feeding area. You may be able to avoid Crays if you fish areas that are more silty rather than hard bottomed.

http://www.solar24-7.co.uk/baitshop/titanium-indicator-range/product/t9-titanium-indicator---long-arm-system-2 http://www.solar24-7.co.uk/baitshop/titanium-indicator-range/product/t1-titanium-indicator---short-arm-system-2 Everything you need all in one

And they work for long range feeder fishing, even with big roach

I seem to recall that he did not get swans swimming through the line like they did with more neutral colours... Matt Hayes at the time was the face of TFG, and the line was or is the Nan-Tec lines I think. It is still available I reckon you'll find. Monster Squid Purple, I have caught a few fish on the mini pop-ups, with the pop-up as the top bait on a snowman over my fishmeal boilie, and a couple of tench on the pop-ups alone. Isn't it that as the light disappears underwater that colours no longer show up, but the item shows up as black?

I rarely get my buzzer bars level, I look later and then try to push the high side down As for reel handles, I rarely bother, although all the bail arms do have to be lined up at the top, which is actually more of a bite indication thing than any aesthetics The one thing I do try to get perfectly flat and level is my bedchair! Monkey climbers are handy if you want some resistance in your set-up when a fish takes, whereas most of us want minimal resistance, hence the switch back to hanging indicators. A big heavy monkey on a needle is probably still pretty good on a long range set-up, where you get a drop back on a take, almost the heavier the better, but the same effect can be created by a spring or tension arm indicator and if a fish does take line at range, then the springer should come unclipped. I don't think that swingers are as good for long range, may just be me though!

The ESP no matter what I did gave me knuckle wrap. The elastic was too soft for any decent distance unless you pulled it back with a four foot extending arm, and the pouch just felt totally uncomfortable to load and use. The Drennan feels right, the elastic is the right thickness and length to get a reasonable distance, after changing the pouch for a smaller one it is very rare to get knuckle wrap. Yonny makes a point about Drennan elastic, I don't have an issue, but it may be because I remove the pouch and the pegs holding it on. I push the elastic through the new pouch holes, and cable tie it in place. As a habit of overkill, I also cable tie the elastic onto the arms.

Sorry, I hate the ESP Boiliepult absolutely awful, give me the Drennan Boiliepult, but change the pouch to a smaller one.

Welcome to Carp.com. I am afraid to say it, but I am sorry, you will have to do the hard work yourself. If I let any of my hard earned secrets go, my mates who are still fishing the Yare would be very upset. I will give you a clue though, get used to the search facility as there are a few older threads where some information has ended up from a few of us

I may go against the grain, in that I like using an Avon style rod for smaller carp, although that same rod has landed fish to over 20 when floater fishing, but boy did I get pooped with having to play the fish around a lily bed... I would be looking at a rod of around 1.5-2.0lb test curve if you want that same rod for tench, bream, barbel, chub and carp, but if you were using it exclusively for carp, then 2.5-2.75lb TC.

] Someone else saying the same thing is often useful, shows that other people recommend or use the same ideas

15kilo bag of Vitalin is £14.90. Brilliant mix used wet, over wet, nearly dry or as Method. Can mix in particles, boilies, chops or use neat. I had a lot of fish over Vitalin, boilies and particles from Ardleigh with it, that was carp and bream which also love it. Basically wet it about 30minutes before you use it, or add your boiled particles in juice about some sort of time. You can pour boiling water over it the night before, but I found 30 minutes good enough. If you mix and ball it, you can freeze the balls, frozen balls (ooh er Mrs ) fire out a long way without breaking up

From my physics lessons I recall that sound travels fastest through a solid, then water then air. It is down to its properties in air that we hear speech and other noises. I know that if you fish tight lines in a pretty strong wind you can hear the line 'thrumming' in the wind, same as that same wind and telegraph or power cables. Sound creates a vibration, in fact it is that vibration that you 'hear'. I'm trying to recall how many fish I have caught in stormy conditions with a tight line; one that stands out was in a gale that actually had me holding onto bivvy with one hand, and trying to play a fish with the other, as well as standing on the bivvy skirt in a strong November gale. As with any fishing, I wonder if I fished tight lines how many it scares, as opposed to fishing slack would I have the same results? Is it even possible to fish a slack line in a gale, unless you have the rod tips under the water? More room for experimentation, tight vs slack in a wind, but I honestly don't have the water, or even the time and conditions guaranteed to try it I think in that sort of fishing we have actually reached an impasse, you wouldn't want to be diving in that, you wouldn't be able to even fish a slack line if conditions are ripping any slack line up.