salokcinnodrog

Some lily roots are as thick as your arm, so yes I would classify that as a snag. Weeds snags? not really, although there can be plenty of grit, shells etc that can make short work of lines with no abrasion resistance. As for rushes, some stick up above the water away from the main bed which can be on the edge, so yes I would say with the line going around a reed or rush bed it would be classed as a snag, in my mind, I do know I would want a decent line to cope with it.

10-15lb mono with a shockleader for me on the spod rod. If you have had a look at the older threads you'll know why I don't like braid on a spod rod

Tuppence pieces over a baccy tin for me. I can remember buying Herons in the 1980's before upgrading to Optonics. Regularly bending the arm back to shape or to try to avoid false bites in wind.

You're tight Isotopes last for years, I think mine are about 20 years old and are still going, although one is starting to fade. Isotopes have not been sold with any indicators for years; you had to pinch or buy isotopes to put in monkey climbers, then in your swingers, then in your hanging bobbins for as long as I can remember.

We did make sure to minimise the amount of gear we took. Before the advent of carp barrows, an ordinary wheelbarrow often made the journey Plus there was also a time when gear was put into the boat and rowed across the lake If we couldn't or didn't have those, then it was often a two trip job.

My view is that the best barrows going are the Carp Porter range. I have used the Mk.ll and it made short work of a mile walk to the swim at Taverham. If anyone knows Taverham, I am not joking on the distance from the car park to the swims on the far side, even the swims closest to the car park are probably 1/4 of a mile, and it is not fun lugging the gear for a week. I am currently using a 'borrowed' Theseus Carp barrow, and for the RRP of £49.99 it is a good deal, although I do still have rucksack on my back, and I don't open out the side holders. I found it very important to load a barrow correctly, everything needs to be stable, and you don't want much of the the heavy stuff at the back or it will kill your arms, you want the weight as far forward as you can (same with any wheelbarrow to be honest, and I have pushed a few of them over the years ) Water container and ancillaries like books, camouflage net, iPad etc go into the underbarrow bag. I put my spare Chub Eazi Mat with chair on the bottom, then bedchair with legs opened out on that as far back on the barrow, actually resting on the handles before the swan neck. The bedchair legs hold stuff in middle of barrow My tackle box and bait buckets go at the front of the barrow My Bigger unhooking mat with pod/banksticks and buzz bars inside sits on top of bucket and tackle box, then rod holdall goes on the top, again positioned as far forward as possible, and is strapped down with decent bungees.

I worked out what is in my rod holdall alone, and know that £1500 for rods and reels is about right for me on purchase price, although obviously I no longer have receipt. I do have pictures of my gear on the bank in use, but I reckon like everyone else things get added as you update or buy additional items. I keep most receipts on my purchases for a year as habit, I have a kitchen drawer full of them, both fishing tackle and household items, then every now and again go through it and bin older out of guarantee receipts.

Going onto line, and tackle brands 'updating' a make of line, it amuses me when a manufacturer says that the newer version has 2% less stretch than last years line. If last years version has 20% stretch (which is around what most mono's, between 15-25% do), then 2% is just 18%, and not really a significant difference. I still say many monos are overrated, 18lb line being sold as a 15lb to make it sound better; a 15lb line should have a diameter around 0.35mm, not the 0.38-0.4mm that many brands do. Saying that, some makes are catching on! A larger diameter will also reduce your casting distance, so you may need to consider diameter in some cases over breaking strain.

Sorry, but I can guarantee that a basic knotless knot with standard hair does not always work, nor does a Chod. (Boy, I hate that name,) I have watched fish manage to eject such a rig on a clear water at 5metres range. I had to switch to a line aligner, which takes it away from a basic rig, adding shrink tubing makes it more than basic. In fact every Blowback rig is adding bells and whistles, that you may or may not need, with using either a rig ring or as Nashy's original concept, a piece of silicon tubing. A rig ring running up and down the shank, stopped from going past the bend by a small hook bead, is adding additional items. Attaching the hair to the rig ring serves a couple of purposes, it means you can change hair length, by tying on a new hair, and it allows some extra bait movement, 'sliding' or 'extending'. Some fish in some waters are able to eject standard rigs, as per my first paragraph, but Ken Townley, Rob Maylin and others have made the same comments in magazines or books. In fact I think it was Ken Townley who noted that a very successful rig on Savay was easily ejected on one of his local waters, the fish were able to deal with it. Frank Warwick also advocated extending rigs, as did Rob Maylin in one of his books, and I think Jim Gibbinson years ago in an article. They have obviously found that at some point they needed to come up with something totally different. I would say that those three anglers are very good at getting location right, but when they have to adapt and come up with something totally different... I dislike having to faff with rigs, I would much prefer to use a standard knotless knotted rig, or knotless knotted and line aligned, but on Brackens my Combi rigs, or coated braid rigs with a stripped supple section and a free sliding rig ring, were totally different to other anglers, and I had to change dependant on swim or feature. I could see that as I did recover a few other people's rigs from various trees and snags over time, and over a year because I was doing something different I had a more successful catch rate than most anglers fishing there. I'm pretty sure we were mostly fishing the same spots, as I know a number of us had pictures of the various features and bars when the lake was drained!

Strangely enough, I have fished waters where either due to lakebed or fish, the knotless knot didn't work, I did have to go slightly more advanced. Same on Brackens; when I started I knew it was a riggy water, so I needed something different with my spin (sic ) on it from what I reckoned the locals were using (knotless knot on coated braid) and semi-fixed leads with hardly any bait around the hook. Extending or Bungee rigs are different, some fish learn how to deal with 'the norm', usually by association with capture or if every angler is fishing the same. I have played with Triggerlink, and I don't like it. It is too thick for my liking, even if it is attached to Amnesia as part of a combi rig it didn't seem to sit right.

Or use a braided hooklink and a length of tubing over the swivel knot and concertina the braid inside by 'stretching' the tubing down and as it retracts if will take the braid with it for an extending hooklink.

Knotless knot for braid, is no problem.

I have a Fox holdall myself, takes 3 made up rods, and the landing net in the central pocket. It also straps into my bivvy bag, so making it a full system. http://www.foxint.com/products/specialist-fishing/Specialist%20Luggage/ http://www.foxint.com/catalogues-sections-products.php?section=114&catalogue=1

Like you I ditched braid on the spod rod, although not necessarily for the same reason. I use the same mainline on the spod rod as I do on my fishing rods, currently Gardner Pro, but have used Daiwa Sensor in the past and both caused no problems chucking a Big Spomb a long way on the Aerlex and Big Bertha and her DD's. The shockleader I use is usually 60lb Drennan Greased Weasel, from the sea fishing section, the grey is softer than the other fluorescent colours available. Shockleader length is a minimum of your casting drop, plus at least 4 turns on the reel, and is connected to the mainline with a Uni knot. Tie an overhand loop in the shockleader, then put the mainline through the knot, and tie a uni knot back down the leader, and gradually pull both tight after lubricating. That shockleader will stay on the line all season, or until I need to change the line. That is a reminder, my spod reel line needs changing

If they are large enough, a kitchen knife and scissors sharpener, the swipe through ones, although I usually use a fine file, or just buy a new pair of braid blades. My Gardner ones I have had for about 10 years have had the dubious pleasure of being used for cutting wire for traces, and still work for cutting fishing braids

This amuses me, probably for the wrong reasons. A raised edge on the front bar, i.e the bar inside the material sleeve, the bar above the door having material joining it to the front all the way along will stop water coming inside the bivvy, strictly speaking there is no need for a peak on a bivvy. A peak helps if you set up facing the weather, in theory it reduces rain getting into the front of your bivvy. However a stronger wind can blow rain droplets into your bivvy, whether you have a peak or not. The peak on many modern domes seems to be a part porch, or a cut down porch, with no storm sides. Not being funny, but I could not justify the money for Trakker, despite having the option to buy them through work!

Wafter, the latest name for an extremely critically balanced bait Seriously you could argue semantics, but to me a wafter should sink, but extremely slowly of its own accord, or have a neutral buoyancy, it would stay in what level of water it was put in. If it doesn't sink, but sits on the surface, then it is a pop-up! That slow sinking bait is going to be lighter than the freebies, and will be more easily sucked in than the free baits, and the hook will follow it in due to the hair. A bait that sinks with the weight of the hook, but would normally float, is a pop-up, even if the weight of the hook overbalanced it. Various hooks have different masses or weights, so a pop-up that is sunk by a size 6 Mugga is more likely to pop-up a size 10 101.

Gardner Pro, works for me. Far superior to most more expensive lines!

And being as we no longer have a shop on site, we also relaxed the rules for all members as long as the link is direct to the item. We even put a nice post up for everyone telling them that as well

James, These may be of some use to you: http://www.totalfishinggear.co.uk/buy.cfm/carp-accessories/tf-gear-thermo-lite-stove/39/no/62195 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/321507812729?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=t&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ff19=0 http://trakkerproducts.co.uk/fishing-gear/cooking-gear/

I used the Dual Fuel Peak 1 and I also binned mine. I used to keep mine clean and regularly serviced, but it failed one trip. I took it apart on the bank, cleaned the generator and pump, put it back together and it still did not work. It would not fuel, despite being properly pumped up, so I took it apart again. I rebuilt it, but it still would not work. I repumped it, switched it on again and nothing, I lifted it up, and it sprayed petrol all over my face. I refuse to ever use petrol or dual fuel stoves again, and stick to gas. A single 500 size canister lasts me a number of days. A 5 day session I will actually only use 1 canister, and I do boil the kettle plenty and make decent dinners. That same canister will make it through a 4 day trip and a bit

Personally, for single nighters I would get a brolly system with maybe an overwrap if you do o/n's in the winter. In fact I use a brolly system for all my fishing now, both long and short sessions. A brolly is usually more versatile than a full bivvy, with maybe a couple of exceptions, the Fox Royale Classic, and Nash H-Gun.

This is C&P'd from the Slack vs Tight lines thread

You could have different presentation without knowing it, sometimes a bait sat on the top of the pile of freebies, and sometimes under or in the middle of it. It may do your head in not knowing which way you are fishing. I can understand all perspectives, a mouthful of bait picking up a fish that just cleans up a PVA bag of bait with a hook attached somewhere in there, the hookbait in the middle or under could be good, or on top it may be able to 'see' the bait and avoid it, or it being more blatant make the hookbait stand out more. I really hate this 'drop the lead', in most cases it is not needed, is actually a form of pollution, littering. In weed an inline zipp shaped lead will play through the weed far better than anything with a lead clip attached. Add to that fishing a leader in weed is a big no no. You are moving the weak point further up the line, and increasing the chance of a fish getting tethered. The leader knot in itself is a weed collector, if because you are fishing a leader in weed, if a break off occurs, that leader can go round plenty of weed, creating the chance of tethering. Also helicopter set-ups in weed are also a No, they don't give fast enough indication, the fish can move miles before you get any indication at the rod end. An additional point is that weed can be quite abrasive, not necessarily the weed itself, but snails, mussels etc, and a heli set-up increases the chance of the line giving way where the rig runs over it. Only a couple of screaming runs? That actually sounds to me like you are often being done, the fish getting away with it without any indication at the rod end. Try switching to a different set-up, maybe a 'paternostered' style running lead on a weak link (which will only give way if the lead is snagged) and you could find yourself getting far more fish.