salokcinnodrog

See the one on the right? That's my preferred football...

Grief, can't believe it, another England win. Sam Marino last week was as easy, but tonight they actually gave a half decent performance against a half decent team. The first half though, bit of a urgh, no show, yet in the second they woke up. Kane, hasn't scored for Spurs this season, yet two class goals for his country. It's all about records though, you wouldn't have bet against Rooney taking any penalty would you. I do however think this was the most important goal of the night though https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=946114085427174

On rare occasions I use a Chod rig I still use Amnesia in 20lb.

I heard a 16 year old lad in East London was asked what he had in his pocket today... His answer, 'iPhone, iPod, and Ozil'. Reece Oxford Result for West Ham, well played

I hadn't thought about it, but stopped using it when I started thinking about lead weights and fishing, realising that using lead between size 8 shot and 1.1 oz is illegal anyway.

This is an addition for a couple of reasons. The first is because I remembered to photograph these to show the cheaper way over the carp anglers mugged off version. Or a simple pop-up rig showing the weight in action. I have put the hook on knotless knotted on a coated braid, with the hook end being stripped. The rig ring has a pop-up tied on with dental floss Is that simple enough?

Tim, I know you have problems with some knot tying, and remembered my other post below, I noticed something I do when making the hair and hair loop, which may be of some use to you: When you tie the Uni knot loop at the end, have your little finger of the hand holding the line go through the loop as you make the turns with your other hand. Keep it in their until you tighten up.

I'd be really interested to see pics if you have any of how it sits in the water.

Reading back my first answer, I must apologise, the first line 'honestly?' may seem slightly sarcastic, not my intention at all, just how I thought it through in my head as I started answering. For a quite high pop-up, it is only recently that I really started thinking how a pop-up sits in relation to the hook, either leant over or straight up. With a plain straight pop-up tight to the hook, I think the hook sits naturally at an angle, but I really do need to tank test to be sure.

Honestly? How do the fish feed? Do they suck the hook in, or do they clamp down on it? See question below How close to the bottom is the pop-up? Do the fish clamp down and pick up the bait from close range? All might have some relevance as how you fish it? If the fish solely suck the bait then straight up may be preferable as in the bottom pic. If they also come in from above, the bait is low to the lakebed, and the fish almost pin the bait, clamping down on a bait individually, then at an angle, but it may also give possibility of hooking if some fish suck.

Put the lot in a bag, pellets, hook, bait, braided hooklink rig and lead.

I do exactly this, with dental floss, or even mono,and it can also be used as a way of turning a standard bottom bait rig into a snowman set-up as well. Bearing in mind I very rarely use bait stops, and nearly always currently fish with snowman baits. Tie a uni knot loop in the dental floss or mono, and then put your pop-up in that loop and pull the loop tight. Then after you gave put your standard bottom bait on the normal hair, With your two tag ends of the extra bit, tie a reef or double granny knot through the end of the loop, and make sure that is pulled tight. Then, very carefully, to prevent the granny/reef knot pulling free, lighter blob the two tag ends. The pop-up acts as both a bait stop, and also gives you the required buoyancy, et voila snowman

Plenty of good points in the thread, so I'll add my tuppence worth, probably going over some; I look at my hook holds, lost fish and play with hair length accordingly. A fish hooked at the very edge of the lip, or lost during playing, (especially early in the fight), I usually lengthen the hair. The bait is not usually being taken comfortably enough to 'pull' the hook far enough into the mouth to get a good hook-up. A fish hooked deeply, or the hook has scratched down the mouth from deep, the hair is usually too long. If the hook is dead centre of the bottom lip, perfectly hooked, perfect hair length. How or even what you feed can or could change the hooking potential, a large bed of groundbait or particles means if they are feeding comfortably you can shorten the hair (and/or rig) length. Your lead arrangement can also give you some different possibilities, semi-fixed leads may possibly give you worse hookholds than a running lead; not always, but tight lines and wary fish who are used to dealing with rigs in a very similar scenario can mean they can deal with the hook. Lead clips are not always the answer. Run rings sometimes are! Also small fish can disrupt what you think. If small fish are a pain, not just silvers, but smaller carp, you may find that with longer hairs the bait can be taken back and they are munching on the bait without the hook even going into the mouth. If it is silver fish, then stop feeding so much loose groundbait, or small particle, stop attracting them. If it is smaller carp, but with the chance of a larger fish, then think about a sliding or extending hair, which was actually one of the first developments from the original hair rig. The other was the D rig! A snowman with a single piece of fake corn as the topper :lol: It likely actually takes 4or5 pieces of fake corn to neutralise balance on a hook, so to add a boilie as said, however it lies, may well be on the tilt, or as local dialect, it's on the huh! Strangely I have never had a fish take a snowman bait when I have used an individual piece of corn as the topper bait over a boilie. Change to a pop-up over the same bottom bait, I'd lose count of the fish I have caught on it.

I have had issues with mono and fluorocarbon links being worn through when using a knotless knot, curved shank hooks like Muggas, Fangs etc being the worst. Here we go, I hate the word, but maybe look at a Chod style hook with an eye that pulls away from the shank, an out turned eye, as opposed to an inturned. The alternative, but quite fiddly method is to knot the hook on, and then tie on a D section.

A clear area, whether sand, gravel or clay, basically any hard area, I would avoid the bomb on the end of the line if I possibly could, much preferring my standard running or semi-fixed pendant leads. The helicopter set-ups do cast better for long distance fishing, so if I was casting maximum distance I may consider that lead arrangement. Even then, I am still convinced that you need a tight line.

Back to basics again today, free lining dog biscuits for three more chub, 2lb ish (which I didn't weigh), 3lb2oz, and 4lb2oz. I got stung to pieces, and wet feet, but when they look like this the biggest, who cares? Just noticed my unhooking mat,

Basic, simple and will work. It has caught fish for many years, and will continue to catch. There is only one thing I would change, either attaching the lead on a run ring, or instead of using a single rubber bead to protect the know I would use two. The reason for this is so the lead does not rub against the hook link, which may cause it to break over time

Mono is easy to tie, the uni knot loop at the end slides easily. Also I can put a bottom bait on the hair, then use a pop-up as the balancing bait and as a boilie stop. If I'm fishing Nazeing though I change it to dental floss or braid. Crayfish are good at snipping mono hairs, whereas the braid is more resistant. The main advantage of mono is I can tie it easily without 'fluffing' the hair, and it is easier to tie to the rig ring, just blob the tag end of the knot, as I do with my knots anyway

Specially for you then Oh look, the same, just freshly tied!

I am so sad, this little beauty is one of my favourite rigs, a presentation that can get used for pop-ups, snowman, and even bottom baits, although I do tend to fish mostly snowmen baits, a 18mm bottom topped with a 15mm. Another favourite is also adaptable for bottom bait or snowman, dependant on whether you have a fixed or sliding loop in the hair I can go back through the forum, years, and I'm willin to bet, whenever anyone asks about rigs, I use the same photographs, although, I reckon if I took up to date pics the rigs would look almost exactly the same. Really should change that hook...

Strangely enough I tried this years ago, when Ball Pellets first hit the market, with my base mix. I tried exactly the same mix using water as the liquid and egg. Once skinned I rolled them in beaten egg again, more base mix powder, or Betaine.

No worries, my thoughts were also added to because I think it is glycerol in bait soaks that hardens the boilies. So if you had that as a sugar syrup, you could make a hard skinned bait. As an aside I got some ginger beer flavoured syrup from work, that I have put some air dried boilies in to soak. I had planned to use them for chub on the opening night on the river with some sweet corn, but may well think about using them on Nazeing

Now from my thought, and what I've seen, a fixed fixed lead actually can snag, can catch up on any trailing weed etc. Trailing a lead around prevents a hook being ejected, the weight keeps pulling the hook into the lip. The hook can only be ejected with no weight, in the form of a splinter being pushed up to the surface of the skin. The left rig, I thought a joke. To be fair, I think neither are safe

Ok, what about a very short boil to harden the skin, then a dip in a glycerol solution, which stops enzymes denaturing, and prevents them from reacting with the water (hydrophobic?) Glycerol is also a by product of yeast fermentation, effectively part of brewing. Please note, I am just adding ideas in

Now this has really got me thinking, from CM's comments, some old Rod Hutchinson writings, Gary's playing around with yeast, thoughts on enzymes, my thinking and possibly why some Mainline baits could be so effective even though the main ingredients appear just to be a ball of breadcrumbs. I have known for years that baits that appear to be going off work very well, the sugars and enzymes creating a white fluff or pre- mould layer outside boilies, and smelly fermenting particles. Now Mainline are very very careful not to give away ingredients in their baits, but consider an active enzyme, a working yeast, and a base active liquid, be it corn steep, be it like Liquid Trigga, or even a Multimino type additive, you have what is essentially a bait that while apparently quite low in proteins, they are very easily processed and used. Grange CSL, Nutrabaits Trigga and some other baits do work best around 2 or 3 days out of the freezer, when that fluff is starting to appear, as far as I have ever thought, is that the enzymes were breaking it down, and effectively pre-digesting it.