salokcinnodrog

I test every single hook. As I take it out of the pack I check to see the point is ok, and if I can bend it by hand, and When I pull my knots tight I pull the hook with the grip holes on a pair of forceps. I know I'm pulling the centre of the bend, but any weakness should show up between those checks. I know it's not relevant now, but I have used Kamasan B175's in the past for the bent hook rigs, and I did used to bend them mid shank. I never had one of those go wrong, straighten or bend out. In fact I do still do that when I use them on pike traces as the upper single hook, and again, not had a problem. I think some branded carp hooks are a cheaper copy of some other hooks, the pattern being arrived at in response to other brands being there first, a tackle brand making cost cutting exercises or a compromise of cost vs strength and reliability. In other words I won't trust some tackle branded hooks at all. Get a hook pattern you can rely on, and don't just follow fashion. Get the right hook for your fishing; don't use a thin gauge hook near snags or where you need to put the pressure on.

I'll put the quote below my post because so much of it is relevant, and interesting, but the bit that strikes me most is your comment about Korda hooks. If they are that soft do you think or feel that the point is easier to blunt while in use? I wonder if that may answer the question of me missing fish on a Korda hook a few years ago, the point had been blunted. I changed to another brand of hook, I think it was the Gardner, but may have been a Gamakatsu, and the bait in exactly the same spot produced fish. I'm certain that because the Korda hook was blunter it may not have been pr icking and was being ejected. When it comes to hooks I am quite fussy, Gardner Muggas and Gamakatsu GP204's served me well.

Old school:

Must admit I've never had a problem with Gardner Mugga's in standard or Continental versions, although I have been using Solar 101's now for around a year. I very rarely get hook pulls, maybe it's because I am probably anal about rig design and make-up. To me a hook pull is usually down to too short a hair for the situation you are fishing in, although I did find that helicopter and silt rig (bomb on the end of the line) set-ups I did get a fair number. I have a feeling it may be the angle of line pull is 'wrong' with them. The last hook pull I can remember was on Ardleigh, when I was using a stiff hair on a stiff rig, I had played a fish for a few minutes when the fish just fell off. Takes on there were so few it was not a nice feeling. I considered the issue, and now avoid a stiff hair as I think it prevents the bait being taken in properly.

I wanted to fish braid in the weed at Taverham, but just decided to see if I could splice Merlin instead of knotting it. The rig idea just evolved from that. I think the original tubing was silicon tubing over the eye of the hook. The hair was my standard hair attachment anyway, or with whipping thread, as no-one had published the knotless knot back in the early 1990's.

As I said, it doesn't make it a complete length of 50lb Merlin; it still has a breaking strain of 25lb in the section between the splices. Sadly not the clearest picture, but you can make out the end of the splices. I tested it by pulling on both ends with forceps, I could not physically break it. Therefore the weak point will be the mainline to swivel knot, a fish would be carrying at most a 15cm hooklink, the hook itself can also be ejected should a fish be lost. Frank (Levigsp) has explained in the past how a hook can be ejected The shrink tube at the swivel end, is simply to reduce tangles.

Tied one up with 25lb Merlin while on the bank this weekend. I say tied, spliced one up this weekend. Dental Floss whipped hair, spliced hook and swivel, the hook fitted with a shrink tube kicker. I'll add picture to this later

It came out as a tongue twister even on a keyboard!

On a splice it does not double the whole length of the hooklink, and it will still break at its expected breaking strain, just not usually on the spliced section. A spliced boat rope, is the example of that as I have seen a rope snapped under extreme (gale force) wind and waves, and it snapped above the splice. I have tried the same with a spliced hooklink, and again, the pressure under stress, pulling the hook and swivel, the Merlin snapped along its length, not in the splice. In actual use, I have never snapped or had a break off of the hooklink with a braided hooklink, although I have had a combi-rig knot give way (my fault, I cast out the same rig after landing a decent 20 and had another take very quickly). Correction, I can think of one occasion at Earith, almost an instant take after casting, and I had the hooklink give way, as a cut or bite off. It is possible it was a catfish, maybe a pike, but that is the only occasion. This hooklink snapping midway would leave a fish with a hook and at most 150millimetres of trailing line, and that can be ejected, even if it is a barbed hook. As an aside, double posts happen if you hold your finger on 'post' for an extra second or your internet 'freezes'.

Just been having a think, how would splicing the hook on work for you? It does give a stiffer section near the hook, and then whipping on your hair or even using a sliding ring on the shank stopped with a rig stop bead? If you do splice it, with the stiffer section you could use it for a pop-up or snowman rig with the rig ring, or with a whipped hair as a bottom bait rig.

You may find this interesting: http://www.carprus.eu/about-the-company.php Splicing stronger than knotting I knew about, and boat ropes are spliced for loops at the end, learnt that as a kid when using a dinghy on the broads, hence my splicing experiments with braids in the early 90's.

They're big and full of crays Blanked today, the water was the colour of milky coffee. Only a couple of bleeps, I left it for a second of two, then decided to strike, but there was nothing there. Certain it wasn't crays on the bait as the bait was popped up well of the bottom, may have been a liner or grebe swimming through the line. Tried plenty of baits, drifted float fished and ledgered, but no luck. Allus next time!

LILO? Probably Klaus, Phil and myself Busted Merlin is not that hard to thread through, there is a sneaky secret; a long needle and bunching up the material. As you push the needle through the Merlin, bunch it up, and as its bunched pull the line through the middle. It does also work with the line, but takes longer. I also discovered before Octosplice, (any one remember that by Kesmark), that Merlin and Silkworm could be spliced securely without using a knot at all. The splice will hold on both hooks and swivels without glueing. Again a whipping thread hair.

This years pike fishing for me started on New Years Day, when I got up at 3am to drive down to Essex so I could set up and fish a couple of hours in the dark. At 8.30 ish the right hand rod baited with a popped up bluey head went off, and after a decent scrap this 12 was netted. 12.00 and the left hand rod baited with a lamprey tail brought this This fish didn't scrap so well, looking like it had had an argument with something, with cuts and scars around the head, but weighed 13lb. As I had set up in the dark, both rods were ledgered dead-baits, one fished popped up, the other on the bottom, and both produced fish. As you can see, the unhooking mat and sling is ready, with forceps to hand. I can unhook the pike, sling the trace and weight out the way (usually back into the water) so there is no risk to me or the fish, then slide the net out the way and straight into the sling to weigh the fish. Then it's already in the sling to carry back to the lake safely to be released. Tomorrow I reckon I can drive down slightly later, but still be there for an early one.

I went through a stage of threading Amnesia or Fluorocarbon through 25lb Merlin to create a semi-stiff hooklink, loop going through a swivel rather than quick link style, the inner helping the loop to hold true Straight shank hook (I think it was actually a Drennan Super Specialist) with the hair made with whipping thread,and whipped down the hook shank. I seem to recall silicon tubing made up the line aligner. It worked, but was fiddly to keep on doing regularly. By the way, like your Zippo, brass looks nicer than chrome Got one the same myself!

The immunised strain of carp can still be carriers of KHV, and so, if stocked into lakes can pass the disease onto fish already present in the water. Carp that have recovered are also still carriers.

Yes Ace have.Shimano own a number of tackle brands as well as their own, and I think bought Max Cottis and Steve out

Yes and No! I work for the company that produces Crafty Catcher Boilies, I know the ingredients; they print them on the packet, I've even used them myself, and caught fish on them. However it's not really for me to big them up as that could be seen as advertising, and it's a bit difficult as I'm sponsored by someone else (before I started working for the company). The Retro baits are as close as possible the original recipes, flavours that made Crafty Catcher famous back in the original Crafty Catcher days. They catch fish as an attractor bait, although I would be happy to use King Prawn as a food bait.

Like that? Line Aligner using fake maggot to disguise the hook To camouflage the hook in this pic I have used a fake maggot and created a line aligner with that. Again, the hook was tied on with a knotless knot and then the fake maggot threaded on with a needle

Yes I guess that is what is now a kicker. The other alternative to the bent hook was invented or credited to Jim Gibbinson (really worth reading his Carpworld articles, and books), the Line Aligner. It also created the same difficult to eject the hook effect that the bent hook did. The inturned eye I think helps with the 'kicker', it sits more naturally. The line aligner I think works better with a straight shank hook. Now I know the barbed and barbless debate has come up many times, but I have also seen and read of barbed hooks being ejected after a fish loss, dependant on certain conditions. Ken Townley also wrote about this in Big Carp. A lost fish, trailing the hooklink and possibly a short length of line (with no added weight, lead or leadcore) can eject a barbed hook. The barbless issue is that hook cuts deeper, and wobbles in the mouth during the fight, creating a bigger hole, and obviously more damage. The barb holds the hook in place, preventing wobbling, therefore less damage. The barbed issue is the hook is harder to remove, and people sometimes rip it out as opposed to seeing it is deep hooked, and cutting the hook rather than trying to force it out.

Strangely enough, I think it's the B175 that was the original bent hook, a quite intentional bend being put in the shank of the hook. It is the mouth damage that bent hooks did that saw them being banned on most lakes. Longer shanked hooks or an additional length created by tube seem to have a better hook up ratio than shorter shanked hooks. I think the first shank extension on hooks was probably on the Savay rig? Just a lengthening of the shank with tube, then a sliding hair, but in many cases it was this shank extension that created more hook ups. You then have the tubing being used to create the bent hook effect, but without the damaging effects of the actual bent hook.

It depends on how you attach the hook to the hooklink. If I use a Kamasan B175, I knot the hook on 'properly' with a very precise shrink tube to form a bent hook effect. A stop bead on the hook shank, and a rig ring running up and down the shank. The alternative way I fish it is with a Uni-knot loop with the pop-up tight to the hook and knotless knotted with a braid hooklink. I do occasionally use a Chod hook, but again, I always have the bait tight to the shank. I have found that inturned eyes on the hook, tend to give (me) better hook holds than out turned eye patterns. Most of my pop-ups are fished close to the lakebed, only just above bottom rubbish.