salokcinnodrog

Costessey Number 3 was always a low stock difficult fishery with old fish. I think that when I lived in Norfolk it only contained 10 fish, and that now is a lot less. Probably the only water on the complex that could be fenced The Ski Pit (No.2) was another water that took a lot of effort to get onto the fish with such difficult bankside access. Fencing No.2 is almost impossible, different landowners or controlling clubs on the various sides. Just had a thought, it is not syndicate, and I don't know how badly affected but is Booton suitable? There are or were some decent fish in there, but it is not an easy easy water. I ask as I don't know your disability, so am presuming you are able to walk but not long distances.

As Liam says, go the easy way with with a Pike Float fished next to the hooklink swivel. Or if you want there is a Fox Adjustable Zig Rig kit As for avoiding hooklink tangles with a long hooklink, you could always tie a PVA bag or stringer to the swivel, and nick the hook into the bottom corner of the bag. It doesn't even have to be floating baits either, but an active groundbait that constantly moves from bottom to top and Up and Down, or the floating baits that rise from the lakebed to the surface will give the same impression as your hookbait. It was mentioned in a magazine recently, but I've been doing it for years

Sorry I can't be more specific, but here is a list of Norfolk Waters: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=46858 I don't know if any of them will suit you?

I've got 2 rig bins and a rig wallet. The rig wallet contains pop-up rigs, which I can remember every single hook pattern and size, although it is pretty easy to remember B175 I try to keep my rigs as simple as possible, so it is normally a case of seeing D-rig on a size 8, and then what the hooklink is made from. I do have a few hinged pop-up rigs for very buoyant baits, but most are on stripped back coated braid. As for the 2 rig bins, they contain my standard rigs, either on braid coated and uncoated or combi-rigs. I gave up worrying about hook size, and use a size 6 for almost all of my bottom or snowman presentations. When I change a rig I just tie up a batch at any time the same as previous rigs. The rigs are all pretty much the same length as I don't think that rig length matters so much with running leads.

Might be the Domhoff knot? This might explain it: http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Angling-Times/Section/how-to/Coarse-fishing-advice/Fishing-Knots/How-to-tie-the-Domhoff-fishing-knot/

Glad you know I was teasing It does sound like snail if you aren't sure whats being said. Must confess I very rarely use hooks smaller than a size 4, although with pop-ups I do often use a D-rig on a size 8 straight shank hook. I do sometimes use a hinged rig set-up, normally 15lb Amnesia or Preston Reflo Powerline mono and I do a knotless knot then put the ring on the tag end, force that tag back through the eye to create the D, then lighter tag the end to stop it pulling out. For stiff rigs I go back to 15 or 20lb Amnesia, a 2 or 3 turn blood knot and then tie on a supple hair, although I have used it with a KK. I found with the KK and stiff hair I lost a few fish, so switched back to the supple hair, but I wasn't fishing over a bed of bait at the time. Would the Multi Rig hook set-up work for you? Can be used with a coated or uncoated braid.

Snail? Snell knot There is a Knot tying sticky with knot links at the header page of the forum, but this is the Snell knot direct: http://www.animatedknots.com/snell/index.php?Categ=fishing&LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

Suffolk Water Park have just added on FB that the Traditional and Match lakes are flooded and unfishable, only the Main Lake is open for fishing.

Sorry I can't add much more than you already know and have PM'd you. Wensum fisheries are the gate between the Ski Pit and No.3. and the rules for them are very strict, and receive some very well controlled bailiffing. Here is the NDAA weblink to the fishery: http://www.ndaa.org.uk/page5.html

You may also find mainline braids are abrasive and can cut as the weave is often made up including Kevlar fibres. I've used Kryston coated braids myself for a long time, what is available in USA?

Every fish has been well hooked in the bottom lip. Since using it I have had a total of 3 hookpulls and some of them could be down to me putting too mch pressure on to keep fish away from snags. I've also had to cut the hookshank on a couple it has been so well hooked in the bottom lip.

Hi Nick can you run me through the pluses of this set up and reasoning behind it in more detail ? Thanks Phil The idea behind it was I knew the lake I was moving onto was fairly well pressured and had seen a lot of anglers, therefore a 'basic' rig could possibly have been sussed, especially if I couldn't get much bait out near the hookbait. I wanted a rig that I could use with or without bait around it. I was pretty positive that most anglers fished either bottom baits or pop-ups, and didn't bother putting much bait around the hookbait. The rig ring was to give total movement to the bait up and down the shank. I wanted a longer hair for the reason of not much bait going in, and highly fished for fish may well have gotten used to short hairs. Longer hair with a rig ring, even with an 18mm bait missing, I think that the bait was 15mm or so from the hookshank, and the ring gives total movement, and can be sucked in without twisting around the shank which may happen with a shank tied hair. Is it an advantage? I seemed to pick up a lot of fish that weren't being caught regularly. I think on my first season on the lake out of 9 trips I had something in the region of 15 carp, compared to local anglers who had on average 10 carp, on more nights than I was fishing. More than anything, it was my rig; I had the advantage of I could tie on a fresh hair without having to cut the rig down as I would if I had used a knotless knot or tied the hair on to the eye and then covered it with rig tubing. edited due to error of image quote NG

I mention my rig earlier in the thread, about the sliding ring on the hook shank. I came up with the idea after thinking about a totally free hair rig, and remembering a Rob Maylin picture years ago with a revolving hair, but the hair was above the hook eye on a ring, and could slide from a distance set on the hooklink, basically a pop-up rig. What I wanted was a set-up that I could use with a bottom bait, a pop-up or a snowman (critically balanced), using the pop-up to counter the bottom bait or weight of the hook. Since then I have used this set up with a combi rig, a braided or coated and stripped braid hooklink and it has worked on a number of waters. I'm not sure if it is my own rig, but it is my adaptation; I don't recall seeing anyone else use the idea, although I have no doubt that someone will lay claim to it : The rig pictured did actually have a snowman set-up, but when I retrieved it with fish attached the bottom bait had come off.

Banjo or Stock Pit? http://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/en/content/cms/outdoors/places-to-fish/banjo-lake/ http://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/en/content/cms/outdoors/places-to-fish/stock-pit/

I'd worked on roughly 1/3rd of the depth past the marker float to be hitting the spot next to the marker float, can't remember where I got that figure from, Rod Hutchinson maybe. It likely means that we are also ending up well short of snags as well I believe Gary alluded to it earlier, yet maybe could have extended his ideas a bit more on the coiled or straight out hooklink? I was wondering, a braided hooklink is less likely to fall 'straight' out as opposed to a coated, or even combi-rig. Would that 'extending' presentation be more helpful on confidence? It is something that Jim Gibbinson did with concertina'ing braided rigs with Superstiff, so that after it dissolved, the rig would continue extending or unfolding past the 'safety point'.

That Ripslider, he really did some experimentation to prove or disprove things A person sorely missed on the forum I don't know if you have seen December's Carpology? In the Under the Surface series with Dennis MacFetrich (? spelling), a cast that didn't hit the clip or wasn't feathered, the hooklink ended up tangled around his anti-tangle tubing, presentable, but definitely a tangle. It takes hitting the clip or feathering to make sure that it doesn't tangle when PVA free. Also in the same issue, something I've said before, if the hook and bait is the second item(s) to hit the lakebed after the lead, then the hooklink, no matter what the material may loop up from the lakebed unless weighted down. It may be enough to put you or the fish off, but if the hook and bait is held up a while with a piece of foam, will sink down more slowly and naturally, or may need putty to pull it down. Another method I use when tying my stringers, is to attach the stringer near the lead as well as the hook, but in the process, throwing a loop or 2 around the hooklink. So I have a line of boilies from lead to hook (and beyond), but the looped PVA with boilies attached will also pull the hooklink down. It also obviously helps reduce tangles, and doesn't appear to put the fish off

Ok, so this weeks take was on the running lead, a combi-rig of about 15cms, which I must admit is fairly short to my usual way of thinking, and was fishing over dead weed with a snowman set-up. The carp was hooked properly in the bottom lip, and the run was an absolute screamer, even in the wind. The indicator pulled up, and line was continuously being taken until I hit the rod. Is this any use? http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=9536&highlight=complicated

Whoops Typo''''''''Foot''' I never got on with ' and " for feet and inches either I always get it muddled up - mm are much easier to work with. Although I do switch between the two! Depths and rod lengths in feet and inches, rig lengths in milli or centimetres. Fish weights and breaking strains in lbs and ounces (or lbs only in my case), yet most other weights in kilos. Confused? I sure am

I'm also a fan of braided or coated braid and stripped back section for hooklinks. I feel that the supple and soft feel is more like a piece of weed than a stiffer hooklink material should the carp be able to differentiate. Years ago I tried the silly experiment of putting a piece of braid across my lips, I could hardly feel it, yet do the same with mono or fluorocarbon and I could feel it. I also think that hooklink materials may also need to be considered in how you are fishing or the fishes feeding action. If a fish is lifting straight up then a straightened or stiffer material may be felt faster than a coiled up or naturally landed braided material. Another advantage with braid is that even longer hooklinks can be put in a PVA bag for when the fish are wary of shorter hooklinks.

Whoops Typo''''''''Foot''' I never got on with ' and " for feet and inches either

I've got a feeling I may be missing out when fishing pop-ups as I do prefer the bait tight to the shank. For ages I felt that a fish mouthed the pop-up to take it, rather than sucked it in. Yet reading through this thread, and also on something I read in Tim Paisleys Big Carp ages ago with a pop-up on a long hair as Brian Garner was fishing on The Mangrove, may produce some big fish that wouldn't otherwise often get caught. It may also explain why I missed out on a couple of particular fish from Brackens that I never managed to catch on my favoured set-up, (mind you, there could be other potential reasons, or I could also have lost them). Yet strangely my favoured hook set-up with a snowman also produced 3 30's that had never been caught before. I write "hook set-up" as the hook patterns and attachment were the same, although 2 were caught on a combi version of the rig, and 1 on a coated braid with a stripped section.

I don't think that there are many adaptations of the basic hair rig that will catch you any more fish than the standard hair rig, but there are a couple of useful tweaks Many anglers say that they are fishing a hair rig, yet the truth is that they are fishing the bait so tight to the hook shank that they may as well be fishing a shank mounted bait, or the hair is so short with minimal gap that the hair is not being fished as it was originally worked out by Kevin Maddocks, Lennie Middleton et al. In most cases simply by lengthening the hair then results can be improved. Sure it takes confidence to fish a bait 25mm or more away from the hook if you have been fishing the bait tight to the hook, but it does work I use pretty much the same rigs for all of my fishing, but I fish a set-up that I can alter the hair length to suit my fishing. It may mean that I have a rig ring on the hook shank, but it is not necessarily fished on the "blowback" principle, but more so I have an easy attachment to change the hair length to suit. As it stands, I also think that with how or where I attach a "stop bead" or mini float stop on the hook, when the bait is sucked in the hook point drops naturally into position for going into the bottom lip.

I believe the original intention was with the hair leaving after just a couple of twists of the KK and a critically balanced bait. Is the KD fashionable because of its supposed effectiveness, or because it has been renamed after Kenny Dorset? (it was first fished long before the current reinvention and re-naming in the magazines) Would getting the feeding "right" possibly with a bit more bait in the first place make the KK or basic hair rig as as effective? Or would a standard Knotless knotted hook work better if it was fished with a line aligner or shrink tube "kicker"? I've not used the KD rig in its current fashionable state, I have simply adapted the standard knotless knotted set-up, or used something totally different, by the amount fed so that I have gotten the fish feeding almost pre-occupied if possible. Or correctly, since I can't see the fish picking up (and likely ejecting) my hookbait in the middle of the pond, I have fed so that I get some takes that lead to proper runs and a hooked fish. That is not in the slightest to say that more advanced rigs don't work, but sometimes there is no reason to change rigs, when possibly getting the fish to feed more comfortably may be a better bet, and just changing the standard hair or rig length could be all it takes.

Always just one thing at a time I know it is a lot to think about, but you have plenty of ideas and experience from a number of good people that will help you catch. Have fun with the daughter and work, they always come first, unfortunately sometimes before fishing