salokcinnodrog

Silicone tubing, I managed to get a large amount in olive green and clear from Mo's co before he disappeared, and as of yet, don't need to get anymore. As for shrink tubing, I don't get that from a tackle shop, I go to Maplins and look carefully at the sizes before I purchase what I want. I say that, cos I can't remember what sizes they do, but know it is usually the smallest available that I want. I don't care that along its length it does have some white writing or printing, cos while the carp are busy trying to squint and read what it says, they are also sucking my bait into their mouth

I can tell you about the feeling of Redmire I could also give you a few spooky 1st and 2nd hand tales from local lakes to me.

I know of a couple of bait companies who threw whole eggs into a concrete mixer and giving them a whizz before adding basemix. A nice mix of egg liquid and shell all adding to the baits effectiveness (or not). I also know of a few who added egg powder and water. The choice is yours, but personally I do like the real deal.

Try grey Drennan Greased Weasel http://drennantackle.com/thelatest/drennan_product/greased-weasel-shock-leader/ The knot I use is to tie an overhand loop in the weasel, but don't pull tight, then through that loop push the mainline, then uni knot the mainline and now pull the overhand knot tight. Lick and spit, lubricate the uni knot and pull tight and down to the knot. Works for me.

For those that like Kurv hooks have a look at Shrimp Buzzer hooks, in fact just google it...

I just had to read it again. An absolutely brilliant book even now, although obviously outdated and misguided (triangle hooks). The life and times of an addicted carp angler. I think many younger anglers could do with reading this, it may make them realise how lucky they are in terms of fisheries now compared to the 1950's, and to some extent may stop this obsession with size.

Sorry I split off the Fly fishing posts from this topic, it is worth a thread in its own right, so I hope my reasons make sense. That thread is now here: http://www.carp.com/topic/20139-richard-gardners-fly-fishing-for-carp/

My view, you only need a leader when casting to the max, absolute distance casting in weed free clear waters. All leaders increase the risk of tethering fish, and create another weak spot in the line as on most occasions, that is where it breaks. If there are any snags or weed etc, then use a mainline suitable for it. Accept you can't cast as far, and don't put fish at risk of tethering.

The all boilie approach may not be such a bad thing as there are so many small silvers getting onto particles and groundbait, and the swans love them too, cleaning up spod spill in the margins, even raiding open buckets in open bivvies ( even when angler present).

Don't forget that Kevlar and Dyneema are used in making bulletproof vests. It is down to the formation of the braid, whether rounded, squared, or even coated as some braids are (even mainline braids). If you use a 3 form braided material, it is smoother and less rough than a 4 form braid. The 4 form being rougher is more cutting and despite being supposedly more friction free, even so can cut. In fact, a miscast with braid under tension can cut fingers all the way to the bone. I can rub my fingers along a length of tension free braid, but add tension, or braid under stress as in casting, and it does not just flow smoothly over the skin!

It's the additional materials in the mainline braid that can be the damaging factor, be it Dyneema or the Kevlar. However some in lower breaking strains can be damaging, hence why we often use say 25lb as opposed to 12 or 15, as is our mainline, the lower breaking strain diameter is fine enough to cut like a cheese wire. In other words, we need to check every material we use not just follow fashion and mag articles.

Only using a mainline braid as a hooklink material, although do be careful with some of Drennan's fine hooklink braids as they are very fine and abrasive for their breaking strain vs diameter, being Kevlar or Dyneema impregnated.

I'm the same, I've never had a problem with Kryston hooklink materials giving way on me, although I always check and double check my knots after I failed to do so after landing a fish and the knot gave way. I had a combi rig, Amnesia to Merlin, and after landing a 20 on it, I cast it out and the combi join knot way. It was my fault, I didn't check after playing a strong fighting fish and cast straight out. That means to me, after every fish, before every cast or on retrieve, check your mainline for damage in case you've fragged it, especially near the end tackle as run rings, lead clips stress, gravel and snags can take chunks and frag your line. The most common cause for a breakage is a badly tied or wrong knot for the material or even sliding the knot down without lubricating it.(Do NOT use a blood knot with braids!) My Kryston problem was that the coating on Jackal I found a bit weak and would split, ( coating only) when I did snug the Uni knot down properly even when it was salivated on. As for braids coated and uncoated, with the exception of Jackal (for me personally) look no further than Kryston; Merlin, Silkworm, Mantis, Snakebite or Snakeskin etc will not let you down

Taverham Mills, Cobbleacre, or even Fenland Fisheries if you fancy the occasional chance of a weird un

No Richard Gardner probably wouldn't recomend any other make, but I do know that years ago, DF was recommending brands other than his own for hooks (Mainline for hooks and hooklink materials) I'm the same, although I do prefer as much as possible the Gardner Muggas. Pop-ups get presented on Kamasan B175's, and I have recently been playing with Gardner Chods for surface fishing for chub and carp, and also considering them for pop-ups on a Multi-rig presentation, but since I have loads of pop-up rigs ready tied already, I don't seem to be in a hurry, especially since I rarely use a plain straight pop-up.

Strangely enough, I've been playing around with hooklink lengths over beds of particles with running leads recently, and shorter hooklinks definitely scored more than longer ones. Anything over 15centimetres was a no, seemingly blown and sussed, whereas less than that, I got a proper run. I didn't up to that point think that rig length played a major part with running leads, but that may only be over heavily particle that I need to go that short.

I wonder why such a simple question very rarely gets asked, something as important as this for fish care, and its taken a few years for this thread to get brought back to the top. I did Sticky this in old forum format, but since it has been brought back up, I hope it stays on top for a fair while

I always reckon it is harder to find and stalk a good chub than any size carp. They are so wary compared to other fish, the bigger ones usually living in the thickest jungle banked or most awkward swims. Poor Dave was in shorts and had trampled nettles down to land it from the bridge support wall. I honestly couldn't have managed without him to do it...

Well, I've not managed much time for carp fishing in the past few weeks, but I did actually manage a few chub last week on a couple of short sessions. Somehow on Tuesday I managed to wangle a day off, my course got cancelled, and rather than juggle the rota I took the day off and went to the local river for a couple of hours, and to lok at a local lake. Armed with just a bag of dog biscuits, rod, reel, and landing net I managed a 2lb chub from the river. However Friday was the better day as Big Dave is back in town, and together we wandered the river in the eveninglobbing dog biscuits in and both managed a take or two. Dave managed a 2lb fish from a new spot I was lucky enough to manage 2 chub, the biggest of which was 4lb and ounces and was hooked and played from a bridge across the river...

The line can cut through the plastic, so I would be changing that run ring for summat else

Crays, the bane of my life on Nazeing! I would do everything I could to avoid them, but put a bait anywhere near weed or gravel and the little gits would snaffle it. I ended up using my combi-rig, or a coated braid and as short a (soft) braid section as possible. If it had to be on gravel, then ditch braids totally or use coated braid all the way through. I actually had a series of cray indications, and then a proper run. When I got the carp in, I found a whittled down hookbait, that the mesh had been cut apart, and only half a pop-up and a small piece of bottom boilie on the hair wrapped in what was left of the mesh.

I seem to remember someone using a swivel inside the base of a pierced pop up on a D or even sliding up and down the shank of the hook, maybe almost as in the blowback style with swivel instead of rig ring?

No matter what we think, no rig is right for every water as some fish seem to be able to avoid getting hooked on our favourite rig, or sometimes the weed or bottom make up makes some ineffective. Sometimes the answer can be as simple as changing hook pattern, sometimes it is a case of going from say, a plain knotless knot to a line aligner. It can be a case of lengthening the hair or rig, or even changing hook link material. Only ever change one thing at a time, otherwise you don't know which change worked. Something else that most anglers don't think about, but can play as big a part, is get the fish feeding comfortably, otherwise a single bait may often be sussed on any rig.

I have a very good idea of what they were back around 2007, but not sure of the fish stocks now though unfortunately. I will say, it is still plenty of walking, looking for the fish. No major restrictions on rules when I was there, other than No Boats, and only Season Ticket Members could Night Fish. Never had any problems on the banks

At Taverham Mills, a weedy lake I was playing around with the various versions of helicopter set-ups, and started losing fish, so I switched back to inlines with a braided hooklink, putting the whole lot in a pva bag, and stopped losing so many. I would lose an occasional one, but not so many. In weedless swims, the helicopter was not such a problem, but still fish would bounce off. At Barham B Pit, again, I tried the helicopter set-ups, with the leadcore and without, and again, especially in weedy swims, plenty of lost fish. Strangely enough, switch to a paternoster with a long (weak link) tail, and no problems, probably because I had lost the lead, or the inline, and was only playing the fish, not a ball of lead around the line. As for the Chase, (I've seen it ), the Back Lake, I don't think that the filamentous algae is a weed as such, and so doesn't have the same sort of effect bouncing as a weed like canadian, or lilies. Going back to the paternoster comment above, a method I do like using in weed, with a weak link, the bait can be pretty well presented or as best as possible, but saying that, I wouldn't fish mega thick weed where a bait wouldn't be presented or where no matter what, you would be trying to haul a fish through the stuff anyway. A fish has to be able to be landed safely, not in such a manner that the fish 'snags', or you lose them by trying to haul them through the thick Sh'tuff. Strangely enough, I've gone back to fishing a very weedy lake, and trying to fish clearer swims as in many, you would be trying to haul the carp through it, and that is just not fishing. As a result, I've gone back to fishing inlines, braided hooklinks, but I'm still looking for clearer spots to put the whole lot on, mounted in a PVA bag of bits