salokcinnodrog

Would the line tight but through a back lead be enough to give this effect? The swim I'm in right now is quite tight, and really playing a fish in would be a nightmare unless the lines were on the bottom from a few yards past the tip. I usually fish semi-slack through a back lead to make sure it's all down. Sorry to fire a bunch of quotes and questions at you. Thinking many things at once here! I don't like back leads at all, they give the fish more time to get rid of the bait without any indication at the rod end, create another angle in your line from end tackle to back lead then lakebed to rod tip, another 90degree (ish) angle and the fish can move a long way before you get any indication as well. You could make life a whole lot easier, dependant on how tight the swim, by having the rod tips under water at the extreme margin. Don't fish with your rods over the water, but have the tips down in the water. Also even though I suggested a bolt set-up, I have still managed to fish with a running lead at distance, over 100metres, but if you can't then you want the lines as tight as possible. So tight, you're even trying to 'stretch' the line. You want your heavy indicator at the top, line dead tight. If you have any slack, then the fish can move away without indication, and if you aren't tight with the heavy indicator, then you won't get any indication of a drop back.

Here's a point for you, if you do snap off with a leader, as Gary has pointed out the usual breaking place is the mainline to leader knot, then the lead must be able to come off. A lead clip may or may not work, especially as the tail rubber has been pushed on so you don't eject the lead on casting. Switch to a large run ring, effectively a running lead, but by having the line tight, you make a bolt or semi-fixed lead; with that run ring the ring can slide off and over the broken point, even if the line has coiled itself into a bundle of loops. If there is no weight on the leader and hook link, then the hook can be ejected as per Levigsp's post on another thread the other day, with the callous/blister effect.

I don't agree. Most of my fishing is with size 4s, regardless of bait. Same here,

Didn't Terry Hearn name it that as it was designed to sit on top of the detritus (chod) on the lake bed? The difference between the chod and the helicopter was that the helicopter was mainly used with rig tubing and the rig sat quite close to the lead set up whereas the chod rig was initially set up on lead core and a fair distance (in comparison to the heli rig) from the lead, with the chod rig the lead was set up further away so as not to drag the rig down into the chod with the lead, with the helicopter set up the rig would quite often follow the lead into soft chod thereby masking it. No mate, it was originally used as a sliding rig set-up, so that the bait would be sat on top of the detritus, either with a leader or tubing, not necessarily leadcore. The use of a leader came about as a naked set-up at the time (no decent rig beads suitable or available) was prone to snapping due to line twist, and then leadcore was supposedly better to mask or keep the line down. The helicopter set-ups were not necessarily just for silt fishing, but also as the most suitable for long casting. The name reputedly came fom a Rob Maylin/Terry Hearn conversation when Rob Maylin asked about the lakebed and Terry Hearn replied 'its quite choddy out there'.

My tackle box is a complete mess, and almost definitely contains rubbish I rarely or simply don't use The important stuff: A (100m) spool of Preston Reflo 10lb mono, Berkeley XL 7lb mono, 4lb mono, a spool of (Kryston) Mantis, Merlin and then Amnesia in 15, 20 and 30lb, for stiff links and the occasional shockleader. About 25 leads in 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3ozs. Baiting needles (of which I have too many and various types), stringer needle. Run rings and quick link clips etc, a couple of spinlinks and a few found lead clips. Couple of packets of hooks. Dental floss, putty and a few shot, boilie stops (raided from fire extinguisher tags when I used to work as a technician). The rest of the Tackle box not just the Rig Making equipment

Andy, I'm sure I mentioned it in the past, but I think some braids just aren't suitable for hooklinks. While Kryston SuperSilk is very fine, I think it is probably a bit like you say cheese wire. Many of the lower breaking strain braids I think are too much of a risk, Drennan Super Specialist, even the low BS Merlin, Silkworm and definitely a 'mainline' braid. I've split this down into a separate topic

Sainsbury's basics Dental Floss. As for mint or not, I don't worry about it, being as mint is possibly an attractor

I try to live a simple life, and want fishing to be as simple as well. I'm pretty much set on a run ring running up and down the mainline or tubing with no backstop; It can be used as a proper running lead with a slack line, or as a bolt rig with a tight line. It has the other advantage in that should I get a break-off the fish is not trailing any rubbish around behind it, the only thing it trails is a rig which it should be able to eject in a short time. As for rigs, I've been playing and tying up various rigs up over the years, and seem to go back to basics, changing only hooklink materials. It's easy to change between a knotless knot, or add a line aligner with silicon or shrink tubing from that basic rig, and a coated or uncoated braid, or even mono is pretty simple to tie. I would add fluorocarbon, but you do have to be aware that fluorocarbon may get abraded on the hookeye with a knotless knot. I also think that too much is given to fancy rigs on many lakes, when in many cases the same rig will work, but not enough anglers know how to feed the water properly to get the best out of it http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=55800

Vinegar may make a very good attractant. It is the solvent base in a few liquid food dyes, and I have used them in a (food) bait myself. As for beetroot, I can't see it being a total failure, as I'm sure it is exactly the same as any other bait, put it in the right place, and it should catch. It is just whether it is an attractant or repellant with the vinegar. As for beetroot on its own, it bleeds and will stain anything with its natural red dye, lemon juice will remove it.

Whatever hook pattern I have faith in and use normally, length around 20cms, but will change dependant on hookholds and losses, and always a braided hooklink.

Don't get me wrong, where there is a need for distance casting, then the use of a shockleader will mean that you can reach the fish. Yet in any water with snags or weeds in then the leader should be dispensed with. I used to fish Suffolk Water Park a fair bit, and that is very weedy, some serious gravel bars, more flint than gravel, and some large swan mussels. I was using a set-up that incorporated leadcore, to (hopefully) prevent the bars wearing through the line, but the leadcore on playing a fish actually went round the end of the bar, and cut off above the leader, leaving the fish trailing a rig and leader, and probably a lead as well. On the same note, I also retrieved a load of line, attached to a leader, complete with lead on helicopter set-up and rig, that had been cracked off. That same water has also lost fish that have been tethered up when the leaders have caught up in the weed. It is one of the reasons that I started thinking about safety and removing leadcore and leaders from my set-up.

Adding any leader to your mainline increases the danger and risk of tethering to fish. In fact if you fish a water with any weed or snags, then you should accept that you can't use a leader, even for maximum distance casting, and fish closer. I'm actually getting to the stage of believing that fishing with a leader should not be part of carp fishing. The only place that a leader should be used is for absolute maximum distance casting, but only in large clear waters. A leader increases the chance of rigs being unable to eject off the leader should it get twisted or even over the knot. If you do suffer a break-off, and the line gives way, then when you are putting tackle under stress, the weak point has been shifted towards the rod tip. You may be able to tie a perfect knot, but the first weak point nearly always gives, and that weak point is the mainline to leader knot. The result, you have lost fish (maybe), rig, leader, lead etc. But now as the line cracks back around itself, it may have birds nested, and so preventing ejection. If you leave a leader with baited rig etc in the lake, that rig is fishing until the bait or hook rots away. Also in most cases, a leader does absolutely no use whatsoever in disguising your end tackle. A tight line will allow vibrations and sound to travel down it, whether mono, fluoro etc. So using an apparently clear line (or supposedly invisible underwater), does not necessarily mean it can't be detected. In fact even underwater, fluorocarbon will be visible in certain conditions, it passes a shadow over gravel, sand or clay (!), and can be seen along the same lines as a mirage. Over weed it may not be noticed, but then we come back to the tackle risk. The best way to disguise your line is to fish it slack, or running along the lakebed. In fact at much above 40metres, I reckon the line will be running over the lakebed anyway as it naturally drops down from the tips in an arc.

I wonder why it has received the name 'chod set-up', as the rotary or helicopter name was about long before the name chod. I've used various type rigs on a helicopter, bomb on the end of the line, rotary or whatever name you want to call it. I've actually used the Withy pool very little as found no need for it, but found that when I did it was fairly tangle free on the standard pendant, and it didn't tangle on the helicopter style. At the end of the day try to keep things as simple as possible, but if being what may be overly complicated works for you then try it.

Mobile pics with Carp.com can be a pain in the butt, but there is a way. Go to photobucket and upload the pics, then when you have done that see if you can copy the image tags and paste each one into a message. Log into Carp.com after copying all the tags, and then as you make the post, you should be able to paste in the tags, although each phone is different, that is how I do it on my old Nokia. As for blanking this week, don't fret about it, the weather has gone cold again, probably put the fish down, and made them difficult to find if they have gone back into their winter hideouts. That is my excuse anyway, as i blanked this week as well

I did try to edit the original post so that your pics show up on post, but for some reason couldn't manage it. The best way I have foun d to put pictures on the site is to have 2 pages open, one set up on Photobucket or your photo host page, and Carp.com post page. Upload your pictures to photobucket, and then go to save and view album. Position your cursor over the picture you want to use, and underneath it will bring up a list of tags, click and copy the tag which starts and ends with the {IMG} code, and then paste it into the carp.com post. That simple knotless knot rig will work and probably catches 95% of the carp caught in the country Also because it is so simple, it is also easy to change, and make different by whatever hooklink material you use; Mono, fluorocarbon, braid, coated braid, all will give different actions and behaviour, and mono and fluoro can be split even further into stiff or lighter breaking strain. I don't know how many times I have written it, but keep things as simple as you can. Location is the important part, then putting the rig in the right place. Complicated is not always best, as I keep proving to myself.

With a buoyant bait at the bend end (ooh er Mrs), attached to the shank or at the base of the bend, and a hair coming from the eye end, you can actually lift the hookpoint above the bottom rubbish, preventing the point being masked on a take. Rod Hutchinson has been mentioned as having published it, but I know that Rob Maylin and Andy Little have both put it in publications, and maybe even Julian Cundiff has said something on those lines. If I remember rightly, one of Hutchy's versions was of a couple of hairs with grains of hemp on them, used when fishing particles (hemp).

I've not been one for PVA sticks, in fact I could count on one finger how many times I have used the method Brackens has some weedy patches, some quite severe, and some not so, and my standard rigs worked on both areas, and nearly all were fished with a stringer. On that water I tended to use either Combi rigs made up using Amnesia and Merlin/Supernova, a loop knot at the hooklink swivel and a line aligned hook on the end of the braid, or my alternative was a coated braid with a stripped back section at the hook end, both were fished with snowman hookbaits. The hooklink was usually about 20 to 30centimetres and attached to a running lead set-up, with the stringer being attached to mainline and hook to prevent tangles. On a weedier water years ago, again I didn't used to bother with a pop-up, but fished a braided hooklink, inline lead, and the whole lot put in a PVA bag; lead, link, hook and bait.

In that case why bother fishing 2 rods?

I've not been down for a couple of years now, although I do know of the occasional fish coming out, but the angler concerned was keeping very much to himself.

Its a pig to cast having a pop-up on a shank/bend mounted hair, and an eye mounted hair bottom bait. I think its called the one up one down rig I used to use it on a water where I could put the end tackle in by hand, and it did work. It worked and hooked a few fish where I had missed some takes on a simple knotless knot rig, but I think it may have worked due to keeping the hook(point) clear of the weed

Yeah i have a few tied up with braid but i always thought ring swivels would work better I'm never sure that swivels work particularly well as we use them in fishing. I don't think that there is a need to be so complicated most of the time, a basic standard pop-up rig will work. If you do need to use a 360, then you will have to use whatever weight it takes to get the hook to sit as you want it.

My thoughts as well. I avoid Korda and other Maggot rings for the same reason. I have removed a few posts, the follow-up comment made about opinions was frankly quite rude and insulting.

You know every thread comes up about Rushes Lake, I am convinced that Kim is into bribery to those who go to write a good report about it It's those breakfasts that I'm sure are famous. Seriously, on every report I have ever read about the lake and owners, has only ever been good.

Oh, and don't think that Fox Arma mesh is crayfish proof . The little blighters will still cut through the stuff to get to whatever is inside.