salokcinnodrog

Have had the problem of points turning over on Gravelly waters. Every point would be turned over after hitting the gravel, in the end I was forced to switch over to an Inturned point pattern to avoid it. Another cause could be the hookpoint hitting bone in the fishes mouth. On the smaller fish you landed where was the hookhold in the mouth? Adjust the rig/hair length to compensate.

Supposedly makes the hooklink harder to eject, but also the possibilty that its harder for the bait to be taken into the mouth.

Try reading this thread from last week: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=28093

There are a few rigs in the Rig Tying sticky that may be useful. I do prefer a tied on hair when using Fluoros and monos. I have a spool of either ESP or Kryston Hair Braid in the Tackle Box. If you use the Knotless Knot to tie the hair on and then Knotless knot the Hooklink and cut the Tag end off the hooklink, the hair is held in place. Or tie the Hair on first from the eye using a Blood knot, small piece of silicon on the shank holding it in place on the shank. Then tie the hook on using your hooklink material. When I do this I do prefer to have the Hook knot protected with silicon or shrink tubing. It protects the Knots from damage.

Problem is that some Carp may not feed on the clear spots , or do so very warily, so the need to be able to present a bait in the weed is required

It can pay to have a search using the term weedy waters. There are loads of threads about Try this to start with, its the sticky from the top of the forum, comes complete with a pic http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=22185

Not when they go soggy

Used Weetabix in Boilie Base mixes and Groundbait.

I check the hookpoint (and eye) before I tie the rig, when I put it on the Mainline, when I cast out, when I reel in, and after every fish. In other words there is no point in time that I'm worried about fishing with a blunt hook.

Yes I have simple rules, be different to what everyone else is using. Most Anglers use hooklinks between 6 and 9 inches long. Short work best on beds of Bait, where the Carp are preoccupied feeding and you need to provoke a run. Longer hooklinks work better where the Carp are moving between individual baits. Other thoughts though, short hooklinks can be the cause of more hookpulls, yet cast better when you are going for absolute extreme distance. At times, long hooklinks will work best on Gravel/hard bottoms, and the Silt Rig works best with shorter rigs. Also the Carp may get used to rigs of a certain length and so move a particular distance to "feel" for the Lead, so that they can use the Lead to eject the Hook.

Depends what you want from your fishing! Cranworth/Woodrising is quite small and has some nice fairly "easy" Carp, also has CrayFish. Get the fish feeding and you will catch. Catch 22 can be a case of 2 swims that fish best (use the search, it has been mentioned before, and the advice still holds good). Swangey, fairly heavily pressured as well, but the results are there if you work at it. Cobbleacre, again have a search it has been mentioned before, and not all in a favourable light. Other waters, Taverham Mills, Waveney Valley, Suffolk Water Park. Use the Search facility, it will give you plenty of threads covering them.

Steve, if you're going for a Kryston braid then I would suggest that you go for silkworm. Merlin is green in colour and more suited to weeder situations IMO. Silkworm, is greyish with black flecks and can easily be "coloured" with a black marker pen to match the silty bottom. Also, from memory, silkworm is slightly thinner in diameter. Thats true, it also is slightly more buoyant, so I would rub it up and down with Putty or put small pieces along it to get it to fall on the lakebed.

Steve, as ToniB has pointed out, I would also be worried about fishing braided hook lengths over 2 ft long. I would be paraniod about it tangling on the cast. I also think you might be better off with a mono hook length. If you're worried about the colour, you could always run a black permenant marker pen down the mono and colour it black like the silt ?? If you really do want to fishing braided hooklengths that long then the ones from Kryston Nick has mention are very good. I've caught fish in Merlin and Silkworm Kryston also have the cure for Tangles in long braided Hooklinks: Superstiff It can also be used to create a Concertina effect, divide the hooklink into quarters (or whatever, divsible by 2) and coat it with Superstiff.

Kryston Silkworm, Merlin, Super silk (although super silk is white it does actually take on the colour of the lake bed), Supernova, Richworth Sorceror or Wychwood market Deception in various colours

The pic you put up is actually something that was published in CarpWorld years ago and was found to be very effective, especially if the Bait, Hook and Lead are put in a PVA Bag and you can accurately get the lot into the weed. Other than that have a look at the rig Tying Sticky, there is a pic of a Paternosted set-up that works if the Lead and Rig are put into a Bag as well. Birds just outside Ipswich at Great Blakenham/Claydon. Come up the A12 and then take the A14 towards Bury st Edmunds until you get to the Blakenham B1113 Turn off. Take the second exit at the roundabout, and stay in the right hand lane into Blakenham. Just after the Lorry Park/Ind Estate take a right over the railway and then left at the End. Birds Tackle is on the left, just before the Level Crossing.

Exactly. Then think about your rigs and check wherever you hook a Carp. If its hooked at the front of the lip, or you get hookpulls, the Hair or rig length is probably too short. If the Hook has scraped down the Carp's mouth from back to front then the Rig/hair length is too long. The perfect rig and hair length is when the Carp is hooked almost exactly in the centre of the mouth just behind the lip.

Nick, I can recall seeing somewhere, baiting up with double boilie baits connected to each other with spaghetti Have you ever tried this? Andy C. Have a feeling it was me who mentioned it , either that or pulling PVA through the 2 baits. The pva connecting them doesn't dissolve when they are touching. Never thought about it in my life

Depends how you bait up. If you bait up with 2 boilies tight together then the Carp will be used to picking up 2 at a time. If you have a space between the 2 baits on the hair then it can make the rig harder to eject.

Or get the Hair Dryer onto them!

Have a search using the terms Bolt vs Semi Fixed vs Running lead. In fact at the top of the Rig Tying section there is a pic of a safe Running lead set-up: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?p=272364#272364 Anywhere where the Lead cannot be ejected makes a rig a Death Rig. The original of that was a swivel either side of the lead and SHOULD NOT BE USED. The SEMI-Fixed (Bolt Rig)should hook a fish automatically, but its case now that many Carp have wised up to this and are able to use the Semi-Fixed lead to actually eject the hook. A Shocker Rig is basically a Free Running set-up, only after a particular distance there is a Stop (able to come off in the event of e breakage) that comes into play after a certain distance. Semi-Fixed/Bolt rigs should be fished with a Tight line, and Running leads with a slack line and the indicator either not on the line or hanging straight down

It may not just be down to spawning season. The Carp are likely to be pre-occupied on Natural Food, (their own spawn), and so maybe not particularly interested in Boilies. Simple rigs may be more effective, or maybe the Extending Hair or hooklinks

You have already asked for favourite rigs: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=27522 Each rig has its own purpose as Ozric has stated. The first step on from the Basic Hair is simply to play with the length of the Hair and/or Hooklink. The next step forward in the rig evolution is the extending hair or the D-rig. If I told you that in 20years of Carping my rigs are almost identical to when I started and I have caught from quite a few different venues. In fact on this Thread: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=22185, the top two rigs are what I use nearly all the time with confidence. The only difference is I have gone from Mono to Braids, back to mono/fluorocarbon and returned to braids/coated braids as I found that with stiffer rig materials I had more hookpulls, especially in the shorter hooklinks

My advice is to stick to what is working for you at the moment. Your line aligner is working and has got you a PB, why change for the sake of change? The first thing you should change in any case is the length of the hair and/or the length of the Hooklink

Mantis, Mantis Gold and staying with Mantis. Korda had a problem with unexplained breakages and recalled a load of their Hybrid and had to replace it. Saying that there are still some unexplained breakages and it doesn't appear to have much on the Abrasion resistant front.

The hair is actually what I tie the bait on with. Looking at that knot I set it up for a 18mm Pop-up. I do have a small hair coming off from the Ring, normally just to give a bit of lateral movement as well as backwards and forwards