salokcinnodrog

15lb Amnesia works as well if you cut a point on the end!

I'm not sure about the need for stones in there, but a combination of bait in a PVA bag is always a good idea. I've been using Bread Crumb and Maize or sweetcorn in bags for years. The Dried milk will clog up into lumps as it gets wet though, and won't dissolve into the water straight away. It can provide extra attraction around the hookbait though and has been around for years as a boilie powdered dip.

I use my thumb nail to strip coated braid. If I want to stripe it I use a Waterproof Marker Pen. :D

Wouldn't be my choice, but I don't use Fox hooks or Korda Lead Clips. It depends what confidence you have in the gear you are using. If you are happy using it then it will work for you. My personal choice is a Carp-R-Us Nailer, Centurion or Owner FLB knotless knotted with Shrink tube to Mantis Gold, tied at swivel end with Uni knot. Solar Running Lead Clip, 15lbMainline and 2.75 TC rods.

I'm still using braids and Coated Braids. Supersilk in 14lb, very thin, although white when new takes on the colour of the bottom, Merlin 15lb, Excellent for my Pop-up rigs when I need to use them, Mantis and Mantis Gold in 15lb. To specifically match the colour of the lakebed I'm Fishing at the moment. Current target fish in the Reservoir are up to mid forties or more. When Ritchie Macdonald landed Basil from Yateley he was actually using 6lb line from memory. Not that I'd recommend it, but if you play a fish carefully it will handle it. The way I look at it is a particular Breaking strain will actually take up to 4times its own strength in weight. Not particularly scientific I know, but it works for me. I think it comes down to something I read somewhere.

Kryston make the best PVA as far as I'm concerned. Thats in bags or String

I never use ready tied rigs. I don't have confidence in them. Also if I need to change rig or hair length then its impossible. My rigs I tie up as I need them, although I do have a Rig Bin or 3 full of rigs that I have tied, but all are set so that I can shorten rig length or change hair length if required. When I worked in a Tackle shop I used to tie up and sell individual rigs for people and then recommend that they try to tie them as tidily as that when they did it themselves. You should only need to buy 1 rig and then change it to suit the situation you are fishing in.

Strange that, I was using stringers and had to go the other way, to using PVA bags. I wasn't comfortable with a stringer and a pop-up as I felt that the Pop-up and hook were being dragged into leaves on the bottom. I found that with a PVA bag the pop-up would rest more rather sitting in the bottom rubbish.

I use a simple Knotless knot with the hair being formed into a loop that tightens down to the Bait. I then tie the bait on. Normally a longshank hook. I prefer to use braid for Pop-up presentation as it camouflages itself in with the bottom. Just remember that if a pop-up looks blatant to you then the Carp may be more comfortable feeding on a bottom bait. If you are fishing over a bed of bait then a pop-up can actually cost you more Carp than it hooks.

lol Remember End Tackle £20 max, or you'll spend more than you intend:D

I use Kryston Mantis or Mantis Gold. I do check my rigs in the margins to see how they behave and look and found that these cover most eventualities.

I've played with them in Bench Tests and had no problems so far, but have not used them for fishing. They do stay sharp for a good long time.

Right, the Helicopter style arrangements don't work particularly well in Weedy Waters, as the Lead is pulling across the Line and Fishes mouth. Try this on your living room floor. Set up your Line as it currently stands and pick up the hook, how can the lead bang against the Carps mouth when the line is under tension. You need to address the hook pulling free. That is your problem and it is normally a case of changing the length of Hooklink/hair.

I don't the Lead that's banging against the Carp's mouth that is losing you fish. What is happening imo is that the carp aren't taking the Bait back far enough into their mouth. You are only hooking the Carp at the extremities of their lips. Have a look at your bait mounting arrangement, lengthen the hooklength/hair to get the Carp to take the bait and hook further back into their mouth. With the position of the Lead on a SILT/Sliding Helicopter rig there is no way that the Lead should bang against the Carp's mouth. Alternatively change your Lead attachment to a Pendant style attachment. It sounds like you have seen a rig in fashion and don't know how to use it in its right context. IMO there are far better ways of presenting baits off the bottom.

A lot of lines have recently been regraded. There were/are many that were classed as 15lb line and were actually breaking at over 18lbs. Not bad until you consider diameter of them. A properly graded 15lb line should be about 0.35mm. Many of the above lines were 0.38/0.40 which is 18 or even20lb BS As London Geeza says its down to diameter. As for Korda IQ I have heard of so many unexplained breakages I won't use the stuff. I have tested it at home and could not get a consistent knot with it. Every knot broke at a different strain, many at half of the BS quoted. When it comes to stiff links I still prefer Amnesia in clear, never had a problem with it, although I have been trying Carp-R-us Stiff link Fluorocarbon materials for a while.

I use the same knot, have a look at the Shockleader knot I think thats the same thing.

Simple. Tie a loop at the end of your hooklength for your hair, knotless knot your hook on and tie swivel at other end. Dead simple, dead easy and it works.

quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by salokcinnodrog Don't have that problem! Get perfect presentation every time using PVA bags or stringers Don't tell anyone though its a Secret! ;)

Don't have that problem! Get perfect presentation every time using PVA bags or stringers;)

I prefer to strip the Hair as I do like the supple flexibility of the braid. I have tried both leaving it on and removing the coating, but have more confidence in the uncoated hair. Even on fluorocarbon hooklengths I still like a supple hair.

You get much weed on the Reservoir? I've been baiting patches and watching the Carp and Bream clear the area of weed and Groundbait. The weed that stays is jam packed full of Natural Food, snails, shrimp and line fraying Swan Mussels. Unfortunately I have to contend with Swim Pinchers. You know the ones, see you catch a Carp and then move in on top of you. Doesn't do them much good as you either get a result first night or the Carp take ages to move onto your area. If its the latter then you haven't caught anything when they come around. Did have a good result on a single overnighter back in July, 2 20+ Fully scaleds. Gorgeous fish. Then the area got heavily pressured for weeks. I tried the same swim about a month later and just caught Bream, it was like the Carp were avoiding the area. Strange thing is most of my fish I have had multiple takes. I have lost a couple, both my own fault, but neither felt or looked big when I saw them in the margins.

Alright Marcus I've seen Carp picking up stones as well. I think it was Rod Hutchinson who reckoned that if you coated a stone with a flavour impregnated icing and the Carp picked it up, on a short hair you "should " hook it. To go back to Adamxx's point about spooking off Line and Tubing, I think I have touched on this before, but not with a definite answer. To my mind Tubing, Line and Leadcore are normally fished tight and straight. How many things are the Carp's Environment are perfectly straight? If a Carp touches weed it moves and curves out of the way, yet if a Carp touches any of our End Tackle, including Line it pulls it taut against itself and possibly spooks. Now even in a weed free environment our Tight Lines can scare/spook or put Carp on guard against our End Tackle. It seems to me that many rigs are working on instant hooking, not Anti Eject, although the turning effect caused by the hook going into the Carp's mouth is presumed to be Anti Eject (its not). The other thing that again most people fish with is a short hair, more shank mounted baits than actually on a hair rig. As Jemsue says lengthen the Hair or Hooklength. Yet to cast that out is/can be a pain in the rectum. Rod Hutchinson's sliding hair is a very effective way of presenting a longer hair. This confuses Carp that take 1 suck to test the bait, which is drawn closer to the fish. The short haired baits then can't be taken on a 2nd suck as the hair is too short. The sliding hair baits are still able to be taken in on that 2nd suck. Yes it does happen, I have watched it. I think that I get happy with simple rigs and then I go and "complicate" the issue. Now regarding braids versus monos/fluorocarbons, another test that I tried was to feel the hooklength against my lips. With the braids they did not "feel" when touching my lips, it felt more natural. The monos and Fluorocarbons I could feel and to me they almost gave a shock on my lip. Yet most anglers at the moment are using Nylon Hooklengths, NOT Braids. The suppleness I think means that the hooklength is able to be taken in with less Resistance. I can see the point of Nylon in relation to Anti Eject, but again see my Point above. Steve in relation to your Spider Wire testing for Carp, I had the same idea a few years ago, but was worried due to the fact that the line is so thin that it may cause a "cheesewire" effect on the Carp's mouth while playing it. The thinnest Braid that I found that I was happy with was Kryston Supersilk. Drennan do produce a very thin braid, but I have the same reservations regarding it as I do the Spiderwire, even though the Diameter is much higher. I did have a testing medium that I used with a fixed weight that I pulled against while testing these braids, admittedly dry. The braids I tested were the Spiderwire, Drennan andone of Nash's braids. Unfortunately I have some rather nasty scars on my fingers where I managed to get a loop trapped round my finger while pulling it against the weight of my Workmate. The workmate fell over while testing and I couldn't let go in time. As Steve has bumped this thread up, quite fortuitously there are a couple more of my thoughts. Again I'm happy to be proved wrong, or if anyone has anymore ideas please add to the Complicated Scenarios that are currently ongoing!!! :D Nick

Angling Times? or Carp Talk? Would that be the Wild/Angry Looking 24lb Leather? I haven't put anything into Angling Times so if anything has appeared in there then it was from the Ardleigh Staff, if it was Carp Talk they are about 3weeks behind when it was caught. I still enjoy catching Mid Twenties, lets face it I enjoy catching any fish. In 18trips I have caught 7Carp and 4 of them were 20lb+, which I regard as a Good Result, but still think I should/could do more. I put any blank down as I'm doing something wrong, either Location, Baiting or just not enough effort into my fishing. I think that the effort you put in gets the rewards back and all of fishing is part of the Learning Curve. The banks of Ardleigh are more Gravel than Silt, and the level is going down. The levels from August have dropped by about a metre. I think I have found a few fish that are Residents of a particular area, which drops to 8feet maximum, close to where they entered the Reservoir, which I have found contains quite a bit of Natural Food, only problem is it is next to one of the "easier" access points of the Water.

Suffolk and Essex, The Badlands? More like if the world ever needed an Enema, where they'd put the needle. I agree with that mate, definitely no place for chuck and chance. Although I think that at certain times fish definitely have a preference for a particular depth, and its not always the deepest water in the Reservoir. Up 'til now most of the fish I have caught have been in 6-8feet of water, although due to Personal Life I have not managed to fish for 8weeks, so am a bit out of touch of what is happening. Other lakes I have fished though I have not caught a Winter fish in much more than 8feet, although not many Lakes around here are much deeper than that. The Reservoir is posing me new problems and difficulties to be overcome;)

With Statements like that, you are making a rod for your own back. I had a play with the Ultra Point Barbless in a size 8, and found for some reason that my rigs did need to have a supple hair on the hook where I had tied them with 15lb Amnesia. It may just be on my water, that the Knotless Knot and Amnesia hair was creating too stiff presentation and turning over too quickly. This was then just hooking the Carp in the extremity of the lip. I missed a couple of fish to hookpulls, but once I switched to a Braid Hair had no more problems:confused: