salokcinnodrog

I use 25lb for almost everything. If you catch it works. The 'invisibility' has little effect as it's on or close to the lakebed so casting little shadow anyway.

I still use Amnesia for stiff rigs, booms and combi-rigs as well as D's. Personally I found no advantages to fluorocarbon.

Test curves and tapers. This is a little bit dated as technology and materials have advanced, and higher test curves have sometimes been heralded by certain companies as a replacement for distance casting skill (not all were rod manufacturers) The test curve is roughly how much pressure (weight) it takes to pull the rod to 90⁰. A higher test curve rod is better for casting distances although usually the action is in the tip, whereas a lower test curve tends to be more through the rod. You can put more pressure on a fish with a through action rod than a tip or fast taper rod. If you consider that record carp have been landed on rods with TC's below 2.5lb. I've landed 20lb carp on 1.75lb test curve rods as well as 2.5, 2.75, even 3.25lb rods, and 30's on 2.75lb and 3.25lb rods.

I honestly don't know how fast they grow but I think that the growing age is 12-15years old. Males don't get much above 10lb, and it's the females that get onto bigger weights. Obviously predation reduces the numbers, pike are the biggest predators of pike! I've had big pike attack smaller pike I've been playing. One of the most memorable was a small fish that I hooked and landed 3 times in 3 casts on a spinner on The Broads. I cast out in the next swim, hooked the same fish, and as I was playing it had it hit and taken off the hooks by a big female. I have also got pics of a double figure pike with a lovely scar on its back from a bigger mouth. If the food is right, I know that in the lake I'm fishing that a 3lb growth rate is possible as I did pics for someone last year when he had a 20lb fish, he caught it again this year at 23lb.

The kneeling over pic is a 16lb from a few years ago, so easy to deal with them like that. The other pic is the 23lb PB. I've written a few articles over the years for Pikelines, the PAC magazine.

Oh and not forgetting 25kilos of boilies, in freezer and shelf life, RH The Nutty Bait, and a tub of 15mm matching pop-ups, it has a lovely smell, soft crumbly texture that should breakdown fairly quickly. There are a couple of pics a few pages ago. The bass have started showing in Suffolk, so I'll be chasing them as well. I've got a freezer full of mackeral and herring which are being added to squid on the hooks for whatever seems and likes it. That's cheaper to use up some pike deadbaits than be buying lug and ragworm as I can't dig anymore.

I've been chasing rays, had a few up to 7lb. I do use plenty of Sakuma 503's in 3/0 for them, 50lb Grey Weasel as I also use it for rigs with the rays, although I go clear Amnesia for bass, oh yes, and I got some more Lead link imps and Gemini oval clips.

My biggest is 23lb, and I have had a few 20's. More satisfying than a carp of the same weight. I use a semi barbed treble with a size 6 single up the trace, makes for easy unhooking. I was at a PAC fish-in earlier in the year, one of the other anglers was amazed that I had unhooked a double figure fish within seconds. I look at which side the trace is sticking out, turn the fish upside down on the unhooking mat, kneel over it, left hand through the gill, down to the jaw, lift and unhook with forceps or long nose pliers. Easier to see than explain.

Pike are probably one of my favourite species. The teeth are no problem if you know how to unhook them. I've never had a barbel, and living in Suffolk the chance of finding one is extremely hard. I did spend some time on the Norfolk Wensum after I saw a couple but they have disappeared again, and I don't have the time to chase a tiny shoal up and down a 4mile stretch.

You should be able to delete messages: Check box on left, and delete

To be honest, when I used to use a boat (dinghy) to put rigs out I found that a helicopter rig was not the best option. Helicopters are fine for casting long distances and in silt, but indication on them is much reduced. Even with Delkims I've had minimal buzzes at range (over 100metres) that has caused me to lose fish. At Nazeing Meads I had a spot at around 125metres, that I could reach, and had caught a few that ran away from me. One night I landed a 28lb carp around 2am. Around 4 I had a couple of bleeps, and a couple of twitches on the Quiverlocs, which I (stupidly) ignored. When I reeled in at first light after looking at the line direction which had changed, I discovered that the fish had run around 50yards towards me and arced into a snag. The Delks were set as sensitive as possible in windy weather, in fact I would turn sensitivity to maximum and gradually work down until wind bleeps stopped. I have also read articles on large waters where anglers have put rigs out and in the morning discovered that the rigs have been picked up, moved and ejected yards away from the original spot. As a result I prefer to use other set-ups, my preference is for a run ring as I don't like lead clips.

Such a refreshing attitude, purist even. I've had a few specimens of various species, but the two I really want are barbel and perch. My son when he was 10 or so has probably caught a bigger perch than me, and I gave him 2lb, but I look back at the pics and think I robbed him. I made sure he carried scales in his tackle from then on.

Welcome to carp.com. Enjoy your fishing, but go through life remembering that catching 20lb (or even 30lb) carp is a lot easier than catching specimen fish of other species. Take your fishing as it comes, enjoy it, learn from it.

Sell stuff, never gonna happen again

While the top layer may be UV damaged, I'm not as sure of light damaging line as I used to be; what damages it, is exposure close to 100% elasticity or breaking point, and our playing fish. I wonder even if copolymers are different to monofilament? Obviously storing line, keep it as with everything in a dry dark place.

Sadly although I got them banned, they bulk mailed so many people I simply couldn't stop every PM

As somebody who used to change his line at least once or twice a year, I only just changed my line last week after 3 years of regular use. That is heavy fishing with Gardner Pro, in weed, playing fish, casting etc.

Welcome to carp.com Have fun finding your way around

My tench gear is 1.75lb test curves, 8 or 10lb line, 6lb hooklinks and hooks between 8 and 12. I do love lift float fishing for them, one or two on buzzers and one on the float. Tench are a lot more wary than carp, so longer hooklinks, smaller baits, sweetcorn, maggots, worms or smaller boilies.

It sounds like bream are the predominant species! Thinking back to my previous post, I forgot to say on Alton in one particular swim I was fishing double 20mm baits on line aligners. It was the bridge swim where I was tipping Vitalin and boilies off the bridge and fishing on that bait. I never had a bream from there. In fact I never had a bream unless I was fishing for them when I dropped bait size to single 12mm baits or sweetcorn and used groundbait, but that was on bream specific gear. If bream are that big a problem I'd actually not cast in a swim unless I could see carp were present, a preference for margins. It might be you need to fish pop-ups off the bottom, above the bream and their feeding level.

I think that there is no such thing as a bream proof rig, but how you feed can be the trigger. Small silver fish and bream are attracted to heavy baiting, especially with particles, pellets and groundbait. The more you bait the more interested they are. Bream tend to be vacuum feeders, they get onto food and they clear it up, and that includes the hookbait, no matter how it's fished, bottom baits and low lying pop-ups are especially vulnerable. To avoid them feed less, or try boilies only. Don't put any free bait in, and fish just PVA bags or stringers, or fish boilies where although you may put 100 (example) in, they are not so close to invite or become a feeding trigger. The other thing is bream tend to avoid the margins, preferring to feed out in the main lake. They can have particular patrol routes! Now saying that, I used to fish Ardleigh reservoir and you could catch bream and then the carp would come before the bream pushed them out again. I caught both bream and carp on baited spots, yet on Alton, I never caught a bream despite using loads of particles. My rigs on Ardleigh and Alton were simply line aligned knotless knotted snowman baits on braid rigs, nothing special.

Either at the end as normal or out of the front. If I give a little bit of history, of one or two rigs, the Bent Hook Rig, and the Savay Loony Rig. The Bent Hook rig evolved on Fox Pool, (?) it was a longshank Hook (normally a fly hook, Kamasan B175) with a proper bend made in the shank, so the eye was inturned. On Fox Pool and everywhere else it was almost impossible for the fish to eject, however as it got into mainstream carp fishing, it was seen to be causing double hooking, causing mouth damage. Possibly around the same time on Savay, it was discovered that by lengthening the hook shank with (biro) tubing, it improved hooking of the rigs being used. I believe that there was also a sliding hair on a rig ring involved. Now with the mouth damage caused by the BHR, and being banned by most fisheries, the Savay Loony rig was not causing damage. The longer shank reduced chances of ejection, and it was noticed, combine a hook with a shank extension turned in, you have a Bent Hook effect, but with no damage. Then we have a 3rd rig, Jim Gibbinson discovered that protecting the hook knot with tubing, and bringing the line out of the front of the tubing, the line aligner, also gave the same effect as lengthening the hook shank and the Bent Hook effect.

Thank you. At one point 200 members names were online, all girls names with 4number endings and I had to go through banning the lot. If you see any more come up with emails ending in tzctt.com, vfdd.com or similar hit the spammer button. As I mentioned above, they have multiple IP's, not all high risk countries.

Don't be worried by inturned kickers, 'closed' gape or line aligners, I think that has become a buzzword for missed indication or for using the wrong rig for the feeding situation. I.e. some carp suck and blow, others pick items up, it can be spot dependant in a water, or it can even be individual fish If you look at a Withy pool rig there is absolutely no 'open gape' at all, yet it is effective. The front of the hook, the eye, the inner of the tubing is what causes hooking or pri cks in the mouth. To have the line exiting the back flips the hook out bend and shank first. It will work with fish that pick up hookbaits and the hook pri cks the lip, but not suckers and blowers.

Just so people know, I do often do 2 and 1 on single sticks. I do like the stability of a goalpost setup, but if one rod is better placed in another direction. The one on single sticks is over a mix of mashed bread, particles, crushed boilies, worms and molehill soil, while the two are being fished with stringers over boilies.