salokcinnodrog

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:

Del, Fair Point, getting liners on tight lines and working ''back" to the fish is a way of locating them. Not always at what depth they are at tho;)

Your replies are getting sharp:p and your comments are barbed:D :D

This year I've been fishing with very slack lines and running leads. My rigs are pretty basic, and are normally about 15cms long. Had a reasonably good season so far where i'm fishing, but wish I could spend more time on there. I've found that tight lines and fixed leads tend to get sussed fairly easily on some of the waters I have fished in the past, so I tend to try to be different from everyone else.

Thanks Mate, my "point" exactly;) :D

Could be a number of things causing you to lose fish on Mustad Hooks. Is your rig long enough? Is your hair long enough? If you are losing fish to hookpulls then lengthen either/both of the above. Too short and you may only just be pricking the Fish in the extremities of the lip. Are you using the right Hooklength material for the pattern of the hook? I work on the theory that inturned eyes are best with braids, straight eyes work with Fluoro/mono or braids and outurned eyes work best with Stiff Materials. Are you relying on a knotless knot? While the knotless knot is an easy way to "tie" on a hook, it is not always the most effective way at getting the point to find a hold in the lip? A line aligner can be better. Are you using a supple hair? A stiff hair can prevent the hook being taken in cleanly. These are just some of the possibilities. And the most important, do you have confidence in the hook? I nearly always use Carp-r-us Nailers, Centurions or Longshank Nailers, the reason being I know they work for me.

My view is that by the time the rig material has been felt, the hook should be embedded in the bottom lip. Try feeling the difference between braid and fluoro and mono over your own lip. I can't feel braid as I can Fluoro/mono.

Good reason for that. I've already put a picture in another thread of my basic bottom bait rig. Loads of threads on rigs and what people use.

Fluorocarbons because of their refractive index should not be able to be seen in the water. I've been using the Carp-r-Us fluorocarbon for hooklengths this year and found it very difficult to see in the margins.

The same one as the one I use in summer.

Try to fish as simply as possible. A simple knotless knotted hook to mono or braid will catch. I fish simply, I haven't changed my rigs for 5years, the only thing you need to change are the hairlength or the length of the hooklink in most cases. And I do catch a few fish. lol Have a look at this thread as there is a pic of 2 of my rigs on there: http://www.carp.com/forum/t13935/s.html

I have found that a Trilobe Lead in 1.5 - 2oz can actually behave like a lot heavier lead as it rests on the flat side. Also because of its shape, if fishing over heavy silt it doesn't dive in so deeply. They can be a bit of a sod to cast though, because their shape means they tend to go a little awry at times, especially in a strong wind. The fluorocarbon leader offers less resistance than a Monofilament mainline and also pins it down against the lake bed as fluoro is heavier than mono. A leader, a length of (stronger) line used for the purpose of preventing crack-offs, rubbing against snags or to sink the last few metres of line behind the lead.

I, me personally have found with a Running Lead fish lines as slack as possible. If you are fishing over silt try to find out what weight lead just sinks into it, you can then get away with a lighter lead than normal. With Semi Fixed Rigs you fish a tight line to increase the Bolt effect, but if a fish just mouthes the bait and gets away with it, you may get no indication whatsoever, yet a Running Lead will give a bleep or other indication. As for Rigs also have a look at Complicated Rigs, we had many thoughts on Leads, Rigs, and hooking arrangements.

Gently push a needle through the into the leadcore about a 2cms from the end and burn the end to stop fraying. Then pull your mainline down through the leadcore and needle knot it. You then have a small knot that rig components can pass over in the event of a break.

Have a look at the threads covering fixed vs running leads on the forum. I prefer Heavy running leads, don't often use Inlines at the moment, although with a semi Fixed Inline you can get great indication of a take. I'm not too keen on Helicopter rigs as improperly set up they can be a death rig.

I don't worry about hooksize to baitsize. I use size 8's for the majority of my fishing. In terms of hooks I use Nailers, Centurions from Carp-R-Us and Owner Flb's for the bottom baits. All are short slightly curved shank hooks. For Pop-ups I prefer a longer straighter shank, like the B175 or Drennan Super Specialist, although I do like the curved shank of the Longshank Nailers at times if I'm worried about ejection. There is much printed about different hooks by different anglers, but I'd find out what works best for you.

It sounds good as a Running Rig. The things I would do if possible is to: A) have a flat sided Lead, to grip the lake bed better if possible. B) use a larger lead to hold down to the lake bed. Have a look at the threads Running vs Fixed Leads, there are plenty of thoughts on them that may cover your queries

Sorry mate, don't know if I was registered member back then:)

Hi Joe, Thats something else we agree on. I do use a long straight shank hook for most of my Pop-up rigs. I find that they get a better hook hold on most occasions, normally right in the middle of the bottom lip.

Hi Mate Welcome to the forum. On my pop-up rigs I tie a sliding loop on the hair. Just use a grinner or Uni knot and don't tighten it all the way down. Into the loop formed I put the Pop-up and then tighten down to the bait. Knotless Knot the Hook on and you have a simple, easy pop-up rig. Just attach putty or other counterweight at height you require and away you go.