salokcinnodrog

Commonhunter, I don't know about you, but I KNOW I'm mad. LOL:D . Riphunter, Tongue in cheek comment about your tackle being antique, merely a piece of wit and joviality. When I do a 2/3 day trip yes I do put my Century Sp's on the Buzzers and fish overnight, but anything I catch at night I treat as Bonus Fish. During the day I spend as much time as I possibly can stalking or fish locating... Like you if it won't go in my JRC stalking bag I don't need it. An unhooking mat for a seat, a net that I bought when I was 14, that makes it 21years old, and my Stalking rod. Admittedly that's only about 5years old, because I had a load of gear stolen from my flat. A Daiwa Pro Specialist 11/2lb 11.6 rod that is happy casting freelined floaters and fishing a float 'lift' style. When I can justify it I may buy a 'proper' stalking rod. The number of fish I have caught about 2-3 foot from the bank is far more than I have caught with 'Long Casts' and rods on the buzzers. I used to fish every night after work with just my stalking tackle and regularly caught 6-7 fish in a couple of hours either on floaters or naturals. My 28lb personal best was caught in a 21/2 hour 'session' between work and college. Getting 'up close and personal' I have found that I learn so much more than just sitting behind rods. How fish feed, how they check the bait, just 2 of the things you can see. As for being a proper Carp Angler, I reckon I just about qualify, but only on the numbers of fish I have caught. :D Nick

Steve (ripslider) Again Thanks. My point as well. I much prefer to stalk Carp with basic Tackle and Rigs, although I not quite as Antique as you and your Tackle. Lol:p Seriously my normal stalking method is Lift Float and a Slightly weaker hooklength. I too have found that I can catch as many fish in 4/5 hours fishing than many do in 48hours and often the average size of mine is bigger. I remember a particular occasion at Taverham Mills. My mate Bruce and I arrived at 4 in the afternoon and set up for overnight. He hooked and landed a small double at about 4 in the morning. From 8 oclock to 4 in the afternoon I ended up with 8 fish caught on floaters and Lift Float, the biggest going 17.10. That week there were only 12 fish caught from Saturday to Saturday and I had the most and the biggest of the week. As for using my Century Sp's and Aerlex's, I do that at night when I cast out to continue fishing, after spending as much time looking/stalking fish in the daytime. I know a lot of the theory behind 'Complicated' rigs , but find that in most cases get the fish feeding comfortably and my basic standard rigs work as well as the all singing, all dancing swivel knotted, line aligned, looped fluorocarbon/braid untwisted combi rig. :D

Just a thought to add to this. I know we all have our favourite simple rig that works for us, but any rig tied on Super Mantis, Snakebite or any of the coated Braids is fishing a rig that is more complicated than standard. I know by definition a Combi rig is Advanced and complicated, then look at the Coated Braids. If you fish with the Coated Braid/multistrand rig and remove any part of the coating to create a different effect, then surely you are not fishing with a simple standard rig? I am quite happy fishing Braid with Leadcore or tubing as it prevents tangles, but to use a Coated Braid, the stiffness kicks it away from the Mainline if you are not using tubing or leadcore. Then fishing the last part of the Coated Braids with a hinge/stripped section makes it a 'complicated/advanced' rig.

nicb I agree with most of your thoughts, although I am a firm believer in getting the fish to "enjoy" eating your bait. Once they do that their guard is lowered so often a simple conventional rig will score. As a result I end up the majority of the time using Bottom Baits. I did have an "In yer Face" brightly topknotted Snowman on one rod Sunday as the fish had been spawning and I wanted a visible bait to attract their attention as they left the spawning area, but this is a rarity. I do not rely solely on one rig. I do experiment and try out different things, but often find that I end up going back to my simple size 6/8 Line Aligned Braid Hair Rig, which works on the majority of waters I have fished. I will state though, that I do not fish heavily fished pressurized waters. If I did then i would probably experiment more. As for going on, from the standard hair rig, then the next step is the sliding hair, the D-rig, Savay Loony tube extension, and so on. Don't get me wrong I know there are many more up to date rigs than that, but these are just progressive steps on from the original concept of the "basic" Hair. How many fish would we catch just by going on by going back in time to some of these rigs?

I had 2 carp this weekend on 2 different type of rigs. The 1st Carp was a double, caught on an 8inch Amnesia pop-up D-rig Snowman fished about 2cms off the bottom. The 2nd Carp was 24lb+, caught on a simple line aligned Nailer to 8inch Mantis. Ok on a fairly lightly fished reservoir then sophisticated rigs are not essential. Or do we advance for the sake of advancement? Is it strange that the larger fish came on the easier rig to tie? How complicated do you think we make life for ourselves?

I'm looking for some more info on Costessey No3. I know its 10acres and the largest fish is 41lb at top weight, has anyone got an idea of full stock numbers of fish. how hard is this lake? every time i've walked round no-one has been on there.