salokcinnodrog

Hmm! As a member of the PAC, Pike Angler's Club, I don't think fishing for pike before September or even October is good for the fish. The water temperature is far too high and playing pike in these temperatures causes stress that can, and will kill them. I have seen it, even on rivers. The Broads system regularly loses fish killed by the holidaymakers 'dabbling with a spot of pike fishing in summer', which is why specialist tackle shops like Steve Burgess of Bass Online in Horning will not sell pike gear to holidaymakers between June and September, no matter what the cost. The exception is the deeper colder waters of Scottish Lochs and the English Lake District where bottom temperature stays around 4 or 5 degrees Celsius. Next problem is any baitrunner system has more resistance than an open bail arm; in carp fishing we use that resistance in our favour, however in pike fishing we want minimal resistance. Baitrunner systems (and playing fish off the clutch or drag) also create line twist, so you actually only ever should want to use it on a take.

Either, even both. Often one on each.

I used to use a darning needle rather than any tackle brand splicing needle. Haven't used lead core for a few years now though. Once I had spliced it I would go through the loop with the mainline and then Uni knot and only tighten and bed the knot down when it was properly formed and in place. The alternative is a needle knot through but I did find that unless the end of the leadcore had been lighter tagged with needle in place it would unfray and pull free. I refuse to use lead core now I don't think it is necessary or safe😉

I prefer to get onto a good food bait, and my hookbaits match the freebies every time.

It is not necessarily chasing fish all the time. Dave Lane is a great angler, yet he does not always chase fish, sometimes it is down to the 'knowledge'. It is learning from what you are doing, success and failure. What makes any angler a 'great angler'? Is a better angler one who simply catches big fish or one who catches from difficult waters? Personally I would class myself as a reasonable angler. Sometimes I do well, other times I struggle. I tend to be able to assess my sessions, and work out how to improve my catches. I watch the water, I try to understand the fish and the water. The times I struggle I tend to set up in a hurry straight after work, no real water searching and then sleep for 2 days. Times I do well, I spend plenty of time looking, then set up either on them, or if they are moving or due to weather I think they will come to. Don't confuse yourself going round in circles, don't keep swapping bait or rigs. Trust in both and know your rig in the right place will score. Understand your baiting and fishing. It is vastly different fishing for carp in 'overstocked' waters to fishing for carp in rich food waters. Some waters it will be catch as many as you can the big one will follow, in some it will be the bigger fish have their own areas, times or foods they prefer (not always boilies!). Do you want to turn up and catch any fish or do you want to catch the biggest fish? That question alone opens more questions! I wanted to catch from Alton Water, from Ardleigh reservoir, from Earith, Brackens, Nazeing, even Taverham Mills. Taverham Mills and Earith catching meant any and plenty of fish, Brackens and Nazeing meant catching fish over 20, even 30. Ardleigh and Alton were any fish, but the waters were pretty untapped, hardly no-one knew or knows the stock. Does an Alton 28 count as a good any fish? Along with a fair few others over 20...

Red Factor and Prosecto are Haith's products. Think their website might keep you entertained for a while😉

It definitely weakens the swivel bending the ring on it. I also don't think that a running lead clip is a good idea at all. You negate it's use for dropping the lead if it is free running. Any lakebed rubbish is now free to jam the leadclip and stop it running anyway, and with a leadclip that is not fixed to the hook link swivel the lead can't eject. Far better to use a decent run ring that does run on leaders, mainline or tubing; Solar, Fox and Korum all make decent run rings. I have used the 'shocka' run-stop set up, a rubber bead on tubing, even a power gum stop knot on mainline with a running bead, but while it works, and very well, I come back to the safety aspect of the bead preventing the lead and run ring coming off should I get a break-off above it. I am not convinced that it can be totally safe, unless your bead can come past or push the stop knot over the broken end.

Definitely no washers, they are supposed to be a complete ready to go reel. It is only Big Pits that have washers to change the line lay. How you load the line can also change the line lay. If you reel on quickly it tends to bunch up front. Slowly and it goes on more evenly from front to back across the whole of the spool. I have DL10000's myself, and for the cost, a spool of Gardner Pro 0.35mm 15lb line is close to perfect for all 3. Build quality of materials is not perfect😉

Rod Hutchinson used a similar rig with a bottom bait and Rob Maylin used it as above with no shot. Rod Hutchinson found hook holds were coming outside the mouth, but note that was a bottom bait. Rob Maylin's version I did not see results, but it was pictured in the Beekay book Carp that he wrote. The hair is effective, but many angler's are sticking to the same hair every time. They do not change hair length to suit the needs of the bottom, their feeding or hook holds or fish losses. I do believe that the fish get used to the same thing every time and learn to avoid it. That can be how angler's feed, the rig length or the hair length. Too many angler's do the same thing week in week out. Fashion, big name angler's and copying 'lake tactics' or rigs all reduce thinking, and experimentation. I also think that there is an optimum position for the hair leaves on the hook, and that is a point opposite the shank, between the point and the barb. It gives the correct orientation for the hook to penetrate. If you have the hair exiting from the eye, the hook is taken in 'backwards', eye first, on ejection it leaves bend first. If you have the hair on the bend the hook is taken in the right way, but on blowing out (ejection), turns round and leaves bend first, no chance for the point to pr ick. If the hair leaves roughly midway down the shank, then on sucking in, and blowing out the hook is facing the correct way to embed the point. In general terms, I think we are looking for the fish to eject the bait with the hair rig as it stands. We rarely hook them on sucking in. For that we need to look at other presentations, be it D rigs, and bait tight to the shank 'fixed' or sliding rig ring. Fish that pick up the bait rather than suck it in... I am a firm believer in looking at the hair, how I feed and trying to be different, and checking my hookholds

Prosecto insectivorous, Red Factor, casein and Semolina. Prosecto is basically a bird food with insects in its make up, been around for years. Since it does not bind well you do need the Red Factor and semolina if you mix it with casein.

Fluorocarbon and I have a love/hate relationship. It does not cast as well as mono, tending to be stiffer, more wiry and does not seem to have the same abrasion resistance as mono. In water it seems to disappear, but fished extremely tight, can still cast a shadow on the lakebed. It is brilliant for slack line fishing, or where the final lay is over weed. The point about picking up debris is very true, more than mono for some reason, nulling the invisibility.

.. A mate of mine regularly goes to visit family in Hungary. A lake alongside the river that had been drained and emptied specifically to 'harvest' a food source, carp were naturally restocked from the river by the river rising just 1metre. He was amazed that 10kilo fish had reappeared within a year.

Carp can only put up with or live in brackish or salt water for a short period, they need to flush out the additional salt from their system, and the Freshwater inlet will allow them to do that. Add in the spawning in the stream as well. Although there are carp and other coarse fish in the Baltic, there are also Freshwater inlets, streams and rivers, which they also use for the same reasons.

The hook from an old tent peg does not work, it comes loose (I have a Bosch drill) or bends. Get a paddle mixer/paint stirrer, that works a treat for around 20 eggs of liquids. I have also used a plasterers paddle mixer for larger amounts, about 5litres of eggs and liquids.

Also works like a throwing stick for spread as well. Looks good😉

My ex used to find the tiniest little bit if I ever had a bait rolling session in the kitchen, and the smell of Trigga, Liver Elite, GLM powder and Sweet Cajouser actually woke her up one night. No such thing as a decent bait smell, even cinnamon and peach or eucalyptus and cherry smells overly strong and a bit off when boiling. Hemp has always been done outside of the house, the only good use of a Coleman Peak1 stove...

My view exactly. I have had various baitrunners, the original 3500 GT's, 4000's, 8010's and the DL's. A mate still uses his original 6500 baitrunners. The newer DL's feel cheap and tacky compared to the older models. I have broken a handle on 1 of 3, it fell off my barrow. I am still abusing 2 of my Aerlex 8000's bought back in 2005, they have outlasted other reels. The DL's have been 'promoted' to pike fishing, with braid admittedly, but for carp fishing I prefer my budget range Beastmasters. I found the DL10000's I was limited to around 90metres with 15lb line, the spool is not wide enough to cast further as the line depth drops too low on the spool. A 0.36mm braid will cast far enough for pike fishing, but not for carp fishing, which is why I bought the Beastmasters for carp. You can cast short with a big reel, but not long with a smaller reel. I'm not even sure the DL10000's are as good a casting reel as the older 4000's or 8010's, although I had no need for big casting with 15lb line on them. I did push 100metres plus with 8lb line and shock leader and they felt comfortable.

To be honest I am not totally sure what the DL stands for, but I do not think the DL is totally worth the extra money over the ST baitrunner range. I have DL10000's and other than an extra spool I don't think is necessarily better than the ST range. The build quality of Shimano's mid range reels seems to have gone downhill. Budget ST range or XT top price is the way to go.

Motability disability scooter loaded to the gunnels... Think I need that! Only problem you would need a van or trailer for it😏😂

I'm going to start looking for fish along the river, but will definitely include some chub floater fishing. I didn't even walk the river this close season, I spent non working days on my syndicate fishing.

I found meshing baits would keep rudd at bay. I used to prebait with 18mm baits and fish 15mm on the hair. The theory was that the prebaits would be harder for tench, rudd and bream to deal with, carp would happily take them and the 15mm boilie when actually fishing. This worked fine on most waters, but big (8lb plus) tench and bream would happily eat 18mm boilies on some. Fishing loads of groundbait and particle where bream are present will attract them if on their route; even tiger nuts and big boilies will be taken. I do tend to fish one size boilie now, whether 15 or 18mm. If the carp will take bigger baits I'm happy to fish them, even 2 18 or 20mm boilies or an 18mm and 15mm pop-up on the hair. A lot of my fishing now is trying to get carp feeding, over particles, hemp, maize and a occasionally a few tigers with a boilie hookbait, 15mm with an 11mm pop-up either Monster Crab or a yellow pop-up, (the yellow to look like maize with no fake baits allowed). Sometimes even with fish feeding on naturals they will still take 18mm boilies. As @yonny says, sometimes we over think it

No matter what life brings, as an angler you get the urge when you least expect it. A new challenge or a 'rebirth' is often the spark that gets you wanting to be fishing again. Enjoy.

Not every fish spawns at the same time, some don't at all! My personal view, is just don't fish for spawning fish. On Ardleigh back years ago, I had a 13lb heavily scaled mirror from the mouth of a small bay where they would spawn, I had seen other fish splashing along the bank. 2 hours later I caught a 24 battle scarred warrior from an area 100 metres away, middle of the reservoir that had not been in the splashing fish. The 13lb mirror was munching on the spawn, there was no dripping milt or eggs, the 24lb mirror was built, but again was not dripping. It did not look empty, but was eating. At Brackens I caught a 20lb male that was pouring out milt, yet I know that they did not go into full spawning mode as mid afternoon just after they started, the weather turned cold with severe thunderstorms. 3 weeks later with no more warmer weather around, 12 fish went belly up, spawn bound after an oxygen crash. I've watched fish spawning, and despite getting heavily battered, scales etc, within a week, most damage is healing. The best person to ask is @levigsp

Essentially I would agree with you Blue, but sadly some days I struggle with sciatica and hip pain, so putting the gear on a barrow keeps me balanced as well as being able to walk faster. The days of carrying everything are gone. I carry only what I need, that does include chest waders and life jacket, I've not been conned into extras. I don't have bivvy table, but my floater rod may need setting up so spare hooklinks and hooks are in my tackle box. Go through that I don't think there is anything I don't use! I don't often take cooking stuff on summer days, but winter pike fishing a hot coffee is a big bonus, really warms you up, and tastes a whole lot better than flask coffee. Day times I often do pasta dishes (leftovers from dinner) which I can eat hot or cold.

I always have my barrow in the car. Carp Porter Porterlite. I can't drive to every swim and Sky's food bucket and my 5 litre water container seems to be the tipping point (not literally) for carrying gear to the swim. I have the massive Rod Hutchinson unhooking mat, which makes a good barrow carryall for my food and bait bags, along with another unhooking mat for Sky to lay on rather than damp ground. Even pike fishing this winter the barrow was used for getting round to the dam wall swims, only a 100metres or so, but it makes a lot of difference.