salokcinnodrog

If you use a rig ring on the hook shank, with a line aligner and a bead to stop it, you can change hair length if required. This has been my version for years. Rob Maylin called it revolving or extending hair with the rig ring. It can be fished as a snowman (hence an orange Monster Crab pop-up as top bait) or bottom bait rig

Quite possibly because it was on my purchase history:

Actually comes under latest purchases, but got this for sitting on my bedchair https://www.ebay.co.uk/vod/FetchOrderDetails?itemId=303638460183&transactionId=1845725758020

In theory, the rig ring should allow the rig to reset itself. It may possibly be that the hook pulls could have been from fish which picked up rigs that had not reset after being ejected in the first place. The number of times I have seen fish pick up, move and eject rigs on semi-fixed leads with absolutely no indication at the buzzer still astounds me!

If you need a bait boat for medical reasons it is not cheating😉 If for the sake of using a bait boat it is... Even if you can't park behind the swim, being able to drop off the gear will surely help. That is something I do whenever possible. My gear seems to have increased now that my PTSD care dog (Sky) comes with me almost everywhere. She has her food bucket, which usually contains extra treats... I found that where I used to walk with Rucksack, rod holdall, bedchair and tackle box the ordinary barrow does make life a lot easier so I can be more comfortable with an extra chair, more water etc.

I'm not sure about all of Adam Penning's argument. Like you I've used various lines back to 6 or 8lb line for 20lb fish over the years. I've landed carp on 12lb through lilies, and 15lb line from snags. To some extent I think thicker heavier breaking stain lines encourage people to fish sometimes where they shouldn't. If you tie a bad knot, learn to tie a good one, check it, test it, something I do regularly. It seems to be a mix of thinking between pike and carp fishing. Pike fishing you CANNOT have any tackle breakage, a baited trace picked up, or a broken line is a dead pike. Whereas carp fishing, the carp can eject hooks even when well hooked. If they break tackle they must not have any 'extras' like leads or leaders to snag up as it becomes a death rig.

Pain, love it, it makes you know you are alive... 😖😳😉 Seriously it really is not funny, can be a real session killer, stops you enjoying it. I have arthritis in my knees, and a sore back, too much sports and probably not enough looking after myself. Sciatica down my right leg, from buttock to ankle, and my right knee especially can get very stiff and sore. Even walking Sky a few miles in the morning now hurts, but her welfare comes before my own. For some reason it seems worse in the morning than the evening! I have had to stop using tackle brand chairs, they are too low, and switched to a directors style chair, which just happen to be cheaper. If I can I do drive to the swim and unload, then put the car back in the car park, or as I did at Nazeing, fish 'car park' swims. I don't find pushing a barrow too bad for short distances, but anything over around 200metres and it hurts. Sciatica, I found massaging my right buttock and trying to lay flat reduces the problem a bit, as does sitting with hips higher than knees, so even at home a low sofa is not good. I'm more comfortable standing than I am sitting, but obviously everyone is different. I go through stages of needing painkillers, then none for ages. @Carpbell_ll I'd be interested in the diet you are with as if the red meat is a potential problem.

Tufty's can be very useful at identifying spots, although as @framey has pointed out they can be a pain if they are on bait. They do tend to feed on the same spots as carp, quite probably the same, as their usual diet is molluscs (snails and mussels) and insects. Bait for both just happens to be a sideline... On some waters I have been plagued by coots and tufties, getting continual pick-ups, then the next bleep becomes a full blooded run as a carp takes the bait. Yet on others if the coots are about the swim the carp aren't. I have watched coots suddenly surface looking spooked, and had a run immediately after, so it is something I look for. It may be pike spooking them, but it can be carp...

Loads of different answers on line, and as Ouch has pointed out, 'different strokes for different folks'. I have used and tested various lines over 35years fishing (really😳), and found some good lines, some awful lines that I couldn't get on with yet others liked, and others I know are overrated by angler's and manufacturers alike. Now personally I pretty much stick to 2 lines; Gardner Pro in light or dark, dependant on water clarity, P-Line Fluroclear which is a fluorocarbon coated line.

Leave them in the bag until you use them, either shelf life or in the freezer frozen. You shouldn't need to drill them, I recall Sticky baits were not particularly hard, and if you want to attach them to a rig swivel, use a loop of dental floss or hook link braid pulled through and bait stopped or lighter tagged and melted to the bait. Best baiting needle I have ever found is the Gardner braided hair needle. It goes through most baits, but does struggle with rock hard baits which I do drill before putting needle through the hole. https://thetackletavern.co.uk/product/gardner-braided-hair-needle/

You will or may find that smaller reels on heavier test curve rods don't balance very well. It is better to have larger reels than too small, and should you go to larger waters in the future, the reels will be right. I found on my 2.75lb Century SP's Shimano 4500's and 8010's were too small, so bought 10000's. Even with the DL10000's and 15lb line, my casting was limited to 90metres. (The lake was 100metres wide, so I'm sure on distance). I didn't like the Wychwood reels, I didn't find them comfortable and they felt 'cheap'. I would actually shop around and for another £10 or so look at Shimano Beastmasters. I love mine although they are 5 or 6 years old now. A baitrunner spool doesn't take much to get used to, I found it pretty easy. I honestly think that they are a better buy than the latest £100 plus Shimmy's. As I say shop around, but here is AD link https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/shimano-beastmaster-xb-reel

Not really fill a carp up, it goes in one end, and straight through while continuing to eat. Tigers are also not particularly good for the carp, the only nutrition they can get from them is the surface, once they are eaten, either chewed, crunched or whole, swallowed, they come out exactly as they go in. Obviously most tigers are crunched and broken in the pharyngeal teeth. Tigers can be an addictive food, carp will eat almost nothing else if they are baited in large quantities, hence mixing up with hemp. For one litre tub of hemp, I have a handful of tigers in there. A single tiger on the hair, and a 5 tiger stringer works

In reference to tying rigs, is this any use?

First answer, bin the leadcore! Seriously if you use it, the ONLY safe way is with helicopter rigs. I experimented years ago, there really is no safe set-up I was comfortable using that was safe for fish if there was a break or crack off. Instead of having the line run through the lead swivel, get yourself some run rings, various makes, Gardner, Fox, Solar etc. The lead can clip onto them with a snap link or quicklink. Keep the buffer bead on, save the run ring crashing the knot. You can then leave the rods set up and just remove the lead between trips.

Definitely in the carassius family, but could be hybrids between crucian and goldfish. Not sure that they are f1 hybrids as Kevtaylor suggests, it would depend on whether there are carp in the water. The other thing is f1's do have barbules, albeit tiny Lateral line scales for crucian is 32-34, for goldfish 29 so anything different should identify them https://www.crucians.org/html/crucian_hybrids.php#:~:text=(1) The Crucian × Common Carp Hybrid or "F1"&text=It occurs naturally in the,on quite a large scale.&text=In this hybrid the lateral,to a crucian's 32 - 34.

On a serious note, shop around and have a look at Shimano Beastmasters. I love mine although they are 5 or 6 years old now. A baitrunner spool doesn't take much to get used to, I found it pretty easy. I honestly think that they are a better buy than the latest £100 plus Shimmy's. As I say shop around, but here is AD link https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/shimano-beastmaster-xb-reel

Struggled with motivation for the last few weeks since that decent pike trip. I think the pike will spawn early, and I've actually nearly run out of deadbaits, got 5 blueys left. Don't fancy purchasing a freezer full to keep almost a year for next season. I'd planned on a few river roach trips, looking for big fish. Each day, trip planned, then when it comes to it, 'nah can't be bovvered'. I think some of the problem is pushing the overnight fishing as I would be fishing into dark. Don't want any grief, but also I'm constantly so tired, not sleeping at night, then falling asleep during the day exhausted. Must do better!

I've posted in the past about fishing reservoirs on here: Obviously as @yonny has said, find them. Even though you have a nature reserve, that may not always be the best spot. I found that reservoir fish can really follow a good wind, and a big wind coming into my face is usually when I had my best catches. A good shelter is a MUST; across a 100acres plus of water that wind can really blow, with big spray. I have had nights when rain and spray blew into my bivvy even well up the bank. Those were often the nights I caught most. Reservoir fish can move very quickly. Baiting up on top of the fish can be enough to move them, but equally it could be enough to hold them if you bait up when they are not feeding. Also if they are not there, then you are giving them something to hold them if they move in while you are there. My baiting to hold them tended to be Vitalin, mixed in with plenty of hemp, tigers and boilies. Bream attractor at times, but hookbaits were big, a 2x 20mm boilies, 20mm bottom and a 15mm pop-up as a snowman or a 20mm pop-up to reduce bream taking hookbaits. I found that my catching depths were between 6 and 15feet deep, usually on a ledge rather than right out in the middle. The exceptions to fishing ledges were when I fished shallower bays, the shallower Dam at Wick Lane at Ardleigh and Alton Water culvert area, but they were still in those depth ranges. The culvert at Alton was very snaggy, you could not fish directly onto it. It ate tackle, fragged mainline and hooklinks, blunted or broke hooks. You had to fish the swim to the left. Feature finding is simple, but unless you have a brilliant memory, write it down; forget wraps as distances you write down, because water depth can change as water levels rise and fall. Simply get your marker rod, cast out and check depths, features, feel the lead back. When I say feel the lead back, feel it at all times as you reel in. You might feel it lock up as you come back to the base of a ledge, or you might find blocks or other lumps on the bottom. If you count and let the float up, be aware that there may be undertow, so you could be a few metres away from the actual lead. Check each swim like a clock. Alton between highest and lowest level was a 4metre straight vertical height on the bridge supports at Lemons Hill. That could equate to water level being 10metres (!) down the bank.

I'd much rather not wear them all day, although pike fishing 2 weeks ago I had to. They normally stay by the chair, rolled down so I can step in and pull them up and then do a strap up.

I did go through a stage of touching up hooks, and honestly found it made no difference. Now I don't even touch up pike singles or treble hooks, blunt or turned point on hook change trace or hook link. Waters I fish I seem to turn points over on underwater features, branches, mussels, concrete. Nothing more annoying than feeling a freshly sharpened hook down, knowing it has not gone right and reeling in a turned over hook. I've mentioned it in the past about one rig catching a 26 at Merrington during a carp.com social. That same rig caught more fish, think it was another 5 at Hintlesham, until I turned the point overcasting and finding a tree. The strange thing, if you get the same pattern in barbed and barbless, the barbed appears to the naked eye, more blunt than barbless. It is normally an illusion. What stops hooks penetrating is the barb, exactly what holds it in place. Take the barb down and penetration is improved. That is something I used to do on many Owner FLB's, the barb on some was brutal.

If you can source it from a flavourist then yes. Bait companies always recommended top level, because we boil a lot of the flavour out, in human levels it is normally used in baking so 'intensifies'. I seem to remember Rod Hutchinson quoting about a flavour he used in a bait and sent the finished bait off for analysis, it was around 1000 times stronger than we recommended for human use. If the recommendation is to go 1ml, then I would only go 2ml as maximum in a bait. I always used lowest recommended flavour level, so if bait company said use 2-5ml, I would use 2ml in 4eggs.

New cult starting if you get them in blue😉😊

Followed by "oh no, not the Peanut Elite"

Not the only one. We had Nash rods come into the shop straight from the port, the rep used to get regular phone calls to replace rods that were already damaged.

Since Bill Cottam sold Nutrabaits I really don't know whether the quality is the same. If you make it to the BFM recipe, you might wish to make the base mix yourself. If not look at an equivalent fishmeal base mix from another company. Guava is not in the list now, in fact there seem to be very few of my favourites still available.