salokcinnodrog

I lost a couple of fish to hook pulls on Ardleigh of all places using a stiff hair, so went back to more supple materials. Both fish were on stiff rigs made from 25lb Clear Amnesia continued through to form the hair. One of the fish I had played for around 10minutes, then it just 'let go'. Annoyingly I never had another take from that spot. I think a stiffer hair has it's place, but it does need freedom of movement, a pivot point or able to slide up and down the D or hookshank in the first place

I did, or even still do the same with shrink tube. I heard that longshank hooks with an inturned eye like the Fox and Nailer equivalent could do as much damage as the BHR. The Partridge piggyback were a nicely curved shank as well. Personally, possibly because I was not fishing for single figure fish and rather than use forceps with deep or well hooked fish, just cut the eye of the hook off with wire cutters and pushed it through point first, I never noticed any mouth damage. I did use the Fox D hooks, but after the Series 2's I think it was let me down started doing my own, making a tidy D on the shank. Think I still have a couple of my own in the pop up rig wallet, although now I do tend to use Amnesia with a knotless knot and lighter tag the end through the hook eye

Pike fishing right now. I had a walk around on Monday, half the lake was covered in ice, but I figured it was going to be free by today. Gives me a chance for carp spotting as I can see most of the lake from where I am now.

Wasn't the extended D back down the hook link Roger Smith's original Savay version? I recall a carefully whipped D attached to the hook link in Tim Paisley's Big Carp

I've used zigs occasionally, catching a few fish, more often though when I couldn't fish a floater as it was drifting too fast through the swim or the line and controller got dragged off course. Had a few fish with the bait or zig bug just touching surface tight to lily pads or margins where the freebies ended up. Pop-ups fished around a foot up straight off the lead also produced numbers of carp at Bromeswell. Maybe not strict zig fishing, but it worked. Chods I used before they got named 'chods', again catching fish, but I didn't like them in weed. They were OK over silt and bottom weed, but not in 'total weed'.

I think a few of us have done the same thing, worked hard all week, got away to fish, arrived at the lake and just jumped in any swim. I did it at Nazeing, I've done it elsewhere, and quite probably not caught because of it. At Earith I was 'lucky', the research or previous prebaiting before fishing or at the end of the previous session kept me catching, if I did have to jump in 'any swim'. Arriving at 11 or 12 at night and casting out knowing the swim often caught me fish before having set the bivvy up. When I walked around Nazeing Lagoons looking first before setting up, even in winter, I tended to catch. Just turning up and jumping in didn't. I guess I can be lucky, but I grew up looking for fish be it tench, bream or carp, on 25acre and 7 acre lakes. Without realising it, I was learning. Fishing Taverham I did the same, looked for fish, and twigged that the fish loved fish meals, comparing result of my bird food bait to fish meals. The addition of salmon oil... Even Alton, I would say my fishing was pretty successful. At least twice every week I walked Sky around it, I had mental pictures of many areas, I had put bait in a few. I went through spells of relationships cutting fishing time. At Earith or at Ardleigh it didn't cut down the numbers of fish caught, previous research again. Now being single I only have work and money to consider to limit my fishing.

Money can only get you so far, obviously the biggest 'up front' cost is always the cost of the fishing, be that your club ticket, your syndicate or the day ticket price. In that though you might be able to afford weekly day tickets, but due to other commitments can't save ( and possibly hide) the money for a syndicate. Personally I can't afford £40 for a weekend fishing, even if fishing say every other weekend, but I can afford a £350 syndicate. £350 against over £1000 for me is easy choice. However any more and I may struggle to juggle. I mentioned earlier about Brackens, and just missing those 2 fish, yet I caught loads of others, probably not single minded enough to aim for just those two. On most waters I am just aiming to catch carp, so as much time learning as possible. Watercraft plays a big part, as does the knowledge of the fish you want to catch; what, where, how.

Two fish in Brackens eluded me, Sam's and Digit. I caught most of the other 30's including 2 that had not been caught at 30 before, one not since it had been stocked at double figures, yet despite fishing where Sam's and Digit came from mostly, I never landed them.

I think a lot of the problem with braid hook links is due to crayfish, and for you poisson chat fiddling with rigs.

One of the guys I used to play American Football with weighed 135kg. He was a man mountain. Had to get his kit specially made

Problem is different manufacturers have different sizes. In some I'm xl or large top, yet trousers are either medium or large. Chest size is 42, with 16 collar in shirts. Hard part is the 32/34 waist with 32/33 inside leg, exactly as I was when I left school, 24 years ago!

Not sure if they add strength, but they do add weight and stiffen the action. Not that I would ever think you would, but a properly finished cane rod sells for loadsamoney... That means getting the same number of 'whips' on every ring past the foot

Most of mine are Kryston; Mantis, Snakebite, Merlin, and Snakeskin. I also have Amnesia in 15 and 20lb in both black and clear

On a MkIV Avon most definitely 😉

Oh, another good spot can be inflows. A number of canals have top-up reservoirs, which allow water lost through locks to be topped up, or even incoming streams. These provide oxygen as well as offering food spots.

They don't usually float when they go off, the oil goes rancid and becomes inedible and I think toxic. Frank and probably Greekski know more than me on that. A very worthwhile tactic anyway, some smaller sized pellets in a batch often do float until they have taken on water and break the water surface tension. I use the method on Bromeswell regularly to get fish right into the margins, then fish a free lined bait on the surface hanging off the rod tip. It is where a nice brown trimmed pop-up really scores...

That looks like a good spot! I would fish it a few times to see if there are carp about, just a single bait or with a small stringer. If the fish are there then prebait to give them a reason to stop and stay. Other areas, again fish first, near boats, bridges and marinas. Once again when you find them keep trickling bait in.

When I was making my own Trigga, my neighbours cat would come round. I'd be taking them out of the pan tipping onto the air drying tray and she would pinch them. As for dogs... I used to have a Shetland Sheepdog, I had made some fishmeal boilies which I had coloured blue. The little git ate about a kilo of the 5k I had made. For the next week he was excreting blue. Sky has been known to pinch baits, a whole tub of red pop-ups turned her poo bright red.

The number of silly things I have done, going out on a lilo to retrieve fish from weed beds, or put baits out😳, fallen in while fish spotting from a tree when a nesting bird decided I was too close, slipped down a steep bank and in when prebaiting, even just stepping in a deep hole while wading and going out of my depth. I've seen a mate get flipped out of a boat when the wind caught it and turned it over and I think a few know the story of Big Dave and me saving his life when he blacked out and went in. I'm not scared of water, but I respect it. Even a few weeks ago while getting some weed out of the lake in chest waders, it was cold. I was not going to go anywhere above knee level, just in case. Too many people forget or don't know about the instant shock that falling or even diving in can cause.

Yes it does sink well. Stretch is around 10%, roughly half of what mono is. One thing, if there is algae in the water, as with any line, it does bring it to the surface. I do like it and use it when I can get hold of it.

I know a few people rate Tiger line, I think Johnson Ross sell it in 1000 and 250 metre spools. I have used P Line Floroclear in 15lb, a fluoro coated copolymer, that is good stuff. I have to have a good search on ebay and buy a few spools at a time as it is imported, often from Poland or USA. (There is currently one spool on the bay in UK and carriage on the Polish is around £9.90). P Line do do Tactical Fluorocarbon, but I have not heard on seen reviews.

Like you I do like fishing over bait, but I can limit myself to a PVA stringer of 1, 2 or more baits. In winter on Taverham, once I had worked out the hidey hole, a 4 bait stringer produced fish. On a local day ticket lake a single bait stringer worked. I honestly don't know why I stopped using stringers, possibly the rise in fashion of bags or mesh, although I do seem to have gone back to boilies in a mesh as it is usually easier to attach. My extra boilies then go in at the end of the session as prebaiting. I did find I didn't catch as many fish on hi-attract singles on most waters as I do on food baits, with a couple of exceptions, Thwaite until I had established a bait, and on Bromeswell until they really started munching. On those waters the hi-attract pop-up produced winter fish, but on Bromeswell as it warmed up and they started munching, bottom baits started working. On Thwaite and Bromeswell we had weeks when you had to chop and change baits to find what worked, and on Thwaite I had a week when I fed my food bait every day until they started taking it on day 3 of a week session, up to that point they had been caught on pop-ups.

Need a long time for that...

Spooky enough you'd be quietly fishing, in your own world, next thing turn around and there would be a nun reading a bible behind you

I think the spodded area and wait became big time with Danny Fairbrass. I used to spod back in the early 1990's but it was usually just a bit, not pile it in. There were times of pile bait in, but most weekends were just a handful around the hookbait. It was Brian Skoyles who wrote 'The Four Day Approach' which I remember reading in Nutrabaits Bait, where if he had 4 days or more would pile boilies in and expect to catch mostly from the 4th day. Anything before that was a bonus. I did also notice that sometimes carp would take at least 2 days to come over bait. That bait, any bait, had to be in place for 2 days. My weekend results dropped from 6 fish or more over 2 nights to those I stalked, usually on floaters, and none on alarmed rods. Bruce and I fished Taverham pretty regularly, usually having at least one whole week each year. You could pick off occasional fish, but baited areas were left alone for days. I often think I have screwed up many sessions by putting in too much to start and committing myself to an area, then not wanting to move in the past at Nazeing, Taverham, Weybread. I should know, at Taverham I have had fish, it has gone quiet so I have moved and caught more. Yet my first 20lb common out of Taverham came out of piling it in Monday, and finally catching on Thursday, that 4 day approach... Yet on Alton, most spodding sessions the fish came on day 2.