salokcinnodrog

I honestly do believe a better bait will out fish a rubbish bait, but as @kevtaylor pointed out the water itself will make a difference. Fish a rich water where bait may not need to be eaten and you want a decent bait. Fish an overstocked water (and to be honest, most are) any bait may catch. Humans can choose what they eat by thinking, they can choose to eat healthily or not. Carp don't have that choice, Survival, then health. They have to eat what is available, natural food, or pellets or boilies, or maybe particles, even more so in a high stocked environment. I have seen good baits 'dominate' a water, the right bait outproducing every other bait used to the extent of that bait being almost the only one that caught, and it was not particularly heavily baited, around 1kg a week, after an initial 20kg in 2 weeks. Yet Mainline baits have also dominated waters, the Essex Grange, the original Grange CSL, not a bad bait, Activ8, not bad. The Cell, not so good. There is a difference in quality between the bait companies. Some 'Joe Bloggs' garage specials can be produced for exactly the same as the Bait Baron bait, Nash, Mainline etc, but you forget Nash, Mainline are sold nationwide. The cost of that bait may well be £4.50 per kilo, Joe can sell it for that. Mainline or Nash might well sell it for that price as well, but the middleman, (wholesaler) puts his bit on it, so it then gets sold at £7.50 per kilo. Tackle shop buys it, final selling price is £10.99 per kilo. NOT every tackle shop buys direct from Mainline or Nash etc. In the interests of retail the RRP of all shops is £10.99. So Mainline might have different price bands depending on who they sell to, or selling to a shop directly at £4.50, the shop may be able to sell at a big discount. Is the bait market fair? Most definitely not! I can tell you for 100% fact that Crafty Catcher boilies are sold in the Gladwell's shop, right next to the Crafty Catcher factory, Gladwell's own Crafty Catcher, for exactly the same price retail as most tackle shops that sell them. I bet most bait companies with retail outlets adjacent as part of the company are the same. There is an element of price fixing! Baits can be discounted for various reasons: Get rid of, it is not a good seller. End of line Make way for the new stock, either new product or newer model. Discount to increase interest, loss leader Or even nearing end of life, even frozen goods have a life.

It was years ago, sadly I no longer have the email from Simon Chillcott about where they come from.

I have spoken to them a few times, about custom builds (my NG's) and the carbon cloths and pre-pregs they use, always found them very helpful.

The SP was quite a long lasting rod, and a few versions autoclaved and pre-autoclave. I had 2.75lb TC SP's with a black/dark grey reel seat, around 2005. This was a brown blank. From memory the number of the blank was printed on the butt and the tip section so I was always able to match the correct butt and tip. I don't think it is a model number, I actually think it is the number in the run. I'm not sure when the steel reel seat came into vogue, probably around 2011, but I could be wrong

Google could be your friend😉 Last I remember was that there was an application to the council for it to be properly run as a fishery and nobody was running it officially as a fishable water, this was 3 or 4 years ago.

Probably not to the question of lead size. The best lead size is usually around 1/2 ounce in a ratio to the test curve rating. So for a 3lb test curve rod, 3.5oz is about right. As for 18lb line at full blast, it should as long as you have a smooth action, and don't overload the rod with a lead going too heavy.

It is my 'goto' method on Bromeswell where the lake bank is a straight drop to the water and ledge. I tend to try to have the rod at 90 degrees to the float, usually fishing to the left of the rod tip, so the strike is natural to my right, although obviously some swims might mean you are the other way round striking left. I have tried different hooklink materials, braids or coated braids (same as my ledger rigs) and the honest answer is I found no difference to mono, although in relation to the post by @elmoputney I have found that the bait may need to be on a hair. This could be because the fish are used to inspecting baits. The only baits that do go on the hook are worms and bread. I have tried maggots on the hook, but found that with large numbers on the hook, one often seems to spin round and cover the point, making less chance of hooking the fish. I end up threading the darn things onto floss and tying them to a rig ring on the hair.

I'm not going to get into the barbed vs barbless debate, but on the barbless waters I have fished, the mouths are more damaged😉

I'm still using my pre Dave Chilton Kryston sale hooklink materials, Mantis and Snakebite. I've honestly not found anything better. I do not know if they have changed at all in the past few years though.

Just a day session I take sandwiches I have made or 'leftovers', extra pasta and sauce from last nights dinner at home, along with 2 flasks of cafetiere coffee. No milk so it still tastes good. I might take some choccie snacks, Jaffa cakes, or something similar

Porridge for breakfast in the winter, with goat's milk for me, done and eaten straight from the pan, but topped with a dessert spoon of soft brown sugar😉 Add a coffee from the Bialetti and I'm happy

This any use?

It has been noticed by Shaun Harrison as well that right in the teeth of the wind is not always the place to be, but fish a swim or two off it. Rod Hutchinson also wrote about the fish backing off a new wind years ago on Savay. It may be pressure and everyone fishing at the end of the wind, as on the reservoir the teeth of it was the place to be when it was quite unpressured. It had to be a new wind though, not a couple of days old, although if there was bait there to hold them... Yet on Nazeing the fish didn't always follow a new wind. It could be better to search specific places. @yonny though, what about the depth of the waters? I've noticed deeper 15ft plus venues the fish often just move along or up and down the water column rather than with the wind.

I looked on Dynamite website, only 1kg dumbells on there

Sky will eat anything, so taking a bag or bucket of Vitalin, nothing goes to waste. What doesn't get used for bait she will eat dampened down neat or mixed with her Corporals Crunch. Huskies eat pretty much everything, they are self sufficient and run free in summer in their own habitat in Siberian. Vitalin can have the problem of being high visibility, coots, ducks and swans will feed on it, but just as easily, and has been pointed out, it can be used to feed them off... As well as being attractive to fish; all non predator species.

I agree with you on knots, different materials work best with different knots. Even mono, some are grinner/uni knot, others are blood knot, although almost everything works with a palomar. I would not use anything other than 3 turn blood knot or Rapala loop knot with Amnesia. Fluorocarbon I have found is blood knot as well. I have had carp snap knots I have tested, the acceleration and turn of a take on a water knot, mainline to hooklink, Sensor to Berkley XL. A water knot between the two just does not work for me. It is the only floater set-up I use with a controller and swivel. Come to that I just can't get XL to join any other line, it has to be tied to swivel or hook. Yet on a normal test pull it will not break. Never found any other material I could not find the right knot to join to another line.

I use 15lb line on the lift float; no point in fishing light and letting the fish get into the weed or snags. As for hooklinks, I find myself using shorter hooklinks than I do for sitting the rods on the buzzers, so for 15cm or so it is easy to use mono. In most cases, our hooklinks are more abrasion resistant than our mainline, but we don't necessarily recognise that. We have (or should have) chosen our hooklink material on its behaviour, suppleness, stiffness etc. No real need to complicate matters any more when float fishing. The only need for a swivel on a lift float setup, to be able to put a loop of line through to attach your Swan shot to.

You do realise that my Delkims are over 20years old and still being used every session😉😊

I test every hooklink, every leader knot, if I can snap it, then sure as heck a fish can. I'm relying on a gradual increase of pull, strength, but a carp uses its speed. Within a metre it can be at top speed, that can be enough to put the tackle to far more tension and pressure than me. Fluorocarbon as far as I know has different abrasion resistance and although the stretch is similar, it's elasticity is less than mono. Mono can stretch and go back to its original state, whereas fluorocarbon, can't it tends to 'ping' quicker than mono.

If I can pull a rig apart, then it is not good enough. That is the same with Sea Fishing rigs, carp rigs or pike traces. I have used crimps for years on all three, although I found carp rigs it just didn't 'fit' and I prefer to knot them.

I'm the same, no need to use an ounce of lead. I use either putty or a couple of Swan shot and fish lift float style. Porcupine quill or a waggler fished with a float band, perfect.

I agree exactly. The ability to assess, learn and correct without going round in circles or up your own bottom is good angling. Chopping and changing every trip and then catching but not knowing why is luck. I honestly think that too many angler's are given a false perception of what they can achieve; overstocked waters, or even waters jam packed full of big fish at credit card prices. Like @elmoputney I think I earnt my largest fish, I learnt the water, learnt the fish, and caught plenty on the way. My previous largest was lucky. Turn up on a lake, come up with a unique rig and set-up, find a feature, put some bait to it, and first fish, catch a PB. The next 'PB' was fishing through the year, catching most sessions, and realising where the fish were hiding in December. I don't think that just turning up on a Holme Fen, to catch a new largest fish is the way forward. I want to have earnt my next PB. By the way I don't necessarily think my largest fish is a PB, I still class that as a 28lb carp from the river

I don't think that is luck, more like good angling. If it was only the occasional big fish over small ones then I would say luck, but if you are consistently catching big fish then good angling. The more you understand, the harder you work, then the 'luckier' you get.

This is where I think overstocked waters do more harm than good, giving a false impression. There is a difference between catching a few roach and perch to keep the interest to catching carp and starting with a big fish to beat your 'pb'.

I would disagree with part of that, as there are some very good baits available on retail. The big difference is pressured and unpressured waters. Most waters in America are unpressured, carp will eat anything, it is pressure that can get them to switch. The other thing that many anglers don't understand is 'overstocked'. An overstocked water the fish may need to eat anything and everything to survive. Compare that to waters rich in natural food, you might need to increase the amount you feed, or the quality. (particles vs good food boilie). What is good angling vs luck? A mate of mine walked round the lake last week, saw fish in the margin feeding, carefully and quietly put his rods onto them and had 2 stockie doubles that night. Good angling I say. I'm fishing around more often, trying to learn swims, putting hours in, and at the same time learn the movements of the originals. I haven't had the luck YET. As much as I want to catch I'm learning things for later, although I do feel at times I am chasing my tail