salokcinnodrog

You can tie the same rig with various hook link materials, braid, coated braid, mono, stiff mono like Amnesia or fluorocarbon. Each material will behave differently and some stiffer materials like mono may 'lie funny' on certain lakebeds. I would pretty much only use mono or even fluorocarbon on clear, weed free areas of hard bottomed lakes, clay, sand or gravel. Even then, on gravel, it only takes a nick in the line and it could break. These hook links, to be honest don't lend themselves to going in a PVA bag. Braid can be used on pretty much any lakebeds, over weed, gravel, silt, anything. It is also nicely supple, so can be 'folded' into PVA bags. Coated braids I use a lot, you can strip a section near the hook for flexibility, a softer supple section, or use stiffer. Even in weed to some extent they are camouflaged, and look like weed stems. They are basically a cross between stiff and supple. If your rig is working, then stick with it, however I personally found on some or even most waters, the addition of tubing to lengthen the hook shank improves hooking, a line aligner can help even more.

A bait I was working on years ago for a food source was green, I found seagulls had problems seeing them after impact.

I know it is early, but I've been awake since 4 this morning, Fishing dinner: diced lamb and garlic over pasta stuffed with pesto and goats cheese with chopped tomatoes and mixed herbs. To be honest washing up is no problem, I put water and washing up liquid in the saucepan, and boil it, then tip that water into the tupperware my tomatoes and lamb were in and onto my plate. Wet wipe and clean.

Of those, I would be looking to the Century rods, or from having Terry Edmonds on my Facebook feed and his casting, the Shimano's. Or as I posted earlier, Rod Hutchinson Dream makers.

Century are probably the best, World Record holders in a number of weights for distance casting. Plus also a favourite on mainland Europe Rod Hutchinson Dream makers, a 13ft 3.5lb is available at around £200 by shopping around. Any long range rod is going to be stiff as a broomstick. Heck I used Century FMJ's, very heavy, very stiff but boy could they cast. Terry Edmonds, currently using Shimano has put leads a long way with their range, and they are probably in the bargain bucket price range.

I'm still trying to eat healthily on the bank, although I do drink far too much real coffee. Breakfast, a proper porridge and tonight's offering is couscous with stir fried lamb, onions, mushrooms, ginger, garlic, black pepper and coriander.

I'm of rather different views on flavours and essential oils, I found some very good combinations, and that iso-eugenol could improve the attraction of a number of baits. The obvious essential oil that got lots of note was a proper genuine full Black Pepper oil. Some baits were a whole lot better with the addition of flavours, The Biollix, not bad, but my Cinnamon EO with Peach Nutrafruit knocked it even better. Then we have Enervite Gold, with Julian Cundiff's favourite Strawberry and Cream Elite with Bergamot EO. Plain Enervite Gold with Multimino never caught as much as the flavoured version. Another combination I played with was Eucalyptus EO, Cherry Elite and 2drops of Iso-eugenol. As a bait it smelt like your chemist's sore throat remedy, it had its own Tune... Boy did it work! Taking some of these combinations and trying others, some complete pop-ups I bought, (some same flavours or similar from various manufacturers), not all were the same in terms off effectiveness. Nutrabaits Pineapple N-butyric (plain yellow) were as effective as Mainline Fluoro Yellow Pineapple. Dynamite's Fluoro Pineapple were not as good as Solars Pineapple, in terms of fish caught. My own Garlic Oil and Megaspice pop-ups have produced fish from various waters. I gave the recipe to a bait company, they hated making them, they stink, yet on a water just down the road from that company, locals couldn't get enough of them, they produced loads of fish, and now I make my own, continue to do so. Maybe I should come up with a catchier name and they'd sell... I go through my bait bag now and find I seem to have got a collection again: Monster Crab, KMG in base mix and Fluoro colours, a pale pink Raspberry and Black Pepper, little yellow Aniseed and Bunspice and my own Spiced Garlic (is that catchier?) Some are for merely using as top knot on a snowman bait, some as I heard a pale pink pop-up is a catcher on my lake, some to match the baiting and feeding and obviously one because I have complete faith in it.

The interesting one most definitely, but the head and shoulering can be on the way in to the food, or on the way out, I have seen both. For some reason on a few waters I fished, carp would always approach the spot from the left or right, always the same side at a particular time, go down on the food, then head and shoulder on the way out, before going around again. In one case, always swimming around an island from right to left. It didn't have to be an island swim though, the feeding in this manner occurred even in open water.

I use Solar Titanium (short arm) indicators. They can be used as swing arm indicators, tension arm or at no tension for slack line fishing. The link I have given is for Johnson Ross, so it may pay to shop around https://johnsonrosstackle.co.uk/solar-indicators/20152-solar-tackle-p1-titanium-indicator.html

Back on the pike trail, 4 today including a double take, biggest went 10lb I had 7 takes, 4 on ledgered mackeral head, 3 on smelt and landed 2 on each, but lost 3 fish as hooks pulled. I can only assume small fish that didn't take the bait deeply. All were lightly hooked

If I see fish show I will move onto them. Not all shows are obvious either; I have seen what I thought was a swirl, just a circular ripple, almost like feather going round three quarters of a circle, and caught from it. The head and shoulders, jumping are obvious, easily seen, but not all indicate carp feeding on a spot. I have seen fish head and shouldering, but the catching spot was 20metres to the left of it. I think the fish were digging into the silt, feeding, then coming up to clear their gills. Other times the dolphin type shows were carp moving onto a feeding area.

Years ago I had casting lessons over the field at Gainsborough Park in Ipswich with Roger Mortimer and John Holden. (Big Beach casters of old) While not in the Terry Edmonds league of now, and with rods not as materially advanced as now, they definitely improved my casting. I got to 125yards with 2.25lb Armalites, 4000 Aero gte Baitrunners, 8lb line, shock leaders and 3oz leads. When I switched to 15lb, 2.75lb Century SP's and original Aerlex's, with 3.5oz leads, longest cast at Nazeing was well over 130metres, closer to 140. I haven't really practiced since then, but try to keep all the fundamentals in line.

Exactly the same as I do summer, no difference in lead set-ups, rigs or bait, although I use less bait and hardly any particles if any at all. I nearly always fish with leads on run rings; I can fish them slack or tight line dependant on the water, I also prefer them over lead clips. The time I do put bait in is when I leave, during fishing I bait up only with stringers or mesh of boilies.

Many bait companies make decent base mixes, often the same as their ready made freezer or shelf life boilies, any one will work if you put it in the right place, where the fish feed. As much as a simple mix of semolina and soya flour works, usually only for a limited time. Its attraction is often only from the flavour or liquids used. The advantage of making your own from a bait company mix, is you can often improve it. Grange CSL, Active8 were good base mixes, as was Trigga, BFM, even Enervite, but they can be made better.

If I have to wait on a session for more than 3 days after preparing particles, I stick them in the freezer, and take them out around 36hours before I fish.

On Ardleigh every fish I caught was around the 6 foot depth, where Alton I caught in depths from 6feet down to 15feet deep.

I have followed it out with chesties on my current water, and once it is below the water surface, I lose sight of it, tripping over it on a couple of occasions

I honestly can't remember the last time I used any other line than Gardner Pro in light or dark, it must be since Gardner released it! Richard Gardner sent me a spool for an honest appraisal so I attempted to test it to destruction. The line held up better than I did. My casting at Nazeing could be anything up to 150metres, 15lb Pro does it, with or without shock leaders, and a 3.5oz lead on a 3.25lb tc rod. The line diameter is consistent, 0.35 for the 15lb. The only thing is that the breaking strain exceeds the stated strain, I seem to recall it was 18lb in tests with a balance and scales, using a Uni or Blood knot. Bracken is a weedy water, or in 1 swim I fished, the line dealt with that while playing fish through it, and I never had it give up around the snags.

This is where you don't put the rig in the bag, just the lead. Have the mono or fluoro coming out of the top of the bag, and hook the point into the outside corner of the bag. You might need a short hair, or tie it up with a Pva twist if you use a longer hair. In fact a doubled length of Pva, round the top of the bag, then put the loose ends through the loop, twist one round and a granny or overhand knot to each other

Try mixing creamed corn and salt in a small amount of spod mix. Really cloudy. If you do use a spod to put bait out, keep the above version separate in a separate container as I really don't like to put much salt in the lake. Too much can reduce protein intake (@Greekski may be able to explain better, although his own views may differ) and digestion.

I'm never one for dropping the lead off on helicopter setups. It is the lead that allows the rig to be ejected if you get a break off. I have pictures on here for a naked setup using tubing to protect the mainline, but there are Cox and Rawle beach beads that do the same job, just do not glue them, and leave the open bead at the rod tip end. Coated braid, fluorocarbon or nylon hook links.

I honestly don't know. They look good, but it would be whether the build quality is good

I'd argue, the Shimano Aerlex 8000's were the best 😉 I still use one for my spod rod, and it is around 15years old, only occasionally cleaned outside. I don't think it has been serviced.

I'm not that keen on the latest 'more expensive' Shimano reels. A few years ago I bought myself Shimano Beast master reels, around £60 each. Bearing in mind I worked in a tackle shop, so I was able to play and compare various reels before buying. I honestly did not like the £100 price tag in relation to build quality. The Beastmasters have round metal line clips, as you have said, it doesn't matter which type. I haven't owned a Daiwa reel since the 1980's (Ag1350's?) , I found Shimano gearing better, and they were well ahead with baitrunner over Bite'n'Run.

I agree, although some hooks have different gauge wire. A size 10 Solar 101, may be heavier than a size 8 ESP, although I have not compared it. I have actually pushed my luck on Bromeswell as the rules are for a size 10 being the largest hook allowed, but I did do a brand size comparison as there is no universal size. A size 8 B175 is around the same size as the Solar 101, but with a long shank and inturned eye. The B175 is also lighter in relation, being made of thinner metal. I also seem to get more positive hook-ups on the B175 to the Solar hooks. It may be rig related, although I found D rigs better on Solar hooks and sliding ring on shank, or a uni-knot loop for the bait tight to the hook and knotless knot better on B175's. The B175's also appear, by sight to be sharper out of the packet, but that may be down to a longer taper to the point. I have come away from pop-ups themselves and taken this thread off at a tangent, sorry. Going back to the pop-up theme, I found if fishing over maize and hemp, a standard yellow, (not fluoro) 11mm aniseed and bunspice on the hook, fished low to the lake bed works nicely.