salokcinnodrog

I know this has been discussed in the long ago past. It's something I do now as a matter of course as I have to reel in every day to take Sky for a walk, so the swim gets a couple of hours with no lines in. I've had fish in the past where I had to leave the hookbait in the same spot untouched for 48hours. Fish that I was able to watch hanging around the area after I originally put my hookbait in. I think that a fair few people also reel in every day to check or change hookbaits, but how much difference do you think it makes?

Years ago, pictured in Tim Paisley's To Catch a Carp was a rig with the line just going through the eye of the hook, as the hair with bait on that. At the end of the hair was a bead or rig ring tied on in case of the boilie collapsing. Fiddly to tie, and a fresh hooklink for every fish. Like you I would worry about losing fish to an end of line knot or loop giving way. I don't get enough pick ups to lose fish! I'm always wary of ready made shop bought rigs, but for those with difficulties tying rigs I can understand the need. Any tackle brand that sells bits and pieces of end tackle is surely a good thing, but as with every one, tackle must be suitable for purpose and 'fish safe', as in we should not be leaving tackle out for potential tethering etc.

I'm nearly always rods out first, then bivvy. Finally after coffee I'll put some bait in. Sometimes it's coffee before bivvy, and that my friend is why.... Basically I bait up after fishing over a PVA bag or so and giving it a couple of hours. The ONLY exception of the bivvy going up first is if it's raining. Boiling times for 40mm baits, 2minutes tops, but dry for 24hours before freezing, or putting into dip. You might get away with 2mins 30 seconds, but I never found any longer made them any harder. I do have some mega hard hookbaits myself. I drill them before sticking bait needle through them. Mike Wilmott might say different times but he knows his mixes.

Yes I did merge the posts, the joys of phone upload limits. I do like the bivvy, at least you have room around it now. Do you use the inner rib liner? I was struggling with mine this week, cramp in my fingers and I couldn't pop the clips onto the ribs. The other good thing is that you don't need to put the front arch poles in place as just a Brolly and can get away with them or Storm sticks. After the times you've had, I'm glad you're catching, but like you, those little fellas do get a bit much after a while. 2x 24mm baits... The other options I would have thought of both Elmo and Crusian have come up with. Are there any particular spots the larger fish come out of? May not be fashionable but the corner swims might be an option.

Hmm! Gas and electricity has doubled in cost. My grocery shopping started going up in 2020, from £30 a week to around £50 now, that is at the supermarkets. Dog food, still around £12 for 15kilos, which is a months complete dry food for Sky. My greengrocer and local butchers prices are the same, where I get my vegetables and meat from, as much as possible locally grown. Quality is SO MUCH BETTER. Tackle shop prices on gas canisters have gone up by £1 to £1.50, yet the Camping and Caravan stores price is the same. To be honest, it looks like supermarkets are raising prices, yet local shops aren't yet. I'm going to be checking prices carefully for PVA products as that is my usual need to restock. I did a large bait order a couple of months ago so aren't panicking yet.

After dealing with Nash Tackle while in a tackle shop, avoid, sorry @nigewoodcock, too many breakages on delivery, and returns after sale. After personal views on Sonik, rod rings, chair their build is not the best. Your choice, there can be only one...

Years ago we had a thread going called 'Complicated rigs', it covered a session I had on Ardleigh, then broke into a long discussion on lead set-ups, various rigs, and whether we made things more complicated than they need to be. While I do play around with rigs, I do catch more on a bog standard line aligner usually knotless knotted rig. I may have a sliding ring on the hookshank and tie the hook on with a line aligner, this is more often so I can change the hair length to suit the feeding and hooking of the fish, but this also means I can use a pop-up or bottom bait on exactly the same rig without much faffing. Too many carp anglers forget that getting the carp to feed is more important than the rig is. If the carp are feeding comfortably what is an 'ineffective' rig according to experts, fails the palm or thumb test, can actually be effective hooking the fish. Equally if a super effective rig is in the wrong place and the carp aren't feeding then it will not work. My personal view is that 'effective' rigs are needed when we aren't feeding properly to get the fish comfortable on our spot, or aren't baiting (maybe prebaiting) enough of our bait.

Your rig pic with a pop-up gives very similar properties to the Bent Hook rig, but with no mouth damage. Difficult to eject, nice low lying pop-up, close to freebies.

Try that with a pop-up 😉 You want the hook sat on the kicker with the pop-up sitting nicely tight to the hookshank, so the hookbait lifts everything up vertical.

Talk nicely to girlfriends...

Pinch a pair of tights, put a few in there to normal size, cut that section free, tie and heat seal, then tie to hook.

Baseball cap, sunglasses, and already tanned skin, plenty of water. Sky had already been sent into the shade available

It's only the t-shirt flap covering his modesty that meant I let it run. At least he is not hanging out in front of a sign saying 'no nuts'...

Dampen them, leave for 5mins, squeeze into balls and fire out. The balls will break down leaving a nice smell trail, and get the carp hopefully munching everything on top

The sleeping on the floor is probably out for me now. Sciatica hurts bits that shouldn't. This week, even though I did unload from the car, I didn't set up the bivvy, it's nice weather for it, but looking at MetOffice I wouldn't be doing that this weekend.

2 nights, no need for a bivvy. Not the tidiest I must admit, but everything is in order and reach

Thing is that on the original Vader range they are using cheap eyes where the frames bend. Customer service should NOT be having to replace items that are broken so quickly; essentially they are not fit for purpose! I clip my spod or lead link to the butt or tip section first eye when I fold the rod down, and have actually seen it bend. Not sure if the updated Vader X or whatever they have gone to use the same rings, I think they have switched to Minima type rings. None of my other rods have done that, even the single legs on my RH The Ones don't bend. The Sonik Spod/Marker Hybrid should actually make a decent rod for pike fishing, slinging deadbaits out quite a way. Might be a bit 'hard' for live baits though.

I'm sat by the lake at the moment, but have to pack up today, work tomorrow. I might grab the chub floater rod for a bash this afternoon, although I think any caught might be a little tatty after they spawned a few days ago. I also have a bass rod made up, although I didn't check the Holbrook or Felixstowe tide times.

Can't remember when I bought my Fox Warrior landing net, but I was on Nazeing, so a minimum of 5 years ago. It has been remeshed a couple of times, the varnish is starting to 'bubble', but the arms and pole are still going strong. Had plenty of carp, tench and pike in it. If anything it is the pike trebles that caused mesh damage. Usually me taking the arms out, then rolling the arms and mesh down to the fish to carry it to the mat, with a flying hook. I'd much rather damage the net than the fish. Once it is all rolled in and on mat, I unroll, unhook the fish, get net out of way, Usually thrown to the side, then weigh and photo.

https://www.cabledepot.co.uk/3.5mm-female-to-2.5mm-male-stereo-adapter-p-2785.html Occasionally used on DJ equipment, try that link

Sensor Clear is NOT as good as the Brown. It doesn't knot as tidily, and seems stiffer. I used Daiwa Sensor for years, until Richard Gardner sent me a spool of Gardner Pro to test and review. The result is that Gardner Pro is my go-to line now in monofilament. I have compared Pro Light mono to fluorocarbon, and believe it or not it is as difficult to see in the water as fluorocarbon. Quite possibly it would make an alternative! The only possible difference is the 'lay flat' weight as mono is not as heavy, but does take on water.

Rod Hutchinson special; 6 baits on the hair...

Are double 18 or 20mm hookbaits a possibility? I was using doubles quite frequently on the South and Central. Another alternative is the soaked wooden ball approach. Drill your hole through the centre then leave them in a pot of liquid food and a couple of millilitres of flavour. A mix of Infusion or KMG liquid, peanut oil and a liquid yeast. (https://www.feedstim.com/liquids-oils/liquid-enzyme-treated-yeast-pro-biotic-49.html)

Still learning mine. For 2 sessions I have found fish in the margins, and lowered a bait onto them. I think though that the brightness of Vitalin etc in the bag is too bright. They don't necessarily spook, but do leave it alone. I did wake up to one patch cleared, but the coots were present and I had moved the bait out slightly when I saw them feeding on my bait to avoid hooking them.