salokcinnodrog

No, indication is very much reduced with helicopter set-ups. The fish has a large area to move in with no indication, even more if you have a bead up the line as per 'chod rig'. I have seen fish move as much as 30metres with absolutely no indication happening at the buzzer, and that was at a very short range. The fish moved in a perfect arc. I myself have lost fish when a single bleep in the middle of the night, no indicator rise or fall, yet the lead had been moved.

Nope, sorry, personal experience tells me otherwise. You NEED the lead on a helicopter for the rig to be able to slide off any leader or breakage. A bit of weed can jam any bead in place, and that on a leader can lead to tether rigs. I have seen it with my own eyes, as a bailiff I have had to remove fissh from snags where that happened. Even Keith Moors, who owns a lake in France has totally banned leaders for that reason. Next thing, an inline lead, it won't drop unless you let the pressure off, and playing a fish in and around weed, you must keep the pressure on. Add to that, with a breakage, the inline does not stay on the line, it can pull free off the tubing, and any line trailing is just the hooklink. As an aside, in the event of a break from excessive pressure on the line, it is the knot that gives, be that the hooklink swivel, or the leader knot. You only have 20years experience? Catch up mate😅😉, I'm closer to 40! Hooks definitely do open out on helicopter set-ups, the rig running up the line during the fight also increases the chances of snap-off. The pressure of not having a straight pull is what causes the hooks to open out, and has been written about in books and articles by various anglers, starting with Tim Paisley and the late, great Rod Hutchinson. Basically helicopter rigs are only good as a silt rig, or for extreme distance casting, but it must be remembered that indication is much reduced.

Firstly, the ingredients are quoted on the packaging, and floor staff will know, they have to mix it, or throw it into the cement mixer.😉😅 Cell is not that high in nutrition, an active feeding trigger, and I can think of many better baits that will work longer term. In fact I would rather go with a bag of Crafty Catcher King Prawn or Sea Salt and Crab ready mades than any Cell. Yes, it is easy to be negative about big brand ready mades, mostly moaning about the price at £11.99 a kilo, or some of us knowing about company ethics, and trying to avoid them. Right, I have cleaned and edited this thread up. Last night after working 53 hours in 4 days I was tired, so I hit the red button. I was fed up by abusive pm's after telling someone to cool down🙄 I may calm down and rescind it later if I can get back into a good mod. If a member is banned, their posts disappear, they are hidden. Mods can still read them, but not ordinary members. It is also possible for posts to be hidden if a member has their posts needing to be moderated for approval before posting.

It was down to the size of the eye of the hook in relation to the hooklink material which was best. Terry Hearn was using a thick hooklink material which would not go through a size 5/6 ESP hook, so he started using the Whipping knot.

Some tackle companies have most definitely encouraged bad practice, and it is that much! Nash lakes rules, must drop the lead, Korda advocating drop the lead on their lead clip. Magazines are as bad, an article advocating doing it, and the sheep, the 'lack thinking' follow it. It carries on, leadcore rigs that are essentially death traps, leaders that can't eject rig or lead in event of a break-off. I got into a big argument with a magazine over it, and that magazine editor did not want me to publish his reply. It lead to being slagged off in print in the magazine; apparently despite me sending experiment results, I did not get out and fish and was an armchair keyboard warrior, I got a heavy slagging off via Jim Shelley, and was blocked from his FB page (no great loss). Facebook media pics encourages people into fishing, much more now than dad's taking their children, two parent families are a minority... Respect for other anglers is a minority. Jump next door and spod it in, no quietly put baits in so as to cause little disturbance to fish or others around you. Drunken social carp angling is a big current fashion, compared to years ago the social match followed by drink in pub... Yes, there are decent youngsters around, but not many. Yes years ago, my mates and I would fish. If we messed around it was only our fishing we messed up, you didn't annoy anyone else, cos we didn't like the ticking off!

Baits work in conjunction with each other. A boilie with a low nutritional value may catch loads of fish, if the background feed is high nutrition, say a bed of pellets, or is providing other nutrition or attraction like particles, or even if the fish are in inquisitive mood. Equally if you are fishing just boilies, then an high nutritional balanced food bait may be best.

Part of the problem in fishing today is the media, or part tackle manufacturers advocating dangerous practices, unsafe fishing and too many modern anglers being sheep, following the setup recommended. Not enough anglers think for themselves. Rules are put in place for 'numpties', to cover the idiot factor, to keep owners or even other anglers happy, (often in the case of match vs carp anglers). If an owner thinks barbless hooks are better for fish then that is what they think, follow the rules. In most cases I think rules are in place for a very good reason. No leaders, no leadcore, no plastics, or minimum 15lb line, there is some reasoning behind them all. What winds me up is anglers who don't think rules apply to them. If you have a genuine gripe with a rule, as long as you can put your point across to the owner or bailiff why then he may consider it and go with your reasoning, ir give you a vaild 'no'.

Sorry helicopter rigs on weedy lakes are not the safest. The first point is that a bead, or ring swivel sliding up and down your mainline increases the risk or the line abrading and giving way, breaking. Leaders are a BIG no no anywhere near snags or weed. Playing a fish on a bomb on the end of the line set up gives a funny playing angle, and after personal experience I have seen hooks open out. Not all patterns are suitable. Weed collects on both the bead, the lead and the hook, and actually if you get a break off (especially with a leader), the fish could be trailing rig, leader and lead, as a bead can be jammed up by weed. You are far better to go back to inline leads in the event of a break off, only the hook collects the weed.

Rules are put in place to keep landowners, lake owners, clubs and fish safe and happy, so as such there are no silly rules. You may not agree with them, but they should be followed, although there is one on a well known tackle manufacturers lake that I find is a form of pollution, and is also a practice that must be stopped: 'all leads must be dropped on the take'. As such I will never fish that manufacturers lakes, I find the rule abhorrent, a disgusting practice. No plastics, brilliant rule.

Certain flavours? There are particular essential oils that offer a valuable nutritional profile, one of which is black pepper oil. Other flavours can have high attraction properties; flavours containing N-butyric acid, Iso-eugenol, natural attractors in their own right, and often the base compound of particular flavours, but not every part of a flavour is attractive. If you have ever used any flavour, the chances are you have used a bait with a preservative in, the base solvent itself, could be propylene glycol, or anti-freeze, it might be glycerol. It could be a potassium salt, or it could be standard sugar. Even the base solvent could, in the case of glycerol, be the attraction, but to mix that with eugenol, vanillin and n-butyric you have banana flavour. Change the ratios of those three compounds and you could be using guava! Baits work in combination as well. If you fish boilie over pellet, or boilie over particle, then it is not necessarily the boilie that is the attraction, it could be the background feed creating some pre-occupation, the boilie hookbait just happens to be picked up. Years ago I read somewhere that carp have limited utilisation of carbohydrates, and the best energy source is fats, working at a higher ratio of conversion to energy than carbs or protein. A number of years ago, I blanked for three days on a food source bait, on a 'runs' water, the high attract pop-ups produced. On day three the food baits started working, no more carp were caught on hi-attract baits, only the food source.

Food ingredients used in human food can often be of lower standard than that of food used in animal husbandry and carp baits. Just because it is human standard does not mean it is healthy at all. Most shelf life boilies now avoid the use of potassium sorbate, yet it is a human grade food preservative! As for Macdonalds, that is acceptable good for humans, yet I would not feed it to my dog, although every now and again I do eat Maccyd's.

First thing is that some fishmeal baits are absolutely brilliant, on most waters, although at certain times and on runs waters other baits may prove their woth. Long term fishmeal baits include Nutrabaits Big Fish Mix, Trigga, and more, but it is getting the best out of them that not everyone understands. On 'overstocked' waters, high attract non fishmeal baits can be better for the angler doing quick trips, yet as a long term bait fishmeal baits can produce more. In summer, higher carbohydrate, birdfood baits with a quick leakage can produce more, the first nutritional requirement is energy, carbohydrates and fats. Protein for growth is not the first need! The fishmeals will produce, but not as first choice. There are alternatives, meat meals, chicken, liver, beef which will work long term. My choice for a long term bait is most definitely a fishmeal.

Ici to B Pit, to Suffolk Water Park, to River Gipping by a committee member, from one side of the weir to the other and then onto Snake. Wandering mirror, it had human movement, none of the moves were by itself!

Gipping in Suffolk. We had a few out from various stretches, although the 28 pictured was the biggest, then sadly it got poached, not by Eastern Europeans, but by local fishery owners wanting instant fish. Dippy the 40lb + Mirror went from the Gipping to Snake Pit 25miles away. The Stour on the border also has some very good fish in it.

Hampton Court area used to produce good fish😉 Carp have been caught as far downstream as the London Docks. River carp? I suppose I should go find some more...

A 1 egg mix makes around 80 baits, so I actually have 160 in total, half of each. Of each mix I have done a few in 20mm compared to the other 15mm😉 If the crays are active I will use most of them.

Just made a years supply of pop-ups with the secret ingredients😉 Two 1 egg mixes, 1 blue and 1 red, cork dust base mix, RH Megaspice, Versele Laga Garlic Oil, and glycerol to preserve them once dried out

Lake escapee I do believe though!

2.75😉 Daiwa, Korum or Shimano

50+! One helleur of a fish...😖😅😉

To be honest, I do try to avoid Fox and Nash as much as I possibly can. Nash because I do not like his ethics, too much tackle returned faulty or broken when I was working in tackle shop, and Fox not always the best with the same issues of faulty gear. There are also far better cheaper items out there by other manufacturers in most cases.

Nash luggage robust? All of the stuff I have had has fallen to pieces, on occasions under warranty. The customer service and after sales was appalling. It took a letter to CarpWorld publicising it to get my rucksack replaced after 3months. Rucksacks you are far better getting a military Bergen! Mine is battered, bruised and still going, on its second life. I also dislike the ethics of Nash and some of his quietly forgotten past history including Catchum, (his way into the bait industry via Rod Hutchinson), I dislike a tackle manufacturer advocating dropping leads on his fishery (!) and his carefully chosen published biography which I think is a little short of honesty. I think The only good item of Nash tackle I have had was a Nash Outlaw Hurricane bivvy, that is in fact still in good enough condition to use, which I picked oop on t'bay for £10 by looking for spelling mitsakes😮😉😆🐟 Fox on the other hand customer service was always spot on.

Selling a 'job lot' of tackle like that is to me annoying and worrying in a number of ways. Is it hot, stolen or not quite right? Has someone stuck the lot on a credit card, realised they couldn't afford it, and stuck it up for sale? Is it our fashion victim realising that fishing is not for them and selling the lot Someone who just thinks they need the new must have? Lots of questions under that little list!

Black Mirror and all that. You are aware there was a total fish kill due to deoxygenation? It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, no club, but permission to fish could be gained by those who knew how. Most Black Mirror captures were actually by those who had gained permission, but to publicise them claimed they had 'guested' the water.

Any bait company I won't use is based on personal reasons, ethics etc. I can honestly recommend bait companies I have used, Nutrabaits, Solar, Crafty Catcher, Rod Hutchinson etc. In fact I have been round the factory that rolled boilies for Rod Hutchinson, Nash Baits, various tackle shop specials. That factory is that of Crafty Catcher, they make or made bait for various companies. I have been round the factory of Starmer Baits. We are getting to the stage of ingredients being printed on packaging, Mainline do it, Crafty Catcher, Nutrabaits, Solar. Nutrabaits were the first, in fact Bill Cottam used it as a selling point. I think some of the animosity Gaz mentions is down to cost, yet many anglers don't understand retail, and the difference between going direct to a bait company, a one man band or a bait company selling retail only. You have a bait company that in the tackle shop sells boilies at £11 a kilo. A retail trade. From bait company to tackle shop is rarely direct, there is often a middleman, wholesaler or agent. All of them need to make money, the bait company sells to agent at £5 a kilo, the agent sells to tackle shop at £8 a kilo, the tackle shop sells to angler at £11. The bait company needs to pay its staff for rolling, needs to buy ingredients, to pay for electricity. The wholesale agent needs to pay for transport, staff etc. The tackle shop staff, carriage. The theory is that the bait should only be sold at £6 CAN NOT equate, it can't be done, not while having retail stores. A bait company that sells direct can sell a bait at £6 a kilo. Your one man band that sells you bait may do it for £4.50 or less. He is probably not including his labour, just covering the cost of ingredients. Big companies can buy ingredients in larger amounts, therefore sometimes getting better prices on ingredients, not in all cases. Some ingredients due to shelf life, you do not want to buy in large quantities. Fishmeal has quite a short shelf life, yet due to the fishing 'seasons' quality changes over the year. Some bait companies buy ingredients from animal feed suppliers; fishmeals, birdfoods, and other animal feeds. Some bait companies like Dynamite are selling a kilo of 'budget' shelf lifes for £6.99, yet their genuine food range premium boilies are £10. What does that say to you? A few years ago Nash Bait made the claim about one of its baits being stabilised for a shelf life version, compared to the freezer version. This is quite simply in my view down to being dipped in glycerol sugar syrup. Here is something else to consider, any bait you put a flavour in, the chances are that flavour is a preservative in its own right.