salokcinnodrog

There was a thread on NGT tackle here: https://www.carp.com/topic/23709-ngt-tackle-anygood/ When it comes to reels until recently I would have said stick to Shimano, but in the last 4 or so years Shimano quality has gone downhill on a lot of reels. Instead of being built to last they are now built to fail... Some Shimano's are ok, not necessarily the top price range. ESP are good, some Penn's, some Daiwa. I would personally check out any reel thoroughly, build quality etc.

I hum and hah with NGT. I have some of their rod bands, neoprene and velcro. Ok, as with any pull tight stretch rod bands, they have 'mishaped' but still work. Some NGT stuff is bought from the same factories as bigger names, but at cost, cheaper specifications, or bulk purchase. I thought about NGT stage stands, but couldn't convince myself, they just didn't look or feel right, compared to Solar stage stands.

You met him at Merrington.

I'm just tired. Had the thought spinning through my head 'did I do everything right?'

Dave's Mum and Dad phoned me last night from the hospital, he was awake but groggy and confused. From landing the fish to waking up surrounded by emergency services he has no recollection. I'm thinking it was a hot day, he was on his box, and despite drinking plenty to keep cool getting up to weigh a fish had heatstroke or a head rush and went over. This morning Dave himself phoned me, he is being kept in today, still bringing up water every now and again. Must have swallowed a lake full. The thanks I needed was hearing his voice, but I did tell him he is buying me a pint😉

I've had things going through my head today, and I mentioned 'lifesaver' in my facebook capture post, but that doesn't really cover all. I had just netted a double figure carp for my mate. As he got up to come round for pictures, he slipped or fell like poleaxed straight into the lake. The lake owner and I jumped in to get him out as he surfaced. My mate is a man mountain, 22stone, so we dragged Dave to the bank. At some point he must have breathed in some water, so while trying to get him into recovery, still in the water up to our thighs, I had to give him cpr, which the position we were in, the only option was to thump him in the chest, once, as hard as I could. He then started fitting and snorting while breathing. Somehow while this was going on I managed call emergency services, who stayed on the line until help arrived. It took 5 of us to get Dave onto the bank. Thank you to the paramedics, especially Zoe, first there who jumped in herself to help, to the fire brigade, and the other two anglers. The last I saw of Dave was being taken away in an ambulance. Please get well soon Mate, I hope you recover fully. As an add, somewhere in that lot, I did also manage to tip the fish back alive, quite possibly as I was getting out of the water after getting Dave out. As an addition to this, please don't think I am angling for praise. I did what anyone else would have done. I didn't think, I did it, my Mate. The important parts of my post were how easy it is for an accident to happen, a slip or trip, and it could be curtains. The second part is Thank you to all of the emergency services personnel who helped when needed. I have no idea how long it took for them to arrive, but it was quick, at an out of the way address. Thank you to the ambulance operator on the end of the phone line, who could hear everything going on, and gave advice and help when needed.

Sorry I didn't reply when you first posted. To be honest March is when my pike fishing stops, they are usually spawning, followed by the water temperatures have risen enough to make catching pike very stressful for them, potentially resulting in fish that die after capture, especially so in the shallow waters of southern England. A lot of clubs only allow pike fishing from October to March. Zander I think are more hardy in summer, and for summer fishing I would be out with lures, with gear heavy enough to bring any accidentally hooked pike in quickly so they don't suffer oxygen deprivation, the cause of stress.

Welcome to Carp.com. You have really got me thinking, and not knowing how severe your arthritis is, the only answer I can come up with that is safe for the fish is a framed cradle, but then you would have to be ungentlemanly and slide your legs under the fish in the cradle. I picked up a few with the search terms in Google of carp cradle, here is one. https://www.fishtec.co.uk/buy.cfm/fishcare/tfg-banshee-carp-cradle/40/yes/176647?Affiliate=4,397&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpZKKjJze4QIV6LztCh02UQUoEAQYDSABEgIu6fD_BwE Sadly the alternative is fish with someone else who can unhook the fish for you.

Doesn't stop a spod rod set up being useful. I sometimes use my spod rod for casting out large PVA bags of bait. Instead of spod, put on a lead and a spinlink or Solar did PVA bag link clip, and attach PVA bag or mesh, cast and allow to dissolve. Reel in, properly dry, fresh bag on, and go for it.

I know of at least one carp, I was sat talking to a mate who was catching roach the other day when a carp spooked as his float hit the water. I was looking up at the end behind the island in the rushes to see if any were hiding up there (see https://www.carp.com/topic/25170-really/?tab=comments#comment-333589 ) but the usual suspects weren't on top taking debris. I did find a dead mid double two weeks ago, (pic on my facebook), floating near the bank, but it was complete, no sign of predation by furries. I haven't seen any otter signs around there, even though it is about a mile from the river. This maybe because it is busy, plenty of dog walkers, and normally an idiot fishing or two, with the occasional sensible genuine angler. The worst of the stock going missing was local idiots, one of whom runs a local 'bait company', moving fish into Barham A pit. When A Pit was sold and the syndicate dissolved they totally lost the fish as the new owner put up a more expensive genuine price after making his waters safe. Eastern Europeans I have seen on there do tend to get a bit nervous around a guy dressed in combats with a big dog; for some reason Sky gets aggressive and barks at Romanians. They have had a few fish, some of the bigger pike are missing, I can't say what carp because of the previous paragraph. I've been on at the council regarding the rubbish, overflowing bins, and fishing rubbish left on the bank, fires and the like, get replies back, but only the overflowing bins have been obviously dealt with, or maybe it was council rangers advising about people fishing and the EA sent their bailiff down.

No way they could have got it wrong on the cast, there is only one place that you could get to to cast up that tree. The whole area in front is rushes and snags, a fallen tree under your feet. Local park lake.

Ipswich

This is catch at all cost! Would you really cast into that lot?

Not a soul on the park lake today. I think an Environment Agency visit this week catching a few local anglers who thought it was worth the risk of not having a licence might have put them off.

Nothing wrong with the 10ft carp rod, just didn't want you buying an expensive carp rod if you already had a ledger rod suitable for the purpose😉

Welcome to Carp.com. I'd carry on with the float rod, but also fish with a heavier ledger set up on another rod where you see it. If it is jumping in the same area there is something it likes. Baitwise, to start keep it simple, sweetcorn maybe, luncheon meat, peperami, with a few freebies around it.

Drennan Long Range Groundbait catty, with the elastic shortened slightly. It is almost the same as the boiliepult, but with a hard ball pouch. You are firing out balls around the size of a tangerine. Incidentally, the Drennan Boiliepult also gets maximum distance after the elastic is shortened

The cheapest place to buy it is from Vitalin direct, but it is over £60 is carriage free. https://www.vitalinpetfood.co.uk/store/item/original Pets-at-home is a £ more, but is usually in stock in store.

On Layer Pits near Colchester the favoured method to catch loads of fish was spodding massive amounts of hemp, (in cases I know some anglers had a water tank in the back of the vehicle full of hemp), then CAPS chose to ban loose feeding hemp and spodding. In order to beat it hemp was mixed with Vitalin and balled in via catapult, it still worked. The plain hemp ban was lifted and anglers went back to spodding hemp to catch. It is possible to get Vitalin groundbait balls up to 100metres or so with the right catapult, and Vitalin is a good binding groundbait for many many extras, from breadcrumb, pellets, boilies and particles. On Ardleigh I used to spod Vitalin, mixed with boilies and particles, and fish it Method style, moulded around my lead. It is not just a small fish method as I was catching fish to over 20lb. Strangely enough I stopped doing that when I moved on from Ardleigh, possibly or probably because of water rules, all free bait had to be put in with PVA.

Nothing wrong with margin fishing😉 I think honestly I have caught far more carp under 20metres from the bank than at longer range, including fish to over 30lb from under my rod tips. Baiting up by hand or catapult is a whole lot easier than spodding. I usually use a mix of boilies and particles in my summer fishing however I put it out

Not everyone has the new Delkims, only just released this year at the last show. My Delkims were purchased in around 2000, and are the ST version. Wind, sun and rain, ice and snow no failures. I was quite happy with a wire heading to my receiver until I fished a lake where you had to bivvy up off the platform and the lead wasn't long enough so I added the Att receiver and dongles. In terms of new alarms, should I ever need an upgrade or update because mine finally failed I would be thinking Delkim ST, TFG Magrunner or Atts. Reasons: Delkim have not let me down, product loyalty, good after sales service when I had to have repairs done when I left battery in and it corroded. The added sensitivity adjustment is a very useful function. You can increase buzzer sensitivity for wary fish where reduced hanger indication is minimal. Atts a good alarm, will last and take the abuse. The TFG Magrunners I have played with in the shop when I worked there, and obviously read Dave Lane's reviews on them. Ok, my reasons for avoiding Fox alarms; I do not like a new model that looks totally different being released every couple of years. Micron M, MS, MX, MR, Mini, NTX, just some of them since 2000. So many different models, too complicated, too many price points. You do also have Wolf coming into the alarm market. @andy52 has seen them in the flesh, and spoke to Wolf at the show, I believe he was very impressed. Bivvy light etc Oh, and before anyone says 'no such thing as military spec', many military items have worked their way into fishing. You would not have GPS if the military hadn't come up with it.

Welcome to Carp.com. Personally, I think a 3lb test curve rod is too heavy for most carp fishing in the UK, and the maximum you need is a 2.75lb tc. A 6ft 3lb rod is going to feel like a broomstick, and is likely awful for most fishing, but heavy test curves are the fashion. In most cases test curves of 3lb plus are designed for casting long distance, not playing fish. A heavy test curve rod is NOT always the best for playing fish around snags, better to get a lighter more through action rod around 2lb. For ages my stalking rod was a 9ft Browning Spinning rod, perfect for floater fishing, fishing the lift method while carp stalking, but when it was stolen I went to a Daiwa 1.5lb test curve 11ft 6in Pro Specialist, then an Avon rod. In fact I would say a barbel rod is perfect for a lot of carp fishing. I use mine for floater fishing now, or lift float, and always on one water where the carp go from single figures through to 20lb. I have caught a number of carp on those lighter rods to over 20lb from near lilies and snags. Have a look at twin tip ledger rods, one tip section should be your quiver tips, the other is a barbel or Avon tip. For carp fishing the barbel or Avon tip is fine.

I just decided to see if there were specifications on the Nash tackle website. Talk about difficult to navigate or find information through Nash site navigation, I had to go back to Google to get directions to the correct product page. When I got to the product page, there was nothing on maximum weight and I couldn't see pack down size. Whoever is designing some of these tackle manufacturers websites needs shooting. To get infomation on what you need it might be worth PM'ing @nigewoodcock he has the misfortune to work for Nash Tackle

You mention the dreaded poisson chat, are there crays as well? Drilled Soaked wooden balls in glug. Hard hookers, I make up a 1egg mix of my normal base mix with around 10% of extra egg albumen, and 50ml of glycerol. The flavours are usually what is required to a standard 6 egg mix. Boil, and then air dry, give a roll in glycerine, then dry again until rock hard. You can each time you roll in glycerine add a few drops of flavour. It may still be worth meshing your hookbaits though. My 1 egg mix makes me enough (pop-ups) for a years fishing, so will give you plenty for a French trip.

Using a marker float you will find braided mainline gives better feeling, so if you are using mono on your fishing rods, then you will likely need a separate rod for the marker. If you are using braid for fishing, then all is ok. The thing I will say, use a mono leader (length of line between mainline and hooklink trace) if you are fishing with braid, braid can seriously cut fish up should they get tangled up in it. Amnesia makes a good leader.