salokcinnodrog

I like my rigs to look tidy, personal obsession, but in most cases, 'any' rig in the right place is better than no rig in the water at all. On some waters though, you may have to be more advanced. There were a couple of interesting threads about complicating rigs: https://www.carp.com/topic/20405-do-we-over-think-or-needlessly-complicate/ https://www.carp.com/topic/358-complicated-rigs/

Century were I think were the first and quite possibly still, the only rod company to Autoclave their rods. In basic terms the wet resined blanks have all of the air and excess resin vacuumed out of them, so they retain their strength and stiffness. A while I had a long conversation with Simon Chilcott about Century rods, and I believe he said they use carbon pre-preg cloths that no other rod manufacturer is able to get hold of from the F1, space and aeronautical industries. He also mentioned that Economic and Technological sanctions prevent China from using many of the more advanced carbons in the rod industry. This may mean that any rod manufacturer who has rods made in China is not using the best materials, and why they can produce rods a lot more cheaply as the materials are not as good, more prone to 'going off', losing their stiffness, or breaking.

Todays driving music

I'm the same as LJC, don't make things more complicated than they need to be. A standard knotless knotted rig probably catches most of the carp each week, and works for bottom baits and pop-ups. They look like pop-up rigs, with movement, but as Vik says, the pop-up may have too much separation from the hook. For pop-ups, I prefer the bait tight to the hook, although a long hair can cause confusion as per Bill Cottam and Brian Garner when The Mangrove was first opened up. My go-to pop-up (and snowman) is often a D-rig, (and often on a longer shank hook), a bit of movement, it resets and hookholds are usually nailed properly. Me personally, I tie pop-ups on, although I recently had a revelation with that as I have been meshing baits. Mesh the bait, a twist of braid (dental floss) and knot it, leave the tag ends, then cut the mesh and lighter tag it. Using the braid tie the pop-up to a rig ring on the D-rig. The bait screws are brilliant, don't get me wrong, but crayfish can remove the bait without your knowledge, or any indication. Last year on Nazeing they were so bad, even meshed pop-ups got munched! I ended up using wooden balls as 'permanent' pop-ups with a blooming great match anglers olivettes as the counterweight. In fact I ended up with tench over 12 and carp to 28lb doing that.

Saw something like that this week, a green light strip around someones bivvy door when their alarms went off. Don't think the tufty was the expected result...

I'm a fan of Petzl

I'm still using Century's Big Bertha and her DD's, and a Shimano Aerlex 8000. Still putting Spombs and spods over 100. I did get an Abu Segra Spod rod for Ardleigh, but braid wore the guides through, creating grooves, so I bought Big Bertha around 9 years ago. The reel I bought when I was fishing Earith, so thats over 10 years old as well. I see no reason to change what works for me.

Took me a while to notice this, I think braided rigs especially, DON'T have them kicked out dead straight, allow them to fall over as they go.

Must admit I'm lucky in that many swims are gravelled so water drains away, not all are though, some do become a paddy field when its wet. That nice January catch I had a few years ago, I was kneeling in water, or on a carrier bag when I was doing pics. I do carry a spare groundsheet with my bivvy, it rolls up small enough to fit in the umbrella bag wrapped around the brolly, and my spare unhooking mat becomes a dog bed as well as me walking over it. By the way Nige, check out your spelling, you've dropped an American spelling in a post

Don't be facetious Last week was torrential rain at times, my Delks got a soaking, never let me down. Sure the vibration sensor was different to Optonics, and not being funny, when I owned Optonics I was constantly wishing they were more sensitive. I went from two vane wheels to four vane, then 12 vanes in them. I think at one point i had made vanes out of milk bottle tops! Fishing over particles I do find the maximum sensitivity useful. A single bleep can be a fish. On the Optonics I had a couple of bite-offs when they simply weren't sensitive enough. I would much rather pay for the privilege of using a British made product, from a British owned company, which has lasted, than some imported goods from China which may well have been made in some sweatshop. That is a genuine privilege which I am happy to support.

I wouldn't be stupid enough to dunk any alarm underwater, but actually according to Delkim, even if they do get dropped in, if they get dried out properly in a warm environment they will work. As for reliable, an alarm is only totally reliable if it gives you full indication, and at times, that is the vibration indication from a take that you will not get on a roller wheel alarm. A roller wheel totally reliable? What happens if it gets frozen still? That is lost indication, which makes it not totally reliable. The vibration sensing rocker switch ir whatever it is called is reliable, never had one fail myself, on runs, dropbacks or vibrations. Delkim also offer a 2 year guarantee, of their reliability.

Never had a problem with my Delkims, other than my own stupidity, like leaving flat batteries in, or breaking the battery connection wire, even then the repair was cheap and quickly done by Delkim. Purchased I think in 2000, still working, still on my buzzer bars, or banksticks for pike fishing. Oh yes, my nice carp alarms get battered and bruised, covered in mud while pike fishing as well. Please don't make me laugh about Fox alarms, I have worked in tackle shops since 1995, and the most returned faulty alarms were Fox, number of Delkims returned were minimal, in fact I honestly can't think of any. Do your Atts have vibration sensing? No? Not so reliable then are they The number of fish I have caught on semi-fixed leads when I have not had a proper run from the vibration sensing, when line movement is just noticeable, and you can put the sensitivity down enough so that ignores waves, but still picks up fish indication. With almost all other alarms you have to have a proper run, or dropback. What is the big saying? Oh yes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Because Delkims aren't broken they have no need to try to fix or bring out a new alarm. Saying that, even then, they managed to bring out the more budget EV range, which is still better than most other alarms on the market. Maybe because Fox is broken they need to bring out a new range every few years, or maybe its because they want to con you out of more money. Money, which to be honest, you have no need to spend if you have a proper decent set of alarms in the first place.

If the NTXr was so good why did it need replacing? Cheaper price may mean cheaper components that don't work so well, not so good, or it may mean some cheap child sweat shop in the Middle East. I like Delkim because they stick with the same alarm and don't constantly change it. Part of the reason I will never change to a Fox alarm is because they keep changing the range every few years. Next thing Delkim is a British family owned business, and the alarms are made in the UK, so as far as i'm concerned, Delkim are ahead by far.

Jogging bottoms under combat trousers, or combat trousers and Hoggs of Fife Field Pro Strathmoor trousers over the top. http://www.cherrytreecountryclothing.com/hoggs-of-fife-strathmoor-trousers/ T-shirt and Fleece, or my latest is t-shirt with British Army Cold weather top over that with zip fleece and then combat jacket if cold, although I have been looking at the jacket from Hoggs to match the trousers For boots i'm on TFG https://www.totalfishinggear.co.uk/buy.cfm/boots/tf-gear-extreme-green-and-rockhopper-boots/39/no/54644

Lets see, I rebuilt my old Armalites to how I wanted them, sadly they were stolen. I now have a pair of Carp Fanatic 2.5lb TC which I use on a water which has theft problems, 3 Century 2.75lb NG's to my specifications, and 3 Rod Hutchinson The One in 3.25lb TC. I'm not bad at building and rebuilding rods, although when it gets to more than a hobby as it does at times it gets annoying. I can make a fair bit of money out of building rods for fresh and salt water. I have some lovely stalking rods, fly rods, even some gorgeous bass blanks. Most rod guide manufacturers seem to be taking a leaf out of or basing their guides on those from Pac Bay, and many of the best rod blanks come from the same source, far better than most Chinese built blanks.

I use Coated and plain braids, dependant on my fishing. No tangle problems with a plain braid if you use it correctly That may mean using PVA, corn nuggets or even feathering your casts down properly.

I find that no one manufacturer suits my needs, although there are some brands I try to avoid purposely, and other individual items from other manufacturers. Fox hooks, had a couple open up on me, and bend back into shape after the fish went, you know when you see things in slow motion? I saw the hook open out and spring back, lost me a good 30 from a local water. The same thing happened to a mate, as a result, I will not use Fox hooks. Korda hooks, in fact most Korda tackle, I avoid, although some of their v or wedge shaped hair stops have recently made it into the tackle box, albeit I found them, they are good for dealing with Crayfish in meshed baits, and also lock into wooden balls nicely. Their hooks are absolute kacke, points that blunt if you sneeze on them, and other items of tackle like hooklink materials and lead clips just not good enough. Gardner Mugga hooks, a brilliant curve shank hook, can't recall ever had one fail on me, and even though i'm with Solar Tackle I still have some rigs tied with Muggas. Solar 101's hooks, Run Rings, tubing, indicators, buffer beads, perfect. I have also given up on 'branded' swivels, most come from the same sources. Mustad, Leeda, Berkeley, Fox, Korda, take your pick, I am not paying Carp tax. I want a size 8 swivel, or a size 11

Strangely enough, I very rarely use anti- tangle sleeves over the hooklink swivel, and don't often get tangles, although I do use PVA stringers or mesh almost every cast, or a Corn nugget to protect the hook. My rigs haven't changed much over years, and I do try to keep it simple. For goodness knows how many years it was a case of a knotless knotted rig with a line aligner. That was made with braid, coated braid, or as part of a combi-link, although when I moved onto Nazeing I did start fishing with that sliding rig on the shank. The reason for that was so i could: a) change the hair length to suit the fishing. b) have a hair strong enough to combat crays. c) fish a snowman or bottom bait without changing rigs. I have put a picture of that rig above. It works with a snowman, multiple bottom baits or a single, or even as a pop-up rig.

Any standard rig can be used for a pop-up rig, a standard knotless knot rig is easy to convert, but a little thought can give better hookholds. For this pop-up rig I have used Snakebite as the coated braid, but with a short stripped section near the hook. The hook is tied on with a Uni knot, and silicon tubing to hold the hook up at the right angle. Because of my personal problems with crayfish I can't use putty, so a match anglers olivette is held in place with that tubing, and another short length at the other end of olivette. The sliding ring on the shank is prevented from going past the bend by a rig bead, and the pop-up is tied on to the rig ring. I know this rig works, I have been using it for a lot of years, it has produced double figure tench as well as carp to big weights from numerous waters.

I mention experiments regarding leadcore in my first post, I was actually trying to find a safe set-up to use it, and what length was best to use it at. Lengths as short as 6inches were snagging around underwater twigs and branches when fish swam around them, and a length of leadcore is almost impossible to break. Pendant, fished as running or semi-fixed and inline leads in the event of a break off, even if the lead came away, the leadcore itself could be enough to snag the fish. For years I used 2-3oz inline leads on Taverham Mills, straight through 12 or 15lb mainline with no problems, fished with stringers, bags, mesh or as a single bait. In most cases I was using tubing through the lead. I know various manufacturers now make inline leads with the insert, but my answer before that was to shave the end of the lead out and fix a tulip bead into it. The top of the tulip bead held the tubing. There was no need for a leader, we weren't long casting, I guess the longest cast was maybe 70yards. As there was no need for speed, I would reel in, clean and dry the bait, lead, swivel and tubing. The hookbait and hook would then go into the PVA bag, and i would drop some free bait on it, some hooklink, more free bait, then the end of the rig and the lead. The PVA was then ' licked and sticked ' around the tubing. As the whole lot was in the bag it would cast quite well, was stable, and a big fizz would show where it was as the bag dissolved.

I have mentioned braided rigs, and to tie a basic braid rig is as simple as going exactly the same as the knotless knotted rig shown above, or you can be slightly more advanced. This braided rig is tied on Kryston Merlin, the swivel knot is covered with shrink tubing, just to be sure the hooklink kicks away, reducing tangles. The hook is tied on with a Grinner knot, the hair is constructed from whipping thread, tied to the eye of the hook, protected with the shrink tube and I have made it with a line aligner. The shrink tube has the hooklink material coming out of the front at the top to create that line aligner. The hair is also leaving the hook opposite the barb, and a tiny piece of shrink tube holds it there. In the second pic, it is a plain basic braided rig, tied with the knotless knot, simple and easy to tie, and it does work

Don't forget though, you do have to buy buzzer bars separately.

Solar P1. I bought mine a few months ago, well made pod. As much as i prefer not to use a pod if possible its almost the first thing set up now! I have the short sticks that came with it, but also a complete set of four longer sticks 'just in case'.

Time for a bit of Skid Row:

The main reason for putting the lead in is to make the bag more stable for casting, allowing you to cast it further. Just by keeping the bag close to the lead, attached to the hooklink swivel you make it more stable.