shakey

Courtz, i've heard good things about the Rig Marole hydrolink. I've been thinking about try the green verison out next season, it's just i've been using Mantis for a long time and i'm thinking "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

I favour Super mantis. I have tried a few of the others and felt they weren't as good for various reasons.

Steve, if you're going for a Kryston braid then I would suggest that you go for silkworm. Merlin is green in colour and more suited to weeder situations IMO. Silkworm, is greyish with black flecks and can easily be "coloured" with a black marker pen to match the silty bottom. Also, from memory, silkworm is slightly thinner in diameter.

"Kryston also have the cure for Tangles in long braided Hooklinks: Superstiff " True, but when using 2'6" hook lengths, it isn't going to take long to use a tub of that up

Steve, as ToniB has pointed out, I would also be worried about fishing braided hook lengths over 2 ft long. I would be paraniod about it tangling on the cast. I also think you might be better off with a mono hook length. If you're worried about the colour, you could always run a black permenant marker pen down the mono and colour it black like the silt ?? If you really do want to fishing braided hooklengths that long then the ones from Kryston Nick has mention are very good. I've caught fish in Merlin and Silkworm

As Nick pointed out, the original hair rigs came off the curved part rather than the shank. Whether or not it is more efficent than having the hair of the shank, I wouldn't know. But why not give it a go ? I would give it a whirl myself (especially if I as fishing a pressurised water that might give me an edge), but fishing where I do, it isn't really the place to be experimenting

Agreed, although you may want to run a black marker pen over the leadcore inner before you wrap it in place if the lead is shiny. Some leadcore inners have a shiny finish some are dull, it just depends on what sort you have in your box.

I've never had any problems with the figure of 8 knot when I have used it. Saying that I havent' fished it in a water where "hook & hold" tactics were required, but in the open water fishing I have used it, it was fine. This was with mantis, not stealth skin, but I doubt it would make a difference.

Dawia Infinity HT Line ? It's not a true flurocarbon, but a mono that is coated. I've been using since the beginning of last season and have found it very good. The water I fish is as clear as tap water and I am paranoid about fishing spooking off the main line. Backleads and flying backleads are out of the question as the mussels are a problem, and this line seems a decent comprimise.

With the expection of the Clearwater material, I have all of those hook length materials in my tackle box. Between those materials you can cover pretty much all rig situations. I do really rate the hook length materials by Kryston, and I am always sceptical when I first use materials by other companies. I have had far too many "great" "wonderful" "the best hooklength ever" materials that quite frankly have be tripe and have hit the inside of my dustbin after the first time I have used them

When I last used vitalin (which was 5/6 years ago now) I mixed in a mixture of parti-blend and different sized trout pellets. Tangerine sized balls were then fired into the area where I wanted the bait. I then fished a 15mm hooker trout pellet over the top of the area. What I also did was to use the Korda funnel web PVA and make golf ball sized round bags using the vitalin mixture. This was then hooked onto the rig and cast out with the hook bait. I worked very successfully, as it was slightly different to those using vitalin and method feeders.

I use Supermantis in brown, but it is similar to what you have said about the Stealth skin, that it appears more golden brown than a choclate/dark brown. Have you thought about getting the pens/crayons that you can buy and colouring the rig material to the brown that you want

I use the Stick-up putty by Armalead. If found this to be slightly heavier than the stuff from Kryston. What I also do is take a small length of lead stripped from leadcore and wrap it around the spot where I want the putty to be on the rig. I then wrap the putty around the twisted leadcore so that it holds the putty in place. It also means you have to use less putty as the weight of the lead will also help to counter the pop up I must admit that I have never used split shot to counter balance a pop up. I have always worried about squeezing the shot onto the rig material and damaging it, particularly when using braided hook lengths. But again this is a confidence thing, I would much prefer a big lump of putty than worrying that the rig may break because I squeezed the shot on too tightly.

Loads of braided hook length material out there. My personal favourites are Krystons Merlin and Silkworm. I prefer to fish one over clean gravel the other in more weeder conditions. As Pezza mentioned a combi link material such as stripteaze is a good starting point if you want to combine a florocarb with a braid. I personally use Supermantis for 90% of my fishing, but I always have a spool of Merlin & Silkworm in my rucksack incase I think I need to make a change

Tried my new helicopter rig yesterday and they seemed to work well

Thats a Heck of a Range Mate! No easy way from either side to get to them. Sure is. I estimate that they are showing at about 120+ yards from the bank. The carp have definately found a bank of naturals out there, and I think that when I see them roll, it is when they are cleaning themselves after feeding on those naturals in the silt. I'm hoping a single hi-vis pop up, cast as close as I can get to them, might just pick one up as the move off from that feeding ground.

Russell, thanks for the tip about the pva string. I was worried that the top bead might move in the cast. Neil/Nick, i'm not sure that the heli rig will give me any extra distance but I'm going to give it a go. I have observed the carp regularly for the last few weeks from the bank opposite (nick they are on the arm by Noah's car park going towards pine point), and I would put the distance I have seen them at about my maximum casting range. I'm hoping that this may add a yard or two to put me on those fish, i'll have wait till Saturday to find out

Just wondering if you guys could impart some pearls of wisdom with regards to helicopter rigs. I've never really fished with helicopter rigs in the past, but the last few weeks i've notice fish topping at a distance that is at the top end of my casting range. I have brought some fox pre-made leadcore helicopter rigs and I was planning to fish a 6"supermantis hook length, and whack them out as far as I can to the showing fish. Any tips, advice, pitfalls etc would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Shakey

With fairness to Armaled, I spoke to one of their guys at a carp show and he did try and talk me through some knots that would of worked. Unfortunately, the Gremlins had got into my head and it had to go in the bin. I know a couple of guys who love the stuff, it just wasn't for me.

I would also suggest buying some of the tapered leaders if you are inexperienced in tying the knots Nick has shown. A tapered leader is usually 45lb breaking strain at the business end tappering down to 15lb at the end you attach to your main line. I have always found it easier to tie leader knots when the lines are similar in diameter.

I threw my spool of Kik-bak away. Everytime I tried to tie a knot to the swivel and tried to bed it down tight the outer would come away at the knot