neilscatchin

Plenty of high 20s and several 30s coming out.Bristol Bait Supplies CS1 boilies have been taking the place apart from what I hear but don't ignore surface tactics.

Unless you're fishing a really weedy water where you need to jetison the lead to be in direct contact with the fish,is there any real need for you to use lead clips.I know everyman and his dog uses them in the magazines but fishing in open water you'd be better off fishing a running lead which is far more sensitive if it is fished with a slack line.The clips are only meant to "lose" the lead on becoming snagged in thick weed or lily pads not in open water so I suggest you're using them wrong. May I suggest testing your rig before putting it into the water to see how much pressure is required to release the lead.This should be standard practise IMO and something I always do no matter what set up I'm using.

Rice Krispies good to spod out on the surface As regards to sugary,think of all the sweeteners,taste enhancers that are used in bait like Talin I don't think a bit of sugar'll hurt.

Yes but then you're punishing the majority of anglers who respect their fishery environment just for those too bone idle to pick up their litter who are in the minority.Problem is with issuing punishments is whose going to police it? I always make a point of remarking about anglers who are seen leaving disgarded litter/line etc and normally a quick informative telling off makes them change their mind.Personally although it still used to be a problem down my way with the surge of "instant" carpers the amount of litter has increased dramatically.Not good for angling or the wildlife.

Yes one way of catching fish is to use a hook and line. The main advantage of the knotless knot and the hair rig is that it leaves the hook free to do its job - to hook fish almost unimpeded by bait unlike side-hooking in my opinion. The hair rig started life as just that, a hair, or a very slim line that connected hook to bait, with the idea of presenting a bait that behaved naturally, ie, not directly connected to the stiffer hooklink.Now Fluorocarbon is used with the knotless knot does this defeat the object of using a hair?? The fine, supple hair enables the hookbait to behave like a free offering but only for the travel of the hair and then it'll act like an anchored bait when the weight of the hook, hooklink etc comes into play. Does this 5-10mm travel really make all the difference??? But they're are minor modifications that I feel can be applied to the basic hook and line principle that will increase the hooking potential and mechanics once the carp has mouthed the bait. The Knotless knot revolutionised the way anglers present their bait over and above a grinner or blood knot attached to a hook with or without a hair, whether attached separately or not. The knotless knots benefits are two fold 1)The strain on the knot is non-strangle giving a better line break 2) The angle of which the line exits the eye back towards the rod. This by far increases a turning action when sucked into a carp’s mouth thus increasing the anti-eject motion. With the Line Aligner, the line-lay coming back from the hook is exaggerated even further and rigidly set if constructed correctly thus increasing even more the anti-eject mechanism, giving turning a far greater speed when engaged. Exactly the hooks only actuates the angle that the hair/mainline is kicked out at from the shank or eye of the hook. In my opinion if we look at the real developments in end tackle which have been made over the last twenty years, we find that most of them are designed to fool wary fish (i.e., hair rigs, braided lines, double strength lines). If we can use a bait that does not alert the carp to a significant danger, then the need for complicated rigs disappears.The likelihood of a particular carp being caught is dependent upon how hungry it is and how aware it is that there might be a bad experience linked to the food. If this is the case, then alternative baits are most advantageous when the carp are not really inclined to feed as opposed to complicated rigs.

I think that maybe your average angler sometimes does him self a disservice by using the latest all dancing,all singing rig cos it was splattered over the pages of this month's mags. Whilst the old warriors of Horton/Wraysbury for example have seen everything under the sun they're still as suseptable as the fish in a local pond if the bait is presented in a manner in which it behaves naturally and doesn't arouse suspicion. As long as your rig mechanics are sound and more importantly YOU as an angler have confidence that if your hookbait is sucked in by a feeding fish,your hook will find a strong hold,then it doesn't matter what you use. :)