grangemilky

All well and good if it lies how you want. A running rig not feathered down has a tendency to tangle. A crack off with a running rig may well tangle leaving a fixed lead. The only truly safe rig is one without a hook.

Thermals are designed to be as close to skin as possible, so you can get away with it, i only wear them so that if i get a run at 2am in -5 i'm not stood outside in my pants.

Sleeping bags are designed to work against your skin, in reality you would be best off in the nip. One of the quickest ways to loose heat is through sweat evaporating, and getting in a sleeping bag with a load of clothes on will make you sweat, in turn making you colder than if you had nothig on at all. Getting changed into fresh thremals, jogging bottoms and a light mid layer fleece at night is the way for me.

You might be like me, and just have to accept that you will never be warm no matter what. Sleeping bags retain your body heat, with warmer ones being more efficient, if you are cold blooded like me, you will be cold even if you are wrapped up in the most efficient sleeping bag in the middle of summer. Buy a decent hat, put a newspaper under your sleeping bag, and prepare for anther miserable night.

2 rats. I swear other rats can smell them on me, because I get plagued by rats everywhere I fish. Maybe I'm just messy. Looking to get a dog once we move house, and I want another Possum but we had trouble with our last one and my Mrs just couldn't handle another.

because I like to fish quite slack lines with weightless bobbins and well sunk line if the fish swims away then it will have to take the slack out of the line before the lead will be picked up. If you get a chance cast your line onto a distant far bank you can access and sink and slacken your as you would when fishing. Now go around the far bank and have a tug. You will probably be amazed by the amount or resistance created by just the line its self through the water. This resistance gets greater the slacker the line. Whilst your there, pull the line back towards your rods, as if the fish was running towards you, as in a 'drop back.' You would expect your bobbin to drop downwads, Watch the power of physics and how resistant water is, as your bobbin will actually raise upwards and you will even start to peel line from your reel.

i am lucky enough to have been in a position to have witnessed from a few feet away a carp pick up a my helicopter rig, on a slack line and 'do me' with out so much as a bounce on the rod tip. Fortunately i caught that same fish 2 weeks later :yey: however, i now never use a helicopter rig unless i am fishing at distance, and then i use bow string tight lines. I have never used a chod rig, and have never fished anywhere i have found the need so can't comment on that one, but 90% of my silt fishing is with an inline lead (something i have read you should ever do), all i change is the length of the rig.

He doesn't, look at the last picture. Although, leaving it gathered up gives tungsten putty something to purchace on, if need be.

Unless you are using neat F10 disinfectant, i wouldn't bank on it killing everything. UV light, or a bath full of Ozoneated water is your best bet IMO.

OP not wishing to start a confusing debate on what is clearly a very useful post for beginners. But how do you feel about this exact rig, but with the hair exiting the after 2/4 turns of the knotless knot, more often referred to a 'KD'?? That is the basically the rig i fish with a size 6, for 80% of my hard bottom fishing. My hook-holds are (touch wood) far better because of it. Opinions?

Fluorocarbon will never rival a neutral soft braid. I also would not get too hung up on selecting the right colour, they can't see as well as the tackle company's may lead you to believe. Lake beds are littered with all sorts of things that a fish cannot differentiate.

You lost all credibility when you said sweetcorn isnt that good a bait. What is the other 1%?

My personal preference with curvshank hooks is to tie it is a very very aggressive 'Kd' style, so that if you pull the hooklink and hair, the hook almost sits at 90degrees to the hook link. With a relitevely long hair, and short hooklink. It looks utterly wrong, feels wrong, and even after most of my best fish to that rig, I still look at it as if I was on crack when I first tied it.

I like using d-rings with a supple braid. Two bits of corn tied to the rig ring, and three maggots on the hook. Catches a lot of tench.

Mainline.