tonybranno

The Snake Skin has a multistrand hooklink through the middle and the Snake Bite is normal braid.

Do you get paid to advertise Korda? Or are you Danny Fairbrass in disguise?

Flourocarbon is too heavy for zig rigs

They would be ideal for close in work but for a good cast of 60 yards plus they are not very aerodynamic and fly all over the place in flight.

If the fish are under pressure and know what anglers rigs are then try and camoflague your end tackle to the best of your ability. Perhaps use a brown coloured hooklink like the ESP Stripteaze, Korda Hybrid, Sufix Superskin or Camo Skin etc, etc, etc. (The list goes on TBH). You could even make a combi link from flourocarbon and braid. But it all depends on what you have confidence in. To find the clean gravel areas use your marker rod or just have a lead about and look for the tell tale tap, tap, tap, tapping on your rod tip. PS, im fishing a lake with the same bottom make up as you at the moment and today before i left i actually got a sample of sand from the margins of my swim and im actually gonna coat the leads with it once its dried out. It may not make a difference but any edge i can do to help me catch will increase my confidence.

If you are fishing on the clean, hard gravel then go for a shortish combi link of coated braid about 4-5 inches long (perhaps even shorter depending on what baits you are using). If you fish particles over spod on gravel i sometimes use hooklinks down to 3 inches in length. Hook wise then match up your hook with the size of bait you are using. If you are using 10-14 mm boilies or particles such as a single grain of maize etc then a size 10 will suffice. 15-18 mm boilies a size 8 and 20mm boilies a size 6. This is my rule of thumb but everyone will have their own.

It happens

If it popped out under the rod tip then it could have only been just in anyway.

Perhaps the hook hold was non existant. Try using longer rigs and longer hairs, that might solve the problem.

Havent you got a relative who fishes who can show you how to do it? If not how did you get the fishing bug? One bit of advice i would say to you is to buy a good fishing book, that will show you everything.

I have, i know what you are saying Terry so you dont sound like an idiot at all. But ive yet to find a standard braided hooklink that doesnt fray easily. One bit of advice though, use a proper pair of very sharp braid scissors to cut your braid and keep them solely for this use. I carry 2 pairs of scissors, one to cut mainline and bait and the other for braid only.

Hopefully!

And? I think that talking about losing leads and the possible environmental issue is relevant.

Why do you need the braid to go through the eye of the hook 3 times?

Imagine the Withy Pool rig and just half the amount of shrink tube on the hook. Self explanatory really

I cant see no reason why not. Im just unsure of the camoflauge properties of the black Amnesia over the lighter coloured bottom.

I used to use soaked hookbaits and for the first couple of sessions not long after i put them in the container, i got results on them. But after the weeks went by i couldnt get a bite on them. I think that they were too over flavoured so i dumped the lot. I would only use them now in extreme circumstances when struggling for a bite or in winter when using singles but i wouldnt have them soaking no longer than a week. After that i would dispose of them and put some fresh ones in. And i wouldnt use soaked pop ups either, cos after a few weeks the buoyancy would be effected and they sink after a while and you end up fishing with a bottom bait instead of a pop up.

I cant remember Nick. Cos i was using barbless hooks the hook fell out in the net as soon as the tension was released.

There is no hard and fast rules. Heres a word for you..... experiment. Come up with your own results cos if stoogi said to you try a 5mm hair from the bottom of the bend of the hook to the bait and your results where still the same then you will have the impression that he is a crap angler and dont know what hes on about. What works for him may not work for you.

Thing is though Courtz he uses mono for the hooklink. He could use a knotless knot with that but i think the bait needs to be mounted on a supple part to get the best hooking efficiency.

You wanna get some hair braid (most end tackle manufacturers do a version in their range) and whip it onto the shank of the hook but its a tricky job. If you used braid then its easy cos the hair is just a continuation of the hooklink when using the knotless knot.

That is what it has got to do with it. Hahahahahahaha PMSL You dummy, you should have read the quote again before posting. What Nick is saying is that when a carp sucks in a baited hook, the fish is conditioned to backing up a certain distance (usually 6-9 inches which is what he states is the length of most anglers hooklinks) to wait for the hooklink to tighten up against the weight of the lead thus "feeling" for it. A fish "feeling" for the weight of a lead has got nothing to do with a carp actually sitting on it

Whats that gotta do with anything?

Sounds ok to me.

If you are fishing hooklengths of that distance mate how about fishing a combi link of mono and a 2 or 3" section of braid near the hook? This will cut down on the risk of tangles.