tonybranno

Whats the make up of your lake? Are there numorous gravel bars, snags and weedbeds? If there is then i would go for 15lb mainline minimum. If your lake is relatively clear then you could go down to 12, 10 or even 8lb mainline if your rods can handle such lighter line. Hooklength wise i would go for anything between 15 - 25lb. That is more of a personal choice really because my favourite coated braid is only available in 25lb BS and i use it everywhere, regardless of if the lake is clear or snaggy. I hope that helps bud!

Give us the link http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=52.514376&lon=-0.887382&z=14.4&r=0&src=msl Great stuff, to be honest thats not far from me. Maybe a road trip is in order to check it out. There is nothing wrong with dipping your end tackle in someones elses pool every now and again.

Give us the link

So you are a Broome AS member then? If you are then Jurassic is still our lake, its just needs restocking thats all Sorry though bud i cant remember who you at all, please forgive me. I see so many people on my travels its hard to keep up with who ive met and who i havent met. The big pit across the road from Jurassic (the sailing club water) has got carp in it and possibly a few from Jurassic (which escaped during the floods), but they are few and far between.

Where abouts is this place? You say its in Leicester but ive never heard of it. And i like your user name, any reason why you call yourself Jurassic?

Ive been told of a lake called Watery Gate in either Croft or Thurlaston, Leicestershire. Does anyone know anything about the place? Cheers fellas

Boults, Nice to see that you are thinking your way into your fishing. (thats not a sarcastic remark, just that not enough people try to think their way around a problem before diving straight onto the local source of "free" knowledge) I see what you are saying, but the hair length need not be short and the bait tight to the hook with Shrink Tubing. That is just the way that the majority of people are fishing at the moment. If you look at my other rigs on the Sticky, you can see that I change the hair length dependant on my findings The Rig I have pictured is one I have been using with a 15mm Boilie on the hair; When the Bait is on the hair it actually comes to just past the Loop Knot, so I have a longer hair than standard (or different to other anglers). When I get to a New Water I tend to find out what has been used before and then go on from that. If the water is lightly fished then I have a very short hair, the bait almost "shank mounted" (tight to the back of the hook on a short hair), then as I check hookholds and possible dropped runs etc I lengthen the hair and or the hooklink. In the same way a poor hookhold can be caused by too short a hooklength, the hook and bait is prevented from going into the Carp's mouth because the hooklink (hooklength) is not long enough. This too short a hooklink can be responsible for not getting a good hookhold, or even for not getting takes or a series of individual bleeps that don't develop. If you look at your hookholds when you land a fish and even on lost fish you can decide whether your rig is right. If the hook is embedded firmly at the back of the bottom lip, then your rig is just about perfect. If its close to the front or you are losing fish then the hook may be pr1cking the fish too early. If the Carp is hooked at the back of the mouth then the rig may be too long. Top advice once again, that post even got me thinking about my own set up which i will play about with later today when i make some more rigs for next weekend.

Location, location, location. Its the fundamental aspect of successful carp fishing.

And thats where i close the door and leave the thread behind me.

I wouldnt say cos you are blanking thats it all down to the colour or make of your hooklength material Have you got your location right? This is the over-riding factor of carp fishing that the vast majority of anglers forget. It makes no difference what rods or reels you have sitting on your shiny new pod, or what new rig you are using that was advertised in the latest monthly magazine or the newest all singing or all dancing bait that claims to outfish anything else. If you are not on the fish, you are not gonna catch..... Fact! I bet the methods, baits and tactics you are using will be fine and will catch anywhere, its just the location or where you place your baited rig that is the problem. Cos its no good being in the best swim on the lake if your rig is not in the spot in that swim. Do you know what your baited rig is landing on? Are you a chuck it and chance type of angler? PS I dont know about anyone else, but i stick with a hooklength that i have complete confidence in and use that anywhere i fish. And the key word here is..... Confidence.

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.

Stand up for yourself my son! I read your post and understood your reason for the question. Ian Same here

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?