jemsue5

Very good fishing book is I know a good place by Clive Gammon an excellent read. Any of the Yates books are worth reading and a must read carp book is The carp strikes back by Hutchy.

Personally i would use neither as both are putting an angle in the line meaning that the fish has that bit of leeway before you are in direct contact with it. You need the rod to be fixed rock solid in single banksticks pointing directly at the snags on as tight a line as possible. To be honest i would rather encourage the fish out of the snags by a bit of good bait application.

By fishing slack lines near to snags you are giving the fish enough line to get to the snags before you are in direct contact with the fish. Fishing tight to snags you need to be fishing a tight line with the rod/reel locked up not giving any line and make sure you are sitting on the rod ready to get in control as soon as you get a take. This should stop the fish reaching the snags and give you a chance of landing it. I still use running leads in this situation but with a tight line.

Yep thats another way.

Basically what i said above but i use the new korda hooklink sinkers instead of float stops as they just help to hold the pop up down to the lake bed a bit better. Still both systems nice and simple and pretty safe.

17 lb x-line or another heavy fluoro main line. Slide one of the new small size korda hooklink sinkers about 4ft up the mainline, now slide a soft 4 or 5mm rubber bead onto the sinker this will act as the top bead for the chod and not move for the cast but will release easily under pressure from a fish in the event of a line break releasing the hooklink. Below the chod you can either add another korda sinker + bead and have a fixed chod or just use it running with a bead above a short weak lead link at the line end. Fish it slack and it's a safe and effective chod rig without the use of leadcore or a fused leader.

I re read this book over the weekend and it reminded me of how good it is. Although not about carp it is still a top read and very entertaining, mostly about game fishing and sea fishing for bonefish etc it is one of those books that are hard to put down once started. If you are willing to broaden your horizons and look beyond carp it is a great read.

I love freelining bottom baits for carp. Quite often they will pick the bait up and move off without even knowing they have set the trap. The one thing is you have to learn how to strike and set the hook again unlike all the self hooking rigs we now use.

Thread a small sliding rubber float stop onto the hair first and then slide it up against the bottom bait.