kevtaylor

My last 2 sets of rods have both been 12ft 6in, a mix of casting ability and yet retaining playing action. I've got a pair of 10s which in hindsight are utterly pointless and should be sold as they'll just gather dust. A 6ft may be useful for stalking under a canopy on occasion but in half the videos you see of this type of fishing it looks so dangerous they shouldn't be doing it anyway! 🤬

Night shots Can anyone please help with camera settings for this nightmare area? I've got 2 lights that I put on banks sticks with each pointing across the fish (is this right)? and I'm told this is better than using flash. If you shoot with auto settings you get a blurred shot through movement, so I assume you up the shutter speed consideraby? I've got a night portrait setting but cant see that working in this situation. Thanks in advance 👍

Tough week in France, Brothers Lake. Weather was all over the place but not really doing anything, light winds going all over the place and temps freezing one minute, warm the next and regardless of that the fish seemed to migrate into the 2ft shallows every night - so odd. Was expecting to smash it on the dam wall in the deeps 🤷‍♂️. Stupid fish - anyway ended up with 7 to 45 which I said i'd be happy with before the trip. Nice lake and surroundings, would go again, recommend having 2 anglers although you can have 4. Special thanks to our Yonny for the camera advice, the final pic is my last self take with max blur it really pops, thanks mate, getting the hang of it slowly 😎👍

My Carp Porter barrow front food bag must be over 15 years old - looking a bit tired but functionally mint, might treat myself to a new one of those one day. My barrow itself is fine and again over 15 years old. Shimano Big Pit Bait runners - absolutely mint after god knows how many years 25 maybe, serviced twice max, superb reels - semi retired them this year! Will probably end up back on them tbh - they dont make reels like that anymore bullet proof. Cotswold Aquarius rod bag - must be getting on for 10 years and mint, looks almost new except for a bit of mud here and there, can't see me replacing that tbh Aqua black rucksack, not that old 5-8 years but again the quality is right up there, cant see that ripping or anything - mint Blue Tool box with clear lid I found in mums garage - used for a tackle box - 30 years - banging 🤣 thats always gonna be my tackle box. Fox lightweight chair - 30 years - mint, replaced elastic once. Not much lasts as long as we hope it will as this thread shows

Just use a kicker mate

Looks tidy mate 👍

You have stripped the coating for the hook loop? This is my other rig - another multi (slip D style), bottom baits and wafters - can do with a stiff link with a supple end loop or just coated braid stripped only for the hook loop. Will put a pic up later 👍

Nice one buddy 😎👍

What do you think of this mate, is it everything I need lens wise? Scenics and portraits? https://www.currys.co.uk/products/canon-eos-250d-dslr-camera-with-efs-1855-mm-f3.55.6-iii-and-ef-50-mm-f1.8-stm-lens-10192408.html

Thanks for the info mate I would consider second hand reconditioned for sure, had looked at a few online. I thought mine would last my lifetime but it won't even take a picture or respond to any button pressing.

£500 any good?

Not silly money, knew I should have added What have you paid - lets try that and half it lol

Any camera suggestions mate? mine has packed up working completely so I've just got my phone

It's deffo about the rod I've been on 12.6ft 3.5lb rods for over 10 years now and whilst I'm not a big caster by any means they really help with distance and accuracy, noticeable from the first chuck. The braided marker rod absolutely flies - much further than I can cast mono. I'd like to try using braid on the main rods but no venue I fish allows it. Lower the BS of the mainline to 10-12lb if your using a leader and can get away with it.

The spod rod was in a magazine feature from memory, rods were placed in 3 price ranges, this won the mid price range with all 3 judges and I think 2 also had it as their overall favourite to use.

Yeah I've got probably 10 spombs about 4 working and 6 odd in the garage needing new springs. I find once they get old they start not opening and or opening mid flight. Hate the fox one, bringing that in between lines is a joke. Not keen on the look of the nash one as you say looks cheap but supposed to be good. Keen to try the Wolf ones when they arrive. 👍

Yeah I've seen the price rise, think I paid 180, absolutely worth 200. I could have bought the Harrison one, but this one is raved about beating rods twice the price. 👍

Good point didn't think of that, I just take one and use for both spod and marker, but then I very rarely use a marker, the other is a spare in the attic. Doubles as a pair of cats rods should I do that one day.

Tackle box CFX Black edition, brilliant rod for the money, came out top in some published comparisons after field testing 👍 I fell on one snapped it in half and bought the same rod again - says it all, although after I realised I could buy a spare tip, so now I have 2 matching spod rods 🤣

Couple of shots from my recent 5 night blank on Swan Lake, Bluebell. A case of so near yet so far, the fish were smashing naturals in a tennis court sized area, moved to get the traps closer but chose a bad spot (felt feint gravel but the rods came back with a little silk weed on each) at ranges I shouldn't have been fishing so couldn't check the rods once in place - bad move in hindsight, thought I was being clever. 🤦‍♂️

Thats a good call mate I like the look of that. If I hadn't of lost the fish of a lifetime because of one of them dangling from a tree I'd have bought one years ago lol

I've started struggling to get the spomb to open on every cast since changing to braid, and maybe the spombs are getting on a bit, I have to catch to spomb up high and follow it down otherwise it won't open, mono just stretches and carries on with the same trajectory. With a bad arm I dont want to be doing double the effort so easy to open spod seems the better option. Nice one for the suggestion 👍

20k of Odyssey XXX for my France trip at the end of the month and 2 Wolf Spods, wanted to be throwing sticking it out but my right arm is playing up again so the spods are backup.

We're loving this bivvy (Aqua Ultralite) - good headroom for sitting inside, bigger than my brolley and quality. We broke one of the side sticks so replaced the 4 wiv Prolite obvs 🤣 Taking it France for a week - already done a 5 nighter in there so not feeling like I need to go to my bigger one. No complaints yet and bought in the bundle deal which seems great value IMO

Yeah it's not for me, if I wanted it off the bottom I'd use a pop-up rig, but I'm sure it works just like all rigs work in the right situation. I have 2 rigs that do it all and both are versions of the multi rig. They want to sell us all sorts of stuff to put a rig together, when you start needing swivels to connect the hook and pointless weights I'm out. But if I start blanking badly I might revisit lol