kevtaylor

I think you need to look at how much tiger nuts swell when soaked and boiled - because I'd guess a minimum 4 times the original size and I'm being conservative on that. If food swelled to 4 - 8 times its original size I'd be in trouble.

Cheers mate - appreciate that 👍

This reminds me that I always wanted a night scope or bino's. Too many things in my head, I forget the good stuff!

I mean the lakes are going, the clubs are going, un-fenced venues are on a hiding to nothing because of Otters. Gravel pits and new lakes being dug, generally do not have deep margins such as the old slate quarries that are nearly always Club Waters. Which is what I am trying to say to you, decent stalking waters are very thin on the ground, especially if you are looking at catching decent sized fish not pasties. The skills live on but the waters sadly do not.

Your rods and reels look lovely no doubt about that, it's great to see! Whilst I really like it, if I had the money for good cane rods and vintage reels I would still choose the modern alternative at that price range. It's a sport and I want performance. I do hope you have the tweed flatcap and waistcoat, wicker basket the full works, if you're gonna do eccentric it's all or nothing surely! The old methods will always work in the right situation, sadly the situations are dwindling fast! You need to find the wild club waters, I've been there done it, the best times, short sessions fishing under the tips, watching the line, creeping around, catching proper fish but these waters and stocks are diminishing year on year.

You've got some good rose tints on there. Who fishes tiny ponds for wildies now, these places don't exist, typical carping is now sizeable gravel pits, possibly distance fishing, margins that are probably not suitable for close work under the tips. Are you going to watch the line all night? The opportunities to float fish and freeline are so limited on typical big fish waters that I've only stalked in the edge on one water out of my last six or more and I am a mobile, roving, stalking angler at heart and would choose that style first and foremost over anything else. I'd summarise to say that the opportunities have gone not the skill set. Old kit - don't even go there

Just a bit mate he was blown away, pulling the bait away from 50s WTF but you know I'm totally calm to have around doing pics etc lol 🤣 We were both blown away - get the saddle out!

I found an amazing stalking spot under a large tree on my mates side of the swim at Parco, completely overgrown and un-fished. I climbed up and could see a good depth of water and no branches under the water and more trees to the right, the depth in the edge right under me was 6-8 foot, dropping down to a shelf of prob 10-12, then the abyss. With a little bit of work it was more than fishable, I excitedly climbed down and told him to come and see. My mate spent the rest of the trip up that tree watching monsters feeding inches from the bank at times, smashing 20k of feed between a small number of fish each day, just as the light started to fade. When he could see well enough to select a fish he lowered freelined corn onto its nose - can you imagine, fish to high 60's, it freezes, the lips move, the bait vanishes, the gills flare and WHAM set the hook and hang on for dear life! 10 hours standing on a branch watching, no food, drenched to the skin and just 10 mins fishing each day saw him catch some stonkers in the best way possible IMO - selective stalking, and freelining - it doesn't get any better. What scenes, experiences that will stay with us forever, sheer magic!

I believe the Freespirit CTX was rated as one of the very best in it's price range in one of those tackle testing features, it may have won it outright but not 100% sure - the old memory is going. I'd go Freespirit over Shimano, although that's based on reputation not personal experience.

My limited experience of fluoro line is that it attracts detritus and sediment and looks awful, needs regular wiping, then attracts it again and so on. TBH it looks so bad I've stayed on Mono ever since.

I was looking at changing baits completely after 15+ years on a custom Aminos bait (you read all the BS about other baits being the ultimate) but spoke to Toni - he suggested the T&G version to combat the silt and weed. I caught from the off, no surprise there, absolutely love the bait - it smells brilliant and being the Aminos base you know its gonna do the business, tried and tested for many many years. Tony is very helpful and doesn't push anything on you, just good advice!

I'm trying Matrix Plus which is Red, alongside my usual Amino Plus T&G - catching on both baits and the mix looks banging.

Not with my casting technique mate - that's all I know. Don't forget that with the Multi your talking about an extremely low pop-up, maybe if it were higher it wouldn't be able to turn and catch under the putty, but it can. Granted it's quite rare that it happens but occasionally it does. A lot of this will depend on how stiff the hooklink is, I know that with the materials I use, big blobs of putty are a no no Urban baits pop-ups stay up for days, hold up a size 4 and only require a small amount of putty, I've tested a lot and these work perfectly for me 👍

IMO you don't want really buoyant pop-ups for the multi rig, having huge blobs of putty makes a definite tangle point. I prefer a reliable medium buoyancy pop-up with a small amount of putty. Just my findings for what its worth. 👍

Mine come fresh ready for freezing, but I have no issue with freezing and re-freezing

Unfortunately not - PM sent lol

First trip out with the Gripz beak points: Unfortunately no weed to contend with on this trip so the interesting part wasn't tried, however six takes six landed, no slippage or damage caused, 3 fish on a single hook, before changed. The successful rig was the KD with a wafter hookbait taking 5 of the fish, the relevance of this I'm not sure of because those 5 came from the left side of the baited spot for whatever reason. All good so far, the trail continues...

I think you've hit on the answer to this IMO How many anglers stick to leads in the 2 - 3.5 oz range, prob 95% plus. Therefore leads outside of the standard range can be harder for them to deal with.

Hopefully these pics will turn out - Gripz size 4 - smaller than others, but very curved in the point.

Yeah sure, hopefully I'll have some feedback pretty soon 👍

I've got some Cryogen's mate but not in the barbless, will have a look at the range again. Made my first rigs with the Pallatrax Grips last night, very happy with them, the beak is very beaked lol and sharp. What I would say is that my size 4's are more like a 6 from other brands, if I'm happy with them I will buy the 2's next time. Buzzing to get started!

Yeah those pre bought things look too long for what I'm doing, so I'd cut them down to suit.

With a hard bottom and small item feeding I'd go with a short rig, whereas if in weed or soft silt I'd go with a lot longer. I guess I'm reminding you to let the spot and baiting decide the rig approach not what everyone else is using. You have to think they are slowly hoovering up small bits of food passing over your spot so a standard 8 - 12 inch rig will get spat nearly every time, whereas a 3 inch will nail them much more often. A spread of boilies would point towards a longer rig. Mix it up on your rods, experiment and learn what works for you. 👍