moorsey

Spot on Nick.

I am a fanatic for testing things and the only hooks that currently do the job properly for me are the Gardner covert muggas or Atomic grabbas. Both brilliant hooks.

That's a bit close to the truth. My grandfather came over from Russia at the turn of the last century Nick im interested on your thoughts on the line acting like it is pulled through a tube when immersed would you care to elaborate, im sure it was you not so long back who mentioned this:) "The dynamics of any object moving through water." I quick example that you can try for yourself is to cast out a float rod and allow the line to form a big bow [can be on the surface so that you can see the action or you can sink the line] and then pick up the rod and see how much line you can straighten before the float moves. That is indicative of how good the indication is on slack lines.

I agree BUT there are a lot of articles written which are the product of a fertile imagination. I have spent many many hours paddling around in my lake in order to find which rig blends the best sensitivity with the biggest percentage of hook ups. A lot of the current published rigs have never been tested.

Absolutely spot on. The lead is not needed to set the hook and all of my big fish have been caught on running rigs with leads of less than 2oz.

It doesn't matter which type of leader you use nor does it matter what you do to it to improve it, you are still transferring the weak point from the hook link swivel to the top of the leader.

How can changing rigs make you a better angler? I have been carp angling for 45 years and I am now using the same rig that I started with in 1967 and I go carp fishing to catch carp so developing as an angler means learning how to find the fish and how to present a bait to them in the right spot. K.I.S.S. will serve you well.

Yes I've fished it back in the nineties and it is challenging. Watch where you park your car and think outside the box if you want to succeed.

It was a brilliant lake back in the mid nineties Might have rose tinted spec's on though as that was my first [and Linears first] forty in the shape of "Popeye" at 40lb 2oz [06.45am, 5th November 1996 to be precise]. That's given you some history to the lake, now go and catch a few.

Quite simply, NONE of the tubing items to which you refer are necessary. A well tied hook will be at least as effective as a hook with a line aligner and sometimes the latter can close the gape of the hook and reduce its ability to take hold. Rig tubing was introduce to reduce tangles when we started using braided hook links. It DOES NOT protect the fish from being damaged when mono or fluoro main line is being used. Where exactly would you fit it when floater or zig rig fishing?

Oh bless him he is not that bad , you are right though a brilliant lake ,on the subject of lakes Keith , Jim has told me when I have been over that yours is one of the few he would pay to fish. I can vouch for that, keiths got a cracking lake with cracking fish and fantastic food and hospitallity also. Would love to go back one day with the boys Thanks for that and you would always be made welcome mate. It would certainly be different now, compared to when you originally came, only the big catfish and big carp left in here now.

Oh bless him he is not that bad , you are right though a brilliant lake ,on the subject of lakes Keith , Jim has told me when I have been over that yours is one of the few he would pay to fish. Blimey, that's a compliment from the old codger. Had he taken his medicine before he said that???

Brilliant lake with a really good owner who knows his stuff but he's getting on a bit now so might need a helping hand to walk round the lake each day.

There are now several run rings which also allow the lead to break free if snagged.

My own personal opinion of that set up is that it is dangerous. I feel that the hole in the top of the tail rubber is far too small and will jam up on the slightest piece of detritus or even blanket weed. Having lost fish because of flying back leads jammed with blanket weed [and they meant to slide] I can't see how the lead-clip and tail rubber can slide safely.

I see from some of the posts that there is some thought that "if the lake is murky then it doesn't really matter what we use. How wrong can you be? Have a look at the link below and watch the film titled "can carp see our rigs?" http://www.underwatersecrets.co.uk/

ive never used running rigs for carp,what situation would you normally use them in as you say where possible I use running rigs with light leads for all of my lake fishing and I use the same set-up, but with heavy leads, for river fishing. The "boltrigsemifixedleadclip" system came about from the myth that it needs a heavy lead to hook the fish.

I agree Jez. How would the tackle companies ever exist if all anglers thought like we do? There's only so much "innovation" that can be built in to a run ring and a buffer bead. Mind you my tackle bag now fits in my pocket. Keith

Fluoro all year round. If it's the best when the going is tough why change?

Two things:- 1. If you insist on using tubing it must NEVER have a separate length of line through it and then this tied to your main line. That is actually worse than using a leader. 2. Your rigs will work much more effectively without it if you try running rigs and, in the event of a snap off, the fish should be left with just a hook link.

I agree that no rig is 100% safe but it is our responsibility to try to make each rig that we cast out as safe as possible. On the "lifting scales" argument, I can honestly say that in over 15 years of using main line straight through and now watching our customers using exactly the same tactics for a number of years, I have never seen scales lifted by it. I have seen scales and fins damaged in the landing nets and tails snapped by anglers leaving the arms of the net beneath a flapping fish but never during the battle. My worst discovery was the fish that I often write about, which was an upper twenty with a broken jaw because of a leadcore leader [no lead, just the leader]. To have to kill and bury such a fish makes you consider the risks of your rigs.

But any rig with a leader and the hook-link fixed directly to the end of that leader becomes a dangerous rig. There is no way that the fish is left with just a hook-link to tow along, it will have the leader to deal with as well.

A running ledger, bolt rig or in-line lead should never be used with lead-core.

Always, always go with what the lake owner sells and feeds his fish on. I have seen several anglers arrive at our lake with the likes of cell "because it works everywhere" and then blank until they swapped to our Bang on Baits. Every lake has a different pH and some baits will simply not give off the right signal to attract the fish. This doesn't mean that the carp won't eat them once they bump into them but it will be harder for them to find them.

I haven't fished it since 2000 so this could be out of date but I caught a lot of fish once I worked out that they ALL remianed in one shoal. I then started to pack away my bivvy and gear every morning and simply watch the water. Once I saw a fish I would move onto it and catch and then watch the water again and move etc. Sometimes the fish stayed in front of me and it meant setting up again in the same swim but it was worth the effort. Personally I would now start with single hook baits while watching the water. I'm guessing that everyone fishing sessions on there will be filling it in and probably blanking so you need to start with no bait at all and be different to the rest. I would also strongly reccommend light leads and running rigs with fluoro line and hook links as it always used to be like tap water. Hope that helps