ouchthathurt

I rarely use distance sticks either, it seems old fashioned, but I will either walk them out if I’ve got the space or use a marker set up to find the spot then clip the rods and spod up to the marker. Whip the marker in and whack them out there.

We all have captures that we will always remember, for whatever reason. What’s yours? It may be a PB, or it may stick in your mind for another reason. Which ones are your favourite captures and why? The first carp was a mirror I caught on my first trip in 5yrs after afghan, I’d hung up the rods and was undergoing treatment, my counsellor told me to get back fishing so I replaced all my gear, rolled some bait and hit the bank. First rod out, 5mins in the water and it was away, it weighed mid 30s and I was instantly obsessed again. second carp was a 31lb common I caught on a session at a local pond, the wind switched unexpectedly in the night and picked up in force and it totally destroyed my brolly! The bailiff was telling me that this carp had been stolen the night before … I was able to send this pic to him the next morning the 3rd common was my personal target for years, I’d been baiting with my own boilies and he hadn’t succumbed… one winter session I’d forgotten the bait in the rush to the lake, so picked up a few pints of maggots. Fishing pva bags with a Medusa rig baited with maggots produced him at 37lb+ a week before Christmas. That left only one fish on my “hit list” which was no 4 in the pics! The mid 20 linear was also an elusive target. He also fell to the mighty maggots! My last two targets and I braced them. I walked off the lake a happy man that day.

The late great Rod Hutchinson!

How did you get on?

Well done fella and welcome back to the fold! Good to get your groove back on, many more to come pal

Onwards and upwards mate! 👍👍

I’ve not tried crimping it mate, but I’ve not had a problem with figure of eight loops. They need to be very well lubricated and tightened down gently. In the end I stopped using it for fluro.

Good luck Elmo 🤞🏼

It always makes sense once you’re there pal, wherever it is, whatever you’re angling for 👍

When you get on the bank it will all make sense mate 👍 ive gone through stages of not feeling it but the bug always comes back. Recently I’ve been hunting bass on the beaches, it suits my current lifestyle as I can get out for a few hours rather than doing an overnighter. A change is as good as a rest sometimes. It’s not been going to badly…

Guilty as charged! 🙄

It will certainly help pal.

I’ll happily fish a pva bag into (the right) silt, the carp are perfectly happy to find food there, I don’t worry too much about the bait being tainted by silt, their sensory receptors will still detect bait in silt, there’s lots of food already buried it it, so it makes sense to place a bait there. If you don’t want it crashing in too fast, then I use a lighter lead and you can use a straw to blow some air in it, tape it up around the straw, then pull it out and lick/stick shut. A few nuggets of foam and/or pop ups will increase buoyancy too. You don’t want them too buoyant as the bag if sinking too slowly may well dissolve before it hits the bottom. Not necessarily a problem in my view as it may give a slightly wider spread of free bait, but maybe not the presentation your after.

I’ve spent the last week in isolation with covid! Thought of the day? I’m glad I’m vaccinated! Still ill, but not as bad as it could have been

I have a set of fox 12000 reels and they are faultless, I love them and would recommend them

I make all my own bait and I routinely use baits between 8-12mm, hookbaits are 11-12mm pop ups hand rolled on 10mm cork balls. Like Yonny said, size isn’t my main concern. I’ve got confidence in my own mix, it does the business, I use these sizes as I get more baits out of a mix! I have hand rolled much larger baits, but I’ve not really noticed a difference in catch rates over the sizes. To bait up at distance with smaller baits, I’ll use stringers routinely and a spomb to hit the spot. To be honest, I often fish marginal spots so it’s just a case of nipping round, baiting the spots then casting the hook bait to it. (Never the other way round if fishing alone)

Those are the ones pal, proper carpy!

I fish a small park lake of about 6 acres and it’s always full, I started scoping out rivers and recently broke the beach gear out to get a little peace! I have miles of coastline where I can always find a deserted beach quite easily. It’s easier than finishing work, heading to a lake and finding all the swims packed out, which is fairly common, especially with furlough.

I haven’t noticed an increase in hookpulls using sharpened hooks to be honest mate, I wasn’t out and out snag fishing admittedly, but I was hitting and holding to stop carp kiting into a corner (which made landing them more tricky) on the take and if anything, a touched up hook increased my hooking ratio, I only had one hook pull out of 20+ fish and that was a single figured fish trailing a large branch it picked up on the way in, I was destined to lose that fish regardless of whether the hook was sharp or not I think, a branch attached to the hooklink isn’t helpful! I thought I was into a monster until it surfaced! 🙄

If using braid, make sure you use a finger guard. Wet braid slipping over a finger on a big cast don’t half sting!

I have to agree, whereas pendulum casting is commonplace on the beach scene with distance in mind, (although with the current trend of lighter, longer 14-15ft beachcasters, a simple overhead thump can achieve plenty of distance and the pendulum is not as common) such casting practices, such as the full pendulum, half pendulum and OTG (off the ground) casts, designed to “pre-load” the rod tip by causing it to compress into its casting curve before the angler provides the “power stroke” (ooh err missus) which sends the lead further. I’ve used half pendulums and OTG casting styles, and with the multiplier in the reel down position, I could get the lead to really fly! But that was with a 13ft beachcaster, with a t/c of about 6lb! (Rods are rated 4-7oz casting weight) such casts should really remain on the beach, a carp rod, regardless of t/c is not designed to take such high stress/forces that such casting styles put on a rod, even some beachcasters are not recommended for such casting styles, the continental rods of 14-15ft would snap under compression, as would a carp rod sooner or later, that’s if the line didn’t snap before hand, these casting styles always call for a 60lb shockleader on the shore. Most swims wouldn’t have the room for these casting styles anyway I would have thought!

I use 12ft fox torque rods in 3lb t/c with fox EOS 12000 reels, I use the heli leads 90% of the time, when fishing at long distance at shearwater, if needed I would step up to a 4oz heli lead if required, however I would advise a bit of caution here, I snapped two rods under full compression going for a big chuck. (Those rods weren’t fox torque but another well known brand) the 3.5oz leads with a 3lb t/c are capable of distance in the right hands, as with anything, practice makes perfect. Just ensure that you make sure that there is no one opposite you that could be at risk in the event of a crack off, a heavy lead without line attached will travel a long long way! Check the tip ring and butt ring for tangles or “frap ups” (where the line wraps itself around the tip eye) and ensure the line is free to travel, check the bail arm is fully locked open and clear and you’ve got a good firm stable stance, then work your way up to it. If I’m going for 110yrd casts, I like to “warm up the carbon” by having a few 80-90yrd casts to bed the line and get it nice and wet before blasting the big un. With correct modern tackle, distance casting is achievable, it’s all down to technique and practice.

Couldn’t agree more, I use an oval brolly with storm sides, it’s lightweight, quick to put up and pack down and for a quick move, I can just pull out the storm poles and collapse the brolly, chuck it on the barrow and move swims as needed. I find when I had a bivvy, I was more reluctant to move, with a 50inch brolly, it’s so much easier. I’ve done week long sessions under a brolly quite happily.

When casting distance, with 12ft 3lb t/c rods I use 3.5oz leads, to be honest, I use 3.5oz regardless of range! Even under the tips I use 3.5oz leads.

Well after some thought (not much I’ll admit) I tracked down a pair of Diawa 7ht millionaire multipliers and ordered a pair of sonik SKS black 13ft beachcasters. Dusted off the beach stand, cleaned out the tackle box and sorted out the lug pump. Ordered the rods on priority delivery (next working day) still waiting for them... only ordered Thursday though so should be more patient!