ouchthathurt

We were issued with gortex socks in the army, they were rarely worn because your feet just got hot and sweaty and then cold, I just took an old pair of wellies and cut them down to slipper size. Luminous green crocs whenever I can get away with them, however I have gracefully deposited my backside in a puddle a few times as they have a sad lack of grip...

Of course Area 51 has drone busters, I mean look! The alien is right there in the top left of the YouTube video pic!

I’ve got a 12 month collie, she didn’t take to fishing too well, she didn’t like being hemmed in a swim (they were “dugout” type swims at the bottom of a steep bank with a footpath running along the top) and got quite anxious - she’s a nervous dog anyway, she didn’t like other dogs walking along the path and staring down at her, I called the wife to come pick her up so she didn’t feel too stressed. She’s far better on the beach.

Best of luck to you both.

I did a 12 month blank once... I was never so happy to catch a 10lber!! Of all the carp I’ve caught from this venue since, that one is still in my top 2 captures.

I’ve used the crimp system and on the correct hooklinks, it can form lovely neat loops, with the wrong hooklink it will come undone on the lightest of pressures. They are useful for spinner booms and making up combi rigs, but to be honest, I’ve just gone back to knotting it! Using the domhoff (don’t know how you spell that!) for combi rigs and figure of 8 loops for spinner booms. I tend to favour a semi stiff material for the lake beds I’m fishing over at the moment so crimping isn’t an option for me right now.

Looks lovely mate, could be a fresh challenge to get your teeth into?

Of course if you continue to talk about such inflammatory and distressing subjects as giving up carp fishing and becoming a match man, I may have to ban you... 😛😛😛

I would have to agree with the other comments mate, I’ve got a small range of coarse gear, enough to go out and trot some maggots down a river if the mood takes me, but I couldn’t give up my carp gear, they say a change is as good as a rest mate, after a few float fishing sessions, I’m soon craving a carp fishing session. Once your gears gone, it’s very hard to replace. I sold all my beach fishing gear as I didn’t think I could use it again after my shoulder injuries, but 3yrs down the line, I walk along the beach wishing I could chuck a few rods out or stand in the surf with a bass rod, the sun setting, gulls screaming around me and I bitterly regret getting shot of the beach gear. Yet I can’t afford to replace it right now so I’m stuck. Don’t make the same mistake I did!

B’jesus! How much?? 😳😳

Just remember to soak the braid and have a few casts to bed the line in before going for the animal chuck mate.

You won’t need a leader with 20lb hydrotuff mate, it will be man enough for the job, just keep the cast smooth and unhurried and check the reel/eyes for tangles before you go for the big chuck.

We used to use chick peas soaked in whiskey! The carp went mad for them, the club wasn’t happy about whiskey in baits, then nash released the whiskey boilies which were just as good for a while. So many people used it as an additive that they wised up after a season or two.

Not a problem pal hope it helps 👍👍

I prefer a lower pop up generally mate, I’m not a fan of anything popping up over an inch to an inch and a half at maximum. I only fish the spinner over boilies, if I’m fishing over small particle/seed or spod etc then I prefer to fish a straight bottom bait, or a wafter type presentation. It’s about putting the bait where they are feeding I suppose! With the spinner rig, it presents the pop up nice and low, whilst keeping the hook point clear of the bottom. I don’t want my hook bait to be blatantly obvious, I critically balance my pop ups, so they only just sink. I make all my own baits and pop ups, I find a thin skin of paste over a 10mm cork ball gives me a bait of 11-12mm which matches exactly the 12mm bottom baits I make. My pop up paste is identical in ingredients to my bottom baits, only with added egg albumin (egg white powder) to give it a tough skin. Maybe a slightly higher flavour dosage as I boil the pop ups for longer than bottom baits. I lasso the bait on with floss and with a size four curve, to size 11 spinner swivel balances out nicely.

Did you ever get it sorted mate?

This is an interesting point, when I use spinner/ronnie rigs, I have the opening on the inside of the hook, so the opening of the crook of the swivel faces the hook point. I use shrink tube over the swivel/hook eye enough to cover the eye completely, up to 1mm of the shank and down over the crook and 3/4 of the barrel of the swivel. Ensuring that it doesn’t impede the swivel at the ring side. I don’t trust the cut down “kicker” method and I think it looks bulky and untidy, shrink tube is much less obtrusive. To change the hook involves cutting the shrink tube away and re-steaming after swapping hooks, but as I prepare 10-15 of them at home at a time, so I’ve got lots prepared, this isn’t an issue. I’ve landed cats to 55lb on this set up as described above, after a mammoth 45min fight, where it swam out of the net backwards and I had to fight it all the way back again! On checking, the hook/shrink tube hadn’t shifted a bit. I thought the Ronnie was a bit “blingy” and I chucked one out for the first time as an experiment, on a water where bites were hit and miss, they were very cute and riggy, I hooked 2 in one overnighter, my pop up catch rate on 2 waters that had really riggy carp doubled overnight with the Ronnie rig, I’ve got real confidence in it now.

I’ve used both quick change and spinner swivels pal, without any issues, but nowadays I just use the korda spinner swivels as they’ve been designed for the job, no bending open the QC swivel to get the hook eye in! I use size 11 swivels for all my rigs, the smaller and less obtrusive the better!

I’ve used both hooklinks with the spinner rig without any problem mate, I tend to attach it to the spinner swivel with a figure of eight loop and another loop at the other end of the boom for the quick change swivel. A grinner knot to the spinner swivel will be fine, but I personally prefer loops either end.

The spinner rig is my go to pop up rig, I’ve used ESP cryogen curve shanks and korda kurves in size 6 and 4s with no issues. In fact i prefer the size 4 to be honest. Whilst I use it with a helicopter set up, it can be used with a lead clip arrangement, but I probably wouldn’t use it with an inline lead personally, I find inline leads lend themselves to short soft braided hooklinks and pva bag work, I would be worried that the nose of the lead would dig in taking the hooklink with it. As I use fluro or at least a semi stiff hooklink of between 8-10 inches (to suit the lake bed I’m fishing over - silt) an inline lead would negatively affect the presentation if the lead did plug in nose first. Of course that doesn’t mean an inline lead wouldn’t work over a hard lake bed, but a helicopter or lead clip arrangement would be my choice.

Grass snakes do enjoy the water. I got my club book renewed today, just gotta sort some time on the bank.

I much prefer using a leadcore or unleaded leader as opposed to a naked set up. I’ve used both types extensively, and have found the unleaded to be more supple (obviously!) as well as a bit thinner. My only slight problem with the thinner unleaded material (Nash version in my case) was getting the top bead/silicone sleeve to stay in place. I use the old silicone sleeve method with a bead pushed lightly on it as a top bead. So the silicone sleeve must fit tightly so only the bead can move and pop off easily. With unleaded leaders, I used a dab of rig glue on the leader where I wanted the silicone sleeve to go, then slide the sleeve over the glue before it set. This is down to personal preference as when fishing naked, i have an inherent fear of tangles! Could you fish one set up on each rod side by side and see what suits your needs best? Or are you planning the choddie on one spot only?

I very much doubt that the carp would ingest foam or cork, they often suck into their mouths inedible items to test them to see if they are food or not, plus they take in stones, sticks etc when feeding and are extremely well adapted to filtering out the food and spitting out the inedible stuff. So I think if they took in a bit of foam or cork, they will soon spit it out when they realise it’s not food. Provided you’re using a proper zig set up, and the foam/cork hook bait is secured, it shouldn’t come off anyway. I’ve seen carp suck in Fag butts, they soon spit them back out!!

I use 12lb mainline and pva bags without a shockleader with no problems, I tend not to fish pva bags at range anyway as they can reduce my accuracy. When beachcasting, I would often use leads in the 4-6oz range and the casting style would demand a shockleader as the forces imposed on the mainline by the rods t/c, the actual casting style, (half pendulum, full pendulum, OTC, etc) and the added weight of a baited 2-3 hook trace, or a mackerel fillet or peeler crab etc, the initial air resistance of the baited end tackle, not forgetting the hostile nature of the sea to begin with, all these factors place a far greater strain on a mainline used for beachcasting than the strain placed in a carping environment. most modern carp lines snap at a higher strain than their stated breaking strain, and most modern set ups can, in the right hands, put a 3oz lead a long way with little force or effort. I’ve had a rod fail before the mainline when casting extreme range (twice!) it’s a case of being sensible, I’m happy to blast a 3 1/2oz lead as far as I can chuck it with 15lb line, if I was using a lower b/s line, of 10lb say, I’d use a length of 20lb line as a shockleader, or if it was a common tactic, if fishing a water where extreme range fishing was the norm, I would turn to a tapered mainline. (I would also use these on waters where leaders are banned) but to be honest, I haven't needed a shockleader for years, diawa hypersensor has reduced diameter for its b/s so I can use a line of 15-18lb with a line diameter of 12lb(ish) modern mainlines give us more options these days

Well done mate, keep up the good work!