ouchthathurt

Very many thanks pal.

My ex hated me fishing, to the point that I only used to get in maybe 1-3 overnighters a season! If she relented and gave me a fishing pass, I had to be home within 3-4hrs, even then you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. The destruction of the fishing tackle tipped it over the edge really.

Yonny, how does that work mate? Does he have the main patterns “pre-sharpened” which you can place an order for? Or do you specify the make and pattern etc and he source and sharpen the hooks before sending them out? He is the Jedi master of hook sharpening.

I use the files and finishing files sold by Nash, they’ve lasted a few years, I need to get a vice really, holding the hook with a pair of forceps in the bivvy is a bit fiddly! Sharpening takes practice, I ruined a few hook points before getting the hang of it.

I’m sorry to hear that highy mate, I’m lucky, my wife now insists I go fishing, she knows that it’s my therapy. I hope you can get it all sorted pal. Best of luck.

That’s some runs water!

Actually... she did! I’ve been an emergency medic since 2005, it’s mostly instinct now! It’s better now then it used to be, but the whole covid situation is putting strain on the whole healthcare industry, I’m lucky really, I pick up/drop off, it’s the nurses, doctors, healthcare assistants, physios, porters and the rest of the hospital workers who are working 12hr shifts day in day out on covid wards as well as looking after the 1000s of non covid patients that come in and out of hospitals daily that deserve praise. I wheel my patients onto wards or A/E or an ITU and every time, I see the nurses and doctors working like Trojan’s non stop and I thank my lucky stars I left nursing to go into the ambulance trade.

How many of us sharpen our hooks? I have a set of files that I use to touch up my hook points, but I don’t tend to go mad, I use a finishing/polishing file 90% of the time. I check and discard any hook that doesn’t meet my expectations and change my hooks after every fish or every (blank) session anyway, but giving the hook point a “tidy up” makes me confident. I rarely cast a rig out that I’ve not touched up the hook point first. Yet with modern chemically sharpened hooks, and the price paid for them, shouldn’t they be sharp enough straight from the packet? What are your thoughts?

My late shifts end after midnight, my early shifts start at 7am... we are “exempt from working time directives” apparently... shifts are between 10-13hrs long, I do 4-5shifts a week. I’m looking for a new job!

Sorry EX wife...

My wife once twisted all the eyes off a pair of century canon carp rods, snapped a pair of Neville alarms off the bank stick and slashed at the spools of my bait runners cutting all the line to shreds, then tipped the contents of the tackle box into the bin...

So long as you enjoyed it mate, that’s what matters at the end of the day!

For real?

How old is your son? When I take my boy, (he’s 11) I use my own oval brolly and he goes in his own wychwood overnighter shelter. I chuck them up side by side and fish like that. We’ve used these arrangements since he was 8/9yrs old and he loves it. shame he sleeps through his runs at night, but hey, I suppose a delkim EV on full volume is pretty quiet... not! yes, I’m “that guy” with a screaming alarm on full volume...

Fair play mate, you got the right venue for this time of year! Lovely looking carp too. I’m gonna hit a runs water (in the summer anyway!) and see if I can bank the first fish of 2021 on Monday hopefully, only got 3-4hrs but it only takes a second to get a bite!

Hopefully gonna get the rods out on Monday.

Definitely mate, I’d be on there like a shot given the chance, we may not be able to do overnighters just now, but you could start baiting it and prepping it ready for when you can hit it properly.

Good drills mate, they all count! Well done.

Bed chair for a day session? I will do sometimes, otherwise my aqua large beanie unhooking mat, although unwieldy to carry about, makes a cracking beanbag chair! luckily I’ve not caught a carp since November so I don’t get a wet backside, that would just be uncomfortable!

I do like the trighammers, when I first got them, i was a bit unsure, as I thought they may be a bit too thin in the wire, first session out and I caught an eel that I ended up badly distorting the hook when unhooking the rather lively snake with needlenose pliers, which didn’t settle my thoughts, but I caught a few carp with no problems at all, including a few hairy fights with an animal that got its head firmly buried in one of the few weed beds that sprouted up in the park lake. I had no problems with them at all and am now totally sold on them.

Spider wire braid mate?

I do like the look of the chod hammers... when did hooklinks get so complicated?? I used to catch stacks on Berkeley big game mono hooklinks in 15lb! It was my main line and I would just cut a length off and make a hooklink out of it!

I’ve got 8lb dedicated floater line on my floater gear, but I don’t have any significant snags on my waters. I use it for both freelining and controller work. On my main reels, I’ve got diawa hyper sensor which in 12lb which is a nice thin diameter, although it’s in the dark brown diawa sensor is known for, 12lb is 0.28mm which may work for snaggy floater work, but it doesn’t come in clear and it’s reduced diameter might not withstand snaggy conditions.

I’ve got an old green army poncho, complete with hood in the middle! (You see them in old Vietnam films) its ideal as it scrunches up to nothing, you can wear it as a rain coat in showers, make a throw up shelter with a couple of tent pegs and a few bungees or use it as an adhoc groundsheet. It’s always thrown in the hold-all.

That’s a good bet mate, simple rigs, bait you have confidence in and you can rest with the knowledge that those parts of the equation are sorted and you can concentrate solely on location, knowing that the bait and rig you use will do the job provided the carp find it.