ouchthathurt

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.

Nick, did you ever notice a difference in “stiffness” between the 15lb and 25lb amnesia? I didn’t really suffer hookpulls, only had one from memory - although that was the biggest carp in the pond, a 36lb mirror which spat the hook at the net! (Still mourn that loss even now 20yrs later!) the biggest drawback I found in using amnesia as a continuation into a hair was the size of the overhand knot forming the hair loop! It would tear into a bait something awful. I did tie up a fluro rig using ESP soft ghost, to a fox wide gape size 5 with the hair formed by continuing the ghost hooklink, it still looks crude! The hook and bait just didn’t “sit” right, so I would use a supple hair now. Yet years ago, it was my go to rig! Funny how things change.

Nice, I’m in East Sussex and we’ve had a few days when they iced over... the day I planned to fish in fact! 🙄

I’ve still got my JRC STI Rapid Erection... it’s ancient! I got it when they first came out. they could have thought of a name that doesn’t conjure up images of a VD clinic, but still...

Going back to 99/00 I used to use short stiff rigs of about 4-5” made of 15lb clear amnesia, to a size 6 wide gape style hook (I forget what I was using back then - fox series 2 maybe??) fishing bottom baits, the whole rig was made from amnesia, including the hair, it looked (and was) crude, but it worked, it never occurred to me at the time to use a supple hair, I just switched to amnesia from braid (silkworm or merlin at the time) because everyone else was using braid, and my braided rigs would tangle - a hang up I still have today (thoroughly soaking a soft braid hooklink and using larger baits and/or stringers helps tangles though) then I discovered snakeskin! Nowadays, if I use a fluro hooklink, I tie it with a supple braided hair.

She’s all good thanks mate, a taxi ran into the back of her, so the insurance company is sorting it all out. You’ve not had any major freezes, what area are you in?

I had a similar experience with a bailiff on my water, I was using a spod on a water with braided mainline and a tapered mono shockleader, the bailiff came wandering into the swim and asked me to pull my rods in for a rig check, (they were trying to stamp out dodgy rigs after a few had been found up trees etc - fair play in my book) after inspecting my rigs, (before asking me how it all worked - he admitted to not fishing for “silt pigs” (carp) as he loved his pike - begs the question why he’s inspecting carp rigs but still...) he then turned his eye on my spod rod and with a triumphant gleam in his eye pounced on my shockleader as all leaders are banned! I explained that a spod rod isn’t a “fishing” rod as such, so a carp can’t possibly be tethered by a spod, but he wasn’t having it. He took pictures of my spod rod, which I posed with rather fetchingly I felt, and reported me to the head bailiff, I was warned off for an instant lifetime ban... when the head bailiff saw the pics, he burst out laughing and told me I was in the clear, before explaining to the other bailiff exactly why someone would have a shockleader on a spod rod...

I’ve got the bait rolled and the gear all prepped, I’ve done a total of about 10hrs since New Year’s Eve, no fish though. It’s more mild now, so I want to get on the bank ASAP, but my wife was in a minor car accident, she’s fine, but her car is in the repair shop so I’m having to act as chauffeur for the moment, usually when she’s at work and I’m off, then I’ll hit the bank. Fingers crossed though and good luck to all hitting the bank.

That’s what I had in mind from the description. I think you find something similar in Tiger bay by Rob Maylin

Very true mate, for me it’s the confidence factor, I’ve tried both methods yet haven’t got a take. It’s a gap in my skill set that I need to address. Zigs especially, chod wise I don’t hit many scenarios (if at all) where I can’t present my favoured pop up rig. Although this is set to change when I can get on the rivers after lockdown, they are weedy in places and a choddie will probably be the best option. Admittedly, I have missed out on chances where carp are coming to zigs, yet when I try, they are very haphazard and I’m beaten before I’ve started. The confidence factor again.

Admission time... I’ve never caught a carp on a chod rig! 😳😳 or a zig... call myself a carp angler! Lol!

It can obviously depend on your venue as well though, in an ideal world, I’d like to head to a lake, 100% access to the whole lake, carp rolling and bubbling and not a soul to be seen! Yet on the park lake that I’m currently targeting it is anything but! It’s busy with pikers and pleasure anglers (more of these anglers since the start of lockdown 3) there’s a nature reserve that takes up 20% of the bank which is no fishing. One of the swims that allowed you to flick some baits (legally! Lol!) into this area has been permanently shut for health and safety grounds and the other, which allows casting into 80% of the nature reserve water has been declared a days only swim after the club withdrew night fishing as some were snag fishing at night and weren’t reacting in time to takes (snag fishing at night with a loose clutch?? Eh?) the reality is that when I arrive, the top swims will be occupied by other carpers or maggot drowners, and if you wanna dunk a boilie for a few hours, you have to make a choice of the remaining available swims. In this situation, I do feel that I’m fishing more in hope than expectation. Still, my living room is devoid of carp, so I’ve got a better chance at the lakes then on the sofa.

Keeping things simple is the way forward mate, I’m always tinkering with rigs admittedly when at home, but on the bank i revert to simple rigs I know work, coupled with a bait I have complete confidence in means I can rest assured that those two elements are working for me, I can “forget” about them and concentrate on location and tactics. The best rig in the world can’t catch a carp that isn’t there!

I have to admit, I do like the idea of a bushwhacker pole, I can see where it would have provided an edge on several waters I fish/fished, but the price puts me off a bit. Usually when I’ve needed something like that, I’ve either used the “2 rod trick” or i bodged a similar arrangement using an old baiting spoon and poles from an old tent! I suppose if you can justify its use and can visualise scenarios where it will prove to be an edge then why not? It could help put a few more fish on the bank and it’s probably a lot less fiddly then gaffa taping old tent poles together!

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?? Lol!