calopteryx

I think your keyboard may be faulty!

Bluebell Lakes, Uum. Yes certainly a very big fish venue, that is Kingfisher and Swan, but also very, very, very difficult and expensive. Ok if you are a very experienced and capable angler looking for that 40 plus fish then yes a good choice. However I get the idea from your post that you are looking for some good sport from double figure fish with the possibility of a few 20 to 30’s, if so I would suggest Gerard’s Maxey near Peterborough. http://www.gerardscarplake.co.uk/ In the past much maligned as a match lake, but now has matured into a very good carp fishery. Whilst still to be regarded as a runs water it does hold a lot of high doubles and some fish to 30+. Add to that very comfortable and big dug out swims (plenty of room to put your bivvie) and a quite pleasant atmosphere, I have to recommend it. Fishing is available on day ticket @ £6.50 7am till 9pm (Two rods) and also on a syndicate basis, however if you give Rosemary a call on 01733 252243 or 07718971900 or Dave on 07847393636, a 48 hour session can be arranged, and at a price at about a quarter of that at Bluebell. As for the fishing, all the swims produce fish, but as always good watercraft will help you no end. In general though, swims 12 to 18 are very popular as are 25 to 35, the corner swims are good too, always watch the wind though (west is best east is least), fish the end or bank the wind is blowing to. Swim 20 is my favourite, right in the north east corner. Bait, a critical factor in how your session will turn out, forget boilies, small round hard things they are defiantly wised up to. Use them if you like but I recommend paste. I make mine as follows, 1 teacup full of bread crumbs (dried liquidised white bread), 1 teacup full of liquidised trout pellets, 1 large egg and 4 tablespoons of water or liquid from vacuum flask prepared hemp. Do Not be tempted to put anything else in it! Well you can if you like but that’s up to you. Rigs, (I do hate that word), you are pretty much limited to some kind of bolt rig, running rigs will result in you getting twitch bites which you will find very difficult to connect with! Hook links are better short 100 to 125mm (4 to 5 inches), any longer and you will get those 200mm slow pull takes which are also very difficult to hit. Some are getting fish on bump rigs, well 25 years ago I called them bump rigs, these days they seem to have been reinvented to be called shockers, oh well! Just keep them short. The only other advice I can give is that I use PVA mesh packets, the 30mm diameter ones. The mix I put in is 50/50 hemp and liquidised trout pellets, mix it in an inflated poly bag at least 2 hours before using it or it will melt your PVA! Finally, I ask you Not to use braid hook links, they do cut the poor fishes mouth so, helicopter rigs are not allowed, please make sure that any rig will drop the lead in the event of a line break. If you are allowed vehicle access, drive slowly and carefully and do not shine your headlights into other peoples swim! Best Regards and Tight Lines, mickt..

No need to apologise. Sorry I was a bit abrupt, but some of the things that people were saying made me a bit cross. I think that leaving lots of lead in our lakes is a very important issue; it could turn out to be very dangerous to our fish and the environment

cyprinus_carpio, surprisingly and very sadly my estimation of you has dropped considerably as a result of the above! Unless my ability to decipher text talk and your strange ‘new use of the English language’ has lead me to misunderstand the point you were making? There will be no consequences at all. Lead is stable in water, it wont pollute it unless you add other chemicals to the water so that the lead can be chemically broken down. People only started suffering from lead poisoning from drinking water once the water companys started adding chlorine and fluoride to our drinking water which in turn made lead pipes chemically unstable. The only way leads could be a danger is if any wildlife was to ingest some, but I cant see many ducks eating the size leads most modern carp anglers use. well said levigsp, I think not!! This, And? I think that talking about losing leads and the possible environmental issue is relevant. And very defiantly this, Were well said! gidneyboy, I will respond to your last post in due course. mickt..

666carpcatcher and salokcinnodrog, both gave you perfectly good and succinct answers to solve your problem. If you are losing leads then the Lead clip is working efficiently. As soon as the Fish is picking up the Rig and swimming off the Lead pulls free of the Clip as the Rubber slides up, which is exactly what they are supposed to do. The Rubber is sliding free and preventing the fish from getting snagged in weed etc. If you are annoyed at losing leads at minimal contact with the Lead clips, then switch to the Carp-R-Us Lead Clips, they have a 3 stage Clip for changes in tension of your choice. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE INSTRUCTIONS WITH THESE FIRST, as they are not a standard Line clip.

Let’s hope no tap water gets into any of these lakes then or anything thing else that may react with lead, but then that will never happen will it? I think you will find that there are moves afoot to completely ban the use of lead in fishing, (across the EC). So some others must think it’s a bad idea, not only me. However I will definitely not deliberately or willingly add, to what by the sound of it must be veritable mountains of lead, in the places that I fish. Whether it’s ‘safe’ or not, despite that fact that I can afford it! Mickt..

Cost!!!!!! What is going to be consequences of dumping all that lead in the lake???? But oh, sorry I forgot for a minute, these days it’s ‘hook um, haul um, and get the photo’, catch them by any means and to hell with the consequences! Good grief, I despair!!!! Mickt..

Hi 666carpcatcher, Thanks for the info! Yes the ones at the bottom there look just the job, a bit neater and tidier than my solution as well. A pity I did not know that these were available a few weeks ago! I’ll defiantly check them out in the near future. The other ones though, I could not get to discharge under any circumstances! Clamping the lead in a vice and then pulling as hard as possible on the line didn’t shift it at all. After cutting off the little lug that sits behind the lead, it was then possible to pull it off, with a pair of pliers and some wriggling. Only after reshaping the lead retaining hook, so that lead can slide down to the clamping tube and reducing the length of the clamped area, did it discharge by pulling on the line. I will only fish with a set-up that I’m 100% certain will drop the lead, (snagged or otherwise), in the event of a line break. So in the bin they went, best place for them in my opinion! I kept the tail rubbers though; they may come in useful for something in the future. Thanks again for the heads-up on the Fox parts. Best Regards, Mickt..

Hi all, After some research and thought, I’ve decided that a bolt rig approach would be a good method to try on a couple of lakes that I’m fishing. Not being very experienced in these set-ups I when to the local tackle shop and they sold me some “safety” lead clips, (Two kinds). The guy in the shop fully explained their use and principles; they seemed to be an excellent idea and just what I wanted. However after assembling and testing them, I fail to see how they can become detached, even under extreme provocation! So I attacked them with needle files, scalpels and even a hot soldering iron. I eventually concluded that they were about as safe as a poke in the eye with a sharpe stick! To be fair I did eventually manage to get them to fall off with what I thought was a reasonable amount of force, similar to that which a fish might be able to exert, if it found itself trailing one after a line break. But then I figured that it was very likely that I would lose a lot of leads and guaranteed to lose it if I hooked a fish! Not being very happy with that prospect, I experimented with the now considerable collection of rig components I seem to have acquired! And come up with the set-up shown, (I hope!) in the photo below. It should self explanatory, but is simply a Nash run rig, (for mono), with stop bead mounted the opposite way round. The run ring can be wedged on the stop bead, but still comes off with anything more than a playful tug from the hook end! I have tested this set-up and it seems to work very well, I’ve caught several fish with it now at least. The other good thing is you do not lose the lead, unless the line breaks. Any thoughts and opinions from you guys will be greatly appreciated. Regards, Mickt..