chris

Anyway, back on topic. Just returned from France and didn't get checked for bait, food etc at either end, French had a cursory glance in the van and said 'ah, fishing?' and waved us on. Heard of quite a few anglers taking bait now with no issues but it's still a chance you take so consider your choice and the implications. We chose to use the lake bait.

The fact of the matter is that you can do pretty much everything you want (within reason) using either 10', 11' or 12' rods. People are changing their 12's for 10's for no real advantage in most cases. Personally I think one of the most overlooked aspects is for years practically everybody had a set of 12' rods and the tackle barons noticed this and decided to open up a whole huge market in trying to sell us something hardly any of us had and labelled them 'must haves'. The boom in rod sales must have been enormous, and of course we all 'need' an appropriate set of reels too. Cynic, me? perhaps a little 😉

I had swim 1 in May and suffered with the sun - if the weather is bright the sun will get you whatever the time of year, I just moved my chair under the big tree next to the swim to find some shade.

You won't need plug adapters, all the sockets are UK type.

Genesis, you must have a short memory as we have exchanged several PM's about the place

13 days to go for me

The most important item of tackle I have is from NGT. Very important

Lake Reaper - great little boats at a sensible price.

Piece of cake to put up, it's not described as a two man but as a 1 1/2 man a big one man in reality. A mate has the two man and is equally impressed.

I've had a JRC Sti bivvy for ages and after my last long session decided I needed something a little bigger, so I bought this one from Triton Tackle for a week in France. https://tritontackle.co.uk/product/tritus-10000hh-super-waterproof-1-5-man-deluxe-bivvy/ I think it's superb, very well made and robust, at least the equal of the JRC and to be honest I think overall it's a lot better.

Croydon area.

Going to depend on the re-whipping price, any idea how much it might cost?

My rods are starting to look past their best now so I have been thinking of getting some new ones, thing is I don't fish very much at all these days, just a week in France and a few day trips per year so I have only been looking at the cheaper end of the market. Current rods are Harrison Chimera in 2.75lb which are probably better rods than the cheaper models available. Would I be better off buying new or getting mine re-built? How much could I expect it to cost to have the rings replaced and new butt grips - reel seats are fine and would leave those.

Genesis would be a good choice.

''not too expensive'' If you go every other week for a 24hr session it's going to cost you nearly 900 quid in your first year - sounds a bit expensive to me.