nigewoodcock

And no, I’m not banned. Just never have much time to post. I still read through where I can, keeping up with monitoring swearing etc.

Can’t get the colour/dye anymore. we do the same leader in 3 different colours now. Black, green and clear. The clear one is ace but I prefer the green as it blends in on all types of bottom, green or not. Very similar to the diffusion camo. PS I still have a load of the D-cam ones 😉

the best reel for a scope rod, Is a scope reel. In the case of a 6ft rod, the GT4000 is the perfect match.

I’ve only just seen this too. Read back through but can’t see any posts? Perhaps they have been deleted?

I had a busy lockdown period. Lots of building work at home, lots of work and maintenance down the lake and also tried getting to grips with filming and editing. Once lockdown ended, I managed to get out for a few short trips which gave me chance to flip the switch on the camera to video mode. Here’s the outcome of the two trips that I filmed.

Have you priced up the difference between buying ready made helicopter leaders and buying the components separately? I’m sure I saw a mate post on Facebook that he was better off financially, buying the ready made kits when you pro rata the cost. He uses Korda ones.

Shorter rods also have the bonus of being, well, shorter! Much easier to walk round a lake baiting a few spots and dropping in if the chance arises. I use 9fts in the main but love getting in right with my 6ft’s. They also take up less space on the barrow, in the boat and also the van/car. I like to keep my kit down to an absolute minimum. Most of my fishing is now done with 10ft rods. I’m good for up to the 100/110yards with them, maybe a touch more if I didn’t need to be as accurate. I haven’t used my 12ft torrix rods for around 18months now. That includes fish lakes such as horseshoe. I am also with kev on the test curve front. My 10’s are 3.5, 9’s and 6’s are both 3lb. I would drop down to a 2.75 for floater fishing but I need to stop somewhere with buying rods!

Loving these mate

I’ve not posted any of my catches up for a while. One of the fish I really wanted from the lake.....

Lead clips also allow you to switch to and from zigs very quickly.

3 times, as he done it with both rods, then rewrapped one again before he twigged I think!! 😂

As long as you don’t drop the lead!!

Are you going to the northern angling show mark? If so, pop over to our stand and I’ll talk you through all the benifits of the bushwhacker. It’s so different than anything else on the market and in my honest opinion, so much better.

I’m not sure what jp use to sharpen but he does thousands of them so would make sense to use something mechanical? I very rarely use any other rig than a multi rig. A lot of this is down to presentation, but you get the added benefit of being able to change the hook quickly. The sharper the hook, the quicker it blunts, as you well know. Some of the hooks out of the packet now are crazily sharp. Kamakura’s and pinpoints for example. I can now give them a quick touch on the doctor if they come in not 100% and I’m away fishing again. I haven’t fished a session longer than 4 hours since September, so speed is paramount in my angling. At trade shows when demoing the product, I purposely turn hooks over (far more than sinking on gravel or hooking a fish would do) and bring them back to life in seconds. We will sell less hooks now 😂 It’s not just carp anglers that will benefit either. Lure anglers, fly, dead and live bait, sea etc. They will all save time and money having one of these in their kit.

It’s way easier than to get consistent results with very little practice. You have much more control over hand movement as the ‘file’ is in a fixed position rather than in your other hand. The vice is designed so that you can just touch the hook onto the stone with great control. You don’t have to worry about keeping it on plane. A second on the back of the point is all that’s needed but you can touch up the two sides. The only real worry is overdoing it. Less is more and all that!

Something has hit the shops today that has changed my sharpening for the better. Not just consistency but speed as well. I can do a pack of ten in well under 5 minutes, that are all of the same standard and super sharp. The unsharpened hooks I use are the sharpest out of a pack that I have seen it used (excluding kamakuras but they have been sharpened in effect) and I generally don’t bother sharpening them. I know it’s better to have them done though; in most situations that I fish anyway. This gadget has now made that chore (it was more to do with no time) of sharpening an absolute doddle!

All good cheers mate. Super busy, but that’s how I like things.

The new ones due out soon, have had a big reduction in weight. The memory foam version (MF60) are a bit more heavy, but the extra comfort is well worth it. I’m like you with my kit yonny, keeping it minimal and light as possible. But with the launch of the compact bed in the memory foam, it’s justifiable for me! I have honestly never slept on anything so comfortable.

Cuttle mill would be a good shout for you then. Fished through the winter and close to you.

We do a bedchair buddy that would suit your needs. As not to sound too biased on here, there are other companies that have them available too.

I’m lucky.... I can pass for the midlands mafia or the possy!!!! 😂

Marker poles are an excellent tool to have at your disposal, if you can get away with using them. That one mentioned is for 4x pole kits.

Your right mate. Tools for different applications. I have a few sets of 12fts, a set of 10’s, 9’s and 6fts. I use all of them! Not at the same time mind 😂 The 10’s are probably my most used length. I can get around 110yards out of them. Anything more, then I have to go back to the torrix 12ft 3 1/4. There’s not many lakes that I fish at the moment where I need that extra distance though. On the fish playing front, I find the 10’s have more holding power than any of my 12’s although not much in it for it to be a deciding factor. Fashion..... when I started fishing, all those years ago, all the specimin rods were 10 or 11 ft, until it became fashion to have 12 footers, then 13’s. At the end of the day, everyone should buy and use what suits their own situation best. If I could only afford one set of rods, for what I do at the moment, the 10footers would be my choice. 5 years ago, when I was fishing a much bigger lake and also still doing a bit on horseshoe, it would have been 12 foot rods. Funny thing is, I can cast further with my 12ft rods than I did using Terry Edmonds’ 13 footers on our tutorials we had (using the same reel, swapped over to both rods). I may have got further with them if I used them regularly. I’m only knee high to an ewok though so that might have something to do with it. Phil can blast his 13 footers further than his 12’s. It’s not so much being able to compress the blanks but having a larger arc. This increases the lead speed, which is what ultimately loads the rods. There’s so much more to casting than what rods we use. I would guess 90% technique and 10% equipment (as long as it’s a decent rod)

I’m more accurate with a pin hammer than I am with a sledge 😉

Should be plenty of foam you can use in Portugal. Just think of all those flip flops in the beach shops!!!!