yonny

The vast majority of hooks come from China but it's a myth that all Chinese manufacturers are bad fella. Some are very. very good indeed. The problems start when the tackle brands try to cut costs by using the cheaper manufacturers (which are the guys you're referring to). It winds me up - it's fair enough that the tackle brands want to increase their margin, that's standard business practise, but if they choose to go down that route than they should have a robust inspection of product when it gets to Europe. It's clear that in many cases they don't do any testing whatsoever - they just take it for granted that the hooks are sound and then come out with their "you'll always get a bad batch" rollocks when they fail in the field. In those cases you have to blame the tackle firm as much as the manufacturer, or more so in my mind.

Sounds to me like there's an issue with consistency with these Kranks. One fella says they're flexible which is actually a good thing - they're heat treated high carbon steel (same stuff knife blades are made out of) so they have a high spring rate which allows them to flex slightly so they can absorb stress and maintain there original shape. Another fella says they bend which means his batch was too soft (i.e. spring rate was too low and the material yielded). Another fella said they snap meaning his batch was too hard hence they were brittle. You hear folks giving it "you'll always have a bad batch from time to time". I can tell you now that's absolute rubbish. If the manufacturer has control of their process you shouldn't get any issues like that. Therefore if I see a single hook fail I'll avoid that manufacturer altogether - no second chances.

Horror stories starting to emerge on other forums. Apparently the pin that holds the lid on is prone to walking out of the hole. There's been lots of reports of them failing. Fox have actually acknowledged a problem of FB: "our guess would be that the pin on the hinge has worked its way loose through not being flared enough this is the only issue we have seen with the hinge since the product was released, the hinge was bomb proof in testing, it just appears a small percentage of the tens of thousands we have made have not been flared quite enough by the pneumatic press". Worrying.....

Mine arrived yesterday. It looks good but I aint used it yet.... Basically my fist impression is that they've fixed all the problems I saw with the Spomb. Can't ask for much more than that. Looks well built but looks don't always tell the full story.

Disagree. That may be the point of the rig for less experienced anglers (the chuck-it-out-and-have-a-beer brigade) . For those that are experienced, the point of the rig is to fish spots that cannot be fished effectively with more conventional rigs. It can be used to chuck at fish showing over an area of unknown bottom but that is a secondary purpose. I would never dream of putting a choddy on a clear area.

If it's not clean on the deck then whack a split shot an inch or two under the hook on the rig you're already using. Comments above are correct, what you're doing already will catch carp from any water. Job done.

£5 for 3 zigs is VERY pricey! You can get 100m of Drennan double strength for £5. That will make 33 10ft zigs.

Lets try again..... I used this rig in 2012 thinking I had invented it. I called it the anti-eject chod. I caught my first UK 40 on it so immediately thought it was the best rig ever. Over the course of the season however it didn't outfish the other rigs I was using. I use a much less complicated version now although still quite different to the standard chod. I remember seeing that rig on the Korda website shortly after I had though of it and was well gutted my "secret" was out!!

I used this rig in 2012 thinking