yonny

Likewise mate, I find with a bit of experience you can estimate the depth on the drop pretty accurately anyway. Only time I'll get the marker out is for zigs, to establish exact depth.

This varies from water to water I find. Sometimes you can get away with murder, other times just a couple of casts with a lead will see them disappear.

Lead size in particular imo. You can get a drop with a 4 oz lead in all sorts of chod/weed and rubbish. If you can get a drop with a 1 or 2 oz lead you know it's more than presentable.

No idea framey but I agree with you, QD is awful!

Likewise - except under certain unusual circumstances. I have fished two waters on which pH changed (in the extreme) temporarily, both for two week periods. My hooks started coming back completely destroyed through corrosion, completely blunt/rusted away. I was forced to use un-sharpened hooks as no matter what I used to protect the points they just came back blunt. In both cases the waters returned to normal two weeks later. Really odd. I assume it's something to do with decaying plant matter as on both occasions it was that time of year around autumn when the weed is starting to die down.

I fished a water stocked with Simons fish. They were awesome little kippers and some of them were very tricky carp. They'd come out once very quickly after stocking, go missing for 3 years, then get banked at 30s!

@nigewoodcock, if you look at the close-up of the J Precision hook in the first post, you'll see that the point appears ever so slightly upturned. I've thought for some time that they might be using something similar to the Nash jobby. What are your thoughts based on your experience so far? Totally, I see loads of guys completely over-sharpen their hooks. Sharpening is not about silly long thin points, it's about sharp points!

Yeah I've had one eye on that for a while mate. It looks interesting but I struggle with the price tag for what appears to be an air bed pump with a mini grinding wheel bolted on. I'd imagine you still need good technique to obtain decent results? A bit harsh imo buddy. He didn't mention a product name, a brand, or even what the product was. And in the bedchair thread he was simply answering questions asking specifically about Nash bedchairs.

I'd add that I spent around 10 years doing my own so I know a thing or 2 about sharpening. I'd put my own up against any of the commercial options but we don't all have the time (or can be bothered) to do it ourselves. For those that want to give it a go, there are a number of methods but the one in the vid below is imo the best one. Over time you'll develop your own technique as you perfect your work but if you're just starting out this should be your starting point:

I posted this on another forum last year but for those that haven't see it there's some good info here: So………WHY?Why bother with hand sharpened hooks? As we all know, an unsharpened hook will catch fish, and plenty of them. The long and short of it is that, in a general angling situation, sharper hooks will penetrate easier. They WILL lead to a higher pick-up/hooked ratio. It’s a simple fact. Sharper hooks are more effective than blunter hooks. Doh.Obviously doing them yourself is the cheapest way in the long term. And once you’ve cracked it, it’s the most effective way too. But after ~ 10 years of sharpening I decided I am prepared to pay a few quid extra to have them done for me.WHY NOT?There are certain situations where you might NOT want to use sharpened hooks:1 – Price. Sharpened hooks are expensive. And the cost of your time to sharpen them yourself should not be undervalued. Nine times out of 10 they are a one-fish hook so you need to think about whether to spend that kind of money on your given venue. No point in spending the extra on a highly stocked runs water in which they will be competing for your rig. A ‘normal’ hook will be fine.2 – Gravel. It’s easy for hooks to get dinged on gravel and this can blunt the fragile points of sharpened hooks. I can honestly say I’ve never had any problems with this, ever, but loads of guys have, so we have to accept there is a risk.3 – Certain fish. Some old fish that have been caught a few times may have harder or more boney mouths. Similarly, carp that have been feeding in gravel pits for multiple decades may have the same. In the pursuit of such fish it might pay to use none sharpened hooks as the points are more resilient.4 – Low PH waters. The lower the PH, the faster a sharpened hook point will corrode. This isn’t a problem for a none-sharpened hook as any plating or finishing protects the point, but that finishing is removed during sharpening. There are options to help here which I’ll come to shortly, but on some waters with exceptionally low PH you really don’t stand a chance. It is worth noting that on some waters PH can change for a period, I assume due to dying plant matter, which can lead to worse corrosion of hooks temporarily. No doubt one of the buffs from the bait section could help with how/why PH can change on a water.5 – Long stay angling. If you expect to leave your sharpened hook out for days on end, it will corrode no matter what the PH, and no matter what you do to protect the point. 6 - Crays. It goes without saying they can dull your hook point if they're playing with your rigs.CORROSIONSo assuming you decide you want to use a sharpened hook the next thing to consider is the corrosion issue. You might see quotes from certain parties suggesting that rust will normally start to form at the transition from none sharpened to sharpened areas of the hook. That might be true but areas of high stress are in general susceptible to corrosion, and given that the entire sharpened surface area of the point is stressed during sharpening I’ve always found that the whole of the point shortly follows. This rust will not affect hook strength, it’s only surface rust, but it can and will literally corrode the point away at its very tip. An unprotected hook can lose its effectiveness in just hours in my experience.So how can we protect sharpened hooks?1 – Marker Pens. Rubbish, but will protect for a few hours.2 – JAG Pens. Slightly less rubbish. Should last a night.3 – Silicone/Petroleum Jelly (Mucilin, Vaseline, Lypsyl etc) – similar to the JAG pens, just short of rubbish.4 – Beeswax. Decent, but sticky, which will not aid hook penetration. Easily a good 24 h+ protection, probs more.5 – Candle wax. Very decent. A few strokes followed by the lick of a lighter. 24 hrs+ easy, probs more.6 – Specialist Sharpened Hooks Anti Rust Compound. Excellent. The best I’ve used. Again - a few strokes followed by the lick of a lighter. 48 hrs protection.7 – Crayons. Never used them but the SSH compound is very, very similar so I assume they’ll work well.8 – The oil from the side of your nose (lol). Shelley popped this one up on YouTube a while back. I’m not sure if it was a wind-up or what, but I have actually seen others quoting this as a useful method. It is not. Don’t bother.All these treatments leave a sacrificial coating that will have less of an influence on sharpness than a plating or coating has on a standard hook. The level at which they compromise sharpness is negligible.*Note – when using wax, hold the hook so any run-off during licking of the lighter will run away from the hook point, towards the barb.STRENGTHLong story short, as long as the wire isn’t sharpened past the bend there will be no issue with hook strength. A hook acts like a spring with forces distributed through the hook. If it’s going to bend and/or snap, it’ll be on or next to the bend. THE FUNKY BITSo now we get to the funky bit. The photos. My microscope is capable of X 45 but I’ve not gone that close. The form of any processed metal products gets worse the closer you look at them. I’m not trying to show how good or bad these hooks are, rather I want to show a comparison between them.From the top:Un-Sharpened.This the control shot if you like. A standard mass produced chemically sharpened hook. I’ll compare the hand sharpened products against this. FYI it’s an Incizor.Specialist Sharpened Hooks.These are the Ferrari of the sharpened hook world. Top of the tree. The real deal. I cannot emphasise enough how good these are. I am yet to find one that isn’t sharpened very well indeed. They’re done by the guy that started it all. Jason Hayward. They are not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Not over-sharpened, just very sharp points. The best, by a significant margin. FYI - this is a Mugga.Score: 5/5J Precision.If you’re after value then these are the ones. They’re relatively cheap and they’re sharpened to a decent standard. Some need touching up to be really, really sharp but they’re pretty good (certainly useable) out of the pack. There are minor inconsistency issues. Some are slightly overdone (imo). Be warned – most packs have one or two points that have completely gone over so you have to check them carefully. I assume this happens in transit tbf. Note the tip on the sample shot is very slightly turned up – I see this on most of them which tells us something about the method used to sharpen them, I’m just not sure what that is lol.Score: 4/5Korda Kamakuras.These are the odd ones out because they’re actually sharpened by a machine, not by hand. This means they’re incredibly consistent. They’re only sharpened on one plane, opposite the barb. This means they’re very sharp when viewed from the side. However, when viewed from above, they’re not – but don’t let this put you off too much. The machine basically gives them a super-sharp spade point which is no doubt effective, but the form means they’re the most fragile of the lot. Korda quote this sharpening process as a genuine step forward in hook technology. They are right. To summarise, sharp and consistent, but fragile.From the side they are lethal:From the top they are not – but don’t let this put you off:Score 4/5IB Hooks.These tend to be over-sharpened imo. They are cheap compared to others and some are very sharp, but the points are very short due to too much material removal. There are some issues with consistency but some are useable. Many are not imo.Score 2/5.Rig It Tackle.For 8-9 quid a pack you expect real quality and the packs I bought lacked that quality. In both packs I bought I checked the first 4 hooks before giving up. There is plenty of material removed but the points are not great. They come with tip beads to protect the points and they are treated against corrosion (with what looks like either marker or JAG pens), but that doesn’t change the fact the points are not good.Score 2/5.

Isn't there! I saw the pics of that long linear from Black (Spike I think it's called?). My word, next level that thing is.

Where are you based @Pete Springate's Guns?? There's a hell of a distance between Dinton and Cambridge lol.

I'm guessing you're on about the original Micron RX? The RX+ don't have a vibration setting, only roller. Why would this happen buddy?

I don't miss them days lol. So much easier with sticks imo.

Oi oi stranger. Hope you're good mate.

I thought it was free nowadays?

I used to use log books with little diagrams and catch reports and spots etc etc. Now I just log markers/wraps on my phone. It's a pretty soulless way of doing it tbh but hey it works.

It's tricky innit. All my biggest hits have come to very heavily spodded areas but you always run the risk of spooking them out of the area. They'll come back but it's no good them coming back 24 hrs later if your session is only 24 hrs long lol! It's not a problem for longer sessions, and sometimes they'll be back very quickly, but it does do my swede in for short sessions. I've taken to baiting up the day before I fish which is fine on the quiet syndis or clubs but not possible on pressured circuit waters!

I hardly ever use a marker float now. I just use a bare lead and guesstimate the depth. I tend to fish where I see signs of feeding activity and don't really care about depth with any accuracy. I'll get the marker out if I'm zigging but that's about it.

I read that too. It's a little misleading imo as it's only a 3 season bag so you'd need other layers when it gets cold. A 5 season Snugpak Techlite coupled with one of the lightest beds would weigh the same or less so it can be beaten.

They are supposed to be mega comfy but weight a tonne. Only you can answer if they are worth the money mate.

I don't think it's possible to effectively simulate undertow with this set up. I certainly don't think a couple of blasts through a blow pipe can replicate the effects of undertow. I'm also not convinced that the little paddle jobby gives an accurate representation of the water displacement caused by a carp. They are pretty big and very powerful.

Lol. He's right though innit!

Cyprinus don't design or manufacture anything. They re-brand other gear. If you look closely at the images on their website you should be able to work out what each one is with a little research.

It worries me that he's quoted as an authority. He's without doubt a decent angler and I do enjoy listening to him but I find he can be prone to contradicting himself now and again.