yonny

No need mate, it's just carbon tube. It's the design that makes the difference.

100 yards is a long way with a stick mate. Even the very best distance sticks will struggle past 120ish. For distance the best are the ACA and the Daiwa - but they are pricey. Gardner do a decent one called the Propella I think. Decent for distance. Avoid the Scorpion - it's a short range stick. For value is has to be the Diem one - it's cheap as chips and half decent.

No mate. They are the heaviest two carbon sticks on the market buddy - mainly due to those ports. Best will depend on what you're using it for. What kind of distance do you need?

That. Job lot on the bay is by far the cheapest way to a full set-up imo. You can get the lot for less than a grand.

From the water we discussed????😮

I don't think they're half as effective as live ones Stevo!

I buy my maggots direct from the maggot farm that supplies the surrounding area/tackle shops. I actually now request mine with no cleaning or riddling whatsoever - straight from the line - and just the tiniest bit of dust. They're absolutely disgusting and stink to high heaven - which imo is exactly what you want for fishing. Most guys love a nice clean riddled wriggler but in terms of effectiveness I do not believe it's the way to go.

It's a lot of food items for sure but in terms of weight is next to nowt. A small group of big carp will hoover that up in no time.

Doesn't work mate, they just go all pasty. I've done it with GLM powders, liver powders etc. It's the heat that makes them sweat. Only cooling will prevent it. I'll generally give the spot one big hit for the night ahead (at least a gallon plus whatever else I'm using with them) but that's because the lower stock waters I fish do not tend to respond well to the constant disturbance of the little/often approach. When the fishing is tough there is no better method imo. I've had sessions where I've been forced to top up in the night such is their effectiveness. When they're bang on it you can get through gallons and gallons.

Oscsha is right. Unless you keep them cold they will sweat. Sweating, within reason, doesn't bother me that much. Imo the carp are attracted by the excretions/ammonia given off by the wrigglers. When I use maggots I'll use quite a lot - at least a gallon a night. I'll happily buy 2 gallons at a time and by the second night they're clearly sweating their nuts off but still all alive. I'll never buy more than 2 gallons in one hit as by the third night you can see they're starting to turn/die.

Makes sense, I could only find it in green👍

There's a £2k drone on the deck of a big pit in France I used to fish once a year. Of course if the "angler" could actually cast a rod (he used a bait boat too) he'd have stood a chance of retrieving it on rod/line😂

It's because some fisheries cater for real anglers😉

Old school. Big Game always was (and still is) a decent and reliable line but technology has moved on - there are better options out there nowadays imo.

"Boilies don't work on here".......... "They don't take floaters on here mate"............ I'm sure, like me, you've heard it all before Phil. Carp are carp - imo any method, done well, will catch fish on any carp water.

I always try not to plan anything prior to arrival - unless I'm pre-baiting. I find too much planning leads to a blinkered approach on my part and results in poor decision making. With no planning I can just turn up, find fish, and fish for them.

That's very true buddy but I've always found it's a mistake to try and predict where they'll go and set up there. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't - and I don't like leaving it to chance. I will ALWAYS set up where I see them, and move with them if they do the off.

Fish with what you're confident in Phil.

That's interesting as my percentages would be completely different. Rigs - 5% max - as long as it presents and resets it's good enough imo. Bait - more important - a good 10 or 20 %. The rest would all be location. Identifying (or creating) and fishing the spots the carp are prepared to feed on. Put me on fish and 99 times out of 100 I'm mega confident. If I'm not on fish then nothing will make me confident.

Absolutely mate. I love that buzz of walking a new venue. It's so exciting - wondering what awaits you in this next part of your journey. And the buzz of the first fish from a new venue is awesome - it gives you that confidence that you have the ability to succeed. I've only caught a few stockies from my latest venue but it's enough to get me buzzing my nuts off. There's a handful of 40 year old originals up to 50 odd lb in there and I know that my next bite could be the one!! The tactics are working, the bait is working..... confidence!

Spot on mate. I've been fishing for carp for more than 20 years now and I still learn stuff on every trip, especially from blanks (they tell you more than any red letter day will). Carp angling is a never ending journey imo, we will never know it all, but we can keep learning more and more about the fish and how they react in different environments, and that stands us in good stead to capitalise when they're in front of us. As the journey unfolds we choose to fish harder waters with more special fish as we put what we've learned into practice. As one door closes another opens and our angling evolves. Always learning, always challenging ourselves. It's brilliant because you can never complete it - there's always a newer, bigger challenge. It's impossible to get bored of.

Probably buddy. Brown is the best all-rounder for blending in imo.

That's it right there. Confidence comes from experience; knowing what you are doing in a given situation will catch them. That is a hallmark of inexperience imo. A confident and experienced angler will determine why the chosen method isn't working as intended and fix it. I have no time for doubt. I am not prepared to sit behind rods that I'm not 100% happy with. Of course we all blank, it is part of carp fishing, but as long as you learn from it you confidence levels can continue to elevate. If you know why you blanked then you know how to adapt for next time.

I'm currently using the rather funky combination of Hydro Tuff in 12 lb with a 20/30 ft leader of the SLS Specimon Tough in 18 lb. The water I'm fishing is really, really weedy and the fish do sometimes hang out a very long range. This set up allows me to get the distance and still deal with the weed. I would happily use the Hydro Tuff in 20 lb as a leader too.

@crusian I've used it in 20 for weed and 12 for casting, both perform really well. It's the green I use but thats because I didn't know you could get it in brown!