yonny

There is a water I'm on at the moment (although not closed-shop like yours). I walked it for months before taking the rods. Gave me the chance to get to know some of the lads before fishing it. Helped no end, the lads now know me and share info with me i.e. they don't see me as this outsider that's come to catch all their carp lol.

Your understanding is correct. You can use a heli set-up or a lead clip too. The rule is just to stop you tying leaders on with swivels as swivel at the other (rig) end is OK. You don't need to use a leader at all if you don't want to.

It's a tricky one elmo. Pushing for info can work against you. Imo you should continue to walk it, chatting with the anglers (not pushing for info), get to know them, have a giggle. You'll soon be in a position that something will come your way. Closed shop syndis (or any syndis for that matter) want safe, reliable, discreet and friendly anglers. If you can show that's what you are then you'll be in pole position.

Is it just the catch results that are indicating that? I know of a chap that smashed it to pieces over winter, he caught loads. I fished it myself on a social last year and had something silly like 27 takes, there were certainly no signs of poor stocks. The place was a circus, always rammed, there is no way anyone could have been nicking fish without being spotted. I hear they've made it season ticket now? Assuming angler numbers have dropped, could it not just be that the fish are avoiding the lines (where they had no choice previously)? The place is too big to be netted. Tbh otters could hammer that place for 5 years and hardly dent the stock, there's thousands in there.

There is a common belief that oil adds no value to a bait (in terms of attraction). Oil is not water soluble and therefore cannot be detected by carp until it is in contact with the head and mouth i.e. as the bait is being "tasted" during consumption. Carp cannot "smell" the oil from afar, they simply don't have the tools. With this in mind, if you coat boilies with oil you are potentially locking in all the soluble attractors, preventing them from escaping into the water and being detected by Mr carp. I don't know if I am in agreement with the theory above but I don't use a lot of oil anyway. Oil benefits bait in other ways (nutrition for example) but attraction is king for me. A decent fish or liver hydroslate would always be my preference for coating boilies.

At the end of the day you have to get bait out there somehow mate. Normally I'll start with singles, if I don't get a take then I'll pepper a few baits out with the stick/catty, if there's still no take and the fish are still there I'll spod. Their reaction will be different from water to water - I've had them disappear not to return and I've had takes from under the spod. Even when they do spook they'll normally be back come first light.

There is only one way to guarantee your rig is where the fish are and that is to put a rig were you see the carp. The other option is put a rig where you don't see fish which makes no sense whatsoever imo. I wont cast a rod until I've seen fish, that should be a general rule for any serious carp angler imo. You can waste a hell of a lot of hours (or days and even weeks on tricky waters) waiting for the carp to come to you. Fish where the fish are, golden rule. I will not hesitate to cast at a showing fish.

Good man. Did you struggle at first? I remember when I first started (a long time ago now lol), I must have wasted nearly a whole pack of hooks before I had one I was happy with - I found it tricky to get them pin sharp without shortening the point i.e. I was taking too much off. Practice makes perfect - the more you do the better (sharper) you get, and the quicker the process becomes.

Agree. For that reason I tend only to switch to the boilie-only approach if I've got a spot genuinely rocking in an area that I'll not be stitched up.

I agree that the boilie-only approach does seem to up the average capture weight.

Stick with the Tungsten Loaded mate, I've had some very big fish from very weedy waters on that, it's really good stuff.

No. Sounds like a simple cut-off to me mate. It happens. I'd go up to a decent strong coated braid in that situation.

I dont tot it up. I tried once pricing up my bait, tickets and gear for the year and stopped as it reached the thousands 🤯

Odd looking common mate🤭

I believe portugese cork is supposed to be the best in the world too!!

If you can get hold of it try Rig Marole Specimon zig/floater hooklink. Very, very good stuff.

You'll probs find one that works for you and end up chucking the rest away after 3 or 4 years. I've done that several times in the past lol.

Cork dust takes on water mate, they dont stay super buoyant for long enough imo. Cork ball pop ups and proper job pop ups are v buoyant. It's a good idea to tank test every pot you buy so you know what you're dealing with. Flavour and smell ain't that important to me unless I'm fishing singles. What smells good to us has no relevance in the pond. Colour and buoyancy is v important imo.

Yes, size 6. No side hooking.

I have used them but found they're no more effective than a standard piece of foam on a hair. I normally tie a bog standard hair rig of 7 turns with a tiny piece of shrink tube over the eye to hold the gape open mate. Little piece of black foam maybe 10 mm in size. Dead easy.

Don't bamboozle yourself Elmo. Any one of those will catch fish if you put it in the right place. No need for 10 tubs of hookbaits imo. I normally carry a tub of bright ones and a tub of dull ones. And I think their buoyancy is more important than their flavour. My primary concern is that they behave as i intend.

P.s. I like white but will switch to duller hookbaits if I dont think I'm getting the bites I should be.

Pink will be more visible/blatant than yellow buddy. Yellow kinda reflects the tones of any weed and chod giving it a green appearance on the deck.

All colours work in their day but I've found the bigguns always come to plain old black.

MPE Tackle. Pricey but very, very light and stable. The best imo.