yonny

They're OK, they'll fit fine. Get some spare inners as they don't last that long mate.

It'll get you great, great shots mate. The 50 for trophy shots, and the zoom lens for all round work. Good deal too!

@jh92 fantastic mate 👏 👌 👍

The camera is still focussing on your face for some reason. See if you have 'face recognition' on. Not sure if your camera has this feature. If it does, turn it off mate. Well done on the kipper, sounds like a great session.

You do not want to know 🤣

Short answer..... no 😂 I can make a few recommendations but you'll need more than 500 if you're buying new mate. First thing to decide is whether you want a compact, a DSLR, or a mirrorless. You can get compacts with big sensors and these are capable of brilliant shots. My recommendation would be the CANON PowerShot G7X Mark II. It's not DSLR quality, but most would struggle to tell the difference. They cost just over 600 quid. Next would be DSLR. They're cheaper than mirrorless but there's a reason for that. None of the OEM's are developing DSLR lenses any more. There's still loads available, but what you see on the market now is what you get - no more development (the technology is slowly being replaced with mirrorless). It's no secret that the quality of DSLR shots is great. My recommendation would be the Canon EOS 250D which is the cheapest Canon with a flip screen. It's about £750 with a standard kit lens. You can add an EF 50mm f1.8 lens for about 120 quid which will get you AMAZING shots. Then mirrorless. A mirrorless camera is basically a DSLR without a mirror which offers advantages. This is basically the future of photography, but they're still quite expensive. The most cost effective flip screen Canon mirrorless is the EOS R50 which comes in at about 900 with a standard kit lens. Lenses tend to be pricey but for 200 notes you could get the RF 50mm f1.8 which again will give you awesome, awesome shots. Both the DSLR and the mirrorless above have quite big APS-C sized sensors. The next step up would be to go to a full frame sensor.... but we're then talking mega bucks. OR... you could go second hand which opens up loads of options!

Let me have a look and come back to you mate.

You're getting there now mate. See how the whole background is blurry instead of half of it like previous pics? That means the settings are working, you just need to centralise the focus point on the fish.

What do you want to spend mate?

OK.... Change from ‘Auto’ to ‘Av’ mode. Set your ISO to ‘auto ISO’. Change your AF (auto focus) Area mode to ‘Single point’. I think on the 650D you have touch screen, so set your focus point by tapping on the screen where the fish will be in the shot. A box will appear to confirm your focus point. Zoom the lens out to 35 mm focal length. With your lens you can have a bigger aperture at shorter focal lengths so it should be about right. Set the aperture size at the largest it will go at 35 mm focal length. You’ll be looking for the lowest f number you can which again is probably around f4. Make sure the focus box on the screen is on the fish. Snap away.

IMHO the best line on the market 👌

Yup, the above settings can be used with an intervalometer mate.

I'll pop something up tomoz for you Elmo 👍

Spot on. See how the waders pop from the blurry background. Much better mate. For info to all, if you click on any photo on here, you get the higher quality original versus the heavily compressed version that appears on the thread.

Similar yes. On Canon you need 'Av mode' (same as A mode on Nikon). What Canon have you got as some stuff like Focus Point differs from older models to newer ones?

OK. First thing - get your manual out. I know how to do all of the below on a Canon, but not a Nikon. You'll likely have to go into menus to do some of this but the manual should make it clear. So.... Change from ‘Auto’ to ‘A’ mode (aperture priority mode). This will mean you control the aperture, and the camera will do almost everything else for you. Set your ISO to ‘auto ISO’. This means the camera will control sensitivity to light on its own. Change your AF (auto focus) Area mode to ‘Single point AF’. This will prevent the camera from trying to focus on multiple items (your face, the trees in the background etc). Change your Focus Point to ‘Centre point narrow zone’. This means it will focus on the centre of the shot i.e. the fish. Zoom the lens out to 50 mm focal length - a great length for trophy shots. Set the aperture size at the largest it will go at 50 mm focal length. The larger the aperture, the smaller the ‘f number’ – so you’ll be looking for the lowest f number you can which is probably around f4. Make sure the centre spot on the viewfinder is on the fish and off you go. This will focus on the kipper, your face will be very slightly out of focus behind this, and behind you you’ll have a lovely blurry background. I strongly recommend you practise all of this, and take shots with a prop like a bag or something. You obviously don't want to be playing with all of these settings with a fish on the bank.

I'm a Canon man. Let me google your camera model and I'll come back with some tips.

No.... but for the vast, vast majority of casters, 13ft will cast further. Long, stiff rods with decent technique is the key to distance.

The fish is actually out focus - check out the tail. I think the camera has chosen your face as the focus point. Did you take the shot in auto mode? This would explain the focus issue. What camera and lens are you using? I can give you some tips on how to set it up right.

I did a casting tuition with Terry Edmonds and he said the The Shimano Velocity 13 ft 3.5 TC, and the Fox Horizon 13 ft 3.5 TC (the cheapest version (X3?)) are the least expensive means of realising your maximum casting potential. I would expect the Kiazens to be decent too - Korda know what they're doing and very rarely release rubbish. This will have a decent impact. I go down to 10/12 lb mainline with a shock-leader for spring before the weed is up. Adds quite a bit onto my cast. For sure. Maybe drop down to a wafter? Don't go too small as you need a bit of weight in the hookbait to prevent tangles when chucking long.

No better feeling than that! Well done mate.

Imho changing the leader wont help that much. If it does, you'll be talking a few yards. Tbh I always found the wind can bow braid more than mono (it's lighter so easier for the wind to "take"). How far are you wanting to cast? You're spot on that it's the rods that's your main problem. Big casting is all about long, stiff rods. Get your 3.5's or even 3.75's (worth considering 12.6 or 13 ft length too) if you really want to go big, and up the lead size to 4 or 4.5. The reels are perfect as is mate.

It can go two ways - with the crook of the quick change facing the tip or the back of the hook. It should face the back of the hook👍

Try a size 4. I always found the hardware (micro ring/spinner swivel etc) could lead to damage with smaller hooks (6/8). I also found this could lead to losses. Switching up to 4's and even 2's eliminated this for me.

Imo the visual aspect of hookbaits is massively overlooked. Carp can see more than 4 times as many colours as humans, and can see in the UV and infrared spectrums - so basically their detection of colour is miles better than ours and they can see at night (explains how the black foam zigs work at night eh, lads). One thing I've taken from every underwater vid I've ever seen (going right back to the first Korda one in the late 90's) is that they see the hookbaits clear as day and are often drawn towards something a little different.... something that sticks out. I used to spend hours/days/weeks/months preparing and glugging special hookbaits. Over the years I've stopped doing it as I now believe colour or visual appearance is way more important than food content or flavour (when used over bait anyway). I even have a stash of Proper Job Pop Ups with zero flavour that I prefer to fish over certain groundbaits. Worth also mentioning that given their UV/IR vision, we're probably wasting our time trying to camouflage our end tackle. What's green or brown to us might look bright purple to them! You can see this on the underwater films too - sometime they just know something's not right. Luckily, they're not smart enough to know what a hook, lead, or leader is, so we catch in spite of it! Anyway I digress....... shot on the hook rig? Been around for years as mentioned. I personally haven't fished a spot clean enough for that rig in years so I have no interest. Also have to agree with @kevtaylor that there's nothing in the newer vid to suggest it's the shot making the difference rather than the very short hooklink!