yonny

Surely has to be time for a new flavour of the week lads? We've done rods, shelters, and bobbins...... so there's loads left to be covered. Someone have a pop.

Based on my observations your concerns were spot on mate. In 2016 I played around with the rig but soon stopped due to the inconsistent hook holds. This year tried with bigger hooks and the issues are gone. I think the extra weight of the bigger hooks, even though it's a tiny amount of weight, helps drop the hook. Certainly is. All my life I've been a hinge rig man but when the weed is very low lying, or over silt, there is defo a place for this rig imo.

I've moved over to the Ronnie this year after the weed died down on my syndi and I lost a couple on my trusted hinge rigs. Hook holds have been excellent - right in the middle of the bottom lip. The rig works better with bigger hooks I've found - more consistent hooking. Smaller hooks tend to catch in the scissors and I even had one hooked in the top lip. Bigger hooks (4's and 2's) stopped that. I thought the rig Ronnie was just another fad tbh but it's currently doing the business for me, big time.

If you're struggling with running rigs first thing I'd do is up the lead size and semi-fix it buddy.

No. The sheath sits in the tail rubber very tightly (can be tricky to push it in, in fact). Therefore as long as your tail rubber isn't coming off the clip, it'll stay exactly where you want it to. No crinkling, it's very robust, with a strong, almost elastic feel to it when stretched. No kinking either. It's solid stuff. I've never used it on a heli set-up but as I mentioned the sheath can fit snugly into whatever you want. You'd need to check that any beads can pass over the sheath on the opposite end obviously bud. It's reasonably supple. It's the weight that's the real strong point - it's so heavy it just sinks lightly into silt, weed etc.... I agree mate. I've shown a couple of anglers what this looks like in the margins on my water and they both went straight out an bought some. It's awesome bud.

I'm the same on a work morning....... On fishing mornings I'm up and away at 4 am with a spring in my step though lol.

Easy...... Rig Marole Freefall Micro Braided Rig Tubing in brown. It has stainless steel woven into it so it's pretty much as heavy as lead core. The brown blends into absolutely everything, as it's braided it takes on water and even silt, it just disappears. It comes in pre-cut lengths which sound expensive at first but as long as you don't crack off each length lasts around 18 months I've found, so it works out cheap. It's important to get the pre-cut lengths, they have a sheathe over each end to prevent fraying. Like you I've been a leadcore man all my life. I started using this tubing due to a leader ban and even though the ban has been lifted now I'm not going back. It is that good!

Imo any fish that could be lost through use of a barbless hook would be lost on those too.

See that makes sense to me. I don't believe for a second that mirrors/commons prefer particular baits but I have no doubt that individual fish show preference for a particular bait or baits.

You have to be careful what you believe for that very reason lol.

Agree. There is a period every year (around now) where a multitude of naturals become available as the weed drops. If that is the case then sometimes you can really struggle to compete with it (can be bloomin' frustrating), but, those bloodworm beds can be used to your advantage if you think about it.

It takes more energy (for lack of a better word) to grow scales than it does the softer flesh therefore commons and heavily scaled mirrors tend to grow much more slowly than sparsely scaled fish, and why mirrors tend to be bigger in general. No difference in metabolic rate etc. I can catch big mirrors for fun but really struggle with commons. Conversely I have a mate that always gets on the big commons but struggles to bag the mirrors. We fish the same waters. It's purely down to chance imo.

Common and mirrors are not different species buddy. I've heard all sorts of tricks that are said to be good for commons (certain baits etc.) but in reality I've never found anything to be effective at singling them out.

http://midkentfisheries.co.uk/ All you need to know right there tbh. Proper waters, tricky old carp i.e. not overstocked puddles full of pigs like Elphicks.

Bread is massively underused in carp fishing and it's more effective than any ground-bait you can buy off the shelf imo.

That. Try whacking a few slices of bread in a bucket, adding water, and mixing to a slop. Add to this whatever you feel like to make a very visual and very effective spod mix.

I saw that buddy. Certainly answers any questions we had lol.

The JRC's are head and shoulders above the NGT's. I'd not look past the JRCs'.

Agree, the fish are awful too. The Kent area is one of the best in the country for carp, loads of awesome waters. I'd look no further than Mid Kent Fisheries..... there's enough special carp on those tickets to keep you going for years.

The Chunk On series is good, I have the lot of them. Hoping the collection will be worth something one day.

Same here, although I never read when I'm fishing. I'm busy fishing lol.

Me too mate! They come in very handy eh!!!!!

I wouldn't call it essential buddy. I just keep mine in my bag and it's good as the day I bought it. Tbh that one you posted for 20 quid could die after a couple of years and you've still won👌

I used to use rig foam religiously but stopped a year or 2 ago. I'm very, very particular about hitting the right spot, hitting the clip perfectly, and getting the right drop - this means casting as many times as it takes to get it absolutely spot on. It used to wind me up reloading the rig with foam time and time again when it was taking several casts to get the right one. I ended up thinking that I was wasting my time i.e. if I'm recasting until it's 100% perfect anyway, there's no need for the foam. Even in heavy weed I don't bother now, I just cast again and again until I'm convinced my presentation can be no better. Since I stopped using foam I cannot say I've noticed any difference to my catch rate.

I'd be lost without mine. I use an Anker Powercore 20100, miles cheaper then the RM (which imo is overkill for a couple of nights on the bank, decent for a week in France though). It'll do me 4 nights easily. About 30 quid odd.