yonny

I wouldn't go anywhere near anything marketed as "A stripped out ultra light Special Forces edition" buddy. It's aimed at kids that don't know what they're spending their hard-earned on imo. Have a look at Dymag Mobile System and their 9 ft rods. Really good gear.

Could do worse buddy.

You need to figure out what's important to you fella. - For distance casting go for a pre-stretched line (e.g. Fox Exocet etc.). They cast fantastically but aint so good where abrasion resistance is required. - For general angling without too much weed go for one of the new low stretch/partially pre-stretched lines (e.g. Shimano Technium, Gardner GT-HD etc.) These cast well and have half decent abrasions resistance. - General angling in weedy situations go for a traditional all-rounder (ESP Synchro, Gardner Pro etc.). Cast OK, nice and strong. - Heavy weed go for a heavy line (Gardner hydroTuff, Rig Marole SLS etc.). Not so good for casting but you'd land a bus in a forest. - If you want your line on the deck go for a fluoro. Again, not great casting, but the benefits are obvious. There's no such thing as a line that will do everything perfectly (although the low stretch options are getting there). Think about what's important to you and go for the most suitable.

I've just moved back to braid after a couple of years on mono with a leader. This time I've gone 50 lb straight through. No knot at all. Aint used it yet so can't tell you what I think.

Put all of your rods where the carp are fella.

Honestly Phil, I'd not bother. They key to staying warm in winter is good togs and a good sleeping bag. Without them a flower pot will make next to no difference whatsoever mate.

Yeah I'm aware buddy. Last year we were given the heads up they'd be checking (not a problem, I always license all my rods). They never showed up. Pretty much mate. I've spent thousands over the last few years on tickets for waters that will likely never see any benefit from license funds. We fence them ourselves. We take all sorts of precautions to avoid disease. Water health/quality is monitored. Tbh we wouldn't trust the EA to deal with any issues effectively (i.e. fast enough) should they arise. Don't get me wrong, if I fish waters that benefit I have no issues with paying for licenses. In fact they're a bargain. But when I don't see any benefit I can't help but feel shafted. It's like paying car tax when you don't drive on public roads. I've been checked once. It was 1st April several years ago now and it was the only time I've ever been fishing without a license..... I'd just completely forgotten to renew. I called the hotline and got my licenses right there on the bank. Luckily they checked my track record, saw I'd always had my licenses, and let me off. Lesson learned though eh... idiot!!!

Nah, that's outrageous imo buddy. It's not their job to check. It is the responsibility of the angler to buy one. If we speak frankly, why would a syndi gaffer receiving up to a grand a year or more from each angler care if they have licenses? If we speak even more frankly, why should those anglers who pay to fish these waters exclusively have to buy a license? I'm considering fishing a public water this year. It'l be the first time in years I dont resent paying for my license.

That. And get a stove with a pre-heat pipe (a pipe that goes over the burner).

Yeah totally agree. I'll not be switching over to the RX+ I don't think for that reason.

Same here. Shame as the indication they provide is the best of any alarm imo. I moved over to fox and am happy with them.

They are just the latest in a range of rods that are obsoleted and replaced each year as a matter of course. We'll not know if they're any good until they're no longer made. Greys rod don't hold their value either - what does that tell you about the long term quality..... For that kind of money you can get almost any rod on the market. I'd go with a tried and trusted brand/model. You could get custom Century/Harrison/Free Spirits built for that price.

I wouldn't consider it a rut at all Vik. Water temps have been as low as 4 degrees. There is no getting away from the fact that that will render activity almost non-existent. I have spent entire days dropping live maggots on top of the heads of dormant carp in snags in temps like these with no response. Sometimes nothing will work, regardless of what you do. You just need to hope you're there when they decide to feed for more than a couple of minutes at a time...... I once spent an entire winter fishing one water without catching, or even seeing a carp, for nearly 4 months. It's winter fishing at the end of the day. It will happen eventually but while it's not we need to just sit back and enjoy the season, we can still try hard to catch a carp, but there's little point in hammering ourselves when we don't bag one.

Cracking conditions for this time of year mate.... best of luck. Nothing other than we're one step closer to Spring !!!!

So, to clarify, it is different to Aquatexx then mate? Or are you saying you're not sure?

My word Nick, that fish is banging mate.

For sure Vik. If we're being brutally honest I think when water temps are this low we'll all struggle for a bite regardless of venue lol.... Our pits have a lid on too.

Imo estate lakes respond more quickly to temps due to lack of depth. Talking generally here obviously. If I wanted to catch a fish and I had the choice of a small estate lake with a hundred fish in it, or a 30 acre 20 ft deep pit with 100 fish in it, I know which I would choose. Its not the pit lol....

I've had several Impact Spods and the mechanism on the front has, in general, been miles better than the Spombs I've owned. I must have been lucky. Both the Impact Spod and the Spombs are inconsistent. Good ones are good and poor ones are useless but I find the Impact Spod is more consistent than the Spomb since the pin problem was fixed. For general use (filling and chucking) I reckon the Impact Spod is best. However, a decent Spomb is better than the Fox one while a poor Spomb is much, much worse. The retrieve on the Fox is very poor compared to the Spomb and can be quite hard work until you suss out the method for getting them to the top quickly. I had a couple of DOT Spods imported from Slovenia. These load, fly, and retrieve as good as or better than both the Impact Spod and the Spomb, but the capacity is rubbish.... it holds half what the others do. I think a real decent Spomb is the best of the lot, but I find you need to buy 3 or 4 to get a real decent one (one that stays closed for every cast yet opens every time when you hit the clip). Pretty much all of the Impact Spods are now half decent (i.e. stay closed on the cast and open every time) so you only need to buy one. If you don't mind spending hours spodding due to capacity issues the DOT Spod is the one - flawless performance, but it takes ages spodding out tiny handfuls a time.... I do think it's time Spomb re-designed their offering - with the lessons learned from the original Spomb and Impact Spod it should be very easy for them to bring out something very consistent that loads, closes, casts, flies, opens and retrieves well.

They're part of the same group that own Tackle Discounts - basically it's a bloke from Oxford and a couple of Chinese guys that pay the Factory's in China to use all the materials/tooling from the bigger brands and sell direct to the consumer online for a fraction of the price. It's a great business model you have to admit it, but I know they got in trouble with Aqua recently for selling the F&L branded so similarly, not sure what the conclusion of that little episode was though.

Yes, they changed the pin. They stay in one piece now.

I stand corrected. I thought they just used the "heritage" of the Aqua name to justify the extra cost (which has taken a battering recently due to Cyprinus lol).

Fair play, I've not seen them myself bud, took my info from reviews on another forum. Aqua and Trakker are the same company. Pretty sure their Aquatex has been identical for at least 5 years now?

I am led to believe they are the same thing lads. Same factory, same production line, same bivvy, different badge. They do the Aqua Fast n Light MKII for 95 quid delivered with a different badge and slightly poorer storm poles - it's 300 quid from Aqua!!!!

The temps tonight/tomoz morning are savage mate, -5 around that area. They'll all be solid this time tomorrow. Bit of rain forecast for Wednesday, that might be your best hope for a thaw.