yonny

Agree 100%.

What do you guys use to clean your fluoro leaders?

I have to agree that 200 quid simply isn't enough to set you up for carp angling - definitely not if you're looking to fish for 30s and 40s safely. There are normally plenty of full set-ups going second hand on ebay but even then you'll be looking at about 500 quid minimum, and that will be low to mid range quality kit at best. Worth a look though, I do see some mega bargains from time to time. It pains me to say it but it's not cheap this carp angling game....

Korda lines are relatively poor IMO. Stick with Gardner, they do great lines. The Pro and GT-HD options are really nice lines. Yes, keep the old line as backing, it's a complete waste of money otherwise.

That draws a close to the testing fella. I foresee what will happen now is I'll keep them in my tackle box "for emergencies" and then bin them in about 2 years lol...... Nah, they'll just think I'm some nut job carp freak playing with hooks in a lab at work. In fairness they'd be about right.

Back home and had a really good look at each hook under X20. Pros: Out of the packet the chods are definitely sharper than any other hooks I have on hand (but not by a huge margin). The curves are even better (but still not perfect). Cons: The positioning of the flats on the hookpoints points is slightly different on each hook, and none of them are in a position that makes them easy to sharpen. This means a sharpening vice cannot easily be used; you'd have to do it all by hand which is frankly a nightmare. I'm not even going to attempt it - on the curve shanks two of the three flats are inside the gape (where the barb is) so you can't even access them with the stone/file. The positioning of the flats on the chods seems almost random. The 'miss-shaped ground flats' I mentioned on the chods under X10 is actually physical damage. It is located in exactly the same place on both chod hooks, on the edge of one of the flats. Closer inspection of the curves found the same damage on 2 of those, again, in exactly the same place.That indicates the hooks are orientated when the damage occurs, which suggests they're tool marks from the forming process. Does this effect sharpness? No, but it still looks a little rough. I suspect it sticks out simply because of the presence of the flats (i.e. if there were no flats you wouldn't be able to see the damage) but I checked through a whole pack of Atomics and couldn't see anything even slightly resembling similar damage. I've seen enough. The conclusion is that if you're happy to use hooks straight from the packet than these are well worth checking out. Very sharp hooks indeed. If you're completely obsessed with honing your hooks to absolute perfection, like me, these are not the hooks you're looking for.

There'll be other updates before they go anywhere near the pond fella. Just had them sectioned/mounted and hardness tested in my lab. They come out at approximately HV 670 which is very hard, yet not hard enough to be brittle, which is very promising indeed. No signs of decarburisation, they are heat treated very well.

I have indeed. i would put my own up against the ones you pay for any day. I've been doing it a fair while though.....

Try again..... OK, so they arrived. Initial impressions: They are sharper than your average hook, no doubt. But, I can see under X 10 magnification that they're still not sharp enough. Of the 10 chod hooks, I wouldn't cast any out with no sharpening, of the 10 curve shanks 2 look very, very sharp indeed (maybe sharp enough to fish with). They are inconsistent, the shape of the hookpoints and particularly the ground flats differ. 2 of the chod hooks are miss-shaped over the ground flats (but still look pretty sharp). The finish (colour/texture) doesn't look fantastic but that's not a massive concern for me. The end of the wire at the eye of the hook is sealed with epoxy - this looks fantastic, and is very consistent. All hooks are 'sticky' sharp. All pass the nail test. But, I can see they're not quite up to the standard I require. When I get home I'll have a look under X20 magnification and update. They do look like a quick brush of the sharpening stone will get them absolutely perfect.

OK, so they arrived. Initial impressions: They are sharper than your average hook, no doubt. But, I can see under X 10 magnification that they're still not sharp enough. Of the 10 chod hooks, I

If you believe what you read they're using the same sharpening process used for syringes so we should very much expect comparable results. Syringes are manufactured in similar qty's to hooks too (i.e. loads 'n loads) so my initial doubts about process control for mass production could be unfounded. However, syringes are manufactured from stainless steel, not carbon steel, like hooks. I don't really know what impact, if any, this will have (my expertise is in metal forming and finishing, not sharpening). The blurb about the special material is complete rubbish - all they have to do get away with that statement is reduce or increase the specified acceptable level of a single none critical chemical element by 0.001% and they're effectively using a 'special' material where in reality it's completely standard. Never the less, the sharpening process excites me. I'll be going to town on these fella, don't you worry! Likewise - I find hooks that see no action need touching up after 24 hrs submerged so that interests me too.

The order has been shipped so hope to receive them today/tomorrow.

5 years ago I would've wholeheartedly agreed with that fella, but tbh nowadays it does my head in having to sharpen hooks. By the time you've sharpened your 1000th hook it just becomes boring IMO. As you will know, once you've seen just how sharp hooks can be made with a little attention, it becomes impossible to chuck out a hook straight from the packet. I'm praying these Trokar things will spell the end of sharpening for me (although I have to say I suspect I'll be disappointed ).

Jeez, that's some going that is fella. I don't dare hit anything that hard with no leader.

On the first page of that it talks about lifting scales without a leader and the question is asked if anyone ever lifted a scale when surface fishing. Interestingly, yes, I have lifted scales when fishing off the top.... I lifted a couple of scales of a very pretty and very large mirror carp (my surface caught PB in fact). That's never happened to me when fishing on the deck. But that isn't necessarily why I use leaders when fishing on the deck. I always use leaders; to pin down the end tackle and provide solid abrasion resistance for the weedy waters of the Valley. Using heavy fluoro at the mo, just over a meter of it. The Korda No-Trace bead thingys really eliminate any safety issue IMO.

Link to a pdf about these: http://www.reubenheaton.co.uk/info_/Trokar%20carp%20Presentation%20non%20agent%20Public%20only.pdf

For sure. Also, I don't mind spending a little more on things that can actually lead to more fish on the bank (as opposed to things that make people look good on the bank lol). I've been playing around with a new rig recently which needs a curve shank. Still in its infancy at the mo but looking promising. I was using an Atomic Trappa but thought it can't hurt to take a look at these.

Same here Chillfactor!! 6 quid a pack which is pricey... but... if it means they're sharp enough out of the packet vs. spending 5 mins sharpening each hook manually I'd be prepared to pay it. I ordered a pack of each in the curve and chod patterns. Will provided feedback.

I posted this on another forum but they're all too busy chatting about shelters, luggage, blooming bivvy lights/water carriers/tackle trays etc.... stuff that has absolutely zero influence on actually catching carp... yet a hook with a new sharpening process, probably THE most important item regards catching, got no interest whatsoever. So what do you guys think? Eagle Claw Lazer Trokar hooks..... Gimmick or genuine advance in hook technology? Looks good but so can anything with a marketing budget thrown at it Discuss. http://www.reubenheaton.co.uk/lazer-trokar.asp http://www.reubenheaton.co.uk/listprod1-trokar.asp?sect_id=285&title=Single%20Hooks%20-%20Specialist%20Carp The video is well dodgy, proper American.....

Good question. It depends on the lake and it's an educated guess to a certain extent. First thing obviously is chuck a lead out there, see what kind of drop you get and how badly it's plugging. If it's a generally silty lake I might then have a lead about in the margins to compare, I normally find the silt in the edge is a little deeper than in the middle. A landing net handle can help here too. If it's just a silty spot in a relatively none silty lake the drop will normally tell you all you need to know. I used to play about with white string tied up the leader - cast out and the silt discolours the string giving you a good idea of the silt depth - I no longer do that however as it's a bit of a faff and tbh I don't think you need to be that accurate unless you're using stiff rigs (I moved to 15 lb from 25 lb fluoro for this reason). Tbh nowadays I'll normally just have a chuck about with the lead, I've been doing this a while so can get a pretty good idea doing just that. On the odd occasion when you find silt that's literally feet deep, you can limit plugging to say 10 inches or so by feathering the cast.

Silt is a very forgiving substrate IMO. You can chuck almost anything in it if it's set to depth correctly. My favoured presentation is a nice bright 15 mm wafter fished on a clone rig (basically a dead simple D rig in 15 lb fluoro) approximately 8 inches in length, fished heli style with the top bead set to the depth of the silt, or just up from that. The lead plugs and pulls the leader (if you're using one...) down into the silt so the rig lays flat on top against the top bead. The plugged lead gives an awesome bolt effect and the runs you get are usually proper melters. A few 15 mm baits saturated in a glug/water mix (to prevent the on-take of silt) peppered around the area and you're good to go. Really simple, really effective. I actually go with a big lead to plug it into the silt as far as possible.

Home to some of the best syndicates in the country. Again, lots and lots of the highest quality syndis round that way. A couple of hours on google and you'll have a list of syndis as long as my arm from those two areas alone fella. Some really special, historic waters down there.

You got me worried there

Have you really?

Rig Marole for the hook links fella. Not tried their hooks. Korda hooks are, IMO, the least durable hook on the market. You can sharpen them by having a kitten lick them. Far too soft. If you want strong hooks then go with Atomic fella. They're absolutely solid, strongest out there by far IMO. if you can find a comment from anyone, anywhere, saying they've been let down by Atomic hooks, I'll give you a tenner.