yonny

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.

Rig Marole is the most consistent tackle brand I know. Every single thing they release is brilliant. It's normally a little different to the competition too, and different is GOOOOOD.

The advice above is spot on but there will be a limit to the quality of your shots. Basically when it comes to photography the more you spend the better the shots you will get. If you look around you can pick up an older Canon G series compact for relatively cheap, these will give you much better shots. My advice would be to buy an intervalometer as well - this is basically an add-on self-timer that provides an external actuation of the shutter meaning the camera can auto-focus between shots (absolutely critical to decent self takes). You can get very good pics on a budget if you know what to look for.

I like the look of all 3 patterns in the range tbh. Let me know how you get on longer term plz fella, it'll take something special to get me off the Atomic hooks but I'm genuinely interested in the results of that new tempering process used to treat these.

What you initial thoughts on these hutch? I quite like the look of them. Don't suppose you sharpen them do you? If so, how long does it take you? I prefer a hook that takes ages to sharpen as they're always far more durable and hence reliable than those that sharpen quickly.

Clone rig and HSR - because they can be modified to fish effectively over pretty much any substrate. Rig Marole CAMH2O - because the different breaking strains can be used to construct the above rigs perfectly. Atomic Chodda/Sabre - because they're the best (read: most reliable) hooks in the world IMO. My +1 hooklink would be ESP Tungsten Loaded coated braid, simply because it's the best coated braid I've come across and it's always handy to have some in the box.

It's a small triangular shaped lake, just over an acre, with 6 swims, according to an article I found on Google. I believe it can be booked so it might be ideal for the holiday type trip you're after.

It's a little pond stuffed with huge foreign imports. It has at least 2 x 50 lb commons, one of which has done well over 60. Very, very pressured water so not easy. Very busy. Not my bag at all but if you just want to catch massive fish it's worth a look.

Spot on. Breaking strain is meaningless. It's a number made up by the manufacturer. The key is diameter and stretch. - Diameter will tell you all you need to know about linear strength and, to an extent, knot strength. - Stretch characteristics tell you about abrasion resistance - pre-stretched = poor, low stretch (semi pre-stretched) = OK, no pre-stretching = good.

That's a good answer fella. Fair point. Yes, I would say pads are a snag. No, I would not call weed snags. The reed bed is the one that gets me - snags or not? Who knows, but I do know I'd want to be fishing a snag type heavy duty line if I was fishing sparse reeds that the fish could get into.

Spot on fella. That's why I posted ref your recommendation. Not sure I agree with that bud. A snag is a snag - i.e. something that your tackle can become snagged on.

It is indeed fella. I've used the 15 lb in the weedy waters of the Nene Valley. The knot and linear strength are great but the abrasion resistance (while being good for a standard duty line) aint enough - it comes back frayed if you get a carp stuck in the weed for a prolonged period (which is pretty much unavoidable on some of the waters I fish). I moved over to the 18 lb and saw the same thing but the increased diameter gave me a little extra confidence. Moved over to the Gradner Pro - same thing, very similar line. also very good. Now use heavy duty line (Rig Marole SLS Specimon Tough). The abrasion resistance is like nothing I've ever used. Hard as nails. Completely agree fella. BUT... they're carp, and sooner or later one will find the snags. Therefore IMO it's not good practice to fish in a sang situation with a line that's not up to the job of extracting them safely.

Syncro is a fantastic line but IMO not the one for snags. It's an all-rounder, casts OK, sinks OK, reasonable strength..... it'll deal with weedy waters (although I'd use the 18 lb for 'proper' weed), for snaggy waters though I'd use a purpose made heavy duty line. The syncro has good abrasion resistance, but not good enough for snags, certainly not in 15 lb, IMO of course....

That happened to me too fella. Nightmare. Don't get the Carp Porter puncture proof wheel though.... it's utter, utter pants. No tread so it slides all over the pace when it's muddy! Costs a fortune too. One of the worst buys I've ever made (shame as my Carp Porter was one of the best!). You're better off just getting a half decent wheelbarrow replacement wheel from the garden center for a tenner.

I've used all sorts of set ups over the years. There's nowt wrong with using 60 or 80 lb braid straight through. People tend not to because they believe it'll affect their casting which, unless they're looking to cast 200 yards, it will not. I went back to mono recently (10 lb mono with a 15-30 lb tapered shock leader). So much easier to work with - no wind knots, don't have to wet it constantly, easier to work with in general IMO.

I just use the small one. IMO the best characteristic of the Ridgmonkey is the space/weight saving over conventional cooking gear. I was able to ditch a frying pan and a saucepan and replace with something smaller and lighter.

Tbh in 15 lb @ 0.38 dia. the Chameleon aint a bad line bud. You'll get away with the 12 if you don't have too much weed in the picture. Unless you've had issues or face an angling situation that requires a change you may as well stick with it. It's a decent reliable line.

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. What are you using for piking? It's likely as good an all rounder as the carp lines (but the carp lines will be twice the price....). You could do worse than follow Dovii's advice, that being to use the toughest line you can get away with for your angling situation.

You could use it for whatever you want fella, just make sure you've tested it and tested it again before you leave it out all night. I'm sure you'll see what I mean.

I was just using it for old school straight-up knotless knotted hair rigs fella. It twist and coils so much you wouldn't want to use it for anything other than the simplest of rigs. Even then I just couldn't count on it.