muscle20

would avoid the smartcast as although I have one and they are pretty good you cant get the uk (yellow) sonars anymore . the batteries are sealed in and don't last long and cant be changed without a lot of hassle. don't think the green ones are legal in the uk

most policies are about 6k and with a mid range setup built up over some years you can easily pass this figure as i found out remembering you are working it out at manufacturers rrp not what you paid or can get it for. this figure though is more than adequate to get a full kit replacement and bearing in mind the % chance of it happening and getting a total loss (you probably never have it all in the same place at one time) may not make the extra premium worthwhile. good to make a point of actually not storing it all in the same shed or garage etc but spread it around.

your policy will have a limit on it. once you reach this limit there is no point in worrying about the small stuff, unless you are going to ask for increased cover and pay the premium to suit,

I did a substantial claim last year to my policy limit. It didn't cover it all because they base it on a new for old. They wanted me to list all I had and what I had paid for it. Quite a bit had been bought secondhand but it didn't matter. It is all usually dealt with by one of the big tackle sheds such as angling direct. They add all the replacement new costs up to get a total figure and then present this to the insurance company. Once agreed you then get that total to spend on whatever you like via the tackle shed. You will have to pay full rrp not there advertised price.. I would though just do a few pictures of main pricey items.

use your hook sharpening kit

Moose man. Yes that situation does occur. I was fishing at 40 yds. Only last week I just happened to look at my rods and saw the line going in and out on a slack chody set up. No alarm noise or indicator movement. As I got to the rods it then developed into a full blown runner. Fish on. This was down to the slack line in my opinion. Don't know if this would of shown on vibration alarms or not ?

mooseman . can you explain a bit more what you mean by set up for the situation. the 2 mag rollers show a bite with 10mm of movement so would expect the 4 mags to show 5mm and then I think they do a 6 or 8 mag roller. how often does anyone strike on a single bleep ?

If you go on facebook have a look at dalelectronics. He was the att electronics guy. He can mod your delks to run off an att receiver..does all alarm repairs and mods also. Genius. Also I have both under lit and standard atts. Very reliable and fantastic battery life. Must say I prefer the map receiver though with the manual volume control.

have a look at the Gardner "continental" hook range . made from a thicker wire section than there normal hooks which are strong anyway.

have to agree mick. i tend to use the avid chod bead and this always slides down on fish capture but never had any problems on the cast. usually run on a nash lead free leader.

fix the spomb to the main line using a heavy pole elastic. acts as a brilliant shock absorber. ive also switched to using mono on my spod reel around 12lb bs.

thanks. done a bit of editing to original post. watchd the link you put on and he does it different. havnt worked out yet if its the same. it also looks the same as what "dan" calls the whipping knot , but the way he holds it it looks far easier and ill try it next.

was wanting to try some stiff link rigs instead of chods so got on the old youtube . found mr hearns on there and liked his use of the snaell knot on the hook end.dont know if it was because i was only using size 10 choddy hooks (as opposed to his 4s) but it was not easy.any one else use this knot rather than the knotless ? was using ultima 22lb powerstiff but it was very easy to mark it when pulling up knots etc. what do you use for your stiff/choddy hool link.

finally caught some fish on the 12lb pro-carp. nothing massive but fish to mid doubles. not had a chance to do any real casting with it yet and did have a slight issue with line twist after the first mid double ghostie took me on a right old run round. this then gave me a chance to stick on and try the gardner line twist remover. worked ok considering i didnt have a lot of water to cast round. going to use it again this weekend and straighten the line right out properly.(looks/sounds gimicky, but works). back to the pro-carp. one down side . lol managed to overcast onto the island foliage and get me hook stuck. shish! it took some right old pulling to get something to give way.bam lead hurtles towards me at 100mph. 15lb braid hook length had given out not the pro-carp. the bs must be well over 12. will comment again after a 48hr session this weekend

just got me hands on a spool of pro-carp 12lb. will spool up this week ready for a 3 day session this weekend at yateley. will post thought next week.

as im still fairly new to all the various rigs etc, i started to tie my own from the start.i have always just used the same hooklink as my main(10 or 12 lb) but sometimes in brown and some in clear and have not had too much trouble with the hair being too stiff i think. what would the signs of the hair being too stiff be and would this be less so on short hairs.

the silicon/sleeve over the quicklink also helps it not get tangled in your landing net

i was about to post a similar question .in my first year back to fishing and looking to learn about carping ive been fishing a runs water and trying out many techniques.the carp go to about 16lb max.no weed or snags to worry about and on this club water there is no boiles allowed. i tend to use a size 10 drenam carp hook on the hair and this works quite well, but do lose some fish after a good take and 10-15 seconds of having the fish on.ive experimented with different lengths of hair and longer and shorter hook lengths but cant pin it down. is it the hook size ? or maybe the hooks are not upto it and i need a sharper/better type of hook. any thoughts.