emmcee

I see maggots have been mentioned, I've found they can be devastating at this time of year. My personal preference is for reds. I take a gallon of them and have caught some right whackers on them at this time of year. They can certainly buy you a bite if things slow up.

I'd say it depends on the venue you chose to fish during winter and weather conditions that you are fishing in. High stocked venue then I'd fish lead clips to semi tight lines and fish for liners if I can't find them. 12mm - 16mm baits and I wouldn't be afraid to give them some bait. On my syndicate water I used to go the opposite regarding bait size, 18mm - 24mm baits. The bigger baits for pre-baiting to hopefully stop the tufties scoffing them. I would have also been baiting a swim or 2 for a good few months by now with particle and boilie. Plumbing the spots every now and then will tell you if the fish are visiting the spot.

Love him or loathe him take a look at how Shelley does his chod set up. It's how I've always tied mine and set mine up and never had a problem with this way and never dropped the lead. The lead staying on is what enables the hook link to come off the leadcore/leader. If the lead is dropped then its harder for the leader to snag up and therefore the hooklink can't pull off.

Firstly I'd lead about the area where you pulled the bloodworm in from and hope to find "a spot" or better still "the spot". And also lead about other swims/areas you might intend on fishing into late autumn/ winter. Failing that I'd happily put a chod anywhere. I know the way I set it up is safe so have no issues casting it anywhere.

That's the gear, ive snapped bait drills on hookbaits glugged in this stuff.

Where do you live?

Depends if you are someone who hits the clip hard, if you are then you could snap your line or the clip. If not then the emblem spod reel is what I go for. Brilliant reels in my opinion

Personally I'd change over from an inline lead setup to a helicopter set up. You can then set the top bead to the depth you feel is adequate. A critically balanced hookbait or pop up for the rig.

You don't fish weedy waters then I'm guessing?

Exactly mate. I've had that argument before. Though it didnt work when I said Brazil's weren't nuts 🤣🤣. Still there is always a way around things😉

Way over thinking this in my opinion. If as you say in a later post the lead leaves a crater in the silt then being inquisitive creatures the Carp would be more than likely to investigate it than be wary of it. Chod rig all the way for me on that kind of lake. 4 or 5 oz lead so it plugs in the silt deep to set the hook firm. I used to fish a lake that, at one end where the gravel workings used to be the sandy/silt (more like sludge) was upto 3feet deep in places (I know this as I was stuck in it once in my chest waders, quite frightening if I'm honest). Plenty of anglers fished the area for little reward. You would see the big plumes of coloured water when the fish were there. My first time in there and I used Chod rigs on 6foot of lead core, 4oz leads on and caught half a dozen. 4oz lead in silt becomes a pound of lead or more, sets the hook, job done.

Do the fish have hard or soft mouths? If you get burred over hook points I'd say hard mouths, maybe they've toughened up due to feeding over gravel. What hook size are you using? I fished a lake many years ago, suffered hook pulls, burred points. Switched from my size 4 straight point hooks to beaked point hooks. After trials I ended up with size 10 beak points and if I recall only had 2 more hook pulls from over 100 fish.

Sounds like you've got them rocking with 3 fish last night. I wouldn't be slowing it down. If you can't fish then fair enough but try and keep the bait going in. It's only going to get better at this time of year.

Good angling mate and cracking fish. 👍

Were you a "nun on the run"?

I'm guessing the carp don't see that much pressure so a standard hair rig will do just fine I imagine.

What kind of venues are you targeting? Lakes , rivers? As an all round line you probably can't beat daiwa sensor line. High abrasion, high knot strength and cheap. Once again you should easily be able to obtain it in China. On the other hand there will be numerous makers of braided mainline over there. Hooks is a personal thing. I mainly use korda hooks but also have some hooks made for sea fishing called chinu, these are ultra sharp and very strong for the thin gauge. Once again, all should be easily obtainable over there.

Surely you can get hold of daiwa rods/reels or shimano rods/reels over there. You probably won't find better reels than these. Rods on the other hand, century or Harrison are in my opinion the best rod builders.

Yes it is👍

As for tigers, look up "whitetigerfishing". Not the cheapest but by far the best tigers you will ever use. 😉

Loads of anglers doing well on it. Nigel will do well on any bait in all fairness.

I know a few people on this, they rate it very highly. In fact one of my older fishing mates has always made his own bait. He got to know the fella at Blake's and last year took some as an alternative bait to france. He was top rod for the week, all on Blake's and not a single one on his bait. He's always slated readymade bait but he now uses Blake's. That for me is high praise from this fella. If for whatever reason I stopped using prem it would be who I'd use.

I've simply screwed some screws into a 4oz lead before. That worked just fine as well. 50lb braid straight through and you're in business

Or I use a cable tie to stop the wires tripping out. They do the job perfectly, and without added carp tax.

I have 4 or 5 turns on the reel no more for my leader..