emmcee

used to always use kryston hooklinks until i had hooklink snapping on mantis. since then been on jel-e-wyre or n-trap and cant fault neither

id have to go with a pop up on a sliding rig ring. the reason being if ronnie and reggie start messing with it there is a very good possibility that it will reset itself once they have finished messing with it. combine it with a bit of plastic and a hair stop that you pull into the bait and you could be on a winner. if there are that many crays in theit then a mass particle approach would also be my main approach.

for me, if you know the silt is 8-12 inches deep then id use a 14inch hooklink with a critically balanced bait. job done

pm on its way mr newmarket

if you want to wind lewis up just call him "lewis lane the black swan blanker"

surely its no different to the glow in the dark corn you can get, never used it myself but a mate has caught carp on it. oh and a few pike as well

well im a user of the 360 rig and have never seen any mouth damage on the fish ive caught with it, no matter what size the fish are. infact id say 90% of my captures have been over an inch back in the mouth and dead centre, nailed. and i use the long shank nailers. i will admit i have used rigs that have caused mouth damage but its only been the once as i dont use them again.

welcome to the forum mate. just a little pointer,you would of got more answers had you put this in the "uk rig tying" thread. and yes mini rig ring is ok

me too, i knotless knot a length of kryston samson hair braid on then just knotless knot the IQ over the top. personally use it in 20lb breaking strain.

ive already suggested that but was quite quickly shot down by the original poster . he will probably tell us that hooks are no good next . that said he comes across as quite confident so im wondering why he asked the question in the first place . probably trying to get a bite on here cos he dont get any down his lake

firstly, buying "gimmicky rubbish" as you put it might just buy you a bite when all else fail . how maby fish get caught each year on plastic? shed loads . as for your combi hair why dont you just take a coated braid and strip the part on the hair you want to be supple. . hey presto combi hair

if you want to avoid hair tangle just wrap the hair to the hook shank with p.v.a tape, simples

i use the iq2 but the breaking strain you use should be determined by the lake and its features not so much size of fish in my opinion. if your lake has any serious weed beds, snags, gravel bars then id go 15-20lb breaking strain. if none of the above the 12lb will be spot on.

also people can wear too much clothing in their sleeping bags. the bags rely on your body heat to warm them up but if you get in the bag with plenty of layers on then your body is warming the layers of clothing and not the bag. all i wear is a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a tshirtno matter how cold it is. also wear a wooly hat in bed, makes a massive differnce as well

i use the snugpak range of sleeping bags as do a few of my mates. for winter i use the antartica sleeping bag which is rated down to minus 50 . you will not be cold in that one . one of my mates has got whats called the special forces combo which is two bags combined to make a winter bag. take them apart and you have a spring/autumn bag and a summer bag. he never gets cold either. but also enough of my mates also use the mainstream tackle companies bags with no complaints. youve got plenty of choice. one thing that i was told was that to always fluff your bag up before getting in it. this helps it trap air between the fibres in your bag which stops the bag getting cold. and for someone like me who keeps the sleeping bag inside my bedchair its made a massive difference

hi everyone, im off to bluewater lakes next month and just wondered if anyone from here has been as its my first time there. if so, any tips regarding how much bait to take etc

sorry but your point about not getting the same deal on a bulk buying bait manufacturers is a little off the mark im afraid . ive managed to source where a fair number of bait firms get their milk proteins and i can get a 20kg sack of casein for just over £200 and that includes postage. i think it works out about £8-70/kg, now when the bait firms are charging about £15-00/kg thats a very good deal. the more sacks you buy obviously the less it is. i had a price list sent through from them and if you buy a pallet of sacks then it works out to be £8-35/kg, no doubt this is how most bait manufacturers buy there ingredients. it took me a fair few hours of searching on the net and a few phone calls but all worth while in the end. well if you make alot of homemade bait that is. and at that price you can up the milk protein content of your bait and it wont break the bank Yes and No If you buy a sack of bait ingredients from a bait company don't forget that they won't sell it to you for the same price that they are able to get it for, so the price may be elevated, or not as cheap as you could possibly get it from the original supplier. Yet because the bait company is probably buying more than you can from the original supplier they are likely to get a better discount or rebate from them. In fact there is a very good example of this in that many of the Birdfoods that you can buy from Sainsburys are originally from John E Haiths. If you buy from Sainsbury's the price is definitely higher than you would be able to get it for from Haiths, yet if you bought it from Haiths you would not be paying the same as what Sainsbury's do. I would far rather buy any ingredient with a very low price, or at a discount, yet I can't justify in many cases buying a pallet of milk protein as it simply wouldn't keep, I don't have the storage space or cold store facilities. That pallet would likely take me a lifetime to use, and would likely have gone rancid by the time I could eventually use it all up. dont get me wrong nick,i dont buy pallets of milk proteins but £200 for a sack is too good to miss out on. they have a shelf life of around 18months if stored correctly. that said i use a sack of casein in a season, infact alot of the ingredients out there have good shelf lives though once mixed to form the base mix then the shelf life is alot less

sorry but your point about not getting the same deal on a bulk buying bait manufacturers is a little off the mark im afraid . ive managed to source where a fair number of bait firms get their milk proteins and i can get a 20kg sack of casein for just over £200 and that includes postage. i think it works out about £8-70/kg, now when the bait firms are charging about £15-00/kg thats a very good deal. the more sacks you buy obviously the less it is. i had a price list sent through from them and if you buy a pallet of sacks then it works out to be £8-35/kg, no doubt this is how most bait manufacturers buy there ingredients. it took me a fair few hours of searching on the net and a few phone calls but all worth while in the end. well if you make alot of homemade bait that is. and at that price you can up the milk protein content of your bait and it wont break the bank

£16 for 500ml of minamino . i got 5ltrs for £70 back in the spring. and before you ask it is the pukka gear straight from the manufacturer .

agreed this is a good read. i brought this book as i was fishing rodney meadow at the time and he has a chapter dedicated to there. though reading through the book i came across a couple of gems which i use in my angling nowadays. some good bait advice in there

your right you cant beat a good book about carp fishing. not wanting to be controversial though, but sadly alot of what we read is not always exactly how it happened. ive read a fair number of books and have had the pleasure to fish along side a number of the authors and their friends and its quite eye opening as to the real happenings around some of the captures of certain fish. i wish they would just write it as it happened. if the angler was drunk,stoned, "guesting", breaking every rule going when they had a certain capture then why dont we hear about it . thats why the best book ive read is micky gray's book " a merry olde dance". what you read is exactly what happened, its warts and all, excellent book.

it may be down to the fact that carp can feed differently from water to water. for instance i have a group permit for a some lakes local to me. the fish are of the same strain the 2 lakes that i fish are no more than 50metres apart. ive been on 1 of the lakes for a few seasons so last year tried the other lake. went on there with the rig thats done me really well on the other lake which was 10 inch of jelly wire,inch stripped back tied to a fox arma point Ls size 6. now the first few fish i caught the hook fell out whilst in the net and then i had a hook pull. i then changed to a korda wide gape size 6 and then never had another hook pull. now this weekend i went back to the old lake for a change and had 3 takes. the first 2 on wide gapes which done me well last year on the 2nd lake were only just hooked so decided to use the fox Ls rig that i used to use on this lake and the 3rd caught on this rig was nailed .

Or simply tied on a weak link at the bottom end, also stops the lead getting too close to the fish during battle. yes mate will do the job as well

My bottom bead is 12inchs from the lead and i find it to be spot on. Also the new gardener c shaped clips will sort the lead getting stuck. They come in 2 ir 3 sizes depending on how heavy your lead is. They are plastic so if the lead gets jammed they break and leave the lead so you can carry on playing the fish

never had a pick up either though lol