emmcee

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.

there's no right or wrong mate, you take what you can afford and what you feel is enough. im sure your have a good week still though it could be so hot in june . it could go 2 ways and that is its either too hot and the fish arent on the feed so much and 15kg is plenty or they would have spawned not long before you go and could well be up for a right munch and 15kg is not enough

the thing with fishing in france is that the owner/resident bailiff (if the lake has them) will tell you who caught what, who fished where, how much bait they used etc so youve already got part of the picture in your head regarding what your fishing over bait wise etc. the owner/bailiff will help you as much as they can as they want you to catch fish, book up again next year and tell all your mates. the chances of that happening over here are pretty rare id imagine. but for me the fact that most french lakes have lots of big fish and they can eat tonnes of bait is why id take 40-50kg of boilies. my mates have fished on rainbow when the belgium angler alijn d'janau or whatever his name is was on there lol and got chatting with him and he said the biggest mistake alot of the english anglers make is their lack of bait. he said to them " you all bring 20-30kg of 18mm-20mm bolilies,, you all do the same, you need more", ok he is sponsored but he had 100kg of 10mm and my mates said he smashed it for the week they were there. and lets face it, a trip to france is not cheap and i want to make the most of it and not run out of bait half way through especially if the fish are having it big time. most lakes out there have freezers out there to keep bait frozen so what you dont use bring home and put it back in your own freezer( if you have one that is)

i know what you mean by hows it different . my mates go to france alot but if you ask them what their pb is then they only mention their english caught pb . and yet a couple of them have had 70lb plus carp from france and when i mention it to them they just say they dont count there french fish, its just a holiday. i went to france for the first time last year and caught what i class as my pb for the simple reason it is my personnal best, french or not i caught it. you dont hear jessica ennis not counting a pb performance because it wasnt in england do you

very good tip. my mates do well glugging all there baits in salmon oil. used to be the done thing back in day over here and it certainly works for them in france

I cant speak from experience because i've never been but i think the lads might be saying that if cell is what they see all the time it might also be the bait they are suspicious of . As a side note , do people REALLY pile in 30+k of boilies a week over there ? Why is it neccessary ? You wouldnt dream of it in this country so why ? i went on my first trip to france last year and the lake i fished had something like 50x40lbers and when you get a few of them on your bait 5kg is gone in minutes. the bailiff told us that if the fish got on the feed proper then the 6 of us who went didnt have enough bait between us for 1 day let alone the week . and we all had 30kg plus each. i infact took 50kg just incase, i brought 20kg home but if they had been having it then it would of gone in

my mates do quite alot of fishing in france and they do very well on small baits, 10mm,12mm and 14mm size baits. their thinking is that most anglers they meet have 18mm,20mm size baits so being slightly different might just give you an edge

its upto you but i know my mates have been out there with a bait from premier baits which has done some very big catches out of dreamlakes. they have it semi preserved( something premier do for european trips or if you have little storage space, think it gives your bait a 3 month shelf life). will be cheaper than mainline i would think. give premier a call and im sure they will help you out if you decide to go that way. good luck

wpuld that be farnham angling society, nick?. some of their lakes are a circus but there all also some that are left pretty quiet

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

not sure the above lake comes in as "quite local" to calais if its 6hrs drive

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