emmcee

up the size of your hooks. 90% of my fishing is done with size 4's. nice bit of metal, it goes in and stays in. no tares

good question mr newmarket. what i do is set a target for myself and once its achieved i set another. in my fishing in england im on a few syndicates that hold some big fish. so when i hopefully bank one im straight onto the next biggun in that lake. ive been on one of my syndicates on and off for 10yrs now and there are 2 main targets left me but they are not the be all and aend all. its all about enjoying myself at the end of the day. as for fishing in france its the same. ive caught that 56lb mirror and next id like a 60lb carp. obviously you need that size of fish in the lake to achieve that target. bluewater lakes holds around 8x60's, 20 or more 50's and as for 40's and 30's even the owner dont know as there are that many so my targets are achievable in time but most importantly i dont put pressure on myself to achieve them, if they are achieved then all is good but if not i wont have sleepless nights. up until the last 4 or 5 yrs fishing was the most important thing in the world to me, but in the last 4 or 5 yrs i feel ive relaxed more and now mix fishing with a weekend out with mates or family etc and ive got a good blend which i feel makes me angle better.

thanks john, i daren't show my full album, you might want to hang me lol

no hard feelings johnplumb .

yeah mate, it took me a couple of goes but sussed it now. i think and thanks for your comments

also had this 43lb mirror. they were part of a 9 fish catch.

went to Bluewater Lakes last week and caught a new pb for myself in the shape of this 56lb mirror. the kronenbourg flowed afterwards

well sorry to get back on to korda, but ive just got back from a week in france with five mates. three of us took the new krank hooks with us and we had 25 takes on this particular rig/hook pattern with only one loss, which was my fault entirely ( the lure of another kronenburg took me from my rods and whilst away i had a take and was duly left with my rig in a reed bed) . all in all i feel its a very good hook. it landed fish to 63lb for one of my mates. so big, powerful fish in weed and no actuall hook pulls during fights or no bent out hooks. well pleased with them.

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