crusian

Mid November 2018 I was Lake, Dog, Cat and house sitting at Rushes Lake, Vire en Champagne, Sarthe. There are boar and deer in the immediately adjacent woods. Before the owner departed he asked me to be sure that the dog was indoors at all times on the Sunday. When I asked why the reply was "Because the locals hunt the in the woods most Sundays and they shoot at everything that moves and this includes each other ".
I was sorely disappointed when they didn't show up. 
Ian.

It is not that dangerous. The hunters are required by law to wear orange caps and jackets (to prevent them shooting each other). Also they are required to put up signs on the nearest public roads. I have been put in much more serious danger by cyclists.

First part of my review.......... the cardboard box it arrived in is lovely....😁
I too find spreading the brolly open "with ease" difficult. I guess there is a knack to it, but thus far I haven't figured out what it is lol! 
And I'd love a £ for every time I've pinched my the palm of my hand pushing the front rib in. Ouchie!
 

Fished the comp , guessing near 75 fishing , only 8 weighed in a single Flounder each .
Yessss I managed a Flounder , but …………..alas it was 2cm undersize 😭😭

Turns out you were nearer the mark than you think Crusian. The lake is in thick woods on the side of a long valley. In the bottom of the valley is a narrow strip of pasture land. The other side of that is a track and open unfenced woodland. The French hunters spread out in a line along the track while their dogs flush out game from the woods behind onto the open pasture land where they can be shot. I am not talking shotguns for pheasants etc. They are using proper rifles for wild boar and deer. I can't call out and let them know I am directly behind their target because I am not supposed to be there.
 

The one man compact version is 30kg with all the extras. Absolutely ridiculous😂

Sadly not...🤣🤣🤣

It's absolutely brilliant👍

I use Hydro Tuff , Cpt. , and so far I am happy with it .
Have you decided to use HT after finding your answer ? .
😄

Well I did pull the trigger, and the new one arrives on Monday.
Already have the skull cap (from the V2) which fits, just undecided whether to go for the optional mozzie mesh or the full infill panel. I'll make that decision nearer holiday time. 
Mozzie mesh is £49.99, the infill panel is £30.00 more.
I have sold both my V2 and my Quest bivvy as the 100T is basically going to become my "Jack of all trades". With the prices I got for them, it's only cost me about £40.00 for the "upgrade"
I'll have no qualms about using it for a week down in France..... as I mentioned above, I have been more than happy with the internal dimensions of my V2, and feel confident that I'll be able to fit a weeks gear into it. I do tend to fish light.
The increased headroom will be welcome, as will the rear vents.
Haven't been out much lately what with work and the weather, but looking forward to giving this a proper test before too long.
I found this German video on YouTube which is much more informative than the UK one posted by Trakker. If you can understand the lingo, great. If you can't, just watch with the volume off.
It's very informative......

 

Well tomorrow im fishing an open comp , a Sea fishing comp , wish me luck 🤞

I'll get the sticks out if there's anything really interesting... or leave a marker out before we fill it up . Will be pretty uniformed tbh though.  Makes netting a lot easier in the future. 

One of my club lakes has a pole to show you where the shopping trolleys are 😂

You need one of those bin lids in there  to be able to present your 3 rods on 😁

So I guess you will otter fence your project , and take detailed 'photos of the lakebed before it fills up with water ? .
Sounds very exciting .
😁

Thanks very much , Yonny .
😃

I'd add that I spent around 10 years doing my own so I know a thing or 2 about sharpening. I'd put my own up against any of the commercial options but we don't all have the time (or can be bothered) to do it ourselves. For those that want to give it a go, there are a number of methods but the one in the vid below is imo the best one. Over time you'll develop your own technique as you perfect your work but if you're just starting out this should be your starting point:
 

I posted this on another forum last year but for those that haven't see it there's some good info here:
So………

WHY?

Why bother with hand sharpened hooks? As we all know, an unsharpened hook will catch fish, and plenty of them. The long and short of it is that, in a general angling situation, sharper hooks will penetrate easier. They WILL lead to a higher pick-up/hooked ratio. It’s a simple fact. Sharper hooks are more effective than blunter hooks. Doh.

Obviously doing them yourself is the cheapest way in the long term. And once you’ve cracked it, it’s the most effective way too. But after ~ 10 years of sharpening I decided I am prepared to pay a few quid extra to have them done for me.

WHY NOT?

There are certain situations where you might NOT want to use sharpened hooks:

1 – Price. Sharpened hooks are expensive. And the cost of your time to sharpen them yourself should not be undervalued. Nine times out of 10 they are a one-fish hook so you need to think about whether to spend that kind of money on your given venue. No point in spending the extra on a highly stocked runs water in which they will be competing for your rig. A ‘normal’ hook will be fine.

2 – Gravel. It’s easy for hooks to get dinged on gravel and this can blunt the fragile points of sharpened hooks. I can honestly say I’ve never had any problems with this, ever, but loads of guys have, so we have to accept there is a risk.

3 – Certain fish. Some old fish that have been caught a few times may have harder or more boney mouths. Similarly, carp that have been feeding in gravel pits for multiple decades may have the same. In the pursuit of such fish it might pay to use none sharpened hooks as the points are more resilient.

4 – Low PH waters. The lower the PH, the faster a sharpened hook point will corrode. This isn’t a problem for a none-sharpened hook as any plating or finishing protects the point, but that finishing is removed during sharpening. There are options to help here which I’ll come to shortly, but on some waters with exceptionally low PH you really don’t stand a chance. It is worth noting that on some waters PH can change for a period, I assume due to dying plant matter, which can lead to worse corrosion of hooks temporarily. No doubt one of the buffs from the bait section could help with how/why PH can change on a water.

5 – Long stay angling. If you expect to leave your sharpened hook out for days on end, it will corrode no matter what the PH, and no matter what you do to protect the point.
6 - Crays. It goes without saying they can dull your hook point if they're playing with your rigs.

CORROSION

So assuming you decide you want to use a sharpened hook the next thing to consider is the corrosion issue. You might see quotes from certain parties suggesting that rust will normally start to form at the transition from none sharpened to sharpened areas of the hook. That might be true but areas of high stress are in general susceptible to corrosion, and given that the entire sharpened surface area of the point is stressed during sharpening I’ve always found that the whole of the point shortly follows. This rust will not affect hook strength, it’s only surface rust, but it can and will literally corrode the point away at its very tip. An unprotected hook can lose its effectiveness in just hours in my experience.

So how can we protect sharpened hooks?

1 – Marker Pens. Rubbish, but will protect for a few hours.

2 – JAG Pens. Slightly less rubbish. Should last a night.

3 – Silicone/Petroleum Jelly (Mucilin, Vaseline, Lypsyl etc) – similar to the JAG pens, just short of rubbish.

4 – Beeswax. Decent, but sticky, which will not aid hook penetration. Easily a good 24 h+ protection, probs more.

5 – Candle wax. Very decent. A few strokes followed by the lick of a lighter. 24 hrs+ easy, probs more.

6 – Specialist Sharpened Hooks Anti Rust Compound. Excellent. The best I’ve used. Again - a few strokes followed by the lick of a lighter. 48 hrs protection.

7 – Crayons. Never used them but the SSH compound is very, very similar so I assume they’ll work well.

8 – The oil from the side of your nose (lol). Shelley popped this one up on YouTube a while back. I’m not sure if it was a wind-up or what, but I have actually seen others quoting this as a useful method. It is not. Don’t bother.

All these treatments leave a sacrificial coating that will have less of an influence on sharpness than a plating or coating has on a standard hook. The level at which they compromise sharpness is negligible.

*Note – when using wax, hold the hook so any run-off during licking of the lighter will run away from the hook point, towards the barb.

STRENGTH

Long story short, as long as the wire isn’t sharpened past the bend there will be no issue with hook strength. A hook acts like a spring with forces distributed through the hook. If it’s going to bend and/or snap, it’ll be on or next to the bend.
THE FUNKY BIT

So now we get to the funky bit. The photos. My microscope is capable of X 45 but I’ve not gone that close. The form of any processed metal products gets worse the closer you look at them. I’m not trying to show how good or bad these hooks are, rather I want to show a comparison between them.
From the top:

Un-Sharpened.
This the control shot if you like. A standard mass produced chemically sharpened hook. I’ll compare the hand sharpened products against this. FYI it’s an Incizor.


Specialist Sharpened Hooks.

These are the Ferrari of the sharpened hook world. Top of the tree. The real deal. I cannot emphasise enough how good these are. I am yet to find one that isn’t sharpened very well indeed. They’re done by the guy that started it all. Jason Hayward. They are not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Not over-sharpened, just very sharp points. The best, by a significant margin. FYI - this is a Mugga.


Score: 5/5

J Precision.

If you’re after value then these are the ones. They’re relatively cheap and they’re sharpened to a decent standard. Some need touching up to be really, really sharp but they’re pretty good (certainly useable) out of the pack. There are minor inconsistency issues. Some are slightly overdone (imo). Be warned – most packs have one or two points that have completely gone over so you have to check them carefully. I assume this happens in transit tbf. Note the tip on the sample shot is very slightly turned up – I see this on most of them which tells us something about the method used to sharpen them, I’m just not sure what that is lol.


Score: 4/5

Korda Kamakuras.

These are the odd ones out because they’re actually sharpened by a machine, not by hand. This means they’re incredibly consistent. They’re only sharpened on one plane, opposite the barb. This means they’re very sharp when viewed from the side. However, when viewed from above, they’re not – but don’t let this put you off too much. The machine basically gives them a super-sharp spade point which is no doubt effective, but the form means they’re the most fragile of the lot. Korda quote this sharpening process as a genuine step forward in hook technology. They are right. To summarise, sharp and consistent, but fragile.
From the side they are lethal:

From the top they are not – but don’t let this put you off:


Score 4/5

IB Hooks.

These tend to be over-sharpened imo. They are cheap compared to others and some are very sharp, but the points are very short due to too much material removal. There are some issues with consistency but some are useable. Many are not imo.


Score 2/5.

Rig It Tackle.

For 8-9 quid a pack you expect real quality and the packs I bought lacked that quality. In both packs I bought I checked the first 4 hooks before giving up. There is plenty of material removed but the points are not great. They come with tip beads to protect the points and they are treated against corrosion (with what looks like either marker or JAG pens), but that doesn’t change the fact the points are not good.


Score 2/5.

 

Your alarms are so loud you wake up but are blinded by the bivvy light , you knock your bivvy table over and can't hit the run as you can no longer find your branded carpy hat and there is NO way your going to be seen playing a fish without looking proper carpy .

As an extreme example , if you sat up all night in a Deck Chair and had a bite wouldn't you be painfully slow to react because you were so stiff and aching ; a comfortable bedchair would hopefully have you ready to spring into action !  ? .
😁 

Yes mate, I imagine I'd only use it for a quick depth check for zigs on an overnighter but on a week session well worth having a proper go.
My mate borrowed one for a foreign trip and found a little hump off to the right where you wouldn't have naturally chosen in the swim, it turned the week around massively.
Generally I prefer to lead about with small leads to minimise disturbance, I always feel like I am decimating the swim with the marker, so I like the idea of the deeper overall.

The marketeer who coined the phrase "fish finder" must be laughing all the way to the bank. A Deeper cannot differentiate a fish from a kitchen sink. OK there aren't too many kitchen sinks in a lake but there are plenty of gas bubbles, loose bits of weed or general detritus floating around all of which give a reflection to the pulse generated by the transducer.
If you could be sure it was a fish, it would only tell you where it had been and not where it would be when you are fishing. You would not be able to tell if it was a carp or a bream.
Carp are sensitive to vibration so you may have already scared them off. Switch on your Deeper by dipping it in water and listen to the noise it makes.
A Deeper is a good tool for measuring depths very quickly and can replace hours of thrashing around with a marker float. More important for me is it can locate underwater obstructions such as an area of submerged fallen trees which could be a hazard to landing a fish or which could provide a holding area.
It is nothing more than a useful tool that requires experience to get the most benefit from it.

Yup I got a camou wide bedchair and magmatex king-size sleeping bag it's very comfy but really wide still fairly light though  😂 the bag is really warm and fits well to the chair, and so far seems well made, 
I believe the camou ones are the same as the Wychwood tactical ones and I assume the rlx Is the same as the tracker, not got a sleep system one but I can fold my bed with the bag on so no bother for me, I like mine perhaps wouldn't get a wide one again but actually I've been sleeping on mine since before Christmas as my snoring was waking up the wife too much but now I am sleeping better and not getting punched in my sleep so its a win win 🥵😵🤕🤕,
and also my back ache is loads better too so I am well pleased with mine 😌
 

Not only the chance of losing it but some lakes I know don't allow them. My old syndicate lake for example,  if you were caught with one or anything similar you would get banned. As the ranger said, they're for noddy's.  Also if you rely on such a gadget and you do go onto a lake that does not allow them then I'd say you will be at a major disadvantage by the boy's that know and have  learnt their watercraft.   
Without a doubt my watercraft knowledge is my biggest asset. Watercraft is more than just seeing a fish show or finding fish. Its what the fish do on certain winds, certain air pressures,  times of the year, amongst other things etc etc etc.  I've had countless occasions where I've fished a totally different part of the lake to the majority of anglers on the lake on that day and caught when most of the rest have failed all because I've seen something they haven't or worked out where they will be.   If a carp doesn't show then most anglers I'd say are stumped on where they are but there are lots of other signs to look for which not even a deeper will show you anyway. Learn these things and you'll catch more, simple. 

Well I use my Deeper for 
Map Making 
Spot Finding 
I use the Deeper on days when I'm not actually fishing , but just want to be at the lake / only have a few hours available to me / the weather is too cold and/or wet .
I wouldn't use the Deeper if there was anyone on my part of the lake as I wouldn't like it if I was fishing and someone was casting their bolt rig out every 5mins.
😃