gnorty

Have you looked at the gravel pits at runcton near chichester?

I use a running rig in silt, but you have to be sure the silt is not soft/deep enough for the lead to sink.

no, it's not about critical balance. the rig needs to outweigh the float without the bait (although not by much). When the bait and the bottom hot lifts the float rises, if the fish picks up the bait and swims off, the float dives.

really? I thought the idea was the line below the chod sank into the muck and left the mainline at the chod free. The way you say it the bait would be hanging off the back of a mini flagpole in the silt - I dunno I like that method!

straight hair rig is good, I like to balance my bait on the hair, but it is up to you. use a quicklink on the end of your mainline/lead clip, and then you can construct your PVA bag ready to wind in, clip off the old rig, clip on the new rig/PVA.

doesn't look like spin at all. I wish it were closer to me, I would love to fish it.

an inch of slack will put a length of tubing on the deck. If you really need lines to be tight as a guitar string, then you need to forget about putting the line on the lake bed!

1out of curiosity- looked on google. Seems pits 4 and 5 are run as a syndicate http://www.cemexangling.co.uk/forums/archive/index.php/t-132641.html

lol - why be embarassed to buy vaseline?? I doubt there are many people using it for "that" use these days when there are proper lubricants etc all over the supermarket!

head down the A272 towards petersfield, and just before you get to the big roundabout there is a farm entrance on the right. follow signs to the fishery, park at the portaloo and bob's yer uncle. Not the biggest fish there (low doubles on average) but plenty of them, friendly folk, not many idiots there and a nice place to fish keep to the swims closest to the car park - on the closest bank at close range in the margin trees is a winter winner. Alternatively, Broadlands is not far, but I guess you know that! btw - what is that big lake complex close by Marwell? can't find any info about it, but looks like a right goer.

you never *need* to use tubing. I very rarely do so and it doesn't stop me catching fish. Tubing has it's purposes - to camouflage line and help pin it down. Personally I find that using a sinking line and pulling a *few* inches of line off the spool when setting your rod lays the line flat enough on the bed to avoid spooking fish in the immediate vicinity of the hooklength. If fishing deeper water or at very close range then perhaps a little more slack. That is normally enough. In short, the simpler you can keep your tackle, the less there is to go wrong. don't be seduced by racks of kit in tackle shops, much of it is not essential, and you can spend the money better on good quality hooks etc. a simple sliding rig, with a hook-length of a lighter breaking strain than the mainline is simple, safe and effective. If/when this arrangement is insufficient for a particular problem, then maybe think about a solution, but trying to solve problems before they arise leads to over complex rigs, and if you are not completely certain that the solution is necessary, it is probably better to leave it.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=premium+bonds+blackpool&ie=UTF8&hq=premium+bonds&hnear=Blackpool,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.80539,-2.968755&spn=0.017233,0.038581&t=h&z=15 a few pools around here, none of which jump out and scream "fish" at me, but then google maps is not the best way to get info. If the lakes are close, take a ride out and look at them!

should be fine on mono, so long as the crimp is of the correct size and the right tool is used to close it.

the lakes around lakeside caravan park in Chichester are OK, a variety of fishing on the various lakes. If you ask in the caravan park office they will give you a map and a brief on all the waters, and the bailiff is a very helpful guy too.

bait should be a little further from the hook for a standard hair rig really, although I have used hairs as short as you are using, and still never deep hooked a carp. what size hooks are you using? with a smaller hook, maybe a disgorger would be better than forceps, although I have never tried using a disgorger on a knotless knotted hook - never had to! seems very strange.

I landed a carp of 14pound on a 1.5lb hooklink (was an accident while fishing for roach!) but it took a long time and some (lucky?) educated guesses of where the fish was heading well in advance. the point to remember - the breaking strain of the line is the limit to how much force you can apply to steer the fish, and if you break the line the fish has a rig to drag around. for most carp fishing, the critical factors are the weight of your baited rig and the distance you want to throw it. if your mainline is strong enough for this, in MOST cases it will be more than enough to guide a fish to the net, but if there are serious snags and you need to really bully the fish away from them then a larger mainline may be essential.

one thing is for sure, with no rig at all, then you will catch nothing. After that, you can think of all the different rigs, which all (presumably) work slightly differently (even if it is not how you think it works). If there is a difference, then it is fairly safe to assume that in a given set of circumstances, then one rig will outperform another. With experience, I guess you might be able to recognise the circumstances that led to a rig working in the past. None of the above seems (to me at least) to be unreasonable, but I tend to prefer a simple hair rig on a light running leger as well. It works reasonably well in most of the circumstances I fish, but I am quite certain that on any particular day, there may well be another rig which would work better (and a few dozen which work less well!

fishing tackle/bait manufacturers producde great volumes of bait/tackle that is considered by some to be unsafe. An example is high oil pellets which many are now starting to think is very unhealthy for fish in the long term. Having said that, carp will happily eat a tiger nut and then poop it out whole, so a bit of rig foam should not present a big problem

Anyone know anything about this complex? Looks nice (if a bit noisy) but I was wondering about fish stocks in the various lakes (including non-carp) and how they fish.

Seriously?? You don't know how to connect mainline to a looped end? There is sooooo much wrong here - I call shananigans

if I had 4 days and travel was instant and free, then I would love to go here http://www.fishinginthailand.com/fishing.html I probably will go someday, but unlikely for the next few years at least

I have often ponderd about why/how critical balanced baits/popups etc work, and I donthink it has anything to do with the fish "weighing" the bait as such. My thought is that if a fish is mooching around sucking up boiles, maybe gently to test them for hooks, or just generally grazing, it will get used to the effort in sucking them from the bottom. If it hits a critically balanced bait (including hook/leader) then the effort to suck it off the bottom is much less than expected and the bait flies in much further than the fish intends, putting the hook right into the mouth. Same kind of principle as the pranks you see on TV where someone struggles with a heavy suitcase and then a helpful soul falls on his backside when the case is actually empty. That's my theory, and what is in my mind when putting a rig together. I find it works especially well in conjunction with a feeder based system, maybe then the frenzy of competitive feeding plays a part.

I have caught roach of around 8oz on size 8 hooks hair rigged. To put it in context, the fish could only just open wide enough to fit the gape of the hook, and the hook was so big the point came out the bottom of the jaw like a harpoon! In fact this was no one off - it happened 2-3 times the same session, so I guess if a fish can physically fit the hook in its mouth, then in the right circumstances, it will do so!

then I am not sure I understand the mechanics of the rig (sorry but I am an engineer by trade, and I need to understand these things!) the rig is set so that as the bait is pulled into the mouth, it enters ring end first, and the point is heavy, so it will hang down. to me this looks like the point has a high chance of catching the outside of the lip as it goes in. if the hook enters the mouth, and the fish blows the bait, then I can possibly see how the hook will turn and again head out ring first and the point may catch, but if the fish lifts the bait, it sounds like the chance of hooking against the weight of the weight is reduced somewhat. Perhaps I will tie one up and try messing with it to see how it works. As I sit now I can't see an overall advantage, especially considering the potential for things going wrong. Again, I feel I should apologise - I do not mean to question the advice given, just to understand the action. If I can understand how/why it works I can make a better choice of if/when to use it.

If I understand this right then, the KD rig is designed to hook the fish as the bait is sucked in? ie point passing into the outside of the lip and out of the inside?