carpepecheur

You make a good point Yonny. I must confess I am more interested in the academics of the idea than any practical use. Having said that I usually fish in depths of 7 to 10 metres so the idea does have relevance. Another question has popped into my head. Are pop ups more attractive to fish at some depths more than others? I would hazard a guess that they would be more attractive in shallower water but have no data to back up that thought.

Yes very good info but if you want to make and test your own boilies, not everyone has access to a pressure vessel. However with a bit of imagination and the junk found in the average garden shed you can do the required tests.

I have read this thread with interest. May I suggest that there is one variable which has been ignored and that is the effect of water depth? If I understand the requirements of the op correctly he wants to make a boilie to be only just buoyant. If so you should design the boilie to be the required buoyancy at the depth you intend to fish the bait. The deeper the water the less buoyant your bait will be. I did some tests some years ago and made a very poor quality recording of my experiment. However it will demonstrate the point I am making.

Never fished there but you could try https://lesbrochetsduroy.jimdo.com/règlements/ Just put the URL into google translate if you don't speak French.

Hi Luv, I make my own unhooking cradle. I also suffer from arthritis and as I get older the cradle I make gets higher. I made a video of one a few years ago so if you or a friend are handy in the workshop it will give you the general idea how to go about it. You can make it to the height that suits you. Hope this is useful.

Sorry, this is going to be a rather long answer on my favourite non-topic. I am readily willing to accept that there is a correlation between change of air pressure and fish activity. I am as certain as I can be that change in pressure does not CAUSE that change in activity. It is vital to understand the difference between cause and correlation. Science shows that a change in air pressure (atmospheric pressure) causes a corresponding change in pressure in the water (hydrostatic pressure). If you do the maths, a change in atmospheric pressure caused by a typical storm event only causes a small change in hydrostatic pressure equivalent to a few centimetres of water column. What this means is that, even if a carp could detect that small change in hydrostatic pressure, it could not tell the difference between that change and a change caused by swimming a centimetre or two deeper or shallower. Let me give you a true analogy. I live in a remote village in rural France with a very poor internet connection. I observed (the correlation) that, every time it rained, our connection became so slow it was unusable. It seemed obvious that the rain water was getting in somewhere and I spent a lot of time checking everything in the house to try and locate the problem. I eventually gave up and called out the telephone engineer. I explained the problem to him and he just laughed. He said he did not need to do anything. Every time it rains, the kids in the village go inside and watch Netflix. This takes up all the limited bandwidth that is available. That is the problem. Then he gave me his call-out bill! So understanding the CAUSE is vital to interpreting the CORRELATION. Atmospheric changes cause all sorts of changes in wind, temperature, lighting etc. etc. And more importantly these may differ according to where you are. So what is true for say Essex is not necessarily true for mainland France where, in Summer, high pressure seems to dominate all the time. In France I have had some spectacular catches with high pressure, bright sun, high temperature and no wind. Best tip is to ignore pressure and watch what the locals do. It may not improve your catches but you will have some cracking barbeques 😉.

I had the same requirement as you. Smaller reels for a 9 ft rod. I went for these https://www.decathlon.co.uk/avocet-bronze-freespool-6000-id_8361049.html. I am very happy with them

The sort of atmospheric pressure change typically experienced in UK only represents a hydrostatic pressure change of 2 cms. In other words a carp can feel the same effect of an extreme air pressure change by swimming just 2 cms deeper. i just thought I would put it into context.

Buy a cheap Canon point and shoot camera on ebay. Down load the free CHDK (canon hack development kit) from the web (just google for info). You will then be able to program your camera to do anything you want including an intervalometer with bracketed shots. I paid £5 for an ixus 50 and have been using it for years to do self takes.

I have been using the same xplode since they came on the market. It has not broken yet which is more than can be said of the spombs I have had. The main advantage for me is that you can fill it and close it one handed while holding the rod in the other hand so I find it much faster to bait up an area. I am not a massive caster so have no worries on the distance score. Main downside is it does not retrieve as nicely as the spomb - but of the two I much prefer the xplode. I always have both in my bait bucket but always choose the xplode first.

I have been using the explode since it first came out and would not consider changing back to a spomb. Just because they do not have the marketing power of Fox does not mean they are inferior. I understand you CAN get them on ebay in UK. If not, Pacific Peche in France do a mail order service to UK. Look out for special deals on that site from time to time.

Can only help a bit in France. Try googling the acronym "AAPPMA" followed by the French department you are in. e.g Google AAPPMA 31 for Haute Garonne. You should then see the site of the fishing association for that region and it will list all the public lakes they cover and a very brief description. It will also give the rules and regs for that area. It is all in French so if you do not speak it just use Google translate. It is not very good but gives you a good idea. You will need a fishing licence (carte de peche) which will allow you up to four rods. There are several versions of the license but the one you want costs €95 and is called carte personne majeure and allows you to fish in nearly every department.They are available on line from the above mentioned sites or in most tackle shops.

By coincidence, I downloaded book one for my Kindle half an hour before reading this thread. Kindle is the only way - especially when fishing

It is quite simple really - fish the thousands of free public waters and rivers in France which offer much more of a challenge and fun than paid for armchair fishing.

Interesting comment - would you care to elaborate? The problem is not restricted to the Lot. Even much further South, thieves are actively stealing carp from easily accessible public water. Thanks to concerned anglers like Guy something is being done but a lot of damage has already been caused. When I am out I like to make my views known to anyone who comes near my swim.

Stunning looking place. It is just a bit far from me to be of help but put me down for for a couple of weeks of "Relaxing holidays from 90€ per person per week, self-catering"

Yes, nice lumps.

It is available for the Kindle (or any other digital platform) here I wish more publishers of classic works would do this!

It does not happen to me very often but when it does it can be difficult to see and retrieve at distance. I attach a small float and foot or two of line to the spomb and then use a weighted treble hook attached to floats which I cast across the spomb to retrieve it.

This is one of my favourites of my local lake 3 miles away. It was taken using a cheap camera dangling from a kite.

I described an idea for a rig here in July. I have since been testing it. I was disappointed to miss the very first run I had using this method. Since then I have had a further 5 runs, all resulting in good fish. It is outfishing any other rig I use except when I use giant maize (for which this rig is not really suited)

Now you sound like a Viking! I would not like to argue with Kevin Madocks Nick. I bet he was told his hair rig was "overcomplicated" when he first publicised it! From what I observe looking at under water footage and from my own tests using a suck and blow tube in a tank, when a carp goes into eject mode, it gags rather than spits. It is not like when you spit out a mouthful of foul tasting liquid it is more like when you gag on a fish bone. (I hope that makes sense!). The bait is pushed out with all the water that was sucked in and the hook stays underneath the bait which interferes with it making a hookhold. Like you, I used to think that a longer hair would increase hooking chances but I have changed my mind as a result of the tests I have done. So now in the words of Isak Walton "first catch your carp" (to prove the point)

Some very interesting responses here. Gary, I understand what you say about a carp's mouth being sensitive to the hook length. With regard to the rig in question here, all I would say is that it is no more spooky than any other rig. Regarding the rig you alluded to, I will later PM you an old idea of mine on similar lines and perhaps we can compare notes (am away for a few days in the Carmargue at moment) Liam, I think the tight line versus slack line is another (interesting) discussion. I am only thinking of using this rig with a bolt lead at the moment. Regarding hair length, I disagree with you. If it is too long, the bristle will only turn the hook underneath the bait. I believe, if the bait is tight against the hook, the whole bait will turn leaving the hook in an aggressive position. Salokcinnodrog (is that Welsh for something?), I googled "swimmer rig" but that seems to refer to having the rig ring on a D just above the hook eye. As far as I can work out, the "bristle rig" seems to be designed to make sure the hook comes out the same way it went in. I have messed about with tube and a cross bristle to act like an anchor but that is not what I am trying to achieve here. I am trying to get the carp to turn the hook through 90 degrees when it sucks in so that when it blows out the hook is alongside the boilie (and not underneath it) so that it has a good chance of catching hold. If, on top of that, all of the bristle goes inside the mouth, there is the added bonus of it being more difficult to eject. I am still trying to find fault in that logic.

Overcomplicated does not mean it does not work. I do not think it is over complicated anyway as I explained in my last answer above I have no interest in what “known” anglers do except when they give me ideas. It goes without saying that you need good watercraft to be successful but that does not excuse you from not using the best end rig you can. Gaz said “in all honesty there probably aint a rig out there that works how we think it does” and I totally agree with that. I have watched hours of video where carp spit the bait out and now use a suction device to test my rigs in a tank. The first lesson I learned was that my favourite rigs did not work the way I thought they did. That is how I ended up with me current suggestion. Liam hit the nail on the head when he said “If i dont strike and wait for the lead to hook the fish they spit the bait vout 9 times out of ten”. Exactly, that is my point. I want to change those odds to 8 out of 10 or even 7 out of 10. I appreciate your comments guys. The question I have is, “is there anything wrong in my reasoning how I think it will work?”

I have a habit of reinventing the wheel. Does the rig you used have a name?. I agree with you about the length of the bristle. I will need to experiment. I totally agree with the KISS principle but this is a standard stiff rig with the hook link cut short and a supple length added. Why does it look terrible? Yes it is very easy to tie but your last words are so true. You must have faith. As far as I am concerned the jury is still out