carpepecheur

First catch your crayfish. I usually put some collapsible prawn traps out when I pre bait for several days before fishing (fallen branches in shallow water is favourite location). When I use them in ground bait I just mash them up as they are. For hookbait I use the meat of a freshly killed one. Don't try and use them as livebait. They make a mess of your rig 😀. At all times, check regulations for where you are fishing. The fines in France are quite eye watering if you are caught breaking them. To be honest, these days I much prefer to take them home and cook them. I make a fabulous crayfish bisque. (recipe available if anyone is interested)

The best natural bait that I use is crayfish. Freshly caught and mashed up into the ground bait mix it can be particularly effective. It is also a good hookbait but illegal in France.

Yes I still have some Belechan too and yes I was on the black forum and rather miss it. There seem to be several survivors on here.

I agree with you. After the usual experimenting with various idea "following the science" I settled for the PeteB mix. I would have sworn it was the bees knees until the local Decathlon sold a load of no name Monster Crab that was out of date for under €2 per kilo. I couldn't make my bait for that price. The rod I tested it on did just as well as my other rods. Now I use the cheapest I can find but pre bait very often and quite heavily. Again this is on large and hardly fished open waters where location and quantity is the key.

Yes you are correct. It is the catenary effect and it becomes more significant with heavier line. As a surveyor, when we wanted to measure a distance accurately, we needed to measure the tension in the tape, know its weight and do a complicated calculation to work out a correction to take off the measured distance due to sag. A stretched line will always sag a bit.

It has been a very long time since I went to school but if I remember my Physics lessons correctly, the line is not held down by water pressure. Water pressure acts in all directions on the surface of the line so there is as much upward pressure as downward pressure. For example, when you weigh yourself, you do not have to allow for changing atmospheric pressure. Depending on the type of line being used, water pressure could reduce its buoyancy by compressing the material slightly. However, I agree with Yonny, very tight lines are the way to go.

I understand the theory of a COG lead. i am not convinced it is the way to go but if I did, I think the Fox version is much simpler and safer.

Do you mean something like this:-

I'll get my coat

Ooops sorry peeps i got confused. Not an uncommon occurrence chez nous. I think you asked him a question Yonny and someone else answered or perhaps I have lost the thread of this altogether.

It is possible that when the lead hits the water, the momentum in the lead pushes through the lighter contents of the bag and sits on top of your rig. When you retrieve the lead, it pulls clear and everything looks normal. Of course if your fish spy tells you your multi tangle rig 😀 is normal then you have a different problem. Does it not give you any other clues what might be happening like fish shying away or picking up and dropping?

Are you saying that you put the lead inside the PVA bag as well?

I wasn't planning to try it as I am happy with my current rig but that sounds like a challenge. I was just trying to give a helpful suggestion BUT will have to give it a go now. I will tank test it first to see how it sucks up. There are a lot of variables - length of whisker, stiffness and thickness of whisker, number of whiskers, angle between whiskers. I have a mental image of it being a bit like having a small fishbone stuck in your throat.

I agree that the feeding situation needs to be created. There is nothing is like the 100% confidence you get when you see bubbles coming up from your patch. It seemed to me that the tone of this thread was to suggest improvements to the anti-ejection properties of a rig rather than just accept current rigs. IMHO, I think the problem with a lot of rigs is that the hook simply hangs below the bait. All the carp has to do is to open its mouth and let it drop. I think the solution is to try and make the hook move away from that position once the carp stops sucking it up. This is why I do not fish my boilies on a hair BUT, because the hair is a very tried and tested technique, I think the “Savay” idea may be the way to go.

I tested that idea some time ago. The idea is that if the hook slides along the side of the mouth those arms turn the hook into the flesh. However, it works against you if the hook is on its back.

Watching similar videos I came to a different conclusion. When carp are feeding the food is wafting about in the disturbance. Anything attached to a line behaves differently and stands out like a sore thumb.

Yes I did wonder about using two diverging whiskers. Any idea why this is no used more? It is such a cheap and easy mod if it works.

I rarely fish boilies on the hair for reasons already mentioned above but if I did, I would probably make a small modification as shown in the following diagram. A short length of slightly stiff mono is whipped to the shank of the hook using the No Knot used to tie the hair. When the carp sucks up the bait, it pulls the line straight, making it easier to pass into the carp’s mouth – as shown in first part of diagram. The second the carp stops sucking, the line slackens and takes up the position in the second diagram. The stiff mono catches one side of the carp’s mouth and pushes the hook into the other side of the carp’s mouth. Just an idea?

Hi Commonly. Sorry my fault. I should have listed my mods in a different order. Put the washer in first. Then, if you wish, put the inline insert into the lead passing through hole in washer. I much prefer inline leads because, in my experience, I get fewer occasions when the hook link tangles around the lead. Note that the insert will go through the hole in the washer and serves the extra bonus of preventing it coming loose if the fit of the washer in the lead is not tight enough. Interested to know how you get on. Bon chance.

Sorry, it is only 50 km from me but I never hear it mentioned. All I can tell you is, it is a public lake so you will need a license (abou €100), night fishing is permitted as is a boat. There are carp there but I have no idea how big. There was a mention on a forum a little while ago that it might have been netted illegally for carp to stock private fisheries but I cannot confirm it. Were you planning to come out just to fish it?

Do you mean the one near Mas d'Azil in Ariege (9) ?

Wow they ARE interesting. It looks like you will get more grip per weight with those. I would make some modifications. 1) I would remove the swivel, drill a hole place an insert and convert to an inline lead (personal preference only) 2) I would force a washer through the widest part of the centre hole to form a large gripper fin, that will not tangle. I have tried to make a diagram to show the idea but my Photoshop skills are rather limited. I hope you get the idea.

Not sure what shops you have near you but in art and craft shops around here you can by a large bag of large polystyrene balls for very little cost. Shove a bamboo barbeque skewer though, paint it black and you have an expendable marker float.

This is going to sound ridiculous but the best colour for a marker float is black. As part of my job, I used to plot the movement of water currents by putting out markers and following them. A black flag was always the easiest to find. If you visit a fishing port you will see that the most common marker flag used for crab and lobster pots is black.

The collar has always worked for me. I would avoid any ideas of a wired lead (a la sea fishing style). Even if you find a way to put lay your bait out carefully, small fish, crayfish or the swirling effect from fins of larger fish, will always find a way of causing a tangle. But good luck. I am fortunate where I fish, there are no rules. You could perhaps do a “Barnard Castle”