rossmc

I went with Tigerline and I dont think ill be changing for a long time. Sinks at an incredible rate, tough as hell, cuts through weed and genrally casts well. I use the 16lb and have never needed to swap over to nylon to reach any fishing situatons, mind I dont fish massive waters but I can get a 2oz distance lead the full lenght of my lake with a good chuck. Landed a 30 common in france and thought my rod was going to snap before the line did, tring to avoid snags.

id kill for just 2 ft of weed, jammy git! Light leads and long hook links is what ive found works best, but the trick to help the hook bait rest on to of the weed completely is to balance it out with a pop up tied on with pva. Some areas of the lake I fish, the weed comes up to the surface, but if its sunny I try to find a spot where fish are passing over and place a bait on the top of the weed about 2ft off the surface, kind of like zig fishing but using the weed to your advantage. if you can get away with it, clear out small patches and keep schtum about them, feed them as and when you can and it could open up your fishing alot more... OR... Do what half the folk on my lake do, get there, slam the car boot shut, stick a choddy on and give it the best pub chuck ya got, hopefullies crossing a few peoples lines and then go for a walk round the lake after setting your alarms to 300dB +

cheers salok, im assuming that this is a tactic for when the rivers running clear or will they take in water thats dropping from floods thats coloured?

I never heard of floater fishing for chub, but it sounds good. Its got fly rod, imitation dog biscuit written all over it! lol How would you feed the swim, little and often? whats the method to this madness, are they hair rigged or soft hookers? cheers for any advice.

The little surprises in my stream are upto 35lb salmon! Ive only ever seen dead ones after theyve spawned though!

Where you from travis? I started out fly fishing small streams, sight fishing really, love it, still ride my push bike 12 miles to fish the first stream i started fishing for trout on.

Well i escaped prision for an hour to walk to river to see if babs was still at home, sure enough 3 still sat next to the same weed raft in about 2 foot of water, clear as day. What i dont understand is why people go fishing on the river, dont take time to look, it would taken all of 30 seconds to spot them from the road side, but set up further down in the really slow deep water just because theres a new tree gone over on the far bank. Idiots. out of all 6 anglers, not one had caught, if only they walked 40 yrds upstream to the wear (i mean come on lads, theres a wear there for christ sakes, it screams barbel for this time of year!!!!!) And to add insult to injury, i just happened to find another 2 essays that need doing! ive gone through 1 and 1/2 jars of coffee in 2 days, look like a vampire and the lass wants the bathroom ripping out and a new one fitting. {insert every swear word known to man beast etc here}

It fixes my stress levels no end though! Ive been out the house once in 4 days to pick the lady up from town and thats it, im working in a room thats 6 x 12 ft, Little bit like a prison cell, writing about how to save trees from pathogens etc when all i wanna do is cut them down and see which one makes the loudest noise! SAVE ME!!!!![/u][/b]

I had planned to go down for midnight but that all fell through, typical River Wear conditions, it lashed it down for a few days before and the river was unfishable for my tackle, my grandarrs 13ft match rod would have been doubled over just on the rest! So as i write now, the river has dropped, still has a little colour and the suns shining with cloud cover rolling in and out... why am i sat here youre screaming? I have 9 essays to hand in for friday to finish college and wish i hadnt left them this long. People say you learn from your mistakes but i never do. The good thing about this is that after all the essays are done and handed in, im taking my 12 year old computer into the yard and its getting a axe straight through it! mouse freezes up every 15 minutes which results in mouse being unplugged and plugged back in, i have to type slow or some letters wont apear... the list goes on! Someone catch a barbel for me this week! please

Already thought about that but if its windy then it gets blown all over the lake and causes no end of hassle. Its a high pressured water so I want to keep disturbance to a minimum. To give you an idea, if someone spods out on the lake, it kills the lake off, some even pack up and go home. haha

Ive re4ally been thinking about zigs at the minute too, not many people use them on the lake so the fish wont have seen them too often, but my take on i8t is that the lake i fish if very very very weedy and full of naturals. Now coming from a fly fishing background, I think the new zig bugs a total gimmick, apart from a deed bumble bee, they look like no nymph or owt like that. My train of thought is to tie up some large, very natural looking nymph etc. and use them as the zig instead of something to catch our eye rather than the fishes (zig bugs). Ive seen nymphs coming out the lake at about an inch in lenght so i can get away with making quite a large fly to replicate this and also get it boyant enough to use as a zig. My problem is i cant get my head around having a inline float as this to me screams problems with getting bogged down in the weed. Im on testing a few ideas with drop of cork floats, but has anyone come across this problem and how did they overcome it, if you did at all?

stick some screws through from the inside...

Well after the advice I went out and got some gear, tied one up and tested in me living room and it seems to work a treat. I got the avid inline flat leads with the correct tail rubber and the inserts for the bottom end and it all works well. Now to test on the fish! I'll let you know if the New rig solves me problem. Cheers for the help lads

Is it possible to use an inline drop off lead system using flurocarbon mainline instead of the normal leadcore/leader that it always is shown with? I think i have been getting a few pick ups but they are always getting rid of the bait before getting properly hooked as the last few trips i have had the fish on top of my bait showing, rig was presented on a nice patch of clay, a few picks ups which always result in nothing. So my plan is to use inline dropoff lead set up as the lake is still pretty heavy with weed, but i didnt want to use leadcore or any leader. I run 16lb fluro tiger line and want to know if anyone has tried to use this setup or similar. Cheers

Devon - I found some barbel on my local river, the Wear, just down from where I worked, baited up for a few weeks as it was still close season, just feeding about 500g of 4mm halibut pellets with some 8mm red robin pellets in for something new that they wouldnt have seen much of as that part of the river is highly pressured. Most folks were fishing further down in the deeper water but i had seen chub and barbel in about 2 foot of water behind a weed raft, so thats where i concentrated on. Being in mind I had never fished for barbel and the Wear isnt known for having loads in, I had one out on me first cast after about an hour and a half, just as the light was fading on 2 8mm red robin pellets hair rigged! After that I havent had a sniff since! lol So I would say its like carp fishing, you have to be on the fish for a chance of catching. Find the fish and a bit of stealthy casting should do the trick!