garysj01

I use the fox bubble floats as you can fill them with water to give you casting weight, a floating braided mainline for quick lifting when striking, 4ft of 8lb floating line, and a multitude of different baits ie, pop up boilies, zig bugs, flies, imitation and normal dog biscuits, anything that floats.

Oh dear Gary, now you've gone and spoiled a lovely thread. Someone had to say it and im not one for shying away from controversy Every programme has its place,

I always found Carp Crew quite good with Jan porter and Kev Green. Im going to be brave and say the odd Thinking Tackle can be quite good if you ignore the plugs firing squad at the ready Rod Race, Wet Nets, Total Fishing, Go Fishing, even Compleat Angler

I hope the administrators/moderators don't mind me doing this. But what is or was your favourite fishing programme on tv, maybe you have a particular favourite scene from a programme. Mine would have to be watching Chris Yates on Redmire pool setting up a manikin for a few days to get the carp used to the shape and then fishing. Favourite programmes would have to be A Passion For Angling and recently Catching The Impossible

You can take a lot of the moisture our by using, oats, tiger nut flour, crushed hempseed, groundbait, boilie crumb, bread and so much more, the list is endless when it comes to pva

So many differents ways fella, maize stays on better for casting as well as plastic, but when using plastic use a short piece of spaghetti as a bait stop, so if you lose the rig it wont stay live for long, i have used a single piece of corn right up to 5 to 6 on the hair. Now my favourite way is to use a single plastic sinking corn, thread the hair from top to bottom so it looks like a natural free offering and scatter a few around it.

could be i had the same when i tried them out, so i just went for a curved shanked hook

do your normal hooks have a wider gape

Without seeing how the rig is tied and exactly how your presenting the bait, its impossible to tell

But you can use an inline lead that has the insert and sleeve attached, as for a running inline then definetly not,

Yes thats why i have specified a larger bore run ring is used, if your ever unsure of a rigs safety then dont use it, inline leads will snag on these

I have to say its an interesting concept

The good thing is, you can add as many as you want to tubing, i use this tubing with a running lead with an over sized run ring. I cannot claim its 100% but nothing is and i have found that yes tubing can lift and curl sometimes, but all you need to do is tease it straight, i have found weighting it down does help with the curls and lifts. My rods are generally made up before i go and remain made up until i change a whole set up so i dont really get that problem, i have only had problems with brand new tubing which like i said before just needs teasing out, it helps if you do it over a boiling kettle as well, but some tubing can go quite soft so be careful.

There are lots of ways fella's just thought it was worth highlighting,

Yes i know, this is just an example if you do not have the all singing all dancing tubing,

Just an idea here for the carp angler. It has been expressed that weighted leaders are in fact not so safe as the weak point of the whole presenation is at the connection from the mainline to the weighted leader. If this knot should snap even if the lead has come off, the fish is still towing round a leader. So whats the answer, well either fish your rigs naked or use tubing should there be any sharp objects or snags present. The problem with some tubing it doesn't sit on the lake bed and often can curl up giving a bad presentation, this i hope will help a few out. The tubing in my case is eighteen inches long, but if have wound the lead inner out of leadcore around the tubing 15 times and then shrunk some heat shrink tube over the top to keep in place and to avoid the unraveling of the lead wire inner. This can also be glued in place with some super glue should you feel the need. This is how it looks when its finished, giving you a safer alternative to a weighted leader. Thanks for looking

The mesh style bags soak the juices, not all of it obviously, but you can see this as the mesh changes colour, i wouldnt worry about the juices leaking out during the cast. Groundbait is really a bulker for me, but it is the same flavour as my boilies so just an extra attractor,

Go on nick im interested what have you used in a pva bag, i just want to show how much can be used,

You'd be better keeping away from salt theres enough in baits as it is, icing sugar i have never used so i cant comment on that, all i do is have a towel handy pour the juices out of your particles into a little tub (these juices are full of attractors so they are very good for stick mixes) put the particles onto a towel and dry them out slightly, then either add them to a dry ingredient like groundbait or boilie crumb, or add oil to them, the oil will effect the melt down rate of the pva bag slightly. You can basically make any mix you want with any particle, just treat it like a groundbait mix that is slightly dryer than normal, if it is a bit wetter than you like you can leave it for a while to dry out or again add a little oil.

You can put in a lot, When using the hook, push through once then twist the hook and push through again, make sure the hook is dry. Or you could get a long baiting needle and thread the stick down the hooklink. Any wet particles like, corn, hempseed etc.... will need to be dried out, but they can be added to grounbait or crumbed boilies as this will soak up any juices, make sure you mix it well. Adding oil helps with wet particles as well but you'll still need to dry them a little. I make my mix up the night before, small 6mm pellets, corn, hempseed, a little groundbait and boilie crumb, just to allow the juices to soak in to the dry components. By the morning i tie about 20 sticks ready for fishing.

I have to say i have never used a chod rig,

Yeah the bag can pull in the opposite direction to the bag when cast, didnt think of that even crashing through the water it can happen.

I agree with the above, and i have actually seen the nose of the lead stained in clay, this becomes more apparent when the whole presentation is left to go down in a heap. I do feel the lead down and while the lead is on its way down i arc the rod slightly towards me and then just drag the lead a little on touch down for that reason and also to straighten out the rig. With any rig we all have to make compromises somewhere, its just knowing the limitations and adapting the best possible solutions to achieve the presentation we want.

That's a bit close to the truth. My grandfather came over from Russia at the turn of the last century Nick im interested on your thoughts on the line acting like it is pulled through a tube when immersed would you care to elaborate, im sure it was you not so long back who mentioned this:)

Phil im using the esp curve shank and i am thinking of moving over the the mugga's, they look like they have a slightly wider gape, whats your opinion The mugga are a wider gape than the esp hooks I've used Gary and I really like the curve to the mugga the line comes off the eye at a very nice angle in my opinion, and they sharpen nicely when needed. Cool ill have a proper look this week thanks mate