lessthanphil

It's also to do with that fact that when fishing a critically balanced bait, you're taking the weight away from the shank/eye of the hook and making the point the heaviest part - which as you say makes the point naturally point downwards. It's a rig that looks odd out of the water, but when you get how it works, is pretty clever wouldnt just 2-3 turns on kk be the same...im yet to understand what the extra turns after the hair do??? As it's generally done with a soft material, that would quite possibly have the same effect! For some reason having that few turns down the shank would make me feel uneasy!

It's also to do with that fact that when fishing a critically balanced bait, you're taking the weight away from the shank/eye of the hook and making the point the heaviest part - which as you say makes the point naturally point downwards. It's a rig that looks odd out of the water, but when you get how it works, is pretty clever

Know what you mean, but I wouldn't exactly call the KD fancy. It's a very slight variation on a bog standard KK and can be very effective

Rods / playing technique sounds ideal. Any chance you could photo one of your 'standard' rigs and we can take a look at it to suggest anything?

Maybe strongarming the fish a bit too much? Giving them a bit too much stick with a stiff & unforgiving rod? Or the complete opposite (not giving them enough and letting the line slacken a bit, particularly a problem with barbless hooks). Not suggesting you're playing the fish poorly, but definitely worth thinking about before making all kinds of changes to rigs that may be working just fine.

I used it as my mainline for everything for years. I've moved on for spooling up my big pit reels, but when I go Barbel/Chub fishing I still use chameleon. I'm sure something better/more advanced is around, but I have so much faith in it, I don't see much need to change.

I've been using coated braid a bit recently. Prior to that I generally used uncoated, supple braid such as merlin and silkworm - old school (well almost). Have to say, I'm liking the coated braids so far. Have more confidence in them with a bit stripped back than using a traditional combi rig as that knot always scares the pants off me. Will stick with them for a while, but can't see a reason to change right now.

Well done fella!

Yep, personally I think there are far better options to disguise the business end - plain old fluro does the job pretty well - it can be extremely difficult to see.

No worries, thanks for the clarification.

Forgive my ignorance (I haven't used leadcore for ages) but wouldn't removing the inner effectively make it's use pointless and make using a tubing, heavy fluro or a pre-fab leader a better option anyway?

Not at all, having that 'kink' in my loops has always annoyed me, but I've never really tried to find a way to avoid it. Guess I've always thought it was 'just part of the deal'. Tied a few this morning for practice and I"m pretty good at it now. Very happy with it! Only thing is, I'm going to have to throw away the 10 I'd already tied the old way as they just look untidy next to the new ones!

Nice one, that's another knot to add to the armory, hadn't seen that particular one tied before and always relied on figure of 8 or overhand's for tying loops.

Any chance of there being a Kindle / eBook version any time soon? I like to read on the bank, but have a habit of ruining/losing expensive hardbacks!

Merlin or Atomic Jelly Wire (refuse to spell it how they do!)