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!)

I'd generally change hook after each fish anyway. I've never had a hook I've sharpened straighten on me. You're literally just brushing it a couple of times with the stone, not aggressively planing it off, so this shouldn't ever happen

You rate them then Jez? I wasn't sure wether they were just another gimmick. Do you think youve picked extra fish up with them? I know that question wasn't for me, and being a relative newbie to the forum my answer won't be as valuable as someone who you know and trust well, but I've found it to be very good. You can get a hook to the point where you don't even feel it enter your skin until its gone a way in (and in my experience started bleeding!) The closest I can explain is that it's like piercing your finger on the high E string of a guitar on the tuning peg! I'm not sure how different the jag ones are to any standard jewellers sharpening stone (which is cheaper) but they look pretty similar.

Have found that ESP and Gardner generally supply the most usable hooks in a packet, usually only have to bin 2 or 3. kordas generally only give about 4 usable hooks per pack! Haven't used fox armos or Nash hooks, but reports are good. Sharpening your own is the way to go, but be prepared to ruin a few packs before you get the hang of it - Ironically it's quite easy to blunt them with the sharpener.

Yep, that would help if you'd rather not use a bag with the lead and hooklink inside. Also making sure you hit the clip on the cast and feeling the lead down will kick the hooklink outwards and help with presentation/avoiding tangles.

This is quite common on a lake I fish regularly - Bream will pick up the bolie in their mouths and run with it, because their mouths are quite small in comparison to a carp, it's not actually big enough to fit the boilie AND the hook as well. Usually they fall off when you pick the rod up, but they've been known to come all the way into the net just holding (or getting their greedy faces stuck) round the boilie. So instead of the hook pulling, could it just be our snotty friends?

My first port of call would probably be to spend a good amount of time looking for a clearer harder area amongst all of the silt, either with a marker or just casting a lead around and feeling for it hitting the bottom. If there really are no clear areas and the silt is quite soft, to fish running rigs, you'll need to make sure that you use a large running ring (have a look at the Solar ones) as a smaller one could quite easily get clogged up with silt and make your running rig effectively a fixed or semi fixed setup. Don't use fluro/stiff hooklinks (unless you're fishing a choddy or stiff hinge rig) as they may end up sticking up out of the silt at a really unusual angle (due to the lead sinking into the silt) and the fish will sus you. Either use a supple braid all the way through, or a coated one with a decent amount stripped back, possibly a bit longer than you would normally fish on gravel too. Feather the lead all the way down through the water to stop it diving deep into the silt on landing too. Use a lighter lead than you may otherwise use as well. The main thing is to make sure your bait isn't burying itself in the silt and is sitting naturally. You may even want to try some 'natural' baits as the fish will predominantly be feeding on bloodworm and such if the entire lakebed is silty. These would be things such as worm/maggot or even prawns. Also, the chod or 'silt' rig is slightly different from a standard heli rig (although the lead setup is similar) and was actually designed to fish in this kind of situation. Perhaps you're not quite setting it up correctly? It's never given me anything but very solid hook holds in the botom lip (and is known for it's potent hooking ability). It's used wrongly a lot of the time, but this sounds like an ideal situation for its use.

Sorry to post in an old thread, but just wanted to say I always keep a big fat glove in my bag for the sad situation of having to pull for a break. I've experienced a pole float stem going right into my hand and cheek(!!!) a couple of times and would dread to think what a size 4 or 6 hook would do! Not so much a problem if the snag up is under water as it shouldn't ping out too rapidly due to the resistance...but if you're snagged in bankside / island vegetation that is relatively close always cover your eyes, a lead or hook travelling at speed could easily blind you.