smufter

I think you'll be waiting a while for an answer. He hasn't been on the site since asking the question in May

I'm still in the barbless do less damage camp. Every fishery I have ever visited, even the ones where the owners have an interest in the fish (and the breeding of them) rather than the monetary gain, all recommend barbless hooks. Surely they can't all be wrong?????

I like to keep things simple so I'm with Carpmachine on this one. Normal running rig, but with as light a lead as I can get away with to try to stop it sinking into the silt. Long(ish) hooklength of Korda n-trap or Jel-e-wyre (silt coloured naturally!). Light coloured bait with either a piece of plastic corn or a yellow/white/orange sighter attached to aid visibility. Having said that, you'd be surprised how far a carp will bury it's snout in the silt when it's on the trough.

That's why I like Covert Mugga's. They come off at such an aggressive angle, they can't help but get a decent hook hold.

Fox Arma points are good hooks, used by a great many carpers with no problems at all. I have a couple of packs of them, but funnily enough have never used them! Don't know why. I tend to use Gardner Covert Muggas for my fishing. I prefer the curved shank and feel confident that these are going to flip and give a good bottom lip hookhold without having to go the the bother of using shrink tube or aligners. Personally, I wouldn't use anything else. http://gardnertackle.co.uk/product/covert-mugga/

Just to let you know how the trip went (other than moaning about it) which I went on with my daughter Lydia, my best mate Norman and his nephew Anthony. Arrived around 6.30pm on the Saturday, had a quick look around the lake and each picked a swim. Gave Lydia first choice (because we are gentlemen!) and she chose one on the far side of the lake behind the island. I decided to go into the one next to her in case she had problems at all. During the course of the evening I had a couple of takes, one resulting in banking a lovely conditioned 15lb Common. Anthony landed a smallish (11lb or so) Mirror later in the evening and that was it until the next morning. Went back into our respective swims and around 9am Lydia noticed a lot of bubbles and fizzing next to the pontoon she was fishing from, so dropped her bait into the middle of it. Some 15 minutes later her rod tip went and she caught a nice 16lb Mirror. Well done Lydia for using your noddle! No more fish caught that morning but during the evening session on Sunday I had a screamer of a run and landed another Common, this time a 16lb'er. Monday evening saw Anthony land another smallish mirror, similar size to his first one. He went on to catch one more small mirror and a larger one at 21lb on Friday. No more fish at all, or runs to be honest, the lake kinda switched off until Wednesday night when I landed another common, this one at 17lb (getting bigger!). Lydia and I decided to fish two different swims from then on, and moved to two that had not seen any activity (other than Norman dabbling with his pole for Roach) and Thursday evening saw me land my biggest fish of the trip, a nice 23lb Mirror. Liddy didn't have a bite at all in what became known as "No Carp Corner". I decided to let her have my swim the following morning, she wasn't keen on being given the "pity swim" as she called it, but I was desperate for her to catch a fish. I had noticed during the week that a lot of fish had been splashing around under a certain tree during the mornings and whilst it was very snaggy decided to have a go, so went and dropped a single piece of plastic maize under it, having to lie on the path to keep out of sight. Within about 10 minutes my line started to move away slowly, the baitrunner started clicking and I pulled out a very hard fighting 13.5 lb Mirror, just managing to stop it going into the nearby weed bed. Liddy had still had no joy, she missed one run which had taken her into weed, struck and felt nothing. Norman finally caught a fish on Friday night, a small Mirror car around 10 or 11lb. So the weeks final tally came to.... me (5 fish) Anthony (4 fish largest 21lb Mirror) Lydia and Norman 1 fish each. Not a brilliant week to be honest, nearly all of the fish we saw "boshing" were in the middle of the lake in the weed which we couldn't fish, with a few big splashes coming from the margins, again very snaggy and impossible to get a bait into. Very few fish were seen in open water. The lake itself was a lovely size, the swims were ideally placed, and the whole surroundings were good. The fish that we caught were in superb condition. It's just a shame that other things happened to put us off. If the lake had been clear and fish-able all round, we would return. It was a shame that because of the conditions we had to pack up fishing as soon as it got dark (or shortly after) as we felt that the lake was definitely an "evening" lake but you could not cast in the dark due to the amount of weed. Fishing all night was out of the question, had we been able to then I think that our catch rate would have been much, much better. 13.5 Mirror 17lb Common 16lb Common Lydia's 16lb Mirror My 23lb Mirror

This one looks totally weed free Mush

Only £225.00 each (including the accommodation!). Works out at just £32.00 per 24 hours.....places local to me charge almost that without the Gite!

You're more than welcome to come along mate

I don't think I could put up with a week of Wychwood bashing Mush

Two more days at work. Jeez I need a break, manic at the moment! Long range weather forecast for the area looks good. Hardly any wind (which is good) and only a few spits and spots of rain throughout the week (don't mind rain if I'm honest, as long as it's coming straight down!). Sat Nav is primed and ready, rods are polished up and reels loaded with new line. New batteries in the alarms and bait ordered for collection on the way down to Dover on Saturday morning. 20 kilos of coconut, 5 kilos of crab/summer fruit and 1 kilo of peach flavour for my daughter to try out. She likes peaches and thinks the carp will too

Hiya Mac My initial post didn't make it clear, but I have actually booked this lake for 2015 (I too have this years venue sorted). If you fancy coming along give me a shout as I will have spare places. My mate (who I am going with this year) doesn't think he will be able to make it next year, and my daughter is not 100% sure either so I could be advertising for people anyway!! I have booked the lake with the Gite accommodation by the way, and this sleeps up to 6. My booked week is from Saturday 27th June and if next year is anything like this, they will be over their spawning by then, Rob (Billy no mates)

Not being able to sprecken der lingo I assume that the above is complimentary????

I'm hoping that they don't think I'm a professional carper with all my Wychwood stuff.

I'll be doing my last minute packing and getting all my gear ready for my first French fishing trip adventure. Can't wait!! Leave early Saturday morning to head down to Dover for the 7.30 ferry, me, my daughter Lydia and my best mate and his Nephew. Excusive use of a four acre lake with lodge accommodation and Carp up to mid 40's. Hopefully the carp will have finished their spawning, and the weather should be glorious. Planning on fishing from first light up until about 9-10am and then the rest of the day will be spent exploring the local eateries and bars with maybe the odd barbecue or three and a pint or two of the Amber Nectar. Will fish again from about 6.00pm through to darkness, which should be quite late bearing in mind the clocks are an hour ahead of us. If they are "having it" then the odd all night session won't be out of the question. No wi-fi out there (thank god!) so my daughter won't be spending all her time on Facebook lol! Will fill you in with the details on our return, I will miss the old forum while I am away!

That's exactly how I fish and I catch enough to keep me happy although I tend to favour bottom baits rather than pop-ups. Only thing I would do is possibly up my hook size (I tend to use size 8 as a minimum, usually a 6) but this, of course, depends a lot on the size of your bait (to a certain extent). I tend to use an 18mm boilie (just prefer it) but will sometimes go down to a 16mm depending on venue. Hook wise, I am a big fan of the Gardner covert mugga's. Turn nicely in the fishes mouth and usually result in a good bottom lip hookhold. I also try to match my hook length to the type of lake bed I'm fishing, so will swap between a darker silt coloured coated braid or a greener "weedier" colour. I always use 15lb breaking strain and will strip it back a little at the eye of the hook to allow a little movement, also stripping the part that forms the hair. Mainline tends to be 10lb (Shimano Technium black) unless I am fishing somewhere particularly snaggy or weedy when I will up it to 12 or 15lb as necessary. I always use a coated braid rather than uncoated, as an uncoated braid can (can) lead to tangles. I try to use as light a lead as possible, trying to get away with just as much as I need to get me the required distance. I only fish smallish waters so the biggest lead I ever use is a 1oz flat pear and I can still whack this out a fair way if necessary. I'm trying to create as little disturbance of the water as I possibly can, and a well flighted 1oz lead sounds little more than another boilie being thrown in. I hear the splashes some guys make flying out much bigger leads than are necessary and it makes me shudder sometimes! 8" is about the length of hook length I use, unless I know the venue is particularly silty and then I might go to a 12" one to make sure my bait is not dragged down into it. The use of a light lead helps here too, last thing you want is a heavy lead sinking and pulling your bait down through the crud. Seems like you are doing everything right, and there is no reason why your simple running lead set up shouldn't catch you plenty of fish (if you are on them that is!).

Covert Mugga's. 'nuff said

Terrible. Bring back National Service is what I say

I would not use rods without them now.... And don't forget that the lines resistance through the water is also going to help set the hook.

:roll:

You say it so much better than me! By using the rod clip to give that initial resistance, it has the same effect as you lifting into the take to to set the hook properly. Doesn't mean you now don't have to pick the rod up, but I have it firmly in my head that using the rod clip will assist in a better hooking of the fish.

I was always told that as soon as my line starts flying out, the hook is already set? Isn't the idea of the hair rig that the fish hooks itself the second it tries to blow out the bait??? That's what I was told anyway??? The slight resistance felt by the fish as it pulls the line out of the clip just buries the hook a little deeper? Or am I speaking total and utter ballcocks.

I always fish a running rig, and use the lightest leads I can get away with for the given situation. For instance, at Stream Valley, I can actually get away with a lead of under an ounce as it's a very narrow lake and not much of a chuck to be fishing the far margin. Biggest lead I ever use is about an ounce, wherever I fish. I have never struggled with hook holds, Have you got line clips on your rods? If you have, can I suggest you use them (that's assuming you aren't already?). Not only do they tidy up the angle of the line going from your reels to your bobbins, but I find that extra "ping" as the fish pulls the line from the clip helps set the hook. My old rods (Chubs) had line clips fitted to them as standard. My new rods (Free Spirits) don't, so I purchased a couple off of ebay and have fitted them. I think they really do make a difference. The other good thing about clipping up is that if you are distracted at all, for whatever reason, and you miss a take, one glance down at your rods will show you whether you have had one by token of the fact that the line is now out of the clip. You don't have to pull the line right down to the bottom of the clip, but just enough that there is a bit of resistance before your line releases. These are the ones that I purchased, come in a pack of three (always useful ) and are dead simple to fit. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Greys-Universal-Line-Clip-Pack-Of-3-GALC010-/390765864727?pt=UK_SportingGoods_FishingAcces_RL&hash=item5afb75e717

I would personally recommend buying some decent fluoro to make up your hooklinks. "Soft Ghost" is pretty good, and 12lb breaking strain would be ideal. If I were fishing just the silty lake I would use a coated braid hoolink like Korda's n-trap or Jel-e-wyre, ideally in a dark "silty" colour. If the lake is really silty, I would make my hooklinks at least 10" long, so that your bait doesn't sink into the silt too much, and would also use as light a lead as I could get away with. A lighter coloured bait would also be my preference, so that it stands out a little from the dark silt.

I'm just down the road about to go to work. It's not very nice is it????