adamkitson

Cannot disagree with you there! That said, a Jag bank stick sets you back nearly £30 a piece, when a stick from the hedge would do the same job. All about what you want and how deep your pockets are. Don't think I'd buy the Korda ones. Only cause I'd rather an extra bag of bait and the sticks I've got.

Worth noting that at this time of year a serious leaf fall and subsequent decomposing leaves on the bottom will drastically affect the oxygen levels in the water. If you have a lake where there is a serious leaf fall in one area, or if the wind is blowing the leaves into a bay, or to one end for example, then fishing away from this area may help. There are always exceptions of course, if there are fish showing in leafy areas obviously don't ignore them, and if the whole lake bed is covered in leaves then it won't help, but if there are no signs and the bed under your favourite tree is thick with leaves, I might consider trying somewhere else.

JRC one looks good to me. I like the mesh bit behind the front bar. Able to put smaller stuff on it without needing a chair or something as a base first. I've had a fair bit of JRC stuff. Always been pretty good.

It's a daft argument this. Not using sticks is simply stubbornly refusing to use a method that is more recent in its creation. The only requirement here is that you can get your line into the clip where it needs to be, and for me, can still do the same if you loose your line marker, ie, have to cut 20 yards off the mainline, etc. You can either walk it up the bank, or you can wrap it around something. That is as far as it goes. Sticks are better cause they don't mean you have your line sprawled out across the bank, abrasion anyone?, they can be kept close to your swim so you're on your rods, and the distances are exactly repeatable over and over again. Walking it out is better cause you don't have to use a technique that you first saw on thinking tackle, and you don't need to spend about a tenner on a couple of extra sticks. There are no other benefits above sticks. Marking the line as well means you can get back into the clip before reeling in if you haven't had a run, so don't need the sticks every time. i like the Nash spot on for this. Little blob on the line, job done.

I use the Korda quick change swivel which looks pretty much the same for every single rig and lead setup I use, apart from pva bags. Each one has an anti tangle sleeve pushed over the loop in the rig and the qc swivel. There is the regular swivel for in line, running lead and lead clip, and the qc ring swivel for heli lead setups. I have never had one let me down. Not sure if be too comfortable without a sleeve over the qc end though.

That assumes you know how far to walk it out. Fact is, knowing where to walk it out to, and knowing how many wraps, is exactly the same, with the exception that with sticks you can clip up as far as you like without leaving the swim and without needing available bank to walk it to. In your scenario you're walking down the bank with line out on the ground between you and your rods, however far that may be, in the dark. My sticks cost less than a pot of pop ups, and remove all risk of issue.

This is what happened to me: Cast to clip and marked up line with elastic. Fishing a far margin spot. Caught a fish. It got dark. Ireperably tangled the line. How would you get back on the spot?? With sticks, very very easily. With marked line, impossible.

Or just use sticks. Why ever not? Don't need to be £60 ones. Such a good tool. Would you really intentionally bring in 2 other rods off a 120 yard spot so you could walk them all out and re cast them, just so you don't have to use stick?

I seemed to switch between sticks and line marks for no apparent reason. On my trip last week I was fishing a far margin spot with elastic marked distance and no sticks. Got a run on dusk, landed the fish, managed to somehow make an absolute birds nest mess of my line. Never happened before, don't even know how it happened. So now I'm fishing a far margin spot, too dark to see where the cast lands, with no marker or clipped up rod. No way of getting it back on the spot until daylight the next day. Sticks all the time for me from now on!

The sharpening kit I got is by Pinpoint Hooks, they also do a product called an "end game marker" specifically designed for the shiney bit created by sharpening hooks to stop glint and corrosion. You get 3 in a pack, green brown and black, for about a tenner so not much more than a few sharpies and designed for the job. The hooks look good coloured up. Not tried one in a lake yet, so will report back later in the week when I've had a chance to get one wet.

Yeah fair point, and most probably true. Good fun though, and satisfying. Something to do on the bank too when it's pitch dark and cold. Time will tell if it helps or hinders.

But this is contradictory. On one hand, some hooks are sharper than others, with the sharpest being best. On the other hand, if a hook is too sharp it can be detrimental. So are you saying there is a fine line of sharpness where a hook must be sharp enough but not too sharp? I think this is pretty subjective, and probably based on favouring the properties of one brand or type. You can't say "some hooks aren't sharp enough" then say that sharpening them is detrimental. Only just started out with this hand sharpening lark. Think I'll start with as sharp as I can get, and experiment from there.

Arguments for and against as with everything. Apart from when fishing with the hook likely to be in amongst the gravel, I can't see why you wouldn't want the sharpest hook possible. Looking through a pack of ten hooks, previously I'd chuck a couple that didn't come up to standard. Now these can all be used. I'm not saying a decent sharp hook out of the pack won't catch fish. Of course it will, we've all been doing it from the birth of fishing until recently, but I think it's generally accepted that for every actual run, our hook bait is being picked up multiple times, anything we can do to get the number of runs closer to the number of pick ups has to be good. Think it was Kevin Nash that said when he started sharpening hooks the first thing he noticed was different hook holds. Some were in the bottom lip, some weren't. The logic being that previously any pickup where the hook doesn't act exactly as we would like and flip into the ideal position would result in the bait being dealt with without a bleep. With sharper hooks these takes were catching and resulting in fish. On a lake where your bait is going to get picked up 20 times in a day resulting in 5 or so fish, probably not too much of a problem. If you're getting picked up once or twice in a week if your lucky, if you can up your odds of converting a pick up to a run its a big deal. Not gonna revolutionise your fishing, sure. But little improvements add up.

Might just have to do that. Be worth it for 3 or 4 sessions.

I've got some grease to stop corrosion. Also got the green brown and black marker pens which stop the corrosion and the glint from the exposed metal. Done 3 packs so far. Definitely addictive!