adamkitson

A lot of how thermocline a affect how warmer and colder water move up and down, where the temps are warmer or even just more stable, and where the oxygen rich water is affects the fish more than the overall temp. It is also affected by other stuff. Weed, leaves, wind etc. Really interesting subject. Definitely relevant to carp fishing.

That's the problem with anything presented that starts with "I believe" is that it's not a fact.

There are no "depths". Top third, middle third, and bottom third, broadly speaking. Even an inch of water can be decided into thirds. Shallower the water, more disrupted they are by water movement etc, but I can assure you, in any more than 3 feet of lake water temp bands come into play, hence, zigs working in winter/spring, pike anglers presenting baits in the middle third (cause that's where the bait fish sit) What's even more key is the temp point that the bottom and top layer switch places in terms of being the warmer/colder, and how the various temps affect oxygen content which affects digestion and appetite.

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.

Take water temps in a few places each time you visit. Thermoclines and moving warm / colder water can affect this, but as a general rule, as the overall average water temp drops and stays low the fish will slow down and eat less.

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.

Yeah exactly! I've always found this. It's so routine now to want a different bait in the winter without fish meals, how about just feed less!? Does the same job. Yeah oily pellets or very high oil boillies may not be ideal in really cold water, but a winterised version of a recognised fish meal bait will always imo out fish a new bait on the short term. For me, a new bait should be established when feeding activity is high. By the time you need it it's too late. Reduced amounts of a tweaked version of what they are used to is always going to win for me.

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!

Not bad for free. About a mile of free river Severn through Ironbridge. Plenty more around on day tickets. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Will be drop shotting for perch around the over hanging trees and stuff. Might pick a good chub up on this.

Ah it's all good fun. The idea is to mix it up a bit and not really care too much what grabs the bait. Just trotting a float along and see what happens. I will be doing some species fishing. Barbel, pike, perch. The trotting gear is just for quick session fun. My carp fishing will remain my main focus, not going to get too invested in the other stuff. Just a bit of fun for a few hours when I can't get out for a carp trip or if they've shut up shop. High summer and mid winter really.

Yeah it seemed like there were millions of them. Right in the margin was worst. If I dropped the hook in acidentaly for a second I had a minnow on. Even with 4 mags on a size 16 they had it. Might try a bit of ground bait, small tight balls, and trot worms or paste over it for the chub. Other than that, yeah ledger/feeder, but if I'm doing that I could be carp fishing. Might have a rod out on barbel tactics on an alarm then trot a float for smaller fish. Great fun though, even for the little ones.

Been about 25 years since I first cast a line, still loved catching a new fish, and learning a new technique. Looking forward to getting better at it!

First little bash with the new centre pin gear on the river this evening. Great fun way to spend 3 hours and 2 pints of maggots. Managed many many dace, various sizes, nothing massive. Never caught a dace before. There were larger fish about, but I struggled to get through the small dace and minnows. Managed at the end to start getting the bigger dace. Was time to go all too soon! Some work to do to master the centre pin, but by the end I had it moving nicely, and was able to fish further out into the river. 2 things were frustrating. Minnows, and the line bedding in so it changed direction without warning! Need less line, need less minnows! Although they did help me with my biggest capture. Dropped a minnow back, to see him get absolutely nailed by a perch while he was getting his barings! Next minnow was dispatched, and nicked onto my size 16 and lowered in. Result, nice perch about 1.5lb. The one that I saw was a lot bigger. Put a good bend in the rod. Will be walking that stretch with a drop shot rod in the very near future! All in all, great fun! Will be nice to have a bit of variety this winter. Nice to have a few fish and a bit of time by the water. Will have to work out how to get theough to the chub, some nice ones there I'm told.

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.