Gazlaaar

I still remain convinced that a good nutritional bait will out score any other bait, long term. Yes if you put any bait in front of a hungry carp it will get taken, but when your fishing blind, and lets be honest we all fish blind to a certain degree, you are relying on a good quality bait to catch you fish. It also comes down to how you fish as well, if your fishing a lot of waters a good shelf bought bait will pay dividends. However if your concentrating on one particular water for a length of time your better off using a good nutritional profiled bait to keep the fish eating again and again. You can by some very nutritious, good baits now, but most of them have high attractor levels which can with time be associated with danger. Which is where making your own comes into its own, you can make any shape, any buoyancy, you can even change something as simple as the flavour label, should your catch rates start to slow up, hence the interest in amino's and other attractors. I am relatively new to making my own and I have a very big thirst to know more, all in a step of maybe giving my baits that extra 1%.

I just have a genuine interest in bait, im one of those people who likes to understand what works and why

I have a big interest in baits, making my own, and I genuinely think this is the only area that carp fishing can progress.

It was Mark Bryant from Baitworks I honestly can't see any benefits to the elongated D, I presume its to let the pop up slide back when its blown out, as the bait is a pop up it'll never make full use of the D as the only direction the pop up wants to go is upwards. I think the original chod or hinged stiff rig have been developed to their full potential and this rig offers no more benefits to those but saying all that, rigs are a very personal thing and if it works for him then why not

Turnip I hope you don't mind me asking but, amino's, pH levels and enzymes all have a very close relationship, wouldn't an effective amino depend on the pH level in the water your fishing, and seeing as pH levels fluctuate, I would assume this would make deciding which amino's are best very hard indeed. Or would using a number of amino's cater for most pH fluctuations.

Use the flat side of a 50 pence piece, put the coated braid on a hard surface, place the edge of a 50 pence piece on top of the material and pull.

The Boa Rig, isn't one of those rigs that you want to use as a starting point. Its better utilised once you know how the fish are reacting to your rigs. Its loosely based around the Hermit and Silicone rig. If you are going to try it, use the weakest elastic possible.

I must say having the jump down the throat attitude isn't going to do you any favours, As for you rig question, a simple size 11 ring swivel with the bait pulled over half of the swivel gives total separation between hook and bait and is best used with a balanced bait to negate the weight of the swivel.

I have to say im a big coleman fan myself

I read a piece by Terry Dempsey who purposefully wants his rig to land in a heap. Food for thought

Feathering needs practice, let your finger hover over the spool during the cast, just so you can feel the line slapping your finger. Just as the lead is about to hit the surface of the water, trap the line to the spool, using your finger and gently lift the rod as the rig sinks. When you feel a donk, you have hit bottom. All your trying to do is throw the rig out in front by trapping the line with your finger. Lifting the rod during descent will hopefully keep the whole rig straightened out. If your paranoid that this hasn't worked try two foam nuggets and drag the rig back towards yourself when you feel the donk. It made sense in my head, sorry if it doesn't in yours lol