greekskii

not just hookbaits, I defrost my freebies with a good dose of it!! Havent been this winter though in favour of other liquids, which have not worked as of yet so probably time to get down to aldi or lidl. I do wish they made a cheap flavoured baileys. Can't bring myself to spend £15 on the chocolate luxe baileys just to put on boilies!

tea or coffee for the most part. bottle of baileys maybe in the van to add to coffee or neat. Brandy maybe if I'm feeling extra special.

I look at the situation, half the rules these days go against fish safety. Take the estate lake for instance, maximum size 8 barbless hooks. Loads of snags and pads present and the fish fight hard. No wonder a lot of them have awful mouth damage. A size 8 tears out much easier than a size 4. I ignored the barbless & hook size rule. I only lost 4 fish due to proper hook pulls (2 of which were snagged up in the undercut island roots, 1 bend the hook out and the other seemingly bounced out). I lost a bunch at the start of the season but they bounced out quickly and I figured out why and adapted my approach to stop it happening. Fish safety wise I feel I did much less damage on hook pulls & captures than size 8 barbless hooks would have done.

agreed, but I suppose many angles will abide by the rules because they read them. I wont lie, I dont follow the rules if I think they are stupid. I am confident in how I fish with leaders and barbed hooks to know I am not using them stupidly (why the rule is in place) and endangering fish.

I think it’s meant to be carpy to kiss fish. but being carpy is sitting on the floor in your bivvy next to a perfectly good bedchair and sleeping bag.

I think i've only done it once, like the quickest of pecks on the top of the head. But it was a fish I cherised and was in a moment of pure elation. Tbh, its not like they are sticking their tongues down their throats is it, and in most pictures you cant actually see them properly kissing it, I bet the is a few mm of gap you dont see.

I've seen vids of carp cruising around with backs out the water from this weekend in the sunshine. It aint winter yet!!

if you are bang in to tech then the new direction alarms are good. bluetooth to phone controls and all sorts.

just seems like instead of the glossy finish the x wrap has a matt finish. the pictures dont even show it that well as its all photoshoot stuff, not on the bank/in someones hands photos.

shame theres no picture of the matt finish. I'd be keen to see one

never heard of one, may not have been a CTX as a different blank would mean its not the same rod?

Freespirit CTX is an exceptional rod. I know loads of guys using them. I would but the styling is not for me. Abbreviated handles and the x-wrap design on the blank puts me off.

Re-freezing doesn’t give them any life but it keeps them going. Perfectly fine as long as you understand that every day thawed is a day off it’s life. Ask any bait maker and they will tell you this.

Normally overnight delivery. Boilies are fine to be re-frozen.

people will be swimming out to retrieve downed drones in the middle of the lakes because of their value which has huge H&S implications flying them around too low and crashing them being an idiot with it to annoy others drone wars in the sky between anglers using them to fish out of you swim and unsafe areas as people do with bait boats privacy issues noise its illegal to do without the proper permissions (leaseholders dont cut it I dont think, has to be the landowner) looks like there is a few reasons..

Agree with Yonny. Do what you are confident in and fish well and catch the fish. Someone has done well on particle, everyone else has fished particle ever since. no fish come out on boilies because no-one fishes on them! "you wont get them to eat sweetcorn or maize in here mate, they dont like yellow baits" I chucked a handful maize in the margin under a snag and watched 5 carp demolish it about 10 minutes after I heard that.

Echo this. Sometimes I do just drop in a swim on my instincts and knowledge because I think it’ll give me the best chance at some point. Whether a change in wind overnight means it may come good in the morning as I pack up or something. A pre-planned attack.

For me I am confident in my bait and my approach (multi rigs or chods). Really the only part of the puzzle left for me is location, and that's where it's all down to me. I sometimes make the wrong decisions but as long as I act on it by moving or keeping a note of it for next time I am happy. I think the biggest downfall in an angler is stubbornness, I've fallen foul of it a couple of times, determined to get a bite from an area or a swim when I know i'm p*ssing in the wind and should be elsewhere. I am confident that I know what I'm doing though and I know how to find the fish. Sometimes you just cant though and you have to make you're best judgement on previous knowledge and the conditions, if that is the case and I blank then I dont worry too much about it.

Anything will work as long as the levels are right.

oddly ive had loads of fish on pop-ups over particle. tench, bream, carp, pike 😂 From real low pop ups to blatant 3 inchers

You're right, they find the most comfortable depth, which is the most stable temperature-wise. Normally the middle layers as cold water is denser and sinks.

not sure what you are trying to achieve with that rig tbh. As elmo says its way too close to the lead and the hook angle is too severe. It is also a running rig which doesnt suit the short hooklength thing you are likely looking to achieve. I have seen people do well straight off the lead with 2/3 inch pop ups using inline or COG leads and a running kit set up does not act in any way the same. How are you expecting the rig to act underwater?

Shocking that the police are at it as well!

Big hooks all the way. I use a minimum size 6 with 4s being my fave. I drop to 8s in winter normally if I switch to a more commercial water. For me I would rather potentially hook less fish but know when I do hook a fish the hook can cope with whatever may happen during the figh (snags, weed, etc) Reasons being: 1 - the larger gape between shank and point means more flesh is gripped so much less chance of losing fish 2 - easier to balance pop ups using less putty or shot so neater rigs 3 - stronger hooks as wire is always thicker than smaller sizes I will also disagree with the whole small fish dont pick up big hooks. I have personally caught 2lb bream & tench on size 4s popped up 2 inches off the deck.

In order to combat this issue is use a hook bead to keep the loop in place.