greekskii

Too right. Beating panama 6-1 was a poor result IMO. Even Rio Ferdinand said that the Panama team would struggle in English non-league! Belgium seemingly won’t have a full squad out so the real test for England will be in the next round. Playing for survival. Could be the year though, I’ve got Croatia, Portugal or England as winners with the bookies.

Yes. Putty on the swivel. Otherwise the mono will be lifted by the pop up.

Have you tried the new fox edges drop off heli kit? Great bit of kit.

Lost my first American carp today. Hooked on a worm, all of 1lb or so. On super light tackle it took me round the scaffolding of the jetty we were fishing from. Hook ended up bent out. Fair to say I was gutted! but I did catch a bluegill so I didn’t blank! New species for me too.

I recently took it off and went back to the Fox submerge leadfree leader for my fishing on the reserve due to so many snags. I watched a near 30 suss my set up out whilst stalking on there. I think I’ll be going back to the avid stuff after witnessing how this fish took a good hour circling my spot before doing the off.

Saw the senas one on Facebook. Seemingly it is a fake. Someone pointing out how badly match anglers handle fish. Pic might be fake but the problem is still there.

It’s the avid outline that I’ve used for almost a year now and rate it highly. Seen me through dense lily pads and snags and sinks like a brick. Invisible too.

probably @yonny but from what I've seen it is a good line and highly rated by the lads that use it. I'll give it a go, HD has been a very good line for me, but I've heard some stories of if going downhill. I got the first release, it wasnt available for a while and the newer stuff seems to kink easily and not sink as well. I clipped on a spin doctor to sort out some twist I had a few weeks ago, the line came back more twisted than it was originally!! Not quite sure how, it's a simple thing to do, start short, go longer. Led the lead stop spinning after each cast.

Just to add, I have just looked it up and 18lb in Gardner GT-HD is 0.39mm and you get 800 odd metres on a spool. PB Control line at 0.38mm has a breaking strain of 28lb and supplied on a 1250m spool. As you said, if you go with diameter as I do, you get a higher BS as a result, an overall stronger line. Makes sense! The 24lb seems perfect. Same diameter as the 15lb GT-HD but 9lb stronger BS!

It did me initially, but then you can up the breaking strain and retain the same thickness line as a would normally use. I did also watch him saw in to a branch with the 18lb stuff.

Never had problem with my HD line until it had got a lot of use. Now it’s being temperamental. A friend put me on to the PB products control mono. Seen it in the flesh and it’ll be on my reels when I respool. Silly thin diameters with high breaking strain and it lives up to it too. 24lb is 0.35. It also sinks very well. I’d say a tad better than the HD, which I found to be very easy to sink once wet. A bit expensive at £25 per 1000m but it comes on a larger diameter spool to help stop any coil memory.

And the reason for the odd mirror is because you have hundreds of surviving offspring (to fingerling size at least) per female. In artificial environments it’s more. In the wild the chances of two recessive carrying commons spawning together and the double recessive gene offspring surviving is low but then you may have multiple recessive carriers spawning together and a larger % of non commons than normal. At the danger of this getting dogmatic the OPs chances of a mirror are low.

not entirely as you can always have a recessive or mutation. I have spawned two common carp, albeit they were koi, and a % came out as lins, leathers and mirrors. If you ask any fish farmer are 100% of the offspring of two common carp also common carp the answer will be no. It is the dominant gene and will eventually take over but to say two commons can NEVER have an offspring of any other scale pattern just isnt true.

scale patterns are like eye colour in humans. I have some old uni notes on this but wont be able to dig through them until July but I will do when I get back from my holiday. I'm pretty sure its the same as human eye colour, so 2 commons breeding, both may have the recessive gene which means some offspring will be mirrors. The 'common' is the dominant gene so you'd need both commons to carry the recessive 'mirror' gene for a mirror to be produced. 2 commons can make a mirror, just like two brown eyed parents can make a blue eyed child. Otherwise there would be no mirror carp in existence! A common and mirror carp are both what we know as 'common carp'. the same species as ghost carp and koi carp too. The only differing thing between them is scale patterns and colour pigmentation.

agreed. I just like a bit of hot weather, does the population a world of good!! Today I'm trying to get motivated to write the final part of my blog on the estate lake, I have May to do and then a little end of season round-up before taking a little step back to keep my fishing low key. I'll be writing blogs but not posting them until the time is right. Hopefully a couple of product reviews and casual trips with friends will be written up in the meantime though. I think most of the content from the next two blogs will be written whilst on the plane for my holiday, to be published early July.

Apology accepted 😂 but only if you tell me when summer is back!!

I thought the thought of the day thread was a good one. So I suppose, let’s revive it. We’ve had a shed load of rain today, as has most the country. Where has summer gone?!

The door is always open to go back there. I just know it won’t be anytime soon and things change so maybe I won’t want to go back! You’re right though, I’ve got my monies worth and etched my name in the history books with the first ever 30. I need to go carve my initials in to a tree down there (I do it everywhere I finish with). The next place is a different kettle, 10 fish (that I’ve seen with my own eyes) in 4.5 acres. Roughly just under half is accessible and potentially fishable. New challenge, new buzz and its more my type of fishing... luckily for whatever reason it isn’t gin clear yet this year so they won’t see me coming!

I’ve got the new fox drop off help system. Works a treat. Thread on a top bead, a quick link and another bead (or not if you don’t want to) then the Fox system and off you go. Handy as it has a tapered sleeve if you wish naked chods which is removable in the event you fish leaders or leadcore.

Just wrapping up my last session on the estate lake. 4 fish over 2 nights and a load of messing about on the boat and trying to nab one of the surface. Anyone else ever get emotional when you finish with somewhere and leave for the last time?

I’m out tonight and tomorrow. Turned up around 3pm and found a good number of fish in the shallower end of the lake. Went with it and got some bait out and then left it whilst going out on the boat to tidy up the multiple rigs hanging from various trees on the island. Come back to find the area almost empty of fish. I was reluctant to move and stayed put, against everything I know about place. Regret it now it’s almost dark so a quick move at first light should see me with a better chance of a few fish. Last time fishing here for the foreseeable so I want to end on a high!

I get that, I religiously use two bits of foam in pva mesh with the hook inbetween

it shouldnt matter with connectors. you should be able to get them to connect different diameter pipes, say a 32mm (1" I/D) to a 25mm (3/4" I/D).

I can imagine them being awesome for chub on the rivers. Look like some kind of pupae

persevere with it, the fish have to be in front of you for you to have a chance.