greekskii

Yeah, the report was published in 2006....the actual experiment carried out much before this...in 2006 it states he was a respected professional in this field, yet the study was part of his 3rd year thesis, how long did it take him to become a respected professional, likely more than 10 years.

I had a couple ciders too. Not ice cold but went down a treat with the slightly burnt dinner!

Had one of the stockies about an hour ago. Didn’t break in to double figures. More chances will come, im just blessed to have the lake to myself on a stunning day. I thought it would be rammed.

Only one on the lake. Not quite sure what’s going on! just lost one of the rare commons from the lake too. Fresh lily growth meant I gave it the elbow a bit more than I should have and ping went the hook and burnt went my dinner! All round nightmare.

It sounds a busy lake too, I'd be making sure my lines were proper slack and everything as hidden as possible. As @yonny says, wafters are normally a killer tactic on the wary fish.

I’ve not ever thought about trying to find the stuff from elsewhere. Used the Korda stuff all my fishing. £3.50 for 50m. Not really expensive

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500M-Braid-Saltwater-FISHING-LINE-SPECTRA-PE-DYNEEMA-547-YARDS-100-SUPER-STRONG/271570781499?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=570396241448&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649 This stuff does the job and for a fraction of the price. One word of warning is that the dye does wash out...I had orange hands the first time I used it!

I was going to get 24mm pop ups made up but then decided I'd just fish through them. Yep, done that twice now! but the other one was on a snowman

tell that to the hordes of small bream and tench I had on the country park fishing 18+15mm snowmen pop ups 3 inches off the deck with size 4s!! if they are ravenous then they will try their luck. But on average yeah, they do pick up the bigger fish and avoid the small stuff. Yeah, I have dropped down to 15mm pops for the estate and fish them tight as possible to the deck most of the time however after a bit of maths... 53 fish landed since June 16th, 2 on bread crust and 3 on snowman baits... leaves 48 on pop ups Total combined weight of these was 855.07lb with an average of 17.12lb approx. which sounds about right... 48 fish including 20 fish over 20lb, 5 of those being over 25lb, and one of those breaking the 30lb barrier. Coincidentally all the fish on snowman baits and off the surface were below 15lb... or maybe not? Luck does come in to it as I said above about the tench and bream! But I do think pop-ups, blatant high ones do pick off bigger fish most of the time. Main reason to use pop-ups is that 90% of those gravel spots you find will have a bit of something on them, silt, silkweed, etc. and it's why I use pop ups just over hook height, to keep the hook point clear of it all

go for the 13s mate, I have used them and they were ideal. 15s youll need a fair bit of weight even with size 4 hooks.

wont catch anything on them if you dont use them. I'm like yonny and use pop-ups for 95% of my fishing, I will put on a snowman no problem but not used a straight bottom bait for years. My go to rig doesnt even suit using one.

It really depends on how you want to fish said pop up. If you want it critically balanced so it slowly settles on the bottom then you need to weight it so it just sinks. A heavy weight will make it sink fast and pin it to the bottom. I tend to use this route when fishing hard bottoms as I think it helps hook grab the lip. If you use a heavy weighted pop up on soft bottoms then there is the potential the hook gets dragged in to muck and masked. Then you have the arguement of the fish. A critically balanced bait acts more natural and will waft up in the water column as fish root about. Some wise old fish have been known to flank the bottom to see which food items move and which ones don’t. Barnwell mirror and the nutsey fish are just two of them.

Mine live rolled down and ready to step in too. Nice sunny day I’ll lay them inside out if I’ve got the sweaty or wet inside somehow (rain) and they’ll dry off very quickly. I need some sunshine so I can lay my new ones out to soften!

I'm interested as I can stash it in the undergrowth and only bring it out when I need it depending on swim choice...but then again I'll be in a fenced place with no other anglers but if it went walkies, it could be replaced.

P.s. I believe the cygnet baiting poles are about £117 at angling direct https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/cygnet-baiting-12m-pole?gclid=Cj0KCQjwh7zWBRCiARIsAId9b4qybujIgsTFPt2QYpiINDoPJ_P31Nn3kXhfZvLjXzxqLRUZcNU66HwaAiA9EALw_wcB

Was having a play with a baiting pole at the weekend. One of the lads had an old 20m pole. Bought second hand for a few quid. He’d binned the top sections and bought the spare top kit from cygnet and Job done. Could a less time consuming but slightly more expensive way around it. Not sure how it would cope with lots of bait though. We just used it to drop a rig right to some snags with a handful of bait.

sensor is a staple of many an angler. Used it all the time when growing up. I have three spare spools with 22lb sensor brown for river fishing. Only downside to it is that it doesnt sink as quickly as more modern monos. I'd look at the PB products mono...18lb in 0.30 diameter and it sinks like a brick. One of the lads on the social with me at the weekend was using the 24lb version @ 0.35mm diameter. I'm tempted to switch from gardner GTHD next time i re-spool

ive got a set of daiwa emblem black reels sitting in my wardrobe ready to be sent for a few customisations. It was a toss up between ultegras, the more expensive daiwa tournie 5000T or the emblems and I went for the emblems based on the fact the first emblems were released yonks ago, same design and still going strong. Similar to the tournies but fraction of the price.

Surely this wouldnt work on hard bottoms, you'd see if there was a layer of silt on top of it but if you cast it on to a gravel area, not much gravel, if any would end up in there, just the substrate below it.

you'll find it difficult as its gated. Jump on the NPFA facebook page and message Ade, he or one of the other members will show you around.

The big pit has the most fish. Some new stock. Not easy by any means. Couple of them just touch 30. Swan and bailey are almost unfishable due to the amount of silt in them. Not many in there either but lookers. Horseshoe/neck/suntrap are fairly weedy. Alright stock with a few pushing upper 20s. Again, nice lookers. The flooding moves some of the stock about but the big pit is mostly unaffected. I fished it a few years back when it was quiet. It’s a bit more popular nowadays but value for money is good

Cheers mate. I could see myself requiring one when I switch venues and casting room is restricted. Bet it is an art. I use anti tangle and foam so I'd assume it goes straight once it melts off and sinks just the line lay for the first couple feet. Almost need to tighten up to the lead and then re-slacken to make sure it's straight.

And if you havent BC could you do a picture guide when you do. One question. How do you ensure you rig lays out as you would hitting the clip?

individual sticks allow you to position your rods where you want them at any angle or position. something you cant really do with pods. However pods can be used on any surface (not safely though) whereas sticks cant. You can buy stage stands for sticks and these will work on wood. However if your fishery is silly enough to install the plastic platforms then it's pod only, and those can be dragged across the plastic ones anyway.

same as the syncro seemed to suddenly be awful.