Angel Minkov

How do you load yours? Regardless of how I load mine, it always has twist, especially after a session.

Hey, Nige. Got a reply yet?

The rods will be Daiwa Mission DFs. They'll be mainly for medium distance work with pop-up rigs such as chods and hinged stiff rigs, maybe the occasional PVA bag

Straightforward question. These will be my first carp reels. The Windcast is the 2017 model, but I wanted to ask the people on here for opinions. I'm leaning towards the windcast

The Citruz smelled absolutely gorgeous, they had good colors and great buoyancy... Such a pity, I really liked the pop-ups...

I will definitely try, thanks guys!

Thanks a lot, Nige!

I've watched it, it's the reason I wan't to visit Paris, but I felt I should ask to be clear if there is anything I need to do in order to fish there legally. Wouldn't want to go there and violate any laws and have problems

Hellow, fellows. I'll be visiting Paris in the summer and was very keen on fishing some park lakes, but have no idea if its allowed. Do I need to buy a fishing license of some sort? Is it legal? Thanks in advance, tight lines!

Do you guys think the Daiwa Ballistic Ex-H 4000 would be a good choice for match and feeder fishing? Its either the ballistic, match winner QDA or TDM3012... Any recommendations?

I recently bought a big spool of Daiwa Sensor 6 pound line, which I obviously didn't spool properly and now the line has horrible twist which gets worse after I play a fish to the point where I have to completely remove a few ft of it. Any idea how to remove it? From what I know, I need to make sure the line exits the top of the spool counter-clockwise, but would that work now, or should I just re-spool? Thanks in advance!

Daiwa TDR4012 is a great reel

Strange, I thought I posted the second set of pictures in another topic in this subforum? Is it possible to delete either set?

Just beat my PB last Saturday whilst fishing the pellet waggler. 4 carp and 2 grasscarp in total, one of the carp was 11.50kg, so around 25+lb. Turned out to be a great sesh with some beautiful fish!

Well, well, well, another Saturday, another pellet waggler session. This time with a new PB of 25 pound carp and 25 pound grass carp! Pictures of the 25 pound fish below, as well as 2 of the other 4 carp I caught. This time some real stunners made me wet my net!

On the subject of how to fill your spool - sadly I filled my new Daiwa TDR reel with line JUST before reading the replies here and now there is horrible twist on it. Any idea how to undo it? Sorry for hijacking, just didn't feel like opening a new thread when this one had some info about my question, hope its okay ^^

I forgot to say how impressed I am by the Maver hooks I used, absolute beasts! They performed admirably - every fish was nailed and there was no way that hook was coming off. I used size 10s for this session and I'll use them for many sessions to come, that's for sure! I'll be visiting the venue again soon for sure, but this time for some method feeder action

Well, the week after I went back to do some more feeder fishing, but aside from a few line bites the only thing I caught was a sunburn lol I couldn't let things stay like that for long so naturally I visited it on Monday to do some pellet waggler fishing. I arrived at the venue around 7:30 in the morning. It was still chilly and a thick fog soon appeared above the water, but I didn't mind. I set up my rig quickly, put on a band, a pellet and started the usual thing you do when fishing the pellet waggler - casting, feeding, casting, feeding. Soon after a fellow angler chose a spot just a few yards away from me and chose to fish for carp using a zig rig and boilies. There is a trend on this venue for carpers to come with heavy leads, cast 10 metres in front of them and feed with a blanket of pellets, for whatever reason. I usually don't mind, but he was right next to me and his inaccuracy was so bad he was crossing my swim with his line and on top of that shooting loads of pellets right next to my float, which naturally meant the fish would follow them to the bottom when they couldn't eat all of them. After a few hours of this I decided I'd had enough and moved at around 1:30 PM to a spot which I noticed didn't get as much wind and is generally overlooked by anglers on this venue. I went there, fired 2 or 3 pouchfulls pellets and cast. After just a few minutes I was in with my first fish, a grass carp. I usually don't enjoy fishing for them, because while they're in the water they don't fight at all, but god forbid you put them on the mat - they go crazy. Took a picture and slipped it back in the water. A couple of minutes after I was in with another fish - this time a lovely, golden mirror. I left it in the mat and quickly went to ask a fellow angler for a picture, but by the time I came back, it had kicked its way into the swim (I deliberately left the mat right on the edge so the carp wouldn't damage itself were it to start kicking and rolling on the grass). I felt a bit down for not being able to take a picture with this beauty, but soon proceeded with my fishing. Another bite soon followed, but I had just answered a call from my mom so I couldn't play the carp properly and it unhooked itself. No biggie. Cast a few times and I was into another huge grass carp, which I really didn't want to net, so as soon as it got close to my net and I saw it, I let off a little slack line and it unhooked itself. Really had no intentions of being whacked around by that thing lol After that I had some missed bites - the darn things always decided they'd have my pellet right as I was feeding. So after moving and having some peace and quiet, I had 2 big fish, 2 unhooked and a few bites. I didn't get much action for the next hour, but then came the prize of the trip - a lovely 20 pounder, absolutely gorgeous carp. I must've played it for around an hour or so, but eventually it was in my net. I shot 2-3 pouchfulls of pellets in the swim, because I saw loads of fish splashing in front of me, so I knew there were still carp around. I just couldn't cast right away, because I was absolutely exhausted by that battle. I checked my phone, noticed 3 missed calls from my dad so naturally I called him to see what's up. Right as he answered I saw him on the near margin, coming towards me. He had some business with my grandfather nearby and it was already around 5:30PM, so they decided to pick me up, because I have to change loads of public transport to get to the lake. I told him I wasn't quite done and I cast. Picked up the catapult, 2-3 pellets, fed, twitched my float and got a bite. I was in again! And it felt big. Another 20 pounder on the pellet waggler, which gave me another battle which lasted an hour. I was absolutely exhausted after that, so I packed up and went home. My dad had the honor of netting the last fish, he was stoked!

Thanks for the advice, yonny! "Also make sure it's going onto the reel in the direction it comes off the reel, otherwise you'll impart 360 degrees of twist into the line for every turn of the reel." I didn't understand this part, though. What did you mean by it?

How would you recommend I load my line? To be fair, I never gave it much thought, I just make sure to dip it in water for an hour or so before loading and then make sure its tight. Anything else you would recommend?

Yeap, but it was there ever since I bought it, so perhaps its just normal, hence why I said it didn't sound right to me ^^

To be honest, in my country I don't have that big of a choice... I don't regret buying the Daiwa reel, it performed admirably on its first real challenge, I'm sure I will enjoy it for many years to come ^^ Though I've heard only good reviews for Shimano, they must make excellent reels - maybe i'll try them out when the time comes to change mine

I'm actually eyeing the crosscast x 5000 model for my carp fishing... They seem very good for their price.

Hello, guys. I'd like to hear your general opinions/experiences from Daiwa reels - it would be best to mention the model and its pros/cons. Nothing specific, just 2-3 sentences. People from my country's carping forum are giving AWFUL reviews for Daiwa reels which I just cannot believe... I recently got a Daiwa TDM3012 which performed excelently on my last trip, although when reeling in and backwinding it gives off a strange sound which doesn't sound right to me, but it had no problems when I was battling a 20lb mirror. From what I've heard, and seen, Daiwa are the best there is at the moment and the reviews I read today came as a complete shock to me...

Too bad this wasn't on the river from that topic, Nick! I'd be over the moon with such a result on it... It keeps its fish a very tight secret I'll be visiting the venue again this Sunday again hopefully, we'll see how it goes!