Barry C

You might also like to check the bail arm on your reel. I had a daiwa airbail model that had a tiny gap between the bail wire and the cast body. The line would go in the gap and get cut to ribbons. I also lost fish until I found it.

Hi Alex plenty of info there to go on. You do'nt use the setup and knots that I would use but I would'nt expect what you are doing to fail with 10lb line and 8lb fish. The number one thing that occurs to me is if you think the line is parting at a swivel are you moistening the knot before pulling it tight. Just put some saliva on the knot before you pull it tight. Failure to lubricate can severely weaken your line with the friction involved. I would tie the hook on using a palomar knot and the swivels using a grinner. They can be found here http://www.marinews.com/fishing-knots/grinner-knot/364/ For the size fish you have i would usually use a 1.5 test rod with a 30 size fixed spool loaded with 8lb line straight through to the hook, no swivels or float. Might use a controler float if I fished where the fish were further out but I mainly fish the margins.

Ive often wondered if pike go for frog lures because they think they are frogs or purely strike at the movement. The shallow end of the res I fish gets full of frogs at spawning time. I know theres pike there cos ive had a few but never seen them after the easy meal of frods in the margins.

Dont think it is just pike. There seems to be something in the air lately. Saw roach and carp doing the same thing at the weekend. A lot of the roach had very thick slime on them so as to appear almost white. Did catch a few fish but they realy werent having it. I thought maybe the tearing about was due to low dissolved oxygen and they were trying to force more water over their gills, similar to holding a barbel in a strong flow after capture.

Love the line by Jack Nicholson in ''As good as it gets''. When asked as a writer how he managed to get inside a womans mind he replied ''I just think of a man and take away all logic and reasoning''.

Pike fight very hard in the summer. If caught on light tackle they will often be played to a standstill before landing. With the often low oxygen levels in the water at this time of year fish recovery can be a big issue. The fish will often need long periods of coaxing before it is strong enough to swim off. Even then they may not be fully recovered and can still go belly up. If you must fish for them in the summer use heavy enough gear to land them quickly and hold them upright in the water until fully ready to swim off.

What makes you think that Worms? Nothing could be further from the truth. I very rarely fish for carp, except for my favourite Crucians. I will occasionaly sucumb to a spot of freelined flake but thats about it.

When will you learn. Everything with feathers takes presidence over all other living creatures. All living creatures take presidence over anything with scales.

Part of the fun of angling for me is fishing different venues, catching not being as important as variety. I try to get at least one new venue in every year. If I do get fed up with struggling I, like most have a few banker waters where it would be rare not to get your string pulled.

I very much doubt if an Okuma will fall to bits. I have five different models and they all seem pretty bomb proof to me.

As a kid, too many years ago than I like to admit to the name of one place was magical to me. Redmire pool. We knew nothing about it but it just rang all the bells just hearing it's name. I'me sure it's memory is far more potent in my mind than reality would be so that will have to be as close as I get.

Should we learn from match anglers? Well if we want to be better anglers we should be prepared to learn from any source available. Remember learning is as much about finding out what doesnt work as what does. So I will get as much info as I can from any source available, decide what if any to use or discard but try and keep it all in the back of my head for future reference. Wether it be a matchman, a speci angler or a kid with string and bent pin if he has something to offer me I will gladly take it.

When bream fishing I have had some real screamers with the bobbin smashing into the rod and the baitrunner going for a second or two. Have come to the conclusion these are biggish bream covered in tubercles the line snags on the rough skin, the fish spooks and the line goes with it.

Rusty Just how many maggots do you use.

Same as you Steve I always try to point my rod in the direction of the bait. Just something I was taught as a youngster too many years ago. Perhaps I should have said once the rod top moves they would have suspected that the fish was hooked. Seems that like me that no matter what bite indicion you use it's second nature to watch the rod tip.

Mostly I suspect you are seeing guys set up with bolt rigs. In this case once the rod tip moves the fish has probably already hooked itself against the lead.

Welcome norse. Although as robtherake says commercials ar'nt everyones cup of tea they can be a good place to get used to finer lines and smaller hooks while hopefully getting a few fish. Theres also usually a few other anglers about. Even if they wont all stop to give you pointers many will and you can at least watch others that are catching. Allways nice to ask others if they mind you watching for a bit, few will say no.

Until fish grow fur or feathers nobody will give a stuff.

Never tried turning cork but I think you might break bits out of it quite easily. Ime sure someone on here will let you know. Although I cant tell you any specific clips I have seen several on utube on rod making, might be something on turning handles. Heres one I found.

Can't be thinking Bream and Tench this weather. Wish Wingham was a bit closer to me though.

Hi Andy If you want absolute 100% certainty that you will never ever have a fish swallow a bait then you're in the wrong sport. If you want to considerably lessen the chances of damaging a pike in the event of it swallowing the bait then use circles. If you are completely happy that your experience level will enable you firstly to prevent deep hooking and secondling deal with it if it happens then continue with trebles. Even an experienced piker such as Mick Brown has high regard for the use of single hooks. http://www.mickbrownangling.com/2007PIKERIGS.html

I hav'nt been using circle hooks just large singles, size 2 ESP Raptors with the bait hair rigged. I usually use smallish baits, half sardines or joeys. The biggest would have been whole smallish herring. From what I understand the beauty of circles is that the only place it will get a hold is in the scissors or edge of the mouth making it most satisfactory for fish that are prone to swallow the bait. In theory it would just pull out of the throat intil it found an ''edge'' to get hold of.

I only realy started piking sereously last year and have used single hooks from the word go. My hook up rate is at least the equal of an experienced buddy using trebles. I often hook fish in the scissors and am not convinced that it is worse for the fish than having a wire trace sawing in the same spot. Anyway I think that the advantages when unhooking a fish far outweigh any perceived disadvantages. I have only had one fish deep hooked when it just sat on the bait and swallowed it. There was no hook visible but with gentle pressure I managed to expose the hook which was very easily removed. There was no blood and the whole process probably took less than a minute and the fish swam strongly away. You might like to have a look at these. http://www.pikewatch.proboards.com/index.cgi http://www.mickbrownangling.com/2007PIKERIGS.html

Ime afraid if you're an a**e hole it do'nt matter wether you fish or not you're still an a**e hole.

That will attract the carp police. NO UNHOOKING MATT.