BoldBear

It doesn't help that the Wye is being badly polluted by a chicken farm and I mean badly polluted too. With stinking smells and slime coating the river bed. They have just finished a one hour documentary about this blatent pollution into the Wye, and let's hope that heads are now going to roll and something is going to be done about it. And to think that the Wye was one of our best rivers just a couple of years ago. Keith

Yes a lot of us coarse anglers do use fluorocarbon line for some of our hooklengths; and price doesn’t seem to be that relevant. Keith

It’s very sad to hear about Chavender. Keith

Braid is actually banned as a reel line on nearly all of the waters that I've fished over the last ten years, although you can still use slightly thicker braid as a hook length on a lot of them. The two main reasons for this is because it parts too easily on snags because of its lack of abrasion resistance compared to mono, and it's ability to cut the mouths of heavier fish due to its thin diameter and lack of stretch. Keith

Mono is used more than Braid in coarse fishing for several reasons; not least monos ability to stretch and absorb the lunges of a heavy fish but this also minimises the hook being pulled out and damaging a fishes mouth when it’s put under too much pressure; plus braid is a lot less resilient to abrasion damage. Braid is fine for a lot of uses including hook links when it needs to be soft and less obvious; and when you need to be able to feel the action of a lure, or set a hook at over 100 metres; where line stretch might be a pain, but it’s not very kind when your trying to play a really hard fighting fish that might take several minutes to try to bring it under your control; when your rod action isn’t quite enough to absorb all the turns and lunges and any strong runs; plus fine braid can cause mouth and fin damage during a long fight, as well as an increase the likelihood of hook pulls or your line parting because of abrasion damage. Keith

Hi Chris, welcome to the forum Keith

If you use fresh caster that are still fully alive you can make them float really well by just leaving them out in the sun for a while. Unfortunately most of the caster you buy nowerdays is almost (or already) dead so may not react the same. I used to be able to buy fresh live caster from my tackleshop (which had very recently been turned and put into in sealed plastic bags to slow further development) which I normally kept in water when on the bank to actually prevent them from turning into floaters; however I always kept a few of them deliberately out of the water so that they would develop into floaters in the sun, which I could use to try to get the shoal feeding off the surface or to balance with a sinking caster to obtain a very slow descent. Whenever I located a shoal of Rudd that were readily taking food off the surface I would catapult a few pouches of floating caster on top of them and top up this loose feed fairly regularly to keep them feeding off the surface, then I cast a small onion waggler just past them and then and slowly draw it back amongst the feeding Rudd. NB: I fish with my bait (floating caster) around a foot to 18 inches max below the float with no shot on my line at all (all the needed shot tight up against the float with none down towards the hook). The noise of the loose fed caster landing on the surface actually attracted the Rudd. It was just a case of manoeuvring my hookbait in amongst them after I’ve deliberately overcast my float. hope this helps Keith

I used to always use Tulip luncheon-meat in the past and found it very good for Barbel and Chub as it was not too fatty and was fairly firm and would stay on my hook even in high water temperatures; and the Chub and Barbel loved it ? Keith

Many years ago I used to turn my own casters when I couldn't get any decent casters from my tackle shop. I would get my older maggots and riddle any casters from them several times per day, and I'd place any caster that I had riddled into a bait box with a damp flannel on top of them and keep them cool in my fridge. NB: If I didn't do this they would nearly all float because too much air would be getting at them. Keith

To stop my caster from turning into floating caster I keep my caster in water (in my bait box); but I also leave a few out of the water which will fairly quickly turn into floaters in the sun. I will often use a floating caster together with a sinking caster to produce a slow sinking bait but sometimes the weight of the hook is enough to make the floating caster slowly sink without the need of adding the sinking caster. If I am chasing a large shoal of Rudd which is feeding on or near the surface I keep catapulting out floating casters to them and fish very shallow on the surface using a floating caster on the hook with no shot down the line at all. I often find that I can bring the shoal closer by catapulting the floating casters gradually closer and closer to me. Keith

One of my precious memories was in the early 60s when bread was delivered to nearly all of the houses in bread vans; my dad used to stop off at the local ‘Bob freestones’ bakery at 4:30am on a Sunday morning on our way to the river Thames, and he used to get a big fresh bag of bread crumbs for free, and buy a fresh loaf of bread straight out of the oven for use as our hook bait. When we arrived at the river there was often a thick mist on the surface and we could barely see our floats, but it was (and still is) a magical time to be out fishing, with the sounds of the dawn chorus all around us and the occasional sound of a milk float delivering its milk in the distance; while almost everyone else was still tucked up in their beds. ? Keith

Blackbird I prefer to fish the smaller rivers and streams, and I’m fairly lucky in that the small and often crystal clear chalk streams and rivers which I fish have a large population of Barbel of all sizes up to mid doubles; and also hold quite a lot of decent sized Chub, Roach, Dace and perch; (contrary to a lot of anglers ideas of small streams and what they hold). NB: You can see one of these small streams/rivers behind me in my avatar. In these small streams and rivers I only go up to 10lb line when I’m fishing in floodwaters and I am usually only using 8lb line and sometimes 6lb line in low water conditions, although like a few good lines they are often a slightly higher breaking strain than they advertise. If I’m trotting on the pin I usually use either 5lb or 6lb line, and the late Keith Speer (who also used to fish on these small streams & rivers before he died) occasionally used to use even finer lines when he trotted for his Barbel. When Im trundling or legering Im usually using an original 1.7lb Greys Prodigy SX Barbel rod (made before they went over to being made in China) or a 1.5lb version of this same rod; and in flood conditions I will sometimes move up to a 1.5lb/2lb Greys Multi-tip rod (with the 2lb tip section fitted). When Im trotting a float for beards and Chub I use either my 12ft Drennan Tench Float rod (MkIV) or a Hardy Marksman specimen Float rod. Tight lines Keith

I like both trotting and legering and trundling baits along the bottom after Barbel but I fish streams and small rivers and often there’s too much streamer weed in the swim to allow me to trot; however I thoroughly enjoy trotting when I can. I rarely need to use a feeder in the small streams and rivers that I frequent and usually just use a light 4 or 5SSG or half ounce link leger, and nine times out of ten I’ll be touch legering. Heres a pic of my favourite barbel stream which I won’t name for obvious reasons it now has a publicity ban on it together with most of our other waters that I fish. Anyway it’s nice to see another angler who enjoys chasing barbel and Chub on this forum. Keith Keith

Even if all reels do hold line as Chester’s said; some reels hold line better than others and without it spilling off of the spool too easily or too hard, and some have the added benefit of being able to facilitate further casting and/or faster retrieving, and being able to release and recover their line at different rates and under different tensions, and some reels are more suited to heavier or finer lines etc. But Chesters is basically correct if your not counting the various addon capabilities of a reel ? Perhaps we should define reels as line holders with benefits? ? When someone talks about a reels 'Cranking Power' it makes me laugh, as no one in their right mind winds or cranks in when fish are taking line, or not moving; unless they are snagged up. Unless by using the phrase ‘Cranking Power’ you just mean just retrieving your lead or your feeder. Blackbird I think you are being wound up a little by Chesters; just stop biting, he can be a bit of a windup merchant sometimes; but he’s a great guy really, honest ? Anyway, nice to have you aboard Blackbird ? Keith

I have very little experience on the river Wye however the first thing that I would do when I get there is visit the local tackle shop and pick their brains and get their advice and some bait from them. Failing that I would most probably be using line of between 8 to 10lb (or even 12lb if it's very rocky) with just enough lead (either on a feeder or on its own) to hold still in the current so that your bait will just trundle a couple of feet downstream as soon as you lift your rodtip (every few minutes). For hook bait I would probably choose either hair rigged pellets (lamprey, crab or halibut pellets) or a spicey flavoured luncheon meat or even a bunch of maggots; on hooks between a size 12 up to a size 8 or a size 6 if you are using larger pieces of meat. I would also probably coat my hook bait in a soft fishmeal paste if bites are a bit scarce so that you emit a flavour trail leading from downstream up to your baited hook. Plus I'd take plenty hemp and small pellets and/or maggots for use as loose feed or in a feeder. I much prefer to touch leger with just one rod but It depends on the number of takes you are liable to have and what the river in front of you is like. If you are only getting one or two barbel a day then it might be worth using two rods but be careful as a barbel can pull your rod in fairly easily when given the chance. Alternatively you can do some trotting depending on what tackle you have. Of course this might not be the best method used by the locals on the Wye so I would make sure I did a bit of homework before I fished. Ive heard through the grapevine that the barbel are a bit shy at the moment on the Wye and not many are currently being caught but this could change in the coming days of course. Anyway Best of luck and tight lines Keith

Hi Chris and welcome to the forum. Keith

Hi Chris, I’m no expert and I haven’t fitted or replaced any Duplon handles; only Cork handles using araldite when I’ve been building a rod; but someone should come along who can help you soon. you just have to be a little patient as some only visit the forum now and then, their usually either fishing or working ? Keith

At one time (up to the late 1970s) the Mitchell's used to be one of the better reels out there; and we're used by a lot of our top anglers; until Abu came on the scene with their Abu Cardinals and closed face reels; but there was little else to choose from back in those days. However there are still a few top Anglers who still use a Mitchell Match reel or an Abu closed face reel, and some still cling to Abu Cardinal 55's for surface fishing (me included very occasionally ?) Although I still have my old Mitchells and other old reels at the back of a drawer I don't think they can compete with modern reels which now have far superior drags (meaning you no longer need to have your knuckles bruised when relying on the back wind), infinite anti reverse, much better gearing, wider and longer spools, and other useful functions such as the baitrunner function and secondary fighting drags and some of them even give the user the choice of either having single or double handles or both. In my view almost all of my modern reels put nearly all of my older reels into the shade except for the odd Abu closed face reel and some of the classic centrepins both types of which can often still compete with; and sometimes surpass some of their modern variants. The modern version on the Abu 506 closed face reel for example is just a poor relation to the original Abu 506. Keith

Although I have never bought any cheap and nasty reels for myself; and I still haven’t; there are a few cheap reels out there that are quite good like the cheap reel that I won on another forum and which is pictured below (NB: the forum in question doesn't exist any more) This seven bearing reel (which I originally gave to my wife but later put into use at my holiday caravan) and which cost very little; has been used a great deal over the last 10 to 15 years and has caught countless Tench and smallish Carp from the lake there with absolutely no sign of it failing at all; and it still runs very smoothly. I’ve now come to the conclusion that not all cheap reels are rubbish and I was quite surprised by this myself. Although by choice I would still only buy top of the range or ‘near’ top of the range reels myself; but this one was just a prize I had won on a forum and as it happens was surprisingly not a bad reel at all. Maybe not quite as good as the reels I’ve bought myself and which I paid a lot more for; but it was certainly not a bad reel at all. Keith

I usually use caster, Pinkies, maggots, bread punch or small redworms too; but one day I was fishing the Great Ouse a few miles west of Cambridge near Huntingdon and that day the fish just wouldn’t touch anything else but Hemp, and I had to scrounge some hemp from the other guys around me. Keith

Hi John, welcome to the forum Keith

That old geezer in the pic that’s holding the cat is me (not my son who’s 41 now) ? Keith

Ill be searching for a few out of the way club river stretches which contain a few Barbel, Chub, Roach and Dace where I can go at moments notice when conditions start to look good; and do some proper roving. My usual haunts have now become ‘book only’ stretches where you have to book in advance; and this is out of the question if you want to go at a moments notice; plus they have been getting a little too popular for my liking and I don’t like over crowded fishing venues. There are a few remote stretches of river and streams we (my son and I) are going to try this season; but when we eventually do find a few interesting spots we will definitely be keeping them to ourselves. ? Keith

It was a bit cloudy and slightly cooler today so my son and I decided to have a few hours this evening after a couple of Carp on a club lake before the weather gets any hotter; as we’re due a scorcher of a weekend. However when we got there we almost had the lake to ourselves which surprised us a bit as there have been some good Carp coming out over the last few months (before they started to spawn; and which we thought had now finished); We didn’t see any surface movement from any Carp; and unusually our baits were not being eagerly swallowed by any Carp either; however I did get one take but it was not from a Carp; it was from a Wells Catfish and although I dislike catfish with a vengeance (especially as some nutter decided to stock them into the lake illegally) at least it saved me a blank; and it did put up a fairly good fight; but I would much rather it had been a Carp or a Tench ? Keith

Two mates and I spent a week on the Stour at Throop Mill at the start of the season a couple of years ago and we caught plenty of Roach and Dace and perch plus some very nice Chub; but no Barbel unfortunately. Our largest Chub were just over 5lb and were caught at around dusk on large pieces of bread flake or bread crust fished on the bottom using a half ounce lead and a size 6 hook. During the day we trotted for the Roach using our centrepins and occasionally our fixed spool reels using casters, hemp or maggots for bait; and then changed over to our Avon rods with fixed spool reels and fished light leads with bread crust and bread flake in the evenings and occasionally with Luncheonmeat. We stayed at a bed & breakfast in the street running parallel to the river at Throop which advertised in the fishing weeklies but I can’t remember it’s name as my mate did the booking. The woman who ran the bedsit used to give us sandwiches and a flask of coffee to keep us fed during the day while we fished and had a tackle room where we could keep our tackle at night. It was a very enjoyable and productive weeks fishing and I’d do it again. Keith