Chubstar

I have the sheffield, until I was burgled last year I had a RW rolling pin, a purist and a Dave Swallow, I bought the Okuma as a stop gap, until I could afford to replace the others, I'm not going to bother though, for the money they are truly excellent, the lack of a line guard makes no difference in my opinion as long as you keep the line tightish and under control you will have very few, if any, problems

Matrix is THE bait, along with camos and Heminos

Where abouts are you in UK? Premier Baits will do you a good deal, they're in Ramsgate Kent, or Destiny Baits, also down this way, both are very reputable, in fact The Matrix (Premier's own brand name) has been responsible for many huge fish home and in France, I think the last world record was caught on Matrix

That is one truly awesome fish!! I maybe in the process of buying a boat at the moment too... I wonder where to use it first...

Have you fished it yet Gav?

Nope... Charlie's Lakes in Kingsnorth, near Ashford, the cats in there go to over 45lb's now, there's some big carp in there too...

Brilliant article Leon, but I would like to try and keep the lobs as they weren't cheap to buy in the first place!!

Brilliant, but where would I get sphagnum moss from? A garden centre maybe?

Excellent, thanks guys

I find myself with about 200 lobs and god knows how many dendras still wriggling around in tubs in my garage as I had to cancel my last outing... Has anyone any simple but effective way of keeping these little darlings alive please, what do you feed them, do you have to add water to the medium they're in, should you remove them from their medium? I may even try to breed from them if possible... Many thanks Neil

Crawley is right next door to Gatwick, so it would be a bit of a trek from there to Framfield, you mentioned that there are loads of small cats, do you target Cats when you fish there? If you do I know of another lake which can't be too far from you which is home to some proper monsters...

I wouldn't say I REALLY enjoy as much as ordinary course fishing, but I have come to accept carp fishing, you know sitting behind a bank of buzzers with 3lb T.C. rods, just doing nothing but waiting for the alarm to scream... I always have a float or quiver rod out with maggots or worm or bread, to relieve the boredom more than anything else, but so many just sit there for days on end, what possble fun can you get from that! I saw a post on another forum today about river carping, with buzzers and carp rods!! What's wrong with a stepped up avon or a quiver...

I actually caught the same brownie 4 times in the space of 20 minutes last week while trying to pluck a chub from the swim, I got 3 feeding really well and just as the first one moved in to take my hookbait, the bloody trout appeared from nowhere and nailed the hook!! By the fourth capture the chub had had enough and disappeared back under the tree, I was not a happy bunny!!

Best place I can think of near you is Beaver Farm in Felbridge, drive towards East Grinstead, at the traffic lights at the Felbridge, turn left and Beaver farm is on your left after a few hundred yards, or go to Jack Frost Tackle and ask in there, you have quite a few day tickets around you in Crawley

Hi Paul Have to admit Heronsview IS a hole, I'll find out about the one next to stour for you,( think it's called Ifield) I do some voluntary work in the Scope charity shop and one of the drivers fishes there, Sandwich have the Reed Pond, which is on the Ramsgate to Sandwich Road, right next to the river underneath the flyover and another out near the Roman castle (forget the name!) and Brian Bayliss's old lake at St. Nicholas, Sandwich bait and Tackle have now got Prem's old shop at Cottington and the owner is the secretary for Sandwich, give him a call and I'm sure he'll fill you in on the club, loads fewer members than CDAA, I've had a look at the waters and fished the St. Nick lake when Brian had it, there are some lumps in there, but it is another hole, but much bigger and more mature than Heronsview, but having fewer members will be more to your liking...

How about Sandwich and District or Heronview (the lake in Minster)? or the syndicate who run the lake next to MKF's Stour lake?

I'd have a look at the Korum Neoterics, brilliant rods, you have the avon twin tip or a specialist twin tip with 1.75 & 2.2lb tips, both are superb rods.

Elton, Could you not make it "sticky"? So it's always at the top?

:D Thanks Guys :yahoo: We were over the moon considering the conditions!

For the money you can't go too far wrong there... A mate of mine has an Exage 4500 on his float rod and gets on really well with it.

That's a cracking looking Chub Chris, best fish in our river system by far in my opinion! I've caught literally thousands of Chub in my time but my best is still only 5lb 8oz, Hopefully I'll better that before the end of this winter...

I sincerely hope she's not out to top your wife's PB there RPM!! That's one she can keep!!

My wife is pregnant (AGAIN!!) at the moment her PB is 6lb 2oz, as long as he or she is healthy I don't care about her beating the PB... Fishing wise to just enjoy the experience and as long as I catch something on each visit to the banks, that's mission accomplished in my books!!

I'm planning to be on the lake by midday Christmas Eve and will be leaving on the morning of the 27th to go straight to the river Stour (Kentish Stour) for a couple of Chub, then I'll be home later that evening. Really looking forward to it!!