fruitloopy

I wish I could have caught the Chub not to mention that lovely Barbel! Either the River Nene in Peterborough is just not producing any or (and this is much more likely) my experience of river fishing means I catch nothing. I need to find a more experienced river angler to take me out and give me a few tips. Well done though, fantastic effort!

While we are on the subject of maggots does anyone know the sawdust thats used to stop these little guys from sweating? Can it be bought somewhere? I was in Fishing Republic in Scunthorpe a few weeks back and they were doing them at a pound a pint! Strangly half a pint was £1.20

I was livebaiting for Perch a couple of weeks ago and a small jack kept taking my bait instead and scaring everything else off. I put a wire trace on and treble hooked a deadbait. Once wobbled through the swim slowly I soon had him caught. Once I released him he went off for a sulk and I never saw him again. I might be worth casting a lure and drawing it back to you slowly to tempt him to take it. I think once you have hooked and landed it then it will bugger off and leave you alone. Hopefully there is only the one! Take a 6ft telescopic rod set up with wire trace and some lures along with you...that'll learn him!

Thanks Peter, I'll try and contact someone at Hotpoint to get more info. I suppose I'll have to get a job there so I can fish it!

While broswing through Google Maps in my area to find fishing spots I came across a lake behind the Hotpoint factory in Peterborough. Lake behind Hotpoint There is a smaller lake next to it that I have fished and this larger lake is seperated by a large fence. I dont know who owns it controls it. Can anyone help?

I love to find small places around my area and chuck a line in. I recently heard of a public park near me with 5 small ponds, I pulled my PB carp out of there at 13.5lbs. I am very much assured there are bigger carp in there up to 30lb, the best bit is it also holds a lovely head of Tench and roach. I have had several tench now up to 5lb. This spot used to contain a monastery and stocked with their friday fish. I just love the fact that its free to fish and not too well known. I have a few days off work soon and I have already spotted some small ponds/lakes so I will be knocking on some doors to ask if I can fish them.

I thought it may have been done before because its relatively simple, I suppose I shared it to follow on with the recent topics of saving money at tackle shops and making your own kit, etc. To be honest I havent even used it yet! I recently saw a hair rig you could buy that had a pellet 'trap', put the pellet in the loop and draw the bead down to trap it into place. I guess I just thought you could easily make one of your own.

I bought a new Okuma NS200 bait caster multiplier from a tackle shop 120 miles away, When I got it home I found it was a right hand wind! I've been trying to shift it ever since on ebay for £40 but you can have it for £30 if you like.

Is there any chance you could make a diagram of this? I may be able to get my head around it a bit better that way. I think I know what you mean though.

Naw, get it off your chest and write about it now...I'm enjoying this! We are each entitled to our opinion and I believe the one expressed in the topic to begin with was the fact that kids seem to be taught how to be tackle tarts and just head off to a local commercial carp hole in the ground (yes, I know they're not all like this) to catch a monster. Carp are the cool fish to catch and if you dont catch double figures then your a loser! There are good and bad aspects to this. If all these people who choose to limit their fishing to mud coloured holes in the ground leave us well rounded anglers alone to fish the stretches of rivers and little know lakes alone then thats great. However, if all these anglers make up the vast majority and commercial carp waters become the only gig in town then does this mean clubs who own stretches of these rivers give up and close it down? Will these little known public park and other lakes get filled in a topped off with a block of flats? Yes carp fishing in a bivvy is a lovely social event with bbq's, boozing, parties, pizza, bring the kids lets all camp outside sort of thing. If you like it then go for it, but I for one worry about the kids attitudes to fishing in general and possibly the future of angling. Maybe I worry too much and should head off to my local carp lake for some pizza and beer!

I have just started targeting Perch and I have been studying Steve Burkes articles on this. I went to my local Carp/commercial water as I am quite sure there are some big perch in there. I asked the owner if I could fish on until dark and use live & dead baits and he said I could. I used my float rod and a single maggot on a size 18 hook to catch my bait. After 4 or 5 catches I hooked onto a nice Rudd of about 10oz. Then I hooked onto something a bit bigger, a 1lb Perch! Lovely looking fella as well, hooked on a single red maggot. I thought 'If thats what I can get from this place on a single red maggot just imagine what a live or dead bait can get me!' Sadly this was not to be. A jack pike invaded my swim but once I hooked him he went off for a sulk. My dead bait had several runs but nothing hooked. My live bait kept snagging me up. I had hooked a 3 inch roach through the lip on a size 6 hook under a float. The float was able to take a fair amount of weight so I hoped this would slow the little bugger down but he was able to swim around and managed to find all the sunken tree branches he could. I did have a great bite at dark on this live bait though but missed it. Steve Burke, if your out there (or anyone else for that matter) how do I successfully use a live bait under a float so that he doesnt keep moving around?

I have seen Matt Hayes explain how to do this a few times. Get some pole elastic in a nice bright colour. Cast to the spot that you are happy with WITHOUT any bait or PVA bags, spods, etc. If your happy with where you have cast then tighten up to it and clip the line as usual. Bring your rod back so you can get to the tip Tie on a small peice of the pole elastic to the line just beyond the last eye at the tip of the rod. I think its a water knot. Now you can reel back in (the line is still clipped) and set up you hook bait, PVA, Spod, etc. Cast to the spot you like and once tightened up unclip the line. The next time you need to cast out whether it is to rebait or because you landed a 65lb carp you can cast out somewhere else without any bait on then reel the line back until the pole elastic is at the tip of the rod. Put your line clip on, bait up and throw it back out to the exact same spot again. I dont really do any carp fishing but hopefully I have got this right!

I dont know if this has already been done but I thought I might share my idea with you all. Sometimes when I have just a hook on the end of the line I may want to change it to a hair rig to either present the bait differently or hook it better to prevent it coming off in the cast. Whatever reason you have for wanting to change to a hair rig it’s frustrating to have to cut off your hook and tie on a pre-prepared hair rig or tie one up. A bit of discarded line and a 1 or 2 float stops means you can easily make a quick and useful hair rig to use on the hook you are already using. 1. Take some discarded line or a small piece of low diameter line, it can be low diameter because breaking strain is not important. I recommend nothing over 4lb BS. 2. Tie it in a simple loop 3. Slide on one or two float stops depending on what bait you are using and how you want to present it. 4. Put one loop over the hook and slide the float stop up to trap the line on the hook. If you have put two float stops on you can use the loop below to trap a pellet, boilie or other bait using the second float stop. If you have only used one float stop you can use your baiting needle to pass your bait through the line and a bait stop to keep it there as with a normal hair rig. Take a look at the attachment for a better explanation. The bigger the loop means you can use bigger baits or 2/3 boilies or further away from the hook. A smaller loop means a smaller bait closer to the hook. I have not field tested this yet but I can’t see any reason why it would not work. My wife thinks I should patent it but it’s just using existing materials so I don’t think I can. Let me know if you use it and if it works. If it hasnt already been done then I'll call it the Fruitloopy Hair Rig. If it has been done...sorry!

How clear was the water? If its anything like where I go the water is very clear and maybe your line is visible. Maybe try freelining a worm with some AAA shot set back about 12 inches from the hook. Stick a lobworm on a size 6 or 8 hook and cast that in on top of your loose feed. When you feel some almighty tugs then strike and hang on!

Thanks Anderoo, and thats a lovely spot...very similar to the weedy spots I was letting my float drift to. I fully expected even small Perch under it as it was a nice dark, weedy spot of of the main flow under some overhanging trees. I caught my Dace there so I could only assume that Dace arent gonna hang around the same spot if Perch are there. I'll nip out to the tackle shop later and have a look for some of your recommendations. Oh, and a small confession. I remebered that the anal fin of the fish I caught was convex but I couldnt remember if this meant Chud or Dace. I now know its a Chub. Nevermind, I still enjoyed catching the little fella!

I went trotting with my centrepin for the first time Tuesday night on the River Nene in Peterborough. While walking along almost every spot on the bank was littered with disposable BBQ's, night lights and beer/vodka bottles with strange Polish type words and lettering...not that I want to stereotype any particular nation! Anyway, I was intending to trot with a worm for a nice big Perch, my PB on perch is still under a pound and I would love to catch a 2lb+. I've been reading around and will be putting some of Steve Burke's suggestions to good use soon. I intended to trot a worm under some tree's and had varying success, catching a PB Dace at about 8oz's and a tiny Perch. I had problems with getting the line out from the reel and keeping the float moving. Also I couldnt have more than 1 AAA shot down the line because with this and the weight of the worm it sank. I was also having to pay line off the reel and shake it out of the eye's of the rod to pay out line. I am thinking that the bigger the body of the float means more shot down the line and will help to pull the line off the reel better...is this right? The Nene doesnt have a fast flow anyway, and Tuesday night was faster than usual because of all the marvelous rain we had that morning. If this is true can anyone recommend some good floats to purchase? Would I be better of making my own? Thanks.

Something kind of similar was discussed last week HERE and the topic was mostly about the ridiculous prices being charged for certain bits of tackle. This "Tackle" can be found elsewhere for much cheaper as long as you dont mind it not having 'Korda', 'Korum', 'Nash' or any other manufacturers name on it. I have heard it mentioned before that bread crumb can be had quite cheaply by going to your supermarkets bread counter and asking for some. If you can find a local baker (do they still exist?) then you could ask them the same, these shops usually through the stuff out. I would also be interested in what others have to offer.

I just bought 5 packs of these and delivery is only 99p so it will be worth a try.

I read in one of the fishing mags of someone successfully using Kinder Surprise Egg cases as maggot swimfeeders, holes drilled in as small or as large as you want. QD do some really good cantilever 'tackle boxes' for DIY and only a few quid. I went to look at some in the tackle shop the other day and they were over £20!

Local water to me has some nice size carp in it, I caught one a few months back at 13.5lb which is a PB for me. I caught this on a freelined worm. I havent been there for a while as it weeded over but I went back last night to see the big carp swimming close to the surface, enough for them to be doing 'Jaws' impressions with their dorsal fins. I had already been advised that these guys dont accept floating baits but I chucked a few scopex flavoured dog biscuits in just to see what they would do. They just ignored them! I freelined some baits on the bottom but they ignored these as well, it was dusk and at a time when they usually feed. The water isnt very deep, in most places just a couple of feet. I was wondering about using a very small float and a worm only about six inches deep so its in front of their gobs when they cruise up to it. Any advice about presentation this close to the surface? Will they see the float and shy away from it? Should the float be a crystal waggler or darker coloured? The place is quite reedy so I cant use anything too light and fluffy, generally when I am freelining I use a 15lb main and 12lb Braid hooklink. Thanks.

Okuma Nemesis NS200 Bait Casting Multiplier Reel Its a great reel but due to my inexperience of these sorts of reels and the tackle shop assistants lack of knowledge I managed to pick up a bait casting reel for a left handed person! Oops. The shop is in Scunthorpe, 120 miles away and I wont be going there anytime soon so its here for someone to buy. Please contact me with any questions via ebay or via a PM on here. Cheers.

I though that the hooklink should be sunk as well because of visibility but it seemed the carp were able to feel the line when they were close to it. Maybe I am just imagining things though. I might go back there with a greased line and try it again to see if there is a difference.

No, mono. It was quite hot on Monday and I could see loads of carp up on the surface. Never seen that many before but I know that this lake is packed with them. The picture doesnt do it justice. I could easily count 30 just in front of my peg and walking around the lake revealed loads more. I'll get myself a tub of Vaseline then, and also some lipsyl to carry with me when I go stalking. Cheers.

I was having great fun fishing on the surface on Monday but because my hooklink didnt seem to float too well a lot of potential catches seemed to be spooked by it. Its suggested that I grease the line to make it float but what grease do I use? Normal grease from B&Q?? If its a tackle shop thing then what should I look for? Thanks.

Thats a good point. I buy from Fishing Republic and Chapmans angling occasionally and while visiting my father in law I went to see their stores in Scunthorpe. Spent quite a bit of money too...much to my wife's horror!