Dick Dastardly

As the reply said on FM it is too wide a question.It depends on many factors-the type of bait(due to its breakdown rate,loss of atractiveness etc) The type of venue,ammount of fish /size of fish you are targetting,the amount of other fish that may be eating your bait and above all are the fish feeding or not! I am sorry but it is such a hard question.Too answer all possibilities would take a book or two!If you can give more exact details I will gladly try too help.As Ive allready told you I have never fished in Canada but from what I have read/been told about your rivers I should imagine that my experience on the big European rivers for carp would be relevant.

Easy Alan! I got Conoflex to give me one of those fibreglass flag poles they do and rigged it up with a No50 elastic (you know one of them ones that people tie around them selves and jump off bridges with!

I hate it when the EA doesnt react to fishery problems because they are understaffed. I hate EA baillifs who dont even understand the rules they should be enforcing. I hate it when the EA doesnt give a F--- about out of season fishing/blatent rule breaking. But hate the Rod Licence? Certainly not.Have paid it in its many forms every year for many,many years.The EA (in some areas at least) needs a good shake up for sure but it certainly wont help cutting its income.

The Damns could be oppening up inbetween your trips and washing your prebait/chum away from the area you introduced it too.I refer once again too the How to bait a river thread. However that said it is not uncommon for fish to show but not be feeding(on our baits at least)! [ 28. July 2003, 12:32 AM: Message edited by: BUDGIE ]

Come on then you pole anglers help out a guy whos eyesight is fading quickly! Whilst fishing a series of evening matchs at my local pond I have been plagued with the line wrapping around the tip/stem of my pole float.It is a 2gm wire stem/tipped model.I am attaching it via the eye,one rubber under the body and one at the base of the stem.It is set at 12'deep and is shotted with an olivette and three small shot all on the bottom three feet.I always swing the rig out under arm.The float tip apears quite long about 2".With my failling eye sight nearly all tangles around the float result in me having to re-rig.Any ideas on how to avoid/minimise this?

I think you two may be right!I thought it was a perfectly ok line but if I had to go out and buy some mono I would still be seduced into putting my hand deeper in my pocket for the Maxima! :confused: Oh no after all the years of slagging the tackle tarts it apears that I am one too!

James! Good to hear you are ok,Schelly told me of your sucsess.Will contact you soon as. Gazza good too see people are still concerned about there carp also good to see open minds. "i personaly think that there is some disorentation caused when they are turned upside down for one or 10 seconds therefore this method should not be used unless you can give not just me but all the younger lads a real good reason as to why we should. but only if you can give all of us a good reason that it does not do any further damage." The main reason in fact the only reason for using this technique is too keep the fish still and avoid it being dropped.As I have NEVER seen any thing that would lead me to believe it is harmfull I have no problem with using it or reccomending it.Have you ever seen or heard of any problems? I have however seen (sadly) many carp damaged or killed by being dropped.(even if a good mat is used) Lesser of the Two evils? Dont even think that really.Theorising is fine but at the end of the day the hard facts of reality are the ones I always opt for.

Steve ref braid and sunken pat rigs I find it excellent for this! Origonal post,I very rarely use mono these days but if on a water where braid is banned I use Maxima Chamelion same as I had done for many years prior to braid.Must admit used the cheap Daiwa Sensor a couple of times and found it ok.

So after all this Barnese when are we going to see your first article and wots it going to be about?

Hi mate good to be back! Dont forget youve got a cat trip owing to you still!

I think there might be a bit of confussion here!For over 20 years I have used a common trick to quiten Carp down whilst holding them for a photograph.This entails rocking the fish back towards you in your arms (placing it more or less upside down for a few seconds) then lowering it back into the normal position for the shot.This normally has a calming?/quietning? effect on the fish and lessens the risk of the fish being dropped.Is this what you are all going on about?If so I and many others have been doing this for many years and the fish apear to suffer no lasting afects.All this talk about pressure on internal organs is quite correct but lets face it the second we remove a fish from the water (an enviroment that supports the fish all its life) we are placing strain on them.

I think you still misunderstand me mate.The features I refer too are places where the bait will stay put ie deppressions in the river bed,slacks,back eddies etc,As you quite rightly say introducing large ammounts of feed and waiting for the fish too move in is the way but as I have said just pilling it in in areas where the current will just wash it away is a total waste.On all of the big rivers I have mentioned this works just takes a bit of time.

I fished my local clubs evening match tonight(3hours)Caught 3lb6ozs and came third.Loads of small stuff and the result was not good enough too greatly improve my position in the overall aggregate but the atmosphere was good and I enjoyed the change none the less.Only 4lb something won so overall the pit didnt fish very well.

Be carefull Elton.I to have had this urge several times over the years.Several due to what I imagine are the same reasons as yours.Each time I have found that time has taken its toll.Good memories are best kept as that.

Great thread guys!Ive really missed stuff like this.As many times in the past Steve has summed up my virws!Just for the record though- Despite being on of the greatest reels ever built the Mitchell had a pants drag system and this is why backwinding was adopted by both match and specialist anglers.Additional pressure can be applied to the rota cup(even on skirted spool reels)For general fishing still my prefered method.As for Carp running to fast to backwind I must have allways caught the unfit ones! Must admit the modern rear drags on the likes of the smaller Shimmano reels are super,these I use for Mullet and fast running species abroad.For Cats I do use a drag (front one purely as the only suitably strong reels I have have this)This is because IMO it is the best way to safely keep the maximum pressure on a big cat all the time.Pete also as usual is quite correct in what he says about Multipliers.Both the star and lever drag varieties are very smooth. I suppose if we are honest the most sensitive and adjustable drag is that unique one used on a centerpin ie the fore finger!

Great thread guys!Ive really missed stuff like this.As many times in the past Steve has summed up my virws!Just for the record though- Despite being on of the greatest reels ever built the Mitchell had a pants drag system and this is why backwinding was adopted by both match and specialist anglers.Additional pressure can be applied to the rota cup(even on skirted spool reels)For general fishing still my prefered method.As for Carp running to fast to backwind I must have allways caught the unfit ones! Must admit the modern rear drags on the likes of the smaller Shimmano reels are super,these I use for Mullet and fast running species abroad.For Cats I do use a drag (front one purely as the only suitably strong reels I have have this)This is because IMO it is the best way to safely keep the maximum pressure on a big cat all the time.Pete also as usual is quite correct in what he says about Multipliers.Both the star and lever drag varieties are very smooth. I suppose if we are honest the most sensitive and adjustable drag is that unique one used on a centerpin ie the fore finger!

I thought we were talking BIG rivers here.The key in any BIG river with a BIG head of BIG carp is BIG beds of bait.No matter how much bait you put in it is all wasted unless it stays in one place!No type of groundbait or delivery system can ensure this in a BIG river only locating a suitable spot.Ive never fished in Canada but I am sure we are talking BIG rivers.Have done a lot on smaller rivers like the Thames and always found plenty of features (I class features in this context as ones below the surface of the water!).

For many years my angling mates had tried to encourage me to write articles.I refused having no faith in my ability to put pen to paper.One of them was a very prolific angling writer by the name of Vic Gillings who is sadly no longer with us.He even suggested a ghost writer.When I started trying to make a living out of the sport I loved my boss(Luke Moffatt) sugested that writing a few articles would be a good way of raising my profile and getting some publicity for our service.The first ever articles I ever wrote were published here on the Web at Graham Marsdens http://www.FISHINGmagic.com Much to my suprise people apeared to like them!Graham went on to encourage me to write a series of articles entitled "The Tackle Workshop" Whats more I really enjoyed putting them together.My writing and computer skills are still of a very poor standard but as long as your writting is either informative or entertaining it dosnt seem to matter.My advice? give it a go and see what response you get,try as allready mentioned putting a few articles on the Fishing sites on the Web.Above all do it now!I wish Vic could have seen that Ive at last given it a go,even though most of it is crap! Remember there are two types of angling writers- Writers who go fishing and fishermen who write,

Like a lot of things Newt I have no idea why things work or not!Only practical experience has shown me it has!

Lots of sond technical advice here ref groundbaits and delivery systems but I cant help but feel that the most important thing has been missed.That is to choose a suitable feature in the river to pre bait ie a place where the bait {along with all the natural food and i hasten to add the fish)Will naturaly settle and stay! This is the way I have always tackled the big European rivers like the Saonne,Weser and Po.You dont get a much heavier flow than these!

Old fishermen never die Newt......They just smell that way!

Shimmano spares have always been hard to get(even from Shimmano!}I have got a lot of 6500's that I use for work.Getting spares for them is a nightmare! Your best bet may be to try the second hand tackle pages in the Angling weeklies.

Look in both the Angling weeklies.They both have second hand tackle for sale pages.

What do you call Big? Are you fishing a water that contains big Bream? Are there a lot of them in the water or just a few among smaller shoal bream? What type and density of other species are present?

Now I would agree with your friend and super glue the roller! He is quite correct.For years reel manufacturers struggled to develop a line roller that would always revolve under pressure only too eventualy realise rhat this only increased the problem!Also I assume that you are loading the line on to your reel correctly in the first place? as if you are not you will be twisting it as you load it.