great_badir

If only! I have heard reasonably reliable (and, more importantly, completely independent) spottings (but not catchings) of an almost certain record smasher swimming around in Chew Valley lake. I myself have seen fish in excess of 30lb in the upper reaches of the Bristol Avon...during the closed season, natch (never seen one banked personally, but they have been in the past), so it's not much of a leap to suggest a record breaking fish on a diet of trout could easily exist.

I don't mind admitting I absolutely loathe eels (except for using them as pike bait!), but even so cutting line should be an absolute last resort if, as others have said, the eel is deep hooked (same goes with any fish). Coincidentally, I dug out some of my fishing techniques books at the weekend, most of them dating from the early to mid 90s and a few from the 80s thrown in, and I was surprised to notice just how many of them flat out said "cut the line" with an eel, with not even a mention of attempting proper unhooking. Crazy.

Why the need for soaking it? Unless you're soaking to use it raw, like you would tiger nuts, I guess. But the process of cooking it brings out more of the smells, flavours and oils. The soaking just seems like an unnecessary part of the job. I just cook it (adding nothing) until it splits, let it cool down in its own water, then transfer to a bait tub (with some of that water) and use the remaining liquid to mix up ground bait or bread crumb.

Don't know anything about Pads, but try Angling Lines - they act as agents for a load of lakes all over France with various different set-ups (from massive commercial waters, to recently dug snagless catching holes in the ground, to overgrown ancient private and exclusive estate lakes). Each lake has its own owners, so there's quite a variety in terms of quality of customer service and on-site services, but check the comments for each lake on the website - Angling Lines post all comments good and bad, so it's fairly easy to get a measure of the lake, its surroundings, its owners and its services. Don't know if that helps.

I won't cover likely spots as others have already made the best suggestions, but in terms of tackle and technique: If you stick with your current quivertip set-up with the same (or a lighter, if you want the bait to "trot" the swim - a technique I'd reccommend at this time of year) weight, rather than rely on the quivertip, feel the line for bites - your fingers can detect the differences between the underwater environment (stones, plants, changes in depth etc) and a bite much better than a rod tip but, normally, a bite from a big barbel will be fairly decisive. I personally use an avon rod with this technique and, whilst I've not yet latched into a double, it's caught me plenty of bearded wonders. My other observation is your bait choice - I find worms tend to attract more chub and smaller silver fish than barbel. As others have said, meats are a better choice, but again a good target for chub. Have you thought about trying boilies or, dare I suggest, the dreaded pellet? These days more double figure barbel are caught on these baits than any other, so maybe have some to hand to see if they change your fortunes. Good luck!

As everyone else has said, that guy is spouting pure rubbish. Most hardcore carp anglers tend to be holier-than-thou and overstate tackle requirements for everyday carp in everyday fisheries (that is medium sized non-specialist lakes with a stock of general coarse fish) and tend to suggest that anything less than 2 1/2lb tc rods and 12lb line is not acceptable. Rubbish. If you're hurling enormous weights enormous distances in an enormous lake/pit for enormous fish then yeah, okay, but for a 5 acre coarse lake it's overkill. What you've listed is more than adequate to handle the average size of carp in that lake and, actually, you will almost certainly see a lot of people fishing for those same carp on a pole, which to me isn't a good idea but most other anglers (even hardcore carpers) tend to ignore that. But that's just my personal opinion on that. Anyway, I landed my pb carp of 24lb on a medium float rod, a match reel, 4lb line, size 16 hook and maggots. It was an unexpected fish as I was aiming for tench and the average size carp were a similar szie as in your lake. Although the fight naturally went on for a LOT longer than I would've liked (around 40 mins - fortunately I had my pike weigh sling in my bag from a previous session so was able to let the fish rest in the dark for a few minutes to regain its breath before weighing, photos etc), I did land the fish and learnt how to play larger species properly. The reality is an occurrance like that is a rarity, so you're more likely to be getting into the average to doubles and, providing there aren't too many snags, the tackle you'll be using should be sufficient. Naturally you don't want to go too light (assuming you're specifically targeting carp) so the fight isn't prolonged any more than it should be, but that's just common sense and it sounds to me you already have your wits about you. My advice - go along, use the tackle you intend to use and have fun when you latch into one of those carp. As long as you stay calm and let 'em run when they want to run, you really have nothing to worry about.

Looks awesome. Regarding the price but, correct me if I'm wrong, haven't angling videos and DVDs always been more expensive than other films and TV, presumably due to their more select audience? I mean I always used to remember those Original Video Company vids were £16.99 for an invariably less than an hour film, and double vids were £30. I would say that's not a bad price - £12 per film.

Not sure of the depth, I'm afraid. All I can say is - deep. Whether it goes as deep as the lowest land around it, or it's shallower, or deeper still, I don't know, but what I can tell you is that being a man-made concrete bowl, its depth is uniform all the way round and winter-time underwater features are few and far between. It is very much a case of blind fishing when it comes to the pike in Cheddar. A lot of people tend to aim for the water towers (I believe fishing directly by and to them is banned due to diving operations) - that's where all the perch and roach tend to shoal and as a result those spots nearest are almost always taken - but I'm not convinced any more or better pike come from by there than anywhere else around the reservoir. If you look on the Cheddar Angling Club (who control the fishing at the water) gallery, you'll see that there are just as many pike taken away from the towers as by them. If the weather is nice and settled, the water relatively calm and the air temperature mild, then don't be afraid to wander round and give lures a quick try - there should still be a fair amount of margin weed hanging round and there will almost certainly be pike in there. They probably won't be very big, but they give you some sport whilst waiting for an old warrior to take your deads. Have a go in obvious gaps in the weed, or in the weed itself if you have snagless lures. On the subject of weed, be careful of underwater weed - it sticks round for an inordinate amount of time in Cheddar. I once remember striking into what I thought was a decent fish December/January time in the mid 90s, until the hook came into view and I saw it was wrapped with huge fronds of weed that still looked to be in Autumn die-back mode. Pop-ups get round this and have proven to be a good technique in all weathers. Bear in mind that, if the water level is low (unlikely this year, but as we've had a few weeks of pretty dry weather it might have dropped a bit) you will almost certainly be fishing a metre or two down from the top of the wall and it's very difficult to find decent staking areas, so use a rod pod if you can and find some other way of securing an umbrella if you're taking one. This is probably obvious, but it's nevertheless VERY important at Cheddar - if you're drifting, make sure you have your back to the wind and chop, otherwise you'll really struggle getting the bait out. Also make sure you either use sinking line, or submerge the rod tips, otherwise the ducks, seagulls and herons WILL swim over the line and get caught up in it. Keep your eyes open for boats if long drifting. Technically both sailors and fishermen have their designated areas to stick to, but naturally the two sometimes come together in less than pleasant ways - I have heard (but not personally witnessed) of people coming to blows over broken/lost tackle, rods being pulled in and rudders being damaged. But that's a rarity and the likelihood is that you won't get your baits out that far - your line will run out before they do. It's just common sense keeping your whits about you even more than you would normally, is all. One last thing - be prepared for a long wait and possibly a complete blank, even if conditions seem perfect. Some would have you think that Cheddar is relatively easy fishing for a reservoir, given that it's not really hammered for pike thanks to its exposed location, but in my experience it's proved just as challenging as Chew. Best of luck.

When I was last fishing 8/9 years ago, Coate was dreadful - the minute school was out during the week or when it got dark on a Friday and weekend, loads of kids and teens would just roam the area. Even though we caught decent fish, we stopped going after a while - break-ins to cars and tackle theft were almost a daily occurrance and I even heard of a couple of muggings. There was also a MASSIVE litter problem back then, but I understand this is controlled much better now. I don't think things are quite as bad now as they were then, but an acquaintance who still fishes it has confirmed that there are still lots of problems. Problem is it's quite unique in that it's such a big area that's relatively close to some dodgy parts of a major city.

Indeed. Not least the fact that pike invariably taste like sh*t. Not literally. But they're usually pretty awful.

Oh yeah. .....................um.......................yes!................or is it no? ...........what was the question again?

But, except for the end kill, how is that any different from hooking a fish and making it exhaust itself through a long and drawn out fight (bringing it back to fishing, Anderoo ). Any discussion like this is bound to highlight oodles of hypocrisy on both sides of the coin and I suspect every single person who has replied to this thread (including me) have displayed a certain amount of hypocrisy in one form or another. There's a South Park episode (taking it away from fishing, AGAIN) about censorship (where an image of Mohammed is to be aired on TV) and its basic byline when it's boiled down to its core is "it's either all okay, or none of it is". And that's the only way that hypocrisy can't enter into this discussion, because we have sensible people on here saying "fishing is basically hunting, so why have a problem with hunting and not with fishing?" and we have sensible people saying "hunting and fishing are two completely separate things, so should not be compared". I believe the answer to this whole thread is - there is no answer. Fifteen pages for a cop-out. It's Contact all over again.

A word of warning about Coate water - it is considered by a lot of locals as a last resort venue. Very good fish, but lots of "disturbances" such as theft, noise and general anti-social activities. It also used to be frequented by large groups of youths from around Swindon as a meeting up and drinking place, but whether this is still the case I don't know. Cheddar is excellent, but you need either a bait boat or a rod and weight that will cast a LONG way as its walls are relatively shallow for quite a way, so the deep water takes some getting to. If it's windy, make sure you take lots of warm clothing cos it's set up off the ground as a bowl and is surrounded by miles of flat, low land (do a google image search on it and you'll see what I mean). It's also very popular with walkers all year round, so be prepared for onlookers. But there is no trouble here, like there is at Coate water. If you're in that area, the drains on the Somerset levels are worth a go and I believe Bridgwater Angling do a day ticket. This gives you access to several drains, rhynes and rivers, many of them largely ignored (most pikers head for the King Sedgemoor Drain - well known for big fish, but as a result hammered quite hard). Not many big fish outside of the KSD, but lots from jacks up to mid to upper doubles, and if they're on the feed you will almost certainly get a fish every hundred feet or so if you adopt a roving approach. You might even bag a 20 if you're lucky. Bristol Avon as previously mentioned, all stretches containing pike. Another good option is Chew Valley lake, IF there are any spaces left. Best option is to get out on a boat there to the deeper water. Chew is by no means easy fishing, but it probably represents your best chance of landing a BIG 'un - 25lb plus are taken relatively frequently, particularly from boats. Chard reservoir is reputed to hold a head of good pike, but I've never fished there and pike are not advertised as one of the main species, so there may not be many in there. I'd say if you want a good chance of a big fish, go for Chew. If you want lots of fish and a choice of venues, go for the Somerset levels.

May I suggest that we move on from the whole race/slur/ethinicity thing now? I guess it's my fault for brining it up in the first place, but it's clear that we all have different, valid opinions about it and that there is strong feeling about some of them, so I don't think we're really making any worthy contributions to this particular discussion by continuing them in this thread.

One of my dreams (and this is the hardcore carnivore in me talking) is that one day scientists will prove beyond any reasonable doubt that all plants feel pain equivalent to humans. An unlikely pipe dream, I know, but can you imagine all those years of holier-than-thou vegetarian and vegan fascism washed away in one swoop. Ahhhhh, that'd be amazing.