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Sorry if this has been covered before but i am looking for a little help on choosing the best alarms for a christmas present for my son. Can anyone tell me which is best Fox EOSR or Gardener ATT's ?? I have spotted both on EBay but not sure which to go for. Any help would be mucho appreciated.

Hi just a couple of my usual novice questions.... 1stly ive had conflicting advice about rig length for Carp fishing. What length should you have your rig between weight and hook/hair? I read use a shorter length of about 5 inch when fishing over a bed of bait ie pva bags etc but when using a single bait i should use a long length ie 9 inch. Now my friends are telling me to only use a short length all the time regardless,are there any Carp anglers out there that can help me on this or is it just a case of experimenting? Also how long do these packets of shelf life boiles last? If I open a pack,do I have to use them all same day or can the bag be sealed up for next time? One last question .... Are Halibut pellets a waste of time in colder weather? Sorry if questions are a bit daft to you

Hi After catching a few small Carp with my son i feel it is time we got a bit more savvy with our rigs and tactics etc so i have been thinking about using braid and PVA mesh, i have made a couple of rigs/mesh bags up and started popping them into the bath to see the result. I used a piece of artificial corn hair rigged to size 8 hook which seemed to balance/pop up well but i noticed blobs of snot/residue left behind from the pva mesh with some of it clinging to the bait, question is have i bought inferior pva product or is this normal? Another thing i noticed is the actual braid did not sink to the bottom the hook sunk on one end, the swivel on the other but the braid sort of hovered about a bit between, is this normal or have i used the wrong braid? One last question ... Is the shape/size/colour of your ledger important with regards to catching/spooking fish etc? Sorry if questions sound a bit dumb Thank you.

Welcome!

Ok sounds like i have plenty of food for thought. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer.

Hi i'm interested in buying a couple of budget Carp rods for my son for Christmas as my old ones are now well past their best. Ive been looking at Nash 'hooligun' rods and Shimano 'Alivo' and wondererd if anyone has these rods or could recommend something similar. Thank you

Went fishing today armed with your tips and pretty much everything you have said was right I am 99.9% sure you are correct about the 'tiddlers' nicking my luncheon meat allthough i'm still in awe at how good they are at it and how fast they do it so we took your advice and switched to halibut pellets which seemed to do the trick.The pepperami idea sounds a good one too and thanks for the tip on the short hooklength also as i was leaving it way too long. We caught 3 Carp, biggest was roughly about a 7lbs ish common and we lost a couple aswell which managed to slip off the hook.We still got 'knocks' but the main thing was the bait didn't go in a flash and a lot of the time the 'knocks' went on to become a positive take. I can't thank enough the guys who found the time to answer as this stuff must be pretty basic to a lot of you. Thanks again

Thanks for the tip Andy about 'Hard pellets' Errr what exactly is that? Ive seen some 'Halibut Pellits' in the Fishing shop would they work?

Hi guys thanks for taking the time to reply. I have tried putting the meat directly on the hook using the technique you describe but the same thing seems to happen.I rarely get the bait coming off during casting etc it's the fish that seem to be related to houdini! How the hell do they take a cube of meat from around the bait without hooking themselves? We have been using size 12 barbless hook is this too small?From my understanding the fish mouths the bait then gets 'pricked' by the hook then bolts? Thanks for the tip on cooking the bait to 'harden it' i will give it a try. Don't get me wrong we are catching the odd fish and we caught our first Carp which weighed 10 pounds! and we have had some nice bream but i feel with all the bites we miss and all the bait that goes missing that we should be doing better.I know when the bobbin liftes an inch or so then drops back, then the bait has gone leaving another fish happy. Will using Chick peas deter the Roach and the Bream? I recently had some great advice from you guys regarding a 'method feeder' and i intend to try this aswell very soon but dont want to keep bunging out loads of groundbait only for these buggers to take the mickey! Thanks again for the replys.

Hi Ive been taking my son on a local water Carp fishing.Boilies etc are not allowed there so we have been using hair rigged cubes of luncheon meat. Now our problem is that just about every cast the bait goes missing.The problem is the bites are extremely fast and we miss the majority of them.We have tried quivertipping and normal ledgering using bite alarm but not having much success. I have tried a fixed rig,sliding rig and big lumps of meat but the little buggers are persistant. Question is really what are we doing wrong? When i use a fixed ledger the bait seems to go without regestering any bite at all.How do we get the fish to basically hook themselves, could it be possible i am leaving the hooklength too long? Any tips/advice from the more experienced anglers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thx for humoring me and taking the time to explain things so simply. Ive got the jist now and reckon it sounds pretty simple even for me, as for the groundbait, like you say it will more than likely take a bit of practice. I reckon we can go out now and catch some carp Thanks again , much appreciated.

Hi bit embarrassed asking but would it be possible for someone to give a quick explanation on the 'method feeder' ? [sorry if i sound stupid] I am an old school angler but have recently dug out my tackle again as my young son is absolutely nuts about fishing so apologies for my lack of knowledge etc but he keeps pecking my head I have bought a couple of Drennan Method feeders and some groundbait and basically know the general concept of it but could someone give a quick explanation of setting up the rig [fishing for carp] As i understand it, i thread mainline through the feeder and tie it to the swivel.Do i push swivel back into feeder or do i leave the feeder free to slide up and down line? I then tie hooklength to other side of swivel and hey presto ! ?? also what is the best method of bite detection to use? Any tips etc put simply would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for the great replys. Ive looked everywhere for these things so you guys have been really helpfull, many thanks.

I have a pair of old optonics which i am quite attached to but unfortunately i have lost the buzzer bar with the brackets that the optonics fit to still attached. I have looked everywhere for these brackets/attachments but with no luck.they are like a u shape and screw into buzzer bar and the optonics slot on. anyone have any ideas where i can buy a couple of these connector things? cheers !