Abbo

As rob said, both running leads and bolt rigs work well, however if using a bolt rig I would have a look at safety clips that allow the lead to be ejected if your line is snapped.

Mainline freezer boilies always do the trick for me. try the cell flavour, smells of coconut, if you dont catch you can always eat them.

Autumn is great. This is when I start pike fishing, i do a bit on the rivers during the summer but autumn is when it all starts for me.

The method can get knocked around all over the place as fish try to break the feed off, this can often look like small bites and dropbacks without a fish taking your hook bait. Have you tried setting the method up free running? Add a shock bead between the method and swivel, preventing the swivel from wegding in the end of the method. As the fish takes the hook bait and moves towards you, it will pull line through the feeder as apposed to moving it towards you causing you dropbacks. Hope this helps

They are, you must have been lucky (or unlucky depending how you look at it) to be in a hot spot. I can't see why people don't like catching eels, personally I like em. Nice one on the Barbel though, its got to be a double.

I've had okuma intercepters for years. I use them for all my carp and pike fishing and no matter what stick they get, they keep on going.

Like eerm said, the best place to start is your local tackle shop. If your looking for day ticket venues a good place to start is www.fisheries.co.uk. once you've found somewhere, go and take a look, speak to the bailif and other people fishing there, this will help you to get a good idea of the best pegs, bait etc.. Hope this helps.