MatS

Whilst the pike and carp fishing is run on a syndicate basis I believe that general coarse fishing can be had by joining Edenbridge angling club. I used to match fish it quite a bit and there are quite a lot of the decent size Bream that you were after in your other post.

When I fish hemp I will usually feed the hemp swim for at least an hour before having my first look, if you go in with your rig straight away the first few fish interested may be caught or spooked and your back to square one. Usually you need to let the fish attract more fish and the whole thing snowballs, its true of much fishing where you are looking to catch a lot of fish but seems especially the case with hemp. this may possibly be because you are often bringing the fish up in the water where they often feel less secure.

I haven't seen the pictures so my comment may be irrelevant but bream are well known for looking as if they are bleeding when kept in keep nets, this is however something to do with skin pigmentation and although it looks bad it is not an issue and corrects itself after return. I cant remember the detail but will have a look see if I can find any further information.

Control should not be a problem with a three or four meter whip. the trick is to reach forward when you cast, sink the tip under the water then bring your arm back to a comfortable position keeping the tip submerged. If there is a breeze add two small (9-11) shot between the float and tip of the whip, and if it gets windy a small wagler works well.

I would always prefer to offer a bait for perch at dead depth working the bait up and down by either lifting it with the pole or with a twitch if using a running line, I even tried a worm balanced with foam on the lead to achieve this at range though never with the success I hoped for. I found working a bait best whether looking for tiny perch on bits of worm or lob worms for the bigger ones. Laying a bait on the bottom was usually a last resort for conditions of extreme wind

Move your tell tale shot nearer the hook if it's not already close by. It could affect the number of bites but will give earlier warning and reduce deep hooking. I've never experienced deep hooking of any fish unless I am fishing over depth, moving the last shot and reducing the amount I am over depth by would always bee my immediate response to the problem. If my rig could be made more sensitive that would be my next move.

I used to spend a lot of time on groundbaits in my former life as a match angler and did a lot of experimenting with break down times. With regard Leam there are a number of types most of which were used simply as a medium to help carry bait to the bottom quickly and then to break up quickly. Its most common use was with bloodworm and was simply a carrier for the worm to get it to the desired depth and sometimes an environment for them to stay in on the bottom. Grey leam , which I believe was powdered clay(certainly looked like it) was very sticky and could probably be used, if you can find it these days, to bind groundbait in the way you need, though I never used it for this as their were better(to me) alternatives. If I wanted to make a groundbait to slow release over hours I would do so using a product called PV1 or Colant. Most of the manufacturers did a version though I haven't noticed it much recently amongst the 101 fishmeal recipes now taking up the shelves. I believe that it was a sugar based product that could be mixed into any other groundbait to stiffen it up. It could probably be used neat though I used in as part of a mix. Almost as important as the groundbait is the way in which it is mixed the key principles for me would be: Lots of water added over a period of time maybe an hour and always the night before for a specialist mix like this Using hot/warm water makes most mixes stickier and slower to breakdown. Be thorough with the mixing, any lumps or un-wetted bits could cause a ball to break up prematurely Hope this is of help Matt