davedave

Hi Steve, good luck with your operation. I'd love to be able to make it to Wingham next year, fingers crossed Dave

Seconded, deep hooked way more perch with small hooks than I have with large hooks.

PTFE = Plumbers tape for everything

Found this article quite interesting http://www.fishingmagic.com/features/coarse_fishing/specimen_fishing/15333-summer-chub-fishing.html

What kind of size phone? The biggest I use is a size 4 for king prawns, but you can get size 2s, after that you go into sea hooks. Dave

Went on the river yesterday as I had the day off work. My usual set up, tip rod with a 2oz tip, 6lb mainline straight through to a drennan size 10 micro barbed with a small bomb stopped by a float stop. Half a lobworm for bait. Had 3 chub all about a pound, plenty of bites, the fish were just smaller than usual. Had some weird bites I was going to ask about, i'd had a few knocks on my tip, then it pulled round, I struck, and it was all solid, just completely snagged. This happened 3 times, once I lost my rig pulling for a break, very odd. Last weeks fish and where I was fishing: Yesterdays: The local farm kindly provided me with their farm dog to act as an audible bite alarm everytime I had a knock on the tip Really getting into my river fishing at the moment, i'd like something around the 4lb mark though

Do you use hair rigs over the pond phone? Dave

I've never foul-hooked a carp on the surface or even heard of anyone doing it, in fact i'd say it was the method where your least likely to foul-hook a carp. I couldn't really say about the rats but if it's a farm complex theres going to be rats about anyway. Theres tons of rats about on a stretch of canal I fish, but hardly anybody fishes it so it's nothing do with leftover bait. I belonged to a club (didn't re-join this year for several reasons) where they banned surface fishing because it was tearing the carps mouths, this I think was probably true as you had a lot of kids fishing massive hooks and sea rods and just pulling the fish in basically. Personally I think the only valid reason for banning surface fishing is people are being prats and fishing too heavy and not playing the fish properly so you get damaged mouths. Dave

I would go with a 4m whip as I find 3m too short in a lot of circumstances. Your correct you set the line of the rig to the length of the whip so fish can easily be swung to hand. When set up it is very easy to use if you have got the length right, you can either whip it overhead or swing it underarm, it is easier to bring a fish in as the weight of the fish makes it easier to swing in. You may want to use a heavyish float as this will also make 'casting' easier. It's hard to explain but it'll be fine once your fishing. Just get the length of the line right otherwise you'll have too much line and won't be able to swing fish to hand or too little and you'll also struggle to bring fish to hand. Leeda do quite good whips, as do Ron Thompson. You can get a 4m whip for under £20 and they normally come with a pre-made rig and a disgorger so ideal for beginners. Unless your on a commercial where your likely to hit into carp or bigger fish i'd get a non elasticated whip with a flick tip as they're less hassle IMO. Dave

Been watching some videos on big river feeder fishing, the Shakespeare ones are good but when he put that lovely barbel in a keepnet I had to shut my eyes

This is true ATS. I'm back on the river tomorrow, I was going to ask for some advice actually. Its quite a wide and deep bit of river compared to most of the smaller shallower rivers i'm used to. I've only ever fished it for pike but it's got loads of silvers and supposedly bream, tench, perch, chub and carp as well. To get to where I want to fish I couldn't really go on the float so I was thinking the feeder. If I fished a largeish cage or open end feeder with some fairly firm groundbait and clipped it, with my rod rest high do you think this approach could work? I know it's hard to say as you don't know the river but would you say feeder tactics would be the best way? I've got lobs, a pint of white maggot, groundbait, meat, corn, hemp, micros, crumb and some frozen maggot if I need it. Thanks

Interesting point Mark, thanks I didn't catch anything anyway, fished with small spinners, tried a few spots of river including a deep pool, big bend and a weirpool but to no avail, I was surprised I didn't even get a trout. Found out one of my wellies has a hole in it, and on the way back stopped into a club pond to try for the perch and had nothing there either. A good day really

Thanks for the replies, I think Phone hit the nail on the head, its common sense, if your fishing on an oxygenated river after a days rain on lures not deads and your unhooking them quickly and making sure they are swimming away strongly I think theres no harm in it. Sorted some piking gear out this evening, got four days off work now so I'm spending all day spinning tomorrow. Put some new line on my reels and decided where i'm going. I'll upload some pictures if I actually catch anything Thanks

Can't go wrong with Shimano Alivio reels and Maver Abyss match rod

Lovely fish, was that freelined or on a leger?