Jack81

lol, the taste of tinned sweetcorn still takes me back to sitting by the park pond when I was 9. Lunch never really came into my preparations back then!

The reason it may be useful to have the baitrunner is so the rod is not dragged over the side before you can grab it. If you get one it would allow you to go from a very loose clutch setting to the normal setting at the flick of a switch. However, on a normal fixed spool reel you can set the clutch loose enough so it gives line before pulling your rod in, then tighten it up a couple of turns when you get a bite. If you use a baitcaster, which I do like, then you can put it into "freespool" with a ratchet clicker on it as newt says. That way it will give line easily but make a clicking noise to alert you to the bite. Again a flick of a switch and you will be at your fighting clutch setting. What are you after by the way? Brownies? Pike? My dad has made me a 16ft open canadian canoe this year. Its had its maiden voyage on the river and performed well. I'm working on the attachment for an outrigger at the moment to give me a bit more stability if I take it Pike fishing on the broads over the winter.

Hello, sounds like a good mix for carp. Where are fishing and what are you hoping to catch? If you want to make balls of groundbait for method feeder or just throwing out you will need to wet the pellets the day before you go and leave to soak overnight. I can't see any harm in throwing in some curry powder at this stage and mixing it in. Carp love a bit of spice! However, You may be better off getting a bag of groundbait from the tackle shop as you can mix this up on the bank by adding water until it sticks together. You can also add pellets, sweetcorn or curry powder to this on the day and the groundbait will stick it all together.

Sounds a great idea! Thanks for posting it. Might give it a go next time I'm out, will let you know how I get on. It's been a while since I had a punch though, so I may have to try whittling a pellet shaped piece with my penknife. Should do the job!

oops, had put another post in before that, but it's still waiting to be moderated! Anyway as I said in that this is "Carrot" from Suffolk Water Park down the road from me. Usually goes 27lb so not far behind "The Daily Mail Goldfish"

Link to photo of 'Carrot': http://picasaweb.google.com/suffolkwaterpa...433051794788834

HeHeHe me too! There's an orange koi down the road from me at Suffolk Water Park that goes 27lb. It's called Carrot! Doesn't get caught very often though.

Well, I've given it a couple of coats with the spray paint. Got abit close with the second coat and it ended up too thick and has tiny bubbles in places. It still looks much better than when I started so will let it dry properly and maybe give it a fine sand before a final THIN couple of coats. Lesson learned! My Mordex Merlin has arrived now and I've given that a good clean up and oil in the right places. Beautiful reel that spins for ages, the paintwork is pretty tatty but it seems mechanically fine . I've loaded it up with 6lb line, just got to get out and start practicing. Not had a chance to get the rods out for a few weeks.

Yeah it actually looks quite nice already, definately considered just polishing it up. Bit worried about blinding a big carp i'm trying to stalk in the margins though! Just going to leave a strip down the back shiny I think. Will get a small tin of satin black as well, they had run out when I went in this morning. Didn't really know what kind of finish 'smooth' black would be. I presumed glossy?

Hello, try a method feeder with a short mono rig tied using a 'knotless knot' (google that one for a diagram). Pop-up plastic sweetcorn can be deadly if you cant use boilies. Use with a grain of real corn or on it's own. Good luck.

Thanks for the great advice, much appreciated. I made a start at stripping the reel this morning. Got a few odd bits left to remove. Went to the DIY shop and ended up getting Hammerite spray paint (Satin Black), as I thought I could probably get a more professional finish with that over a paintbrush. However, having another look at all the fiddly bits inside the spool and the nice brass bits, handles etc that I don't want to paint I'm thinking it would be easier to use a decent brush with a tin of Hammerite. Which would be best in your opinion? P.S. Got a 'proper' pin on the way in the form of an old Merlin wide drum, probably paid to much but hopefully it will do the job for many years to come. I'll have to see how this project turns out before thinking of tarting that one up.

Also, the reel has obviously been repainted at some point, and this is starting to flake off, so it might make a good reel to practice my restoration skills on. Can I just strip the paint (with white spirit?) and recoat with 'plasticote' spray paint. The reel seems to be made from a light metal, presumably aliminium? Are there any better paints to use? Thought about enamle modelling paint as thats used on metal models. Anybody tried it? Any advice would be appreciated.

In my experience a piece of real corn with popup corn on a size 12 would float. You will generally do better with the bait on the bottom so check your rig in the margins to make sure it sinks. Carp and tench feed mostly on the bottom so a bait popped up 4"-5" is less likely to be taken. Best of luck!

First one arrived yesterday, 3 1/2 inch, wide spool. It didn't spin at all at first (it did turn at least, and the rachet works) so I took it apart. Far from a 'true pin' this one has what can only be described as a bolt through the middle of the spool. Iwashed the grit and old oil out with soapy water and after a though drying I cleaned out the handles with WD40 and got them turning. I then put a few drops of 3-in-1 oil on the ratchet mechanism and 'pin' and reassembled. It now spins for about 10 seconds in a vertical position, not so long horizontally. As I said before I'll be using this reel for margin fishing in stillwaters so at £4.99 this should do the job nicely for now. Hoping to take it out for a few hours over the weekend.

A very kind offer but a bit of trip from Suffolk! Stopped off there last year to have a look at the village of Greenhalgh though, as that is my surname. My Grandad came from Stockport. May have given up to easily on the Wallis cast, sounds like a similar principal to using my baitcaster, and I only have the occasional overrun on that these days. Another idea I thought of to get a few extra yards was to strip some line from the reel and lay it on the ground in a few coils. Then holding the line in your left hand, do an underarm flick with the rod and release the line at the usual time, possibly running the line over your left hand to feed it into the butt ring. I don't think I would get tangles on heavy line (12-15lb) and it would probably be more accurate for dropping a bait in front of a weary carp. Hard to explain these things but what do you think? I'm hoping to get a ticket on a little club water I used to fish. Its like Redmire pool but with dead trees littering the lake bed, so short accurate casting will be the order of the day. Better get practicing!

Your not wrong there Newt. That's something else I need to get back to. Have had great fun but never managed a double. One of my most memorable fish was a 4lb Jack that nearly grounded itself a foot in front of me as he grab my Big S. I was about to lift it out of the water and didn't know what to do for a second. He flipped himself back into the water, I gave a little flick of the rod, and he was on. Heartstopping stuff! So easy to get away for a few hours as well. Seems to take me that long to load the car for a 'proper' carp session.

Reptiles and Amphibians of the uk: http://geography.wincoll.ac.uk/jjcskw/page...ukherptiles.htm Looks like the newt rather than the wall lizard to me. Saw a couple of large Grass Snakes on a walk along the River Gipping last week. Beautiful creatures.

Looks the right colour and size for a smooth newt. Never seen one swimming on the surface like that though so maybe it is a little lizard. Time to do some googling.....

Thanks all, feeling a bit more confident now. I am probably going to start just messing around in the margins but would like to wallis cast further down the line. Can't make sense of any videos or guides online so I may have to watch out for someone on the bank to give me a quick demo. I love to learn new skills so really looking forward to getting started.

Hello all, I want to have a go at centrepin float fishing in local stillwaters. I'll be after tench, roach, rudd and hopefully some big carp when I get the hang of it. I've done a fair bit of fly fishing and love the direct contact you get with this type of reel. I doubt however that I will do much trotting, much as I love the idea, there isn't much to go at in the rivers locally. I wanted to get a Mordex Merlin (bit of a Chris Yates fan but can't afford an aerial!), however the last one I bid on went for £47, and the next one is getting close to that. Two went last month for £20 each so was thinking I could get a couple and have one with 5lb line for smaller fish and one with 10lb+ for the carp. I don't have £100 to spend on a pair so I bought a couple of 'no name' old but nice looking pins for less than £20 the pair. Am I right in thinking that the spool doesn't really have to be too free running if you are only fishing the margins of stillwaters? They both have fairly wide spools, one is only 3", is that abit small for regaining line quickly when fighting a big carp? Even if only one of them is usable for the smaller stuff I can get started learning some new skills while I wait for a Merlin at a reasonable price.

Hi, I'm Jack from Ipswich in Suffolk. I'm 29 and been fishing since I was about 7. I've fished for just about everything that swims over the years mostly coarse but I have a go at Sea and fly fishing a few times a year. The last couple of years I have focused mainly on chasing the carp at Suffolk Waterpark. My best so far is 28lbs, caught last month. Still waiting for my first 30. However I am seriously thinking of having a go for some other species and trying some stalking. Getting a bit bored of the long static sessions. I've also got to right a few wrongs as most of my PBs for other species have been taken fishing for carp, including a 10lb bream and a 23lb pike!. It would be nice to catch them by design, and hopefully some of you can point me in the right direction. Its been very useful reading through the old posts already. Thanks.