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Neuvy

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Everything posted by Neuvy

  1. Thanks for the good advice and I certainly fancy a 6lb chub! Congrats on that. Do you ever fish with a rolling or bouncing ledger à la Fred Crouch?
  2. Thanks Gareth, the Loire is pretty near actually, I'll have to go to Niort and get some local knowledge in the tackle shop there. Been reading the blog, some nice pieces on there!
  3. Out here in Deux Sèvres we have Pescalis, the main site and the other exceptional 'ponds' dotted around the countryside that it owns. Not expensive and something for everyone. It could be seen as a 'commercial' but it really isn't, there is little angling pressure as the place is so big. Last year was a great year that included a 3 1/2lb Perch, a long, long, amazing European lake sturgeon, some great Rudd and Roach and carp up to mid twenties. No Tench last year and no big bream either but there are specimen fish of all species just waiting to fished for. I'd like to find a barbel river for next but I seem to live in barbel free zone. Good luck with the blog.
  4. Thanks for all the pics, that's a stunning location, I'd love to fish there. Here in France that could be a pond or lake, nobody has given me a satisfactory explanation yet of the difference. I often fish a 1 hectare pond, yet next too it is a 'lake' but it is officially a 25 hectare pond. The local lake is only 4 hectares but it does have a river running in and out of it. One thing, on the language, fish are always singular except for rare exceptions such as 'the parable of the loaves and fishes' in the Bible, so more than one Tench would still be Tench, I know it's weird. Anyway keep posting pics like that and specimen Crucian if you've caught any.
  5. I found some more, they came on ebay today as 'method feeder connectors'.
  6. Thanks for the responses, I should explain that I made a cock-up in my original post, I actually bought a Drennan feeder, forget that I ever mentioned Preston Innovations. There must be two types of Drennan quick change beads, I have the type with the rounded push on cone and they are very good but the other type has slots for quick changing at either end of the device and just one is supplied with the feeder. Apologies normally I'm not so confusing but I should explain that since Friday I have been on a course of strong pain killers and I am flying! I see now why people get addicted to drugs, life is very different all of a sudden.
  7. Thanks for the link Steve, I already have those though.
  8. I bought a Preston Innovations in-line feeder recently and it was supplied with a Preston Innovations quick change bead which unlike others has two slots for attaching the hook-length and the main line. This means a total break down of your tackle is possible without losing depth. However I can't find a supplier for just the bead despite the packet the feeder came in stating that they are available separately. Anyone recognise the photo and if you do who supplies them? I can't find an email for PI direct.
  9. Dragon Carp are pulling your plonker, I think all European goods are covered by a one or two year guarantee and it may be that the item is 'unfit for purpose' BUT - as it wasn't expensive do you have the time to chase them, I WOULD ! The Grey's reel looks tempting, lovely design, have a play with them all in a shop. Don't forget the Young's reels too.
  10. The Okumas look like great reels and as to the other lot, well the internet is a great place to permanently lose customers because bad service tends to get reported in more depth than good service. Good luck in your search for a new pin.
  11. Thanks for the heads up on the Cortesi reel, bad luck the pawl fell into the river, maybe try getting just the new pawl if you like the reel. I've been using a Fred Crouch Aerial type pin for a year now and it is performing well, a lot more expensive though, I think it will last many years, it's simple and well made.
  12. I'd say avoid this like the plague. I bought one and sent back as unfit for purpose, as I said at the time if a big fish scowled at this it would literally c*** itself and fall to bits. Badly made junk! Go for the Marco Cortesi.
  13. Out here in France they sell a particularly evil smelling cat food for about 80p a large tin, it is half inch meat cubes in a jelly. I mix it in with ground bait and also use it on the hook. I fish mainly in the margins so casting isn't a problem, as it is moist I use a baiting needle to hook the cubes. I push the needle through the cube, catch the hook on the baiting needle's little barb, then pull it gently back through the cube, release the needle and turn the hook before pulling on the line to draw the hook back up into the cube, it stays on fine and seems to attract the larger fish, smelly cat food is a deadly bait.
  14. Welcome Del, it's hard to say if you'll get bites, if the water temps are still low then your chances of blanking are increased. Find out what species are in there and target the ones that you might fair better with at this time of year, such as Perch. March and April are good times for Perch. Check to make sure your canal doesn't have a close season after 15th March, I'm not sure of the laws in the UK now as I only started fishing again last summer and I live abroad now. Good Luck, sometimes you learn more when the fishing is hard, change your tactics to suit the conditions and think like a fish!
  15. I don't wish to contradict anyone else's review BUT in my opinion, do not go near the Shadowlanda pin. I bought one unseen off the net thinking to use it occasionally or for winding line on and off other reels. When I opened the box I was astonished at the crap quality, I mean really bad, I was lucky and got a full refund. If a carp or god forbid a barbel so much as smiled at it, it would c*** itself and fall to bits! It wobbles like crazy, it appears to be made of alloy but I'm not sure, it could be cardboard, the finish on it is like a medieval disease, it left me asking, why? Why would anyone bother to manufacture this? Perhaps as a child I would have been thrilled with it for xmas but now, the total lack of any sense of quality would leave most adults flummoxed. A good starter would be the Marco Cortesi pin for £30.00 from 'Dragon Carp'.
  16. I bought a Jet narrow drum reel in October 2010, I highly recommend it, I've used it light float fishing for Bream, Roach, Rudd, Carp and Perch, I've taken margin Carp over 20lbs on it and it was a blast controlling them with your thumb and 'some' side strain! The quality is excellent overall and Fred was very helpful on the phone when I had a slight hitch. The 'hitch' being this, on the current Jet the ratchet is not reversible, it is supposed to be the same whichever hand you use to wind with but in my opinion (and I am a musician admittedly) it does not sound exactly the same in either direction and the tension is different too. I wanted to wind using my left hand but the way I received the reel it was INMHO set up for right hand winding, i.e. the drag was louder and more resistant to pressure when paying out line than when winding. I spoke to Fred about this and I 'fettled' it but it required some thought and a file. Now it is fine but if you can choose, mention which hand you wind with, otherwise buy with confidence. I intend to go trotting with it at some point when the weather warms up and I have noticed in the short time of owning it that it has become even more free running, so hopefully it will be very good for that too. Rusty said that line can be a problem wrapping around the leg of the reel and I would agree but I think that this is a problem with all centrepins, the trick is to keep an eye on the line after casting etc. keep the ratchet on generally when not trotting. Fred offers a removable line guide, I wouldn't mind trying one as a I don't often 'bat' the hub when fishing close in, so maybe that is something to consider too. One thing is for sure, apart from the excellent value of the reel there is a great back up service from Fred too.
  17. I've only just come back to fishing after a long, long lay off (but I was still an angler inside ) the change of quality in affordable tackle is remarkable as is the great range of tackle available but nowhere more so than with hooks. I decided to start with Kamasan hooks after reading a lot on the 'net and because my eyes are not that great and because of the species I target I haven't used anything smaller than a 16. For the medium size carp I've been catching (up to 25lbs) a size 10, spade end, barbless narrow wire gauge has worked well but I have lost a few when the hook just 'came out' when trying out the heavier metal, eyed carp hooks. The advantage I discovered in using the heavy carp hooks is that I could mount bigger baits more easily with them but generally I prefer the finer wire hooks. If anyone can recommend a slightly longer shanked barbless, spade end, size 10 but made from a relatively thin gauge wire I'd be interested to try them. What a great forum by the way I'm learning loads here. BTW for the first few months of my return to fishing I used a fixed spool reel but wanted to use a centrepin again as I generally did when I was younger. I bought a 'Fred Crouch - Jet' and it is a great reel for my purposes. Compared to a fixed spool reel I would say the centrepin gives more feedback and control when playing a fish and that you really feel in command and in touch with the fish. Next summer I hope to start fishing in the French rivers near where I live so we'll see how it does trotting for Chub but it is easily up to the job of handling heavy fish.
  18. That's right Dave, there is nothing better than watching a float disappear - well few things.
  19. I fish for the biggies too with float gear, I just enjoy that way of fishing even though other methods can produce just as many or more fish. I feed less in winter Dave, maggots are a good all round winter bait and worms are a killer for Perch which are often active, fish around snags for them in the margins with float gear.
  20. Dave I fish a water with Carp to over 25lbs, large Bream and Perch but also lots of small/medium Rudd and Roach, I use one rod though and only ever float fish, generally near the margins. Here is my solution to having an interesting session and not having to play large fish on fine hook-lengths. I start off fishing for the smaller species, throw in a few maggots, ground bait (whatever I think suits the day) but get at least some fish into the swim, if I start catching small fish straight away it builds my confidence for the session, so I target the smaller species, until I believe there are larger fish in the swim. I always use a 7.5lb mainline but at the start I use a 2lb hook length to small hook sizes, I fix my homemade hook-lengths via a snap swivel, they are all the same length so there are no 'depth' issues and the changeover can be made in seconds. I have a 'Preston Innovations' large size hook box which is full of all the lengths and hooks that I know I'll need. I try and 'read' the swim, if I suddenly notice bubbles chances are I have something bigger moving around, there can be other signs too, if you suddenly start missing bites it is also possible that the hooks are too small for the large carp now in the swim, (although this applies less to ledgering and using hair-rigs etc.). At this point I change the hook-length for a 5lbs one and size 10/12 hooks or bigger and use my favourite cat food cubes in jelly, mini boilies in a bait band or whatever I've taken along as an experiment for the bigger fish. I find once I have caught a large carp and it has ploughed through my swim several times (which is at my feet effectively) the swim goes dead to larger fish for a while so I switch back to the lighter hook-length and smaller hooks and start taking the smaller fish again. I also vary depth and baits a lot, this keeps me and the fish interested. On barbless hooks:- I've had quite a few largish Carp throw the hooks, I'm not sure why, it might be my general technique or the pattern of hook more likely but in the same session where I have lost one fish I have changed the pattern for another and lost a large fish straight away on a different pattern, where on previous days both pattern have hooked and landed large fish!!? I use a centrepin and a 15' carbon, carp/float rod, (long I know for the big un's but it is a great rod), some of the carp here seem to shake their heads a lot and I figured out that that was when I was loosing the fish, so if that happens now I quickly try and lead the fish in a different direction, it seems to confuse em' and the head shaking stops. Try using higher strength lines when you have carp around, I use Ultima 'Power Match' for the mainline and 'Power Silk' for hook lengths, it has a very fine diameter and is well behaved, if you don't already do it tie your own hook-lengths but you'll need a hook tier for spade ends and a loop making tool. I hooked and landed a carp over 25lbs recently on a fine hook length, it took over 20 mins to bring to the net and to be honest after 10 mins, it was getting a bit tiresome as there was little I could do with it, the carp was mostly in charge until gentle pressure tired it. Inevitably you will hook into something big when you have the light gauge tackle on but at least if you decrease the odds of this happening you will not have to play fish for so long every time you hook em'. Having said that any carp over 10lb on light tackle certainly teaches you how to play fish properly. Every session has a learning curve!
  21. I came back to fishing (float fishing only) this summer after many years away and I know what you mean about commercials, it's a bit like fishing for your pets, I suppose it depends on how big the commercial is and how it's managed but knowing exactly what is there does remove a little of the mystery. Still good fun at the French one that I fish which hasn't been drained in ten years, there is a good head of medium/largeish Carp, Bream and Rudd and Roach. However I started to catch more and more small Perch as winter came on, one day when only small roach were interested I targeted the Perch and took many up to a 1lb and this one over two pounds. Species like Perch are neglected on the Carp fisheries and I'm sure they can grow large as they are completely unmolested.
  22. As others have pointed out the rating of a line is measured against shock. When you are playing a large fish its weight is supported by water, the line and rod become like a huge powerful whip. If the knots don't cause problems and the hook holds fast (a problem with barbless hooks and large carp as some shake their heads violently to throw the hook) then landing large fish on lines of relatively low breaking strain is easily possible. Yesterday I tried out my new Fred Crouch 'Jet' centrepin for the first time on carp up to 10lbs and I found that COMBINED WITH A 15' CARBON ROD I was able to tame them quicker than with my fixed spool reel. The reel allowed me to use the 'curve' of the rod and the stretch of the line together despite the low 5lb hook length I felt in complete control and I could feel every move of the carp. So don't be worried about using light lines for presentation just learn how to play the fish sensitively if they are really big. I have a question though, can anyone recommend a quality line between 7-8lbs breaking strain but less than 1.8mm? I float fish and I would like something that passes more smoothly through the tiny rod tip eyes.
  23. Thanks Mark, very informative, as I was fishing yesterday I was trying to detect what I thought were line bites, I didn't imagine thought that the violent takes could be line bites but what you say makes sense the Carp's fins are large and hard, they could easily pull the float under and they are aggressive fish when feeding. The sun has just come out so I'm off there again today, I'm going to use the same hook length but put less of it on the bottom, see if that helps avoid the little fish at least.
  24. Today in sunny W. France I was fishing a largish pond on the Pescalis complex. I caught Carp to 15lbs and Bream to 7lbs, all on light float tackle in about two and a half feet of muddy 'Carpy' water. I've fished there quite a lot and I've had some great days there but I miss quite a lot of bites, occasionally foul hook fish and occasionally deep hook smallish Perch and Rudd due to the bites being timid and me hanging on in case it is something bigger. For bait I use maggots, corn, pellets, bread and largish cubes of catfood in jelly. The larger Carp and Bream seem to like the big baits so I use an 11 or 10 barbless spade end tied to a foot long length of 5lb nylon and 7lbs main line. I fish over depth with the hook length on the bottom, I'm beginning to think that perhaps I should use a six inch hook length, fished on the bottom and then perhaps bites would be registered earlier and more positively but I chose the long hook length to provide as little resistance a possible before the first lead shot (small ones) are felt by the fish. The Bream are generally slow biters whereas the Carp are ferocious and seem unaffected by my presentation. When I mount the 'dead cat' pieces I use a baiting needle and pull the hook through the evil smelling, soggy cubes, this means that they have a better chance of staying on the hook when small fish attack them but the hook is hidden and maybe when I strike the hook has no chance to catch in a poissons mouth. The long and short of it is, does anyone think that in shallow water like this a 1' long hook length on the bottom is overlong? I don't fix lead shot to the hook length for fear of compromising the already small dimensions of it, these French Carp are ferocious fighters! Maybe I could put a small shot on the hook length to aid the strike. Many of the missed bites I get are when the float suddenly disappears rapidly with no warning these are generally carp I think going by the Carp that I have hooked. The natural reaction is to strike quickly, on the occasions that I have let the fish run off with the bait the fish has let go and the float reappears, if I had struck I would have missed the bite, maybe they are small fish just holding the bait in their lips?
  25. I'm an avid barbless hook user so if using them is counter productive in some situations, what situations should I use them in and when should I not use them?
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