stivestackle

As a loyal boile user I can say there are good boilies and bad boilies. Any of the makers range of food type freezer baits will be good. I have used Nash Monster Pursuit for years but now use Geoff Bowers range Fifth Element as its better value and I get better service. Just google abs active bait solutions for more info. Bottom line is a good bait is always a good bait but today's anglers seem to be the most gullible of all time and are easily taken in by a bit of flash marketing. Gotta be on the latest wonder bait or you won't catch! My that makes me chuckle. If a bait didn't work you can bet its because there were no carp in your swim.

The perfect anglers jacket from Jack Pyke of England These are available in both Hunters Green or English Oak and are top quality items.

Pro Clear 1000m spools of carp line in all breaking strains. A top seller.

Now thats my kind of angling. I too get funny looks and will fish in Winter with the bare minimum of gear. Carp are after all simple creatures that don,t take much notice of whether you have a huge bivvy or not! I use a cheapo 50 inch brolly with stormsides, a sundridge triple layer sleeping bag with cover and thats pretty much it for comforts. I will only use 2 rods and the marker and spods stay at home. I can pack up in 5 mins and be gone. The fishery owner always comments that wherever my car is I will be miles from it because I,ve probably moved. My one luxury is taking my Jack Russell with me, he makes a great toe warmer. Trouble is todays carp anglers are all taken in by glossy adverts and feel they must have everything. Thats obviously what the tackle manufacturers want you to think though. I still use my favourite Penetrator 2 hooks that have been around for years and still keep catching, so why change? Like you say I see people carrying 2 tackle boxes stuffed with different hooklink materials just in case. Madness.

I had a set of Fox Digital scales. Absolutely hated them the more I used them. They gobbled batteries and when you needed them most they would let you down. Also weighed rather a lot for a box of electronics. Very expensive at £99 when they first came out. Reubons all the way total reliability and simplicity.

Good old post office have messed up again. As a seller of fishing equipment and outdoor clothing through ebay and my own store these latest rises have made some items just not worth selling any more. Some businesses may have to close due to this rise as they sell all smallish items that now have to go medium parcel. I was selling beany unhooking mats at 14.99 plus £3 postage, now the post office wants £5.60, seeing as the profit margin is just £3 on this item you can see sending by good old PO would make me a nice profit of just 40p. Guess what I have now moved most of my business to a courier service, much more efficient and prices starting from £3. The only PO goods sent now are the small items that couriers dont handle. They did this last year and crippled everyones sales and we have just recovered and have now been hit by another rather huge rise. In my view they are going to be losing a lot of business this time.

Yes the old carping seems to involve carrying a lot of gear. I once saw an ex matchman who had turned his hand to carping struggling back to his car after a weekend session and commented "blimey mate you have some gear there" his reply "I.ve got two more barrow loads yet". He had everything from huge cookers to a bedchair , a chair ,a guest chair a sleeping bag and another sleeping bag just in case and a huge baitboat with numerous buckets to fill it up with. It was laughable I have to say. As a recent convert he had gone out and bought new everything. Me, I use a brolly and a real good sleeping bag, 2 rods, no marker or spod rod and I carry my gear everywhere (almost). I dont miss a third rod and the marker comes out when I feel the need for it. Other carpers look at me like I,m nuts and say wheres the rest of my gear, but what do you really need other than a baited hook or two and some watercraft, something thats missing these days. Most anglers seem to focus on the technical side of angling rather than letting the fish say what to do. I always say the carp don,t know what make of rod you're using or what type of camo you,re wearing but clearly they know exactly what make of bivvy mallet is being clumped into the ground, now that sets me off on another path.

Brazil nuts! Only trouble is I keep eating them

I favour longer rigs of about 18 inches but have noted that smaller carp of about up to 5lb ish respond better to short rigs. I simply tie up a length of Gold Label Pro Clear in 12 or 16lb knotless knot , job done. My reasoning for this is simply that most people use a coated hook link so I try to be a little different and its so much cheaper me being a tight wad an all that. I will use coated hook link where snags are present though as most of them are pretty abrasion resistant.

Nope I don't believe it makes a real difference, rather it catches the angler. I have used stinking maize which is great. I read about it in one of my old classic books from the Dick Walker era but not sure if it was his book or another but he recommended soaking grains of hard maize out in the sun for months till they were stinking. What I used to do was boil up a few kilos of hard maize, chuck it in a fermenting bucket outdoors in a sunny spot and relax for a few weeks. Fermentation and rotting appears to go on at the same time and it absolutely hums! You can top it up with another couple of kilos of boiled maize when ever you like to keep the supply going. It goes all milky and you will be very unpopular with her indoors and will need to wash your hands for weeks after using it. It stinks!!! But the fish love it

Hangers seem to follow fashions. Not too long ago everyone had swingers from Fox or similar. This seems to have transmogrified into hangers on cords and then hangers with link chains and hangers with bicycle style chains to avoid windy bleeps. Could we see a resurgence of monkey climbers soon? Be amusing wouldn't it?

Mmmm interesting had a set of Delkims about 2003 I think. They were awful with regards to water ingress and when returned the maker they tried to accuse me of submersing them in the lake. All they had suffered was a few rain showers, so I was not too impressed by this. Sold them on and will never touch em again. First alarms for me were good old optonics even though the on off switch used to get a bit oxidised and volume was a bit feeble. Fox Micron s now which are over ten years old and going strong.

What about this one Tackle Box or you could consider a material based one, much better for tucking in a rucksack. Its a very personal thing though as what suits one may not suit you.

Just goes to show its not all about huge gravel pits. I must get down the rivers myself. The Great Ouse is my local but I never seem to find the time. Wasn't Alan on Mr Crabtree the other week?

Mmm very interesting. Unlike most so called syndicates where its called a syndicate but anyone can join at syndicate prices. The very word syndicate suggests an exclusive membership but sadly this is often not the case. A lot of fisheries seem to call it a syndicate to charge high prices but then lets everyone in who asks to join, when they like, with no restrictions at all. Nice to see someone still upholds some values.

So whats your favourite fishing line? We stock mainly Gold Label Tackle lines and find they have a huge following and don,t vanish from the market like other popular brands. GLT dont seem to advertise much but still their lines speak for themselves. My favourite is Pro Tough for all my carping but Pro Clear has a massive following. Pro Clear lovely and supple and rated accurately. Pro Tough a lovely fast sinking line with a blue tinge rendering it almost invisible in water. Pro Gold very popular and available in lighter strains. Pro Distance super supple for distance work Anyone else use these regularly and why they like them so much? I have lost count of many leading brands whose lines suddenly deteriorate for no obvious reason. I suspect they may not be very UV resistant so while they perform initially a few months later they weaken. Recently I had a brand of a popular line in 15lb and it seemed fine, a few months later I had a couple of unexplained breakages and found it broke at just 10lb where as when new it broke at 19lb. I should add I dont fish every week and considered this line was hardly used after 3 months or so. No such problems with Gold Label.

Mmmmm didn't realise us carp anglers were held in such high esteem. LoL I know what you mean though, I love float fishing for biggish carp and margin fishing for them but camping all week yuk. I have tried it though but I soon got better. I now do mostly days and hate camo everything as well as bivvy mallets. There will soon be an army of camo clad weirdos clutching a throwing stick and a bag of boiles coming to a lake near you! Watch out!

Awesome kipper! Theres some bigguns in the Great Ouse near where I live. Must go and fish for them.

Why on earth would anyone want camo bivvy slippers? Theres some strange things go on in the world of carp fishing, much as I love it, it seems to get madder by the year. What next, camo mallet? Camo underpants (probably) Camo toilet paper, surely not, but maybe I can flog rolls and rolls of that! I might even rename my shop Cynical-Tackle.

If you have checked battery starter and glow plugs I would go back to basics before spending any money and have the cam and injection timing checked. Only needs to be a sniff out to cause starting issues. You really need to have current draw for starter and glow plugs checked to be sure they are ok. Also it's not unusual for a new battery to be duff get it checked by someone with a midtronics type tester. Don't forget to check all connections including battery terminals for corrosion. Good luck and hope you get it sorted. Very difficult to diagnose by forum!

A fresh sliced white loaf is fantastic for Tench. I have enjoyed many a session catching 2 or 3 5lb plus tench from my local gravel pit at first light about late May time. Float fished on 4lb line to a size 12 with a pinch of flake. All the action would be over by 9 oclock and home for breakfast.Perfect! I also like nothing better than float fishing for carp while all are asleep in their bivvies dreaming of the latest wonderbait and rig while their deadlines are waiting and waiting to bore out a carp. lol. Heres one small one that nibbled on float gear. http://stivestackle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/carp-fishing-with-bacon-grill.html

These should fit the bill nicely at less than £50 each. http://www.stivestackle.co.uk/dave-lane-speedrunner-free-spool-carp-reel-p-744.html Come highly recommended and not too heavy.

Mmmm... seem to remember my local shop flogging these to all the kids in Summer holidays. Advised him of their barbaric properties but he still sold loads and loads of them. In my own youth I tried one once but Mr Pike just clamped down on it and sprang out of its jaw and was sunk! Gone into the depths forever. Best place for it I guess.

Please feel free to have a browse around our eBay shop for some quality specimen fishing tackle. Thanks for looking.

Please feel free to have a browse around our eBay shop for some quality specimen fishing tackle.