DarrenBranks

If your looking for sturdy, reliable and good value for money you can't go wrong with SHIMANO DEORE XTS I've got the full kit best parts I've had. Nott even one bit of wear on the chainset (as would be expected). Im a serious cyclist who has tackled many downhill peaks in Scotland and my "ON ONE" bike built from scratch has coped with all and more. I think it's gotta be down to the XTS parts, but my friend says I'm just to modest and it's my superior technical riding abilities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVwZ7Ymh3mo...be_gdata_player I would give up fishing for life if I had this much bad luck.

Andy, Have you been out for a go yet? Been up a few times to the "basin" for the pike. The carp up there have been moving a lot once the sun goes down. I'm taking a guess here, is one of your three swims going to be at the pillion? Looks good to me seen a good few surface feeding fish there. A small suggestion from me would be to keep some bread with you on your quest as I've seen a lot of fish feeding on the surface;) anyway best of luck. Also keep us updated.

I think sliders are quite realistic bud?

Well your old am young

To me?

Ah I understand now, what if say we had thoses unattended rods sitting on quiet aloud bite alarm?

Bml, If you listen to my help I hope that it does you good. But I may be about to under some scrutiny. Even tho my post was and still is completely relevant to your question. Im hoping that phone may see this before he jumps the gun. Phone, I just find it strange that people would label their rods, anyone? As for what your asking. People help me out so that you may replie to me, well as you have very often pointed out your a big boy so I think you should man up and do it on your own.

No I was joking about the fact that you would label your rod?

Nope 18.

Pick me up at Glasgow and well go halfers all the way

Im glad you've took the next step, but i think the ground bait is a bit early or late. If your going to be moving and re casting to find your on spot, you'll be moving about more that your float on a windy day. So any ground bait will just be wasted. If I was you I would carefully read my last post and stick to finding your on sweet spot for now. Then pumping ground bait can only be good for that spot if you catch my drift. Anyway what ever you do good luck Darren Edit: the late I say in terms of the ground bait is, the fish are starting to hold up and getting fussy. On my local canal they are struggling to get the free offering down never mind ground bait.

Well Phone I can and won't ever understand what you guys get up to, If I fish a feeder it's on a running rig. As in my feeder is on my main line sliding freely using a swivel to stop it with a hook length as short as you like. When a unsuspecting fish takes the bait it can run with no weight at all(providing you have your drag on) The fish doesn't need to stay on top of the feeder fighting and scrapping to get away it just takes and runs as usall then I strike. I find this method personally more pleasing and tbh I think the fish do although I have no proff. Darren

Three day session for me, Bivy Chair Sleeping bag Tackle(enought but not to much) Food Water Most importantly booze All in a carry able rucksack, I think that would do me. But the question is would I catch the same amount fish that you would or would I catch the same quality. All that aside, I say every man to them self. If I seen a man(which I have) strolling down to the bank with a truck load I wouldn't mind, I would say bet he has every thing he needs and I've been in situations where I go "ohh I wish i had this... Or I wish I had that" but really when it comes down to it the guy with the most stuff doesn't need to think those things. He just goes "where's this or where's that" tbh I wish I had the b***s to go with all that. I would sleep with one eye open, thinking some man would come and take my stuff. But hey I'm from Glasgow that's just what we expect. On a serious note, everyone is entiltled to have as much of home as the want. Even if thats a portable toilet or a handy shave and wash kit it doesn't matter we need. What we need and carrying is that art of believing(well believing we need it) Darren

I would come if there's a place for a rookie

Well my report, Was a nice eventfull stroll to the spot, at which using my new methods I was going to get a monster. But guess what no perch there in fact no where to be seen. So I ended up doing my usall stuff on different stretches, producing some different size fish. I thought this is brilliant until I switched to a salmo slider. I cast to a spot(which is full of weed) and lost it not in a snag but in a cast, the clip from my spinning trace gave way to leave me with nothing gutted. Anyway that's what I can offer for a read. Feel free to add. Darren

If you want to be independent as in find your own sweet spot, I would take a rod, reel, spare tackle, bait, and your food all in a small back pack. Then just walk. Other option is before you lug a whole sessions worth of gear down, go and ask the guys that are already pulling the fish in. Ask where they recommend, where's fish holding spots, where do the fish hold up on cold weather and hot but it's most likely you'll see them on the surface or just under. I wish you the best of luck in finding your spot Darren.

Hi chirs and welcome, Right now I'm right into canal fishing and I've started to tweak everything I'm doing to get better results, but to start you off I would say get a few stick floats, some appropriate shot, hooks starting at size 22 through to 18 and some light leader for your hook lengths. Then a tub of maggots and a walk for a few hours throwing in your float here and ther to find the "best" spot, find that and just feed little and often until you run out of fish to catch but it's more likely you'll go home first. I wouldnt worry to much about hooks just yet as I've had some nice nice perch on size 26. Now for the juicy stuff the setup, me personally I use a 2g waggler on 4 pound main line going down to 1lb fly leeder onto size a 20 with most/all my shot at the base of my float. Switching between maggot and worm is what I prefer but as people on here have shown me and I'm sure youll hear to, bread, sweet corn, cheese and others can throw up some good results on the day. Well that's my input hope I helped, keep posting Darren

Thanks for all the replies guys, informative asuall. I'm leaving to try again in an hour. I've got ahold of some very light line almost like human hair And I'm dropping hook size from 20 to 24. If that fails Im going to give you guys a more visual perspective on this, as when watching it really is puzzling. Darren

Well phone your right I've tried running a few shads and meps through them, even jelly worms. The fish are the biggest that I've seen in the water. As of now when I throw in lose feed they hit it instantly but just watch my hook bait fall (at the same pace as the free offerings) what I'm actually going to do is video this and post a link for it tomorrow. Hopefully someone will point out my wrong doing. I'm actually considering your post a while back on hook metals being a repellent, but it's not set in stone as the other perch on the canals take it fine?.

I'm in the same boat here I can't see anything wrong with what I'm doing and anywhere else they take hook bait no probs, confused.

I'm a fellow believer in moving the shot about to get a more natural look but it wasn't that. I'm not sure if it's my line, it's 1.5lb brown fly leader so it's almost invisible. I just can't think or find a reason for it

Tonight I was fishing my local canal, i came across a shoal of about 30-40. Feeding lose maggot over my cast was productive but they started to turn away only at the hook bait. I tested everything, could they see the line I asked or the shots or was it the way my maggot was hooked but came to no conclusion. So I'm now left with not a clue to what could be causing it. Any suggestions? Thanks Darren

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carp-pike-coarse...d#ht_3071wt_828 Same seller looks good?

When trout fishing, if I'm going to eat them I would use a treble, for a few points one it holds the power bait and maggots better, two kinda a spin off from one but the treble makes it look better (kind looks like a shuttle cock) , three after losing plent on a size ten single it made me ask about the loch and everyone said use trebles. But thats only for eating as when the trout takes it it swallows instantly no matter how quick your on it. must look to good? As for getting the hook out its a nightmare, talk about deep hooked, every hook not just one is in very deep 100% of the time, I've even had to leave the hook in a few times and get it back when I'm gutting the fish but as I say that's trout. Now pike I would never use a single hook for as in my opinion it's farting in the wind, when a treble is on I find it give e peace of mind and that it's usually as phone said one out of three that's hooked which is a blessing on the pike front. Now for the tricky part carp I think I will just stick to single hooks there as I have enough problems with singles. Darren