nick_gilbert

A f1 is a cross between a king carp and a brown goldfish. The idea of stocking then is to produce all year round sport as they will feed in any weather making them ideal for commercial type match lakes. I quite like fishing for them myself they are delicate feeders similar to crucians. Here is a picture of one.

I remeber catching them barbel many years ago in the Stour around Canterbury when they were only around a pound. I was also told they can be caught on some sections of the tidal?

I wouldn't be surprised if the rod is made in China, a lot of top of the range rods are made there. I held the new Normarks up against my new Maver Reactolite 12ft float rod that cost £90 and the finish and fitting are identical, I would suspect they came from the same place, I wouldn't be surprised if the same blank were being used for several brands of rod! This is only my opinion but I was disappointed when I looked at the current Normark rods, I was expecting something special and thought they were no better than rods around the £100 mark produced by company's like MAP, Maver etc. Ive yet to find a better balanced and more responsive 13 ft float rod that the Milo New Era Powerlight.

I happened to be looking at the new Normarks yesterday in a local tackle shop as I was thinking of buying one and to be honnest if you took the price tag off and logo they didn't feel anything special. I have handled rods less than half the price that had a better feel and balance, the Drennan DRX Ultralight Waggler being one, the new 13-15ft Drennan Floatmaster, Also the Milo New Era Powerlight (although this rod is no longer made),

Where in east Kent are you I know plenty of venues, some the fishing is free. I could probably point you to the nearest.

it depends what sort you are getting but even if it is a PUPPS type you may find it will be a bit close to you if you dont have the footplate to mount it on.

Hi Ive never heard of the metropolitan Angling Society, but I am a member of MVAS, some of the lakes are closed in rotation over the old closed season, what ones are you thinking of fishing?

Ive got several rods from the DRX range including a Stillwater feeder, and they are superb and very well made with no problems at the tip end , it could be possible you have brought a faulty one?

Firstly the 501/506 are useless for any sort of waggler fishing the main thing you need is the line to come off of the spool smoothly and it doesn't matter what you do with this reel it just won't, every time you hook a sizable fish you suffer form bedding in restricting the line flow even more, casting any distance can be very inconsistent and this can be a real pain if fishing to a far bank feature on a biggish river. From a matchmans point of view they have a very slow retrive costing you bait in the water time in a match. The only plus point of a closed face reel is if you are fishing into a headwind it can stop them annoying tangles you sometimes get when using a open faced reel, and I do own one for that odd time. Now we get onto the Mitchells the big fault with the match was the cam plate that shuts the bail arm, if you fished rivers every weekend like i used to you would be lucky if it lasted 6 months, the line would get trapped when shutting the bale arm and just snap(this would happen at leat once every 2-3 trips, they would quite quickly start to sound like a grinder if not stripped down and re-greesed and re shimmed every few months, they were far from smooth with lots of free play and it was difficult to play large fish compared to a modern reel as this affected winding power, and dont even get me started on line twist I wore out several Mitchell's over a period of 2-3 years, salvaging the old ones for parts to keep the others running!! Now a few years ago I purchased a few Daiwa Capricors (not a cheap reel) and they are as good and smooth today as they day I brought them, with no wear at all, and I have done nothing to these except give them a odd clean. I could compare the old Mitchell to a Volkswagen Beetle, very rough to drive and keeps on working with constant maintenence and replacement of parts, and the Daiwa Capricorn is like a modern day Golf, smooth, silent, and with minimum maintenence will do 200,000 miles I will sit back now and wait for all the abuse, He He He

yep they were fine, I owned a few of them reels in the 70-80's, I was looking at some of my fathers old gear a few days ago and though did I really used to use this stuff! He had got some real classic stuff including a original 4 piece 13ft Milbo Enterprise, ABU Cardinal 55s. the first carbon rod brought out by Normark. But prefer more modern stuff nowadays far nicer to fish with. I doubt it catches me any more fish though!

Excelent collection of KEEPNET weights on offer

If you are off to the States get yourself a Daiwa Capricorn 2000 or 1500, (same reel just different depth of spool), these are a perfect size for river float fishing and you should be able to pick them up for around $80 or less if you shop around. Some prefer to use a close faced, in fact I own a couple and use them sometimes on slower flowing rivers or when fishing into a facing wind, but you will find the line doesn't feed off as smooth as a open faced fixed spool which will affect presentation, also closed faced reels will not cast as well as a open face. One thing worth checking is to make sure you can reach the edge spool with your finger as on a lot of modern reels it is too far away. Sorry guys but a decent modern reel like the Daiwa Capricorn or Shimano Stradic is far superior in every way to the old abu and mitchell's

I recently was looking for a cheap 12ft rod for leaving set up in the car for fishing small rivers for chub/roach/trout etc. and was recommended a MAP CFS 12ft 2 piece Medium Waggler, it had a great reel seat and a cork handle, although designed for commercial fisheries it also makes a great rod for trotting on flowing water. I think they sell for about £49, but I did pick mine up new on ebay for £33 so might be worth a look out for one.

Ive caught plenty of roach on the blue maggots when I have brought mixed, on one particular water I fish they seem to work really well

I used to fish along that section of the Swale every spring when the crabs started peeling, had some very good catches of flounder and eels on light tackle, I never caught any other species but didn't ever give it a go at night. I haven't been sea fishing for some time sticking to freshwater, but am tempted to dust off my gear this spring.