jedi_knight_298

Ive found it really depends on where your fishing. if your fishing on the bottom using a pop-up bait then i would suggest only ever using a 6" hook length, also if your fishing on a very hard bottom like rock of gravel it can also be an advantage to use a 6" hooklength. if the area is full of slit or mud then you will want a longer hooklength such as 18"s because the lead will sink and drag the bait closer to the bottom. if you fishing on the surface then you reall want to position your bait at least 2 foot from your surface controller. hope this helps.

ive used coco pops before as an attractor bait for carp/chub, also if you blank you can still eat your bait.

if you really want to get your pics this way. you will need a high spec camcorder, you will need at least a megapixel camera. also to really get the sharpness you will need at least a 800X600 res. im pretty sure that you will only get this from a camcorder thats saving to an SD card or a mini dv tape. normal digital camcorders that use digital or digital8 tapes record at broadcast resolution which is 640X480, this if fine but when your looking at just one frame the blur starts to show. if you are saving to a SD card just 2 mins filming at 1024X768 will set you back 32mb of space, but its well worth it. you will also need a decent video editing tool such as imovie or if your using a pc videowave 5 is quite reasonbly priced. also use something like photoshop or photoedit to sharpen the frame and remove any motion blur is always good.

its wierd and not a natural bait but ive tried cheerios on a hair before for carp and it worked, if your chub are on the surface this may be worth a try. and there dead easy to use.

Hi again, sorry, my mistake in the last post. its the males that have bigger fins. (ive had a long hard day :confused: ) cheers.

Hi ed. another way of telling the difference is that the pelvic fins on a female are much bigger than a males. sometimes twice the size. its unclear from the pictures but the 3rd fish down may well be a female. also as with most spiecies the females often grow larger, i dont think ive ever seen a male over 8lbs. as everyone else said the matts very important, even more so with tench and bream, as you probably have found tench and bream have a thick layer of slim on them, if they loose this they can come more prone to tempreture changes and infection, i try never to use a rag when handling these fish and always use wet hands. apart from that nice fish.

I have caught pike elsewhere and i think they are great fish to catch. i dont think i could kill any course fish for food as i would rather see the fish swim away than enjoy it as a meal.

The situation with our pike is that a few years ago they were introduced without permission as fry. The biggest we have in the lake now is around 5lbs max with most being around 3lbs. with no larger pike to eat the smaller ones culling was our only option, we wished to kill off the population before they started to breed. As the pike are still only a small size there isnt much of a worry about them reproducing. The lake is very old and is very well stocked with large perch, rudd, roach and double figure tench and bream, and of course carp. it was never intended for pike to be in the lake so we are simply trying to restore it to its former state.

Unfortunatly at my lake at the moment we are having a bit of a slaughter. the pike population is getting a bit aout of control and its stopping us from stocking any new smaller fish (crusian/tench/etc) the anglers may do as they wish with the pike but there not to be returned top the water. pike must not be very nice to eat as many end up just being thrown away. its a shame as pike are nice fish to catch but its ruining the fishing for all the non pike anglers.

what i should have said was that an experienced angler wouldnt have as much advantage over a new angler using the newer bite alarm system as they would if they used the float system. obviously knowlege of the water/baits/rigs will always be valuble.

im not really too fussed about the size of the fish. i would just like to be in with a chance of catching one. shatterford sounds good, only no deadbaiting :-(

thats not too far away, sounds really good. ill seriously take a look at it. cheers.

providing you have the equipment i think that bite alarm style fishing is probably the easiest way to fish, its a shame that someone with 10 years experience has no advantage over someone with 1 years experience. i do fish for carp using alarms but i most enjoy using a float or surface controller. you cant beat the thrill of seeing your float go and striking not knowing whether its a rudd or something bigger. and catching large fish on small tackle is always the most fun. this is where experience and skill come in helpfull. the best fishing experience ive had is catching a 20lbs 4oz mirror on the float with a size ten hook and 5lbs line.

www.foxint.com im not sure if they sale spares on the website but there probably some advice.

a passion for angling has to be the best fishing on TV. its sometimes on Home & leisure but not often. its pretty old but the guys really know their stuff. i think one of the guys held the uk barbel record once but i might be wrong.