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.

At my lake we have done work before with the local police working with young offenders. some of them can be real trouble makers but once thier interested in the fishing they enjoy it. its only when thiers a few of them they start to show off and mess around. still its better than having them nicking cars.

where i fish many people use artificial baits and ive never heard of fish suffering from it. i cant imagine how the fish would swallow the bait if its on a hair. one time i did find someone using artificial boilies. i thought this was unusual as i dont think anyone has real problems keeping boilies on, also as boilies are mainly used for their smell i wouldnt want to use a fake over a real smelling one.

I think that the artificial bread is the best. it looks just like the real thing but you buy it in great lumps so you can cut it down to whatever size you need. only it doesnt come flavored so you need to do that yourself.

Fishing from on the surface is my favorate way to fish, what knapper said is spot on, using a variaty of floats is a good tactic and striking when you see the bait taken is always best. but the problem is as you said the swirling makes it very unclear as when to strike, particulary if your fishing at a distance. I like to bait up with dog biscits but use a bright colour pop-up boilie or artificial bait on a hair, this is the one way ive found the bites easier to spot. I also find that if your bait is positioned next to or in lily pads the fish are more confident and approach and take the bait slower.

Ive found that floating rubber sweetcorn on the top can work well for chub, ive also caught chub on yellow Doppel-ganger bait molded into sweetcorn works as you can increase the size for carp.

thanks for that, its a really good site,

Hi im new to this site, Ive always enjoyed fishing for many different types of fish from rudd and Roach to pike and carp, but ive never fished for catfish. from what ive heard its a real experience. The only problem is i dont know where to go, im in bristol and im not sure of anywhere near me with catfish in. Does anyone know anywhere thats worth a trip? also having never fished for catfish any tips on tactics would be great, i would imagine thats its quite similar to pike fishing but ive also heard of catfish picking up boilies.

www.huk-line-and-sinker.moonfruit.com ive found this site, He also sells stuff on ebay, lots of good tackle but not much in the way of equipment.

Hi im new to this site, My lake in bristol is open all year round but is closed for spawning when needed (usualy 2 weeks a year). this seems to do the job fine, the only problem is that its hard to give any notice to the fishermen, this can cause problems when people arrange fishing trips and then are refused entry. most are fine with the idea because they would rather not have a closed season. being an old quarry it is quite a large lake, 3.5acres and quite deep. its a private lake so it isnt really fished much so a break for the fish isnt really needed. but i can see how people with lakes that are heavily fished would prefer to give the fishing a break, also in the autum we close parts of the lake for maintenence (weeding and swim restoring)

Hi im new to this site, My grandad has a lake in bristol and its in the rules that anglers must have a landing net and a unhooking mat with them at all times. i think its a reasonable rule as its better for the fish. trying to land big fish without these would probably damage the fish. i think most anglers would not object to these rules being put in place by the envoroment agency. still it would probably be nice to see that kid on the lake try to unhook a pike without forceps :-)