Rob Ward

Diameter is the key for abrasion resistance so choose wisely and ignore stated breaking strains. Take a look at the tackle box line tests as a rough guide. If you stick to a high diameter line you would benefit from big pit reels but a lower diameter line with a shock leader is just as good and no need for big pits. Also if you fish over too many bars youre asking for trouble regardless.

You might want to check thats not fluorocarbon coated i know ultima power carp is. If so dont believe the marketing it wont cast as well as a standard mono. 8lb catana is what i use for distance work.

Isn't the chod rig just another name for the helicopter rig? Personally I've found a pendulum lead casts further than a heli rig. Also do you know what kind of distance you're looking to fish? I can comfortably put a 1.5oz inline square lead around 80 yards now without too much effort and that's about as unaerodynamic as rigs get. Best tip I ever got with regard to fishing at distance was to drop my line strength and use a shock leader, also forget about braid or fluorocarbon/flourocarbon coated mainlines they cast like crap and mono is far superior. Shimano Catana is a good casting line, in fact its just a good line end of story.

Interesting one this, not that I've got much to add that hasn't already been said but.... Two days ago I put a couple of balls of leftover groundbait with added freebies into my garden pond to see what the reaction of the fish was, two Shubunkins (Carp) and four Golden Tench. The Shubunkins were clearly attracted to the feed but didn't stop to feed over it, they skirted around the perimeter picking bits off. The Tench ignored it completely and continued searching through the silt for their food. Most of the groundbait is still on the bottom of the pond....

How long is your hook length and what is it you're using for hook bait? The twitches you're getting are probably from fish nosing the feeder rather than proper bites.

Well done!

I haven't got that version but the version before, had them about 18 months or more now and they've been fine and probably more reliable than the Fox SXV's I had before them. Can't remember what I paid but for four alarms and a receiver it was pretty good value at the time and I'm still happy with them.

Sounds like youre getting line bites and possibly foul hooking. Good news is youre getting them.in the swim and feeding which is arguably the hard part. As others have said tighten up your clutch so it only just gives line and id also advise fishing four or more inches overdepth using the lift method which may make it easier to determine real bites from liners.

Very touching Newt, thanks for sharing.

I'm not 100% but that looks a lot like the former lake record of 9lb 14oz

Was thinking about this before, I'll try again for late summer.

Ditto, the cubes are the bomb <coat>

Ian Peacock did and it packed in fairly quickly!

That's exactly the point, a couple of days this year will be almost a quater of my fishing time. I'll use it in conjunction with the Marker rod - find likely areas with the smart cast and then use the marker. Someone said they don't use them to find fish and I don't entirely agree with that take, as you know some areas on pits look great with a marker but are devoid of fish. Again the smart cast could help avoid dead areas and save time. You can also get a mod done that means the system only picks out bigger fish i.e. over 10lb so in a pit that holds big Tench and Bream that could be a real bonus.... Another advantage is less time spent with the marker float means less disturbance in the swim. You'll probably find they're not all that great on Rivers though, they don't work well in water under 4ft deep.

Good Angling Rudd, well done and a deserved result by the sounds of it!

I find screamers a pretty rare occurance now with Bream and Tench, even with bolt rigs. I reckon that may be because I fish with the baitrunner at its tightest. I find they tend to stop without having taken much line.

Sounds exactly like Activ-8 Dales, I caught a lot of Tench on Activ-8 when Carp fishing and the Bream took them readily as well. Any decent quality bait that the fish find pallatable will catch. I'm always sceptical when somethings hailed a wonder bait, how many of those have come and gone over the years? If I were a betting man I'd give you evens that Cell would not dramatically outfish Activ-8 if you fished them side by side at Wingham. It's the application of the bait that's the key thing imho.

Thanks John!

Interesting, my usual baiting strategy is to put a handful of everything in the groundbait mix to try and avoid the Tench getting preoccupied on one food source. I might try a single bait type strategy over one or two rods this season and see how that fairs.

Interesting, I have one of the Chinese clones as well. Do you know which receiver units from Humminbird are compatible?

Just like activ-8, Pulse and Fusion before them then. Mainline make decent bait, the fact so much of it gets piled into waters up and down the country goes a long way to explaining why so many people use it and a lot of them are just following the herd. Like you say - you wouldn't use it on waters that don't see Carp anglers.

I think you'll find that wasn't the case with the Wensum, see my earlier post on about page five. There would have been Barbel in the Wensum long before Anglers started keeping records. Probably long before Anglers...

Pretty sure they would have been at one point, all of the Eastern UK Rivers were once tributaries of the Rhine; Barbel are indiginous to the Rhine.

Shame if true but this water was lost to Angling long ago really after the access became so difficult and the local twitchers lobbied the council to dig channels through the margins so you couldn't get out onto the spits of land. It's done some big fish in its time.

Congratulations Lynn.