Nicepix

On the few occassions I have fished commercial carp lakes I've left with the distinct impression that the owners would rather we didn't catch the merchandise.

You could save even more money using seed baits. Fish like roach and bream love stewed wheat and it costs next to nothing. I was getting 2lb - 3lb bream on a single grain yesterday afternoon. Same with maize. Buy it at animal feed stores and boil it up, bag it and freeze it ready for use. If you can find a shady corner of your garden or a shed or garage you can make a wormery. Maggots are really expensive for what they catch.

That is certainly true. You only have to look around at club rules to see that.

Yup. And now he's even trying to tell us how to catch tench. Back to the subject; I heard he was using Pollyfilla as groundbait.

It's terrible. I've just had to put a fleece and long trousers on, the first time I've worn anything but shorts and a T-Shirt since May. At least the Vienne is flowing clear and at normal levels

So, you recommend trebles too

When researching new waters use Google Earth to indicate where deeper places are likely to be. This saves time on bigger waters. As your curser passes over the terrain at the sides of the lake you get an indication of the height above sea level on the tool bar at the bottom of the screen. This gives you an indication of the gradient of the bank and this gradient is likely to continue under the water. Look also for mini valleys where stream beds run or used to run as they form depressions that would be a drop off feature underwater. You can disregard a lot of the venue using this method and then spend time plumbing the more likely spots. I have done tihs today on part of the large lake I fish in the Charente. By plotting the gradients I have found an area likely to be significantly deeper than surrounding areas. Tomorrow I'll take the dog for a walk and do some plumbing. I have a telescopic rod set up specifically for this, and a note book to record where likely spots are. I'll also take some bread to throw in. When looking for perch and zander you need to find their prey and there is nothing like a floating crust for indicating whether small fry are present. If you are after bigger predators like pike then it is a good idea to find the bream. Either find out the best bream pegs from other anglers or watch the water on an evening when they tend to roll on the surface.

I've fished with his Uncle Bill loads of times. He's jammy too

Yes, that's the type Dave. If you are looking for one make sure that you ask the seller what rotors come with it. On the photoelectronic sensor type shown in your link you can fit either a two blade or four blade rotor, the spare sits inside the casing. On the rarer magnetronic type I've only seen the two blade rotor. Not sure if they do a four blade. The difference in the rotors is that twice as much line has to go out per bleep in the two rotor system compared with the four blade type. I have one of each and whilst the two blade magnetronic is fine for carp and pike, I prefer the four blade rotor for perch and zander. It only takes two minutes to change them on the photoelectronic type. They key is to balance your bobbin to suit the conditions to avoid being a bleeping nuisance. I use Blu-Tac to add weight to the bobbin as required.

A paternoster rig is only really useful when fishing sufficiently close enough in to enable your line to come up from the weight at an angle that will enable the three way joint to be raised from the lake or river bed. Or if you use a sunken float. Otherwise just use a conventional running ledger. There are various bobbins on the market. If you weigh them using postal scales (pop down to you local drug dealer and borrow a set ) you will see that they vary enormously in weight. The lightest shop bought one I have is around 14 grams, the heaviest at its lightest setting is over 40 grams. I can add weight, but I can't remove it. I also have made some bobbins from the plastic 'corks' used in wine bottles that weigh around 8 grams. These are the ones I use for shy biting fish in calm lakes. The Optonic will record bites using no bobbin at all, just a bow in the line, so picking up bobbin movement is no problem. You can also change the rotors from four blade to two to give different sensitivity. They might not look particularly modern, but if you are interested in catching fish, not showing off tackle then they are better value than cheap new alarms.

I 'd recommend second hand Optonics. Available on fleabay for around £6 plus p&p. They are very sensitive.

If you can justify the coat have a look at a 10 foot Chapmans Avon split cane rod. They usually got for around £100 - £150 on eBay and if looked after will hold that value for years. Cracking river rod especially with a centrepin.

I've got a bit of a polar bear in mine. I'll tell you what; they don't half scrap

That's as daft as telling a surgeon not to use scalpels and foreceps in case he leaves them inside. There is nothing Andy, Worms or myself have advised that will harm a reel. You need solvents and / or acid to clean old metal parts. Done sensibly no damage can be done using vinegar. It will help to dissolve the oxidised metal on the surface and allow you to clean it off without abrasives. As for oiling it; if you clean and polish the pin and inside the bore of the spool correctly, and assuming the reel isn't too far gone, you won't need oil. Just a rub down with a soft pencil on the pin should be enough to get it running moothly. The problem with oiling all the reel is that it attracts and holds dirt. Great for the cabinet. Not so good for fishing.

I don't think anyone suggested leaving vinegar on the reel after restoration

Go to your nearest animal feed supplier and check out what they have. You can buy all sorts of seeds, nuts and pellets that will spice up breadcrumbs. I use chicken pellets. They actually work out cheaper than breadcrubs and fish love them. You have ot make sure they sink though, many types float. Buy some maize grains as sold for poultry feed. Grind them in your machine, then soak them overnight. After soaking, boil for around 20 minutes then leave to stand in the water for a few days until they start to sell sweeter. Then drain and bag before freezing ready for use. Add them to your breadcrumbs as needed. If you are targetting roach, then add some vanilla flavouring. You can buy it in liquid form or as vanilla sugar. Both types are available in the bakery aisles in supermarkets. If you sniff the branded roach groundbait, vanilla is what you will smell. You can add it to bread flake or maize grains too. For tench, as has been said, look for fruity flavours. Crushing a few fruit boilies up and adding them to your base mix will give you good groundbait to use small boilies over. You can also buy strawberry and raspberry flavourings from the bakery aisles to glug boilies in. Hemp is good too, or if you can't use hemp add some fennel seeds to your groundbait mix. You'll find them in herbal shops or on eBay. Add them to the bread before grinding it. For carp, add some tuna from a tin. Mash it up and mix it well with the breadcrumbs. The chicken pellets are good for carp too. If you are being plagued with small bream you need to do one of two things; Either use a bigger hookbait so that the small ones can't take it; boilies and pellets are ideal. Or, feed as much groundbait as possible into the swim, then when the shoal has moved in chuck a hand grenade in. That will solve the problem for the future.

Yes, vinegar is a good disolvent. I use it on old reels to clean the metal particularly when it is or has been clagged in groundbait and gone green. It doesn't dissolve grease very well though. WD40 sprayed on, allowed to soak then wiped off should deal with the grease and brighten up the metal. That is what I would recommend first, then soak in vinegar to remove the verdigree. Beware of trying to loosen screws. The brass heads are very soft and the slots are cut fine usually. You need to loosen them first with penetrating oil and only try to unscrew them with a properly fitting screwdriver or you will chew them up.

My opinion is that I don't know whether fish feel pain or not. That is backed up by many conflicting scientific reports. In short, the jury is still out. Phone, I don't know how YOU know that fish don't feel pain seeing as how scientists are divided. Same as I don't know how you KNOW that a bait with higher protein will outfish a bait with lower protein, even though we all catch plenty of specimen fish on low protein baits like maize and bread. And I don't know how you KNOW that carp don't become line shy even though there's barely an angler who would agree with you. Perhaps you are wasted on here? Perhaps your talents might better be appreciated by NASA or CERN? I think it is time to add you to my ignore list.

I've just been up to the farm pond for a couple of hours. I need to be getting some zander baits in the freezer and this little pond is stuffed full of tiny roach and carp along with some decent specimens. I'd used chicken pellets wet the other day when carp fishing for the big girls, like a method mix as they call it these days. It certainly attracts the small fry, so today I tried the pellets themselves on a small band attached to a 16 spade end hook and 1.5 lb leader. Absolutely bagged up. It was like Tommy Pickering in his bleak snatching heyday The fish love them and at 3 Euros 50 cents for 5 kilo or just over 6 Euros for 10 kilo they are cheaper than breadcrumbs. So, the moral of the story is, when fishing for pech or zander this autumn, have a pole and some chicken pellets handy

I think you need to have a word with all those scientists who have been arguing about this for years, carrying out research, publishing data and still haven't come to any conclusion. It would save them so much time.

I think that's another one of Phone's gems. Like the 'carp aren't line shy' evidence he posted.

All animals will twitch well after death. Even humans.

Any accident is not willfull pollution. However, any factory owners should be aware of potential liabilities from such accidents and be insured accordingly. I used to fish the Don in Sheffield and have fished the West Yorks rivers, all of which have recovered from widescale willfull industrial pollution and are still susceptible to accidental pollution. The Colne suffered a 100% fish and insect kill following one such accident. It is sad, but that's life. You can't prevent all accidents.

Hang on! If the pollution was a result of an accident, i.e. a fire then there would appear to be no negligence or intent to cause pollution.

That exemption is put in place to stop anglers and trawlermen from being prosecuted for causing cruelty to fish. The term 'normal' however would not be used to describe an angler knowingly allowing a fish to suffer. There the angler has a moral and legal reason to act.