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Very silly point here and a bit pedantic. But do they state where in your set up you use the wire trace? and how long it needs to be? I'm thinking here that if you used a 3ft length of fluoro connected to a 6 inch trace connected to your mainline it might not interfere with the lure action as much?

The thread used in bank sticks etc is a 3/8 BSF thread. Most use brass as have seen other materials used but i believe brass is the best choice.

I've never really taken the rod test curve into that much consideration. Float fishing mainline between 2lb and 6lb depending on venue and expected spieces. Ledgering between 5lb and 10lb again depending on venue and target spieces Carp fishing between 8lb -14lb depending on snags and size of expected carp pike fishing i tend to use 12lb line lure fishing i'd probably use 40lb -50lb braid mainly for feel My main consideration is landing the fish not losing tackle because i cast into snags. If i leave a float up a tree its my own daft fault for casting it there. Of course each of the consideration has a rod to match but its a guide not a rule and only really comes into play when distinguishing from targetting big fish or fishing for whatever may be in front of me.

I use to fish the upper ouse a lot mainly radwell,sharnbrook and kempston.There are still big fish there but its not fished as much due to the small fish not being there. This meant the matches stopped and you started to struggle to get to the waters edge in a lot of places. The water level has dropped in the last 15 years quite significantly and parts of it are beginning to silt up. The once clear gravel beds have declined meaning more silt= more colouration of the water. I do think the big population of large fish it once had it no longer has, there were rarely young barbel being caught even 15 years ago. So i think thats the problem we,re facing now.

Same night i caught my one and only Wingham bream i remember that night.

Nice one Andy Takes me back to the question i always get asked about why i go fishing and enjoy it even if i catch nothing.

This kind of reminds me. In the tackle shop earlier looking for micro barbed spade end hooks in sizes from 14 to 20 . I came away without any.All i could find were barbless or those that had barbed were heavy duty eyed hooks. Is any one else getting this problem? or have i become the sole barbarian looking for barbed hooks still.

clubs spring to mind for the upper ouse. Vauxhall ac Sharnbrook and radwell sections both use to be very prolific dont know how much so now. Along with kempston river section north of bedford also has the sharnbrook pits where you can fish for bream and tench (plus obligatory carp) parking in the complex i've always found safe. Night fishing allowed on both rivers and lakes with no extra rules. Nene anglers assosciation Turvey section of upper ouse plus another section down stream believe it has night fishing restrictions. MKAA has adams mill and another section (forget name) fairly sure there are night fishing restrictions to both Verulum has a section of radwell i know for sure might have other sections no idea of rules (never been a member) These are the main one that come to mind for upper ouse of those i listed i would go for vauxhall as it has much more river available. Other areas i'd try to look into are felmersham and odell , but how you get to fish these areas now i have no idea. Felmersham is right next to odell and use to be Vauxhall ac ,when John wilson filmed his barbel video on vauxhall ac waters he was in this area and spent most of the video on the odell section, how he got permission no-one knows as odell werent credited on the video so we have our suspiscions.

Stocking sections of canal that hold carp in excess of 30lb has a good head of decent bream upto 6lb and already has a healthy enviroment. Makes no sense at all . I think theres certain clubs and society's that get more help from the ea than others. The canal in the mk area is already a great fishery it doesnt need stocking to a commercial fish level. I personally have had a catch in excess of 60lb in a 5hr match from this area made up of carp and bream.

I know with some of the big barbel in the ouse the photo's were taken on purpose up to 100 yds from where they were caught. Was quite amusing watching people heading to swims we knew the barbel were'nt in.

http://www.tcfmagazine.com/news/item/1706-huge-perch-is-hoax seems a lot of people doubt its validity this from the same place as linked earlier.

The carp from boddingtons are already making there way down into the oxford canal. Some might remember a long time ago the carp in the grand union in its lower reaches originally came from the tring resevoir group these carp now go over 35lbs . The problem with these fisheries is more the size the carp grow to than the amount they inititially introduce. They rapidly become unsuitable for match fishing and these venues wrecked from the natural state they once had. It seems all todays anglers want to catch is carp. Just look in any tackle shop and you have to hunt for 2lb line and size 20 hooks, and then you get very little choice.

Dales this resevoir is just down the road from me its one of three that that were filled with carp in the area. Drayton,boddingtons and clattercote. Boddingtons does have one thing in its favour it does throw up the odd very pig pike. Considering how close to me they are , drayton less than a mile away i've not fished any of them . but have walked them a few times. I would say boddingtons is the biggest of the three and so i'm told use to have some large bream. But these havnt been seen let alone caught in years. Clattercote is the closest thing to a mixed fishery of the 3 with a reasonable head of tench. Drayton is out and out carp but have been told theres decent roach in it but yet to see any proof.

Most people i see down there are on the damn wall (next to the road) Never actually wetted a line there as its not my cup of tea even though its on my doorstep. But from what i've seen its full of low dbl carp and i think virtually any method works.

I Recently tried replenishing my stick / wire stemmed floats the thing I noticed instantly was I couldn't. None of the shops near me stock any range. One shop dug out a box of old image floats that nobody brought then and I didn't want now either (he still wanted £2 a float )

i agree had 2 sessions on the river Ouse so far and virtually had the river to myself , opening day i saw 2 anglers and this sunday i saw one other. Havnt fished the avon this year yet though . I rejoined Vauxhall AC which has always been a predominately river club (matches) and noticed they seem to have drifted away to the Cpl of carp pools they now have.. Seems they don't want to fish rivers anymore.

I spent my opening day on the ouse just stick float fishing (no pin i use a close face reel) Had around 10 lb of dace,roach,bleak chublets. And 3 proper chub 3-12 , 4-6 and 4-14 all on 3lb line size 18 hook. only lost one chub. But as john said i was amazed how few were out i saw 2 other anglers yet expcted it to be busy.

Unfortunately we notice what the EA are not doing rather than what they do. Just like my wife really no matter how much i do around the house she always spots what i didnt do first.

Well after taking a years sabatical. Rod license and club book brought and I'll be on the ouse targetting the chub or anything else that fancies my bait. Just my float rod and a few pints of maggots and catch what i can.

Its been a while since i fished that way but i vaguelly remember targetting the roach with hemp in the autumn months, I must add i only fished it in matches and this was the main method during that time. So it might not be as reliable as it was. As were going back 10 yrs.

For float fishing i still use an old shimano power loop match rod. 13ft relatively light but strong i often use it for float fishing for tench around the 6lb mark and have had barbel to 12lb and carp to 19lb on it plus numerous 5lb chub. I truly believe with float rods what feels most confortable to you in your hand will always be the best rod.

Putting the weight issue slightly to one side (we've all seen over extended stomachs (i look in the mirror) The more point of interest to me are the fish growing bigger frame wise aswell rather than just there waistlines. Personally i think boilies only fatten up fish they have to be big before this. I would be more inclined towards a longer growing season. So we have a combination of things working in favour of larger fish. Milder weather = higher weed growth = more invertabrates = extended period of food available = bigger fish add to this the additional nutrients off of the land and it increases even more. But there again i havnt fished in over a year now so what do i know.

it would be a wild guess but i suspect 3 dead fish from a frozen over very shallow lake is more like natural causes as for the damage to the fish i'd put that down to scavengers just going for the soft flesh. Probably knowing the area rats.

I happen to know the pond in question, never fished it but passed it on numerous occasions. I very much doubt if theres an otter within 10 miles of the place let alone living there. 1) the place is far to busy 2) not big enough 3) concrete banks 4)nearest river would be the nene which is around 20 miles away.

memory is a bit vague but i believe its a left hand thread you could be tightening it .