tincatinca

What a cracking fish. I bet you are well chuffed. How is Elton doing

It has an overwrap, and heavy duty ground sheet. The door on the overwrap can be used with a clear view panel or mossy net. You are welcome to use it.

I can bring my brolly set up up down with me if anyone is desperate. I have used this at Wingham on several occasions as in the piccy below.

I will be down for the fish in as I am planning to fish straight after. I have a spare bivvy already at Wingham which Rusty used at the last fish in and he is welcome to use it again. I also have 8 spare long bank sticks which I will bring down. I may be able to help out with other stuff as well.

This is the wire that I use to thread line through anchor tube. When fishing with semi fixed bolt rigs and particularly when fishing with a bouyant bait off the bottom for example a snowman, I like to pin my line down and on gravel pits like Anderoo has mentioned, the tubing affords some protection from the bars. One thing I always do is to run wire through the tubing from each end first to clear out the little bits that are left in during the extrusion process. The other important issue is the dia of the line as to thread the line , the bore of the tube has to take the line plus the wire. If the line is too thick then there is no way that it will pull through. One 2 metre length of anchor tube gives me enough for 2 rigs.

Also may be worth considering. http://getgimp.com/lp/index.php?pk=4769

A bit of information here http://www.maggotdrowning.com/forum/topic....TOPIC_ID=103613

That is awesome. It will be interesting to see if some of the fishing equipment manufacturers take it up and charge accordingly.

In my local tackle shop a few weeks ago I came across some ABU nets which I had not seen before see link below http://www.abugarcia-fishing.co.uk/catalog...t-net,5458.html As well as being big enough to land most fish that you are likely to encounter, they are extremely light, easy to assemble and will fold down sufficiently to put in your chair which can be a bit difficult with a big spoon net.. I have only used it a couple of times but have been well impressed with it. I coupled it to a Drennan specialist handle and even extended at full length it was easy to manage Well worth a look and available in three sizes..

Cracking session Ant and well deserved.

This arrangement is going to be my basic Wingham set up this year. It is both light and very adaptable for use whether off the stages or on the bank. The bars underneath the the alarm heads will take my bobbins, needles or swinghams mounts. I will also be able to halve the number of long bank sticks that I normally carry around. Just need to order a couple of the long Chris Brown sticks then the jobs sorted.

Slight modification and would just be up Dales street to launch his terracotta. Think I will be needing a bunker instead of a bivvy. He is awesome when he gets going.

Waiting for the sketch

Does it exist or is it the stuff of legends and a figment of the imagination. Rumour has it that the bailiffs can be a bit er mmmmmmm

Superb not to mention that from some sources there is absolutely nothing on earth that can it can be compared to. When I used to pick up my brother in a morning to go fishing was a classic case. Half an hour of hanging out of the door trying not to breathe and drive with great difficulty and with no chance of molding it onto a feeder.

My emblems are fitted with Daiwa baitrunner conversions which can be easily obtained as well as others see example link below. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-X-DAIWA-QUICK-...=item4ab379daa1 The only problem is that they take a bit of getting used to as they are manually operated and not by just turning the handle. The tensions can be set by turning the spool retaining cap. They do have one advantage over the normal arrangement and that is there is no complex drag arrangement inside the reel to go wrong. There is a further alternative which can be fitted instead of the baitrunner and that is a modified spool which goes from locked to free running in half a turn of the spool cap. Many users of some big pit Daiwas without baitrunners prefer this method but I have have been quite happy with the baitrunner conversions. Here is a picture to show the baitrunner conversions on the front of the spools.

The sticks and bars from here are hard to beat. Extremely strong, very light and really hold well in the ground. I still occasionally use a pod but much prefer to use sticks. http://www.cbproducts.co.uk/rodrest.cfm

As with many things, if you ask a question to six different people you can get six different answers as a lot is about personal choice. From my own point of view yes you can give it a reasonable biggun with a Shimano 6/8000 but it is a dam sight easier with a big pit. When I first started fishing in France many years ago I was quite happy with my 23/4 Ballistas and 6010 baitrunners until I started fishing larger waters where you having to hit well in excess of 100 yds to get anywhere near the fish and when you were into a head wind you had no chance and even less with fairly light 21/2 oz leads which is all the Ballistas would comfortably handle. It was after that dismal failure that I invested in some 23/4 Daiwa AKN 12Hs which were comfortable with 4oz leads and some Biomasters which made all the difference in the world. Since then I have tried various combinations but have developed a preference for Daiwa reels and have used my emblem z5000s fora long time having upgraded from the 5000ts. For a big pit reel the original 5000 series are very compact and also reliable. The 5000ts sell on e-bay regularly for between £30 and £40 see example in link below. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DAIWA-EMBLEM-S-5...=item4ab379f514 There is also an emblem 5500 and a 6000 but they are quite a bit bigger and to my my mind do not balance anywhere near as well as the 5000s in fact I had some 5500s before the the ones I have now. The point is that if you want a good big pit which is reliable and does not cost the earth then the emblemS5000T is well worth a look and in my opinion far superior to the Biomaster/Aerlex. Again I am sure that others will have their own favourites but to give you some idea of size I have attached a photo of an Emblem 5000 and a Shimano 6010. At 100yds the line on the Shimano spool is well down whereas on the Daiwa it is far less noticeable.

Looks as if it has the attributes of a silver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bream

Just watched the video Budgie posted of the roll over system. A good deal of further thought has now gone in to it and a lot of mods have been applied since the original version was launched resulting in a system which in principle to my mind covers virtually all situations where a short drop bobbin indication is required. The real strength of it to me though is the simplicity of the line release. I also think that the system could possibly be further improved by incorporating sliding adjustable weights and shortening and streamlining the overhang at the back end to reduce the possibility of line getting caught up however, the concept is excellent and good look to the inventor who has obviously put a lot of time and thought into it.

I use Nash 10mm pop ups extensively for a snowman rig and they are very good however the most bouyant pops up that I have ever used with excellent resistance to water absorption are those made by Mistral. In the past I have had Mistrals in the water for several days and they have maintained their bouyancy. Plastic corn is not in the same league due to its composition but closed cell foam/sponge polystyrene or cork could be additional possibilities and don't forget old school balanced crust.

Some years ago there was a publication called The Art Of Fishing. It came in 144 weekly issues and covered virtually all aspects of coarse, sea and game addressing in depth subjects such as watercraft. If you can find someone local who has a full set it would be well worth borrowing. Alternatively they do come up for sale and I have in the past seen a complete collection go for as little as £25 which is a bit of a bargain when you consider that it cost around £200 to have completed the collection. I have had a quick look but can only find this but it will give you some idea of what it is. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ART-FISHING-6-BI...=item1e6a059ffa

They also came out in these variations. The one on the right is a Baitrunner plus which carried the forerunner of the fighting drag. You can set the spool up with a max min and use the adjustment on the front just as if you were using a rear clutch fighting drag. I must admit I am not too keen on it as it prevents you from locking up if you need to.

Here are a couple of the older GT3500s

Is the 3500GT being talked about an Aero model or a Triton/seaspin model as Shimano did a 3500GT in both.