Anderoo

I think all chub spend a certain amount of time tucked away under the bank/in the snags, but I don't think that's where they feed. In good conditions, by fishing the classic snag swims, I think you are often fishing for chub that have moved out into open water. There are always exceptions of course and it differs from river to river, but my experience on the Thames is that open water beats the snags for big chub by about 5 fish to 1. If a snag swim has decent depth under it, a nice flow and a hard bottom, it's likely to be a good spot anyway, and the presence of the snag just makes it better. But many lovely looking snag swims have the wrong depth/flow/bottom, often being too slow, shallow and silty for a feeding chub.

How deep is it where you are planning to fish? If less than about 4ft I would just leger a livebait; if much deeper i'd use a cd paternoster and have the bait a couple of feet off bottom (as a starting point). I like a 6lb flouro hooklength for this sort of thing, it's a decent balance between finesse and slight stiffness to avoid tangles. Amnesia will be too stiff I reckon. A decent sized weight of about 1.5oz+ is needed together with very light bobbins on a long drop. Keep it all as free running as possible. It's also worth regularly baiting the spot with maggots to keep the bait fish feeding, and if you're using 2 rods, putting a second bait in a different, nearby spot. They're not always where you think they'll be, and a rod in open water can sometimes surprise you... Hope to hear of monsters

I'm a big believer now in big chub, open water. My chubbing improved massively once I'd realised they aren't always tucked away in snags...

Snags? Open water? Much flow...?

Snags? Open water? Much flow...?

Come on then Viney, let's see some pics! How were you fishing, sounds like a barbel type set-up and bait? I'd be interested in whay you baited up with, how much you used, etc...?

Short answer yes! It's the middle of summer! Maybe there was a concentrated food supply that you dropped onto.

John, if it's the same lake you asked me about, I've caught the bream much closer than 50 yards - so first off don't believe everything you hear 50 yards is pretty much a minimum for most carpers, so I expect that goes some way to explaining it. Spods or spombs are the quickest, most accurate way to bait up. I agree with Dales and others that for bream you want a decent bed of bait, and a mix that will make it to the bottom. On the lake in question, I tried various pellets dampened with warm water and gave it a squirt of fruity flavour for good measure. This was spodded out to 2 spots, one fairly close and the other further out. Both spots produced bream, but they would come in, eat the lot, and then leave. Topping up the swims brought them back. I was using fake corn as bait. If you don't want to go down the spod route, I'd suggest trying a closer in spot to start with and balling in groundbait/pellets, and fishing a different spot further out with a big feeder.

I've used the pellets to good effect for bream and tench, as part of a groundbait/pellet mix. They have relatively low protein (compared to fishmeal pellets) and break down quickly, so I used to mix them with other pellets with a higher protein level and slower breakdown, to get a baited area that stayed 'active' for a long time. I haven't used them just on their own.

I was talking to a guy in the car park at Rutland a few years ago, he was a piker who made his own lures. He showed me some of his creations and they looked amazing, the level of care and detail was really impressive. When I asked whether he caught on them he said 'I daren't use them, think of the teeth marks!'

Ha ha! I've taken the easy way out for now. The box that houses the battery is actually big enough for 3 side by side, so that's what I've done. Swapping the power lead to a fresh battery is then easy. The trouble with the bigger capacity battery is that they're too tall for the box.

No problem at all - boats are reserved and can be cancelled at any time with no charge. Of course it goes without saying that I hope you can make it

I used to get free dental care for every lion shot but the liberal media have put an end to that

Hang on - that's only a 2.2ah battery. An 18ah version costs £400...! http://www.overlander.co.uk/lipo-batteries-18000mah-6s2p-22-2v-30c-supersportxl.html

Thanks Phone, I had missed that - these are new to me. So these are what the US guys use to power DI fishfinders?

On the safety issue, I don't think it's that people clam up when that question is asked, it's more they roll their eyes and move on

To be honest I don't feel like I need to properly understand the electronics of it all, and fully admit that I have something of an intellectual black spot with anything like this, which is why I asked. I know that if I check a fully charged 12v battery with a multimeter it reads about 13.5v and that when it reads 12.2v it's about 50% discharged and it needs recharging to maintain its lifespan. A single bigger battery is the neatest option and I probably will do that at some point, but in the meantime I'll try the 4 x 7ah batteries in rotation. Swapping them over is a matter of seconds so I'm not worried about that. There is something to be said for keeping the whole lot as small and portable as possible, I don't really like the idea of having a huge box and large battery as standard. A lot of people have one much bigger battery of about 110ah which they use to drive an electric outboard and the fishfinder(s), so maybe I shuld be looking to do that and get an electric outboard...

Steve, do you reckon these would work at extreme depth or would it be too dark? Is there a light that could be fitted? I'm thinking of the reservoirs in 40-80+ft... would be very interesting to see the zander on the bottom!

I already have a decent charger for car batteries/leaisure batteries (a halfords one) so if I do end up going down that route, that's covered. Yes, these are SLA batteries. Interesting about charging the 7ah batteries in parallel with the bigger charger - how would that work?

Yes, it's a yuasa 1ah 3 stage trickle charger.

I have a trickle charger that recharges the 7ah batteries back up to full capacity. Tested with a multimeter. At 50% capacity it should give a readout of 12.2v, so I would set the battery alarm on the fishfinder to that and then swap batteries if necessary. I have now come up again a load of additional issues, if I get a single battery big enough to run it all day, I'll need a new bigger box to keep it in and will have to reattach the unit head to it. Also the higher batteries have larger terminals, so the connectors I currently have on the power lead would need replacing. Not the worst thing but additional hassle and makes everything bigger and heavier. I'm now leaning more towards getting a couple more 7ah batteries and just switching over when they drop to 50%...

Perfect, thanks Rusty!

So is the 11 hours of battery use right Steve, even if I got the maths wrong...? If so, I'll need to get a bigger battery.

I've been using little flat bed method feeders for crucians, and have come to really like them. They'd be good for this type of thing - just drop one down the ledge with some stiff method mix on it with a little bit of something (fake corn, whatever) as hookbait, no other bait - it's then that or nothing! The little 28g Guru ones are good.

The battery is 7A. I think the below is right but would be good to confirm: 7A = 7000mA [battery capacity] 615mA per hour [power draw] 7000mA [battery capacity] divided by 615mA [power draw] = 11.3 hours until it is totally drained. Does this look right?