bluelabel

"Larkin Poe"..... superb.... the full band is even better, but I love these stripped out versions... no hiding place here.... Enjoy...!

Well, I tried using Solar Lead free and as a leader it works well, I found splicing it to be a bit of a faff at first, but once I got the hang of it it was easy enough.... that's the good bit out of the way... for solid bag work it's next to useless, as the material holds water so as soon as you start to tie off the neck of the bag the water witheld in the leader started to dissolve the PVA bag... as I said though as a straight leader for fishing in snaggy or places where abrasion is possible, it's great, it's soft, supple, follows contours and does what it sez on the bag (comes in sort of grey/green or silt black colours) Tried to find a link for Linqtek... nothing worth following... is it still made..?

it's been said many times by various anglers... and then there are the cries of the faithfull to the stuff, shouting down the arguments against it... "it's safe if you know what you are doing" is a famous argument for it..... but who is to say who knows what they are doing, it only takes the line to hit a mussel shell or gravel bar and the potential is there for a snagged fish... I stopped using it years ago, in part because of all the horror stories around it, but mainly because most waters round my neck o' the woods have banned it. Here's my take... it doesn't lie flat on the deck, it bridges dips and depressions on the lake bottom, looks blatant, can snag or tether fish if you get cut off... I can see no upside to it.... other than abrasion resistance and there is no guarantee that any abrading of your end game is going to be on the leadcore section... (I did hear tales of folks using 6' plus of the stuff a few years ago.... ) That said.... if it's that dangerous why have Korda and other companies persisted with it's sales, and I heard t'other day that Korda have brought out short pre spliced lengths in packs of 6 for use with solid bags... TBH I can see a use for a short leader for that application, but leadcore....???? (why not just use tubing?) If you take the arguments against leadcore a stage further are not ANY leaders that safe...? given the way in which it can tangle or tether... Surely the safest rig has to be a freeline with a hook and bait and nothing else, and even that can tangle and tether (admittedly in very extraordinary circumstances) so where do you go from there... ? I'd love a system where I can make up solid bags on a ready made leader and just slip a loop over it and cast it out... but if it's going to be that dangerous I'll pass on it

Any time of the year.... "Mallet Man"

The theory of the bead sliding off the leader can be a tad misleading I saw a chap catch a carp from one of our club waters towing a Korda leader with a bead and a lead stuck against it... the bead had been pierced on its opposite face to give a better grip.. it's not a method I'd advocate having seen this first hand... as for tubing... another Jed Kent tip.... cut your tubing into 1 or 2 inch lengths and thread it on, then when you cast, the tubing slides up the mainline and acts like blobs of metal putty pinning the line down, then when you get a run then tighten up, the tubing slides down to protect the fish's flanks as normal..

20 yards is close enough... any more and you'd need a heavier lead... Many folks advocate 3oz plus for run rigs to get the bolt effect... but I was told that the lighter the lead, the less the fish can use the lead to throw the hook... All I know is that the light lead option works for me...

What size lead are you using...? I was told to use a heavy lead... 3oz plus, but I went the other way, using ultra light on the advice of Jed Kent... sometimes as light as 1/3rd of an ounce (close range naturally) the fish cannot use the weight of the lead to get rid of the hook... the bites are screamers...

do the juices not contain nicotine...?

Hmmmm I'm not so sure... there is always the idea that the fish get on the big munch for the autumn, but I haven't seen it in the last couple of years... possibly the warmer winters have moved the great feed on a month or so, or could it be that the amount of food going in has allowed the fish to feed all year round... living down here in the south east there are loads of waters with heavy angling pressure... the sheer volume of bait going in on a regular basis would mean that even in winter months the fish would be able to graze on anglers freebies all year

Hold on... not every water is a match water with rules set by matchmen... one water l fish is a 3 lake carp complex... it has rules against leadcore, spodding, and line must be 12lb plus... all of which are flouted... sensible rules TBH... specially on a 3 acre water, but they are never enforced... the bailff takes the money and passes the % on to the owners and takes his wages from the ticket money...I've fished it on and off for 30+ years and never had a rig checked

Its the other way round these days... Redmire's water is very muddy like any other commy water, due to the run off from the surrounding fields... whereas Ashmead is VERY weedy...

S'probably what I'll do basically... heard the Ashmead fish go Heeeeeeeoooge

Had three in total out of the water recently... all on the older gear... I'm starting to enjoy the older tackle more than the modern.... I've also managed to get a trip to Redmire next year and a trip to Ashmead... I'm in a quandary as to whether to go "Old School on both venues

Had this last week.... on a split cane Sharpe's 9' with a Mitchell 400