alanp

Bob, Thanks for that - rules don't seem unreasonable to me. My comment was based on what I got told in Viscount Tackle - common sense, set by anglers for anglers etc. etc. When it dries up a bit I'll have a look round, at the moment I'd probabaly need the boat I should think

Thanks for that. What rule changes? The guy at Viscount made it sound like the rules are more common-sense than written is tablets of stone. Areyou still fishing there btw?

HAs anybody fished Bosmere recently? Been looking into it a I am looking for a water over that way as I'm now working in Ipswich and Needham.

This thread has been fascinating and very thought provoking. I normally use a lead clip but am going to try running leads when I go out this weekend. I've started to use slack lines as well. It looks "wrong" as a tight line feels like it should show a bite quicker but there seems to be an overwhelming body of evidence that slack is better. Did you manage to get back out and experiment again Nick?

Not a major disaster by any means but my worst ever one was about 30 years ago when I was in my teens. I was fishing a lake near where I lived that had a few carp in it - a bit of a rarity in those days. It was a day ticket only water and every Saturday night I'd been getting up at about 3.30am to walk the 4 miles to fish it and blank from sunrise to sunset. One day I eventually managed to get one to take my boiled potato (out of a tin) bait. My fairy liquid bottle top indicator pulled up to the butt and line started to peel off from the open bail arm. AT LAST I thought to myself. Played the fish on my "broom handle "for about 7/8 minutes and got it right into the edge where I could see it was a good size - would have been my first double and a very, very good fish for the period and the lake in question. Bent down to pick net up, rod tip lifted, mouth came out of water, hook pulled and I was left watching it swim away. I was absolutely gutted and sat there for about an hour in disbelief, couldn't even make the effort to cast out again. To make it worse my mate turned up about 5 minutes later to see how I was getting on. if only he'd cycled a bit quicker...