wk9187

I would had loved to have caught Mary, a stunning fish. Does anybody know of any fish still alive of the same caliber as all the other fish mentioned?

A wrong'un Why?

heather the leather is well up there on my list - not many true leathers about- would have been great to catch.

I've been catching up on my reading recently and have been working my way through "still searching" & "bivvy tramps" with "big carp legends" and "my misspent youth" still to go. These books got me thinking about which carp I would like to catch the most, and why it would be that fish above all others. I don't think I will be able to decided as there are some tough choices to make, but though I would see what the rest of you though, so... If you could catch any famous carp (past or preset) which one would it be and why?

Not sure if that is a joke or a actual suggestion Nono joke, a great piece of kit..come in handy on a few occassions.

check out 'boginabag'... simples

go old school and use the caps from washing up bottles

check out powapal (on fleabay) I bought one for fishing and camping holidays and its great - can get loads of phone charges out of it and its not too heavy. You can charge 12v or usb

after having a very similar problem myself I asked the same question on here & the advice I went with was to swith to a mono mainline with a leader. I have started using a 12lb mainline with a 30lb braided leader ( lenght of the rod with at least 6-7 turns on the reel) and have yet to crack off again ! As I said I faced a similar issue & wasnt sure if was duff braid, or beacuse they braid kept drying out or if i had over filled the spool and the line was wrapping around the rings. What ever the issue was its sorted now I have switched over.

not spending time to try and locate the fish before setting up and just dropping into in the 'going' swims (or the ones closest to the car park) and not being willing to pack up and move if necessary when fish are showing elsewhere.

fish locked up on a tight line direct down to the lead, exactly as others have said. As soon as you get an indication on the alarm get on your rods! Make sure you are right next to your rods at all times otherwise you WILL lose them!

as other have said it think you will be happy with both shimano or diawa. I have sets of reels from both an are happy with them. Whats your budget?

i think you are totally right woodchester they do pick up everything and spit it out, personally i dont think its much to do with them noticing the hook, because your right if they are feeding properly and muching everything in sight theres a good chance your rig can be picked up anyway. To me its more to do with the rig mechanics and how it works in the carps mouth once it has been picked up. I just think that the combination of a light bait and heavier hook joined together can make it more difficult for the carp to eject. If you think about it when they suck up a light bait it makes sense that it could fly back further into their mouth therefore bringing the hook with it, when they realise something aint right and try to eject it the heavier hook will act differently to the light bait...the further the bait goes in the further the hook has to travel on the way out giving more time / chance to catch hold as it exits... hopefully! thats what i think anyway for what its worth ... probally aint worth much to be honest

depends what your fishing over tbh. If fishing into soft silt or silkweed I like to use a small wafter/ slow sinker so I know its sitting on top of the weed as its critical balanced, whereas a bottom bait may sink more into the weed leaving a bad presentation. fished a bottom rig and a wafter against each other on my recent trip to france and the wafter out fished the bottom bait by far (they were fished about 2 rod lenghts apart) swapped both rods to wafters and catch rate went up, so i do think they have their time and place.

personally I dont like to use any of these methods. I just dont have the confidence that it hasnt slipped or moved at all, in the past I have had electrical tape come off and pole elastic slip. I have found that the best method for clipping up after a bite is 2 bank stick set a rod lenghts apart. Once you have found the spot clip up and wrap the line around them. you can then count how many turns it is and make a note for the rest of the session. You can repeat this after each bite, with a bit of practice it doesnt take very long. This method also has the added benefit of allowing you to do a bit of maths and find out the exact distance that the spot is as rather than applyin any amount of guess work. If you make a note of where the spot is and how many turns it is you can build a map of the various swims you fish and can get the rod back on the spot first chuck on the next visit.