Maximum pellet attraction
by Roy van Goor
I just got back from a trip to France that opened my eyes on the reaction and attraction of maximum action pellets.
I struggled hard, the water temperature was very low about 6 degrees and the fish just did not seem to be moving. Using my bait boat with the echo sounder I could see some fish holding up in mid-water, on a far marginal shelf. The depth was about 15 feet and the fish where in 8 feet of water.
But nothing seemed to get them interested.
By Jamie Simpson
A few years ago I managed to get my hands on a lead smelting machine from Janns Netcraft in America. Being an engineer by trade I have found this sort of thing intriguing and I love trying out new moulds that I make up from aluminium blocks.
My melting pot has a small spout underneath for the molten lead to pour out and into the mould.
One word of warning for anyone who wants to make their own leads is to wear goggles a face mask and gloves. I would also recommend doing it in a garage rather than in the house for safety reasons.
I have over the last few years made quite a variety of lead shapes of differing weights and shapes from moulds that I have made myself and some that I have purchased at a cost of around £17. I buy mine from Walkers of Trowell
I put a home made brass loop (these can also be obtained from Walkers) attached to a Berkley McMahon swivel and then insert this into half of the mould, I then carefully place the other half ot the mould to this and hold under th smelting pot. The lever on the side of the pot is then lifted and the lead pours into the mould. The lead sets in just a few seconds, so I then split the mould and knock the lead into a bucket of water.
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After this I cut the excess off with pliers and then file up the join mark, before holding the lead over a stove on a relatively low heat. Once the lead is hot I dip it in some powder paint, which can be purchased from most tackle shops, I then place it back over the flame to allow the paint to run before dipping in water to set the paint.
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You can get plenty of different colours of powder paint from the tackle shops and by mixing a few up together you can match it to the lake bed that you are fishing quite well. I am not that sure this gives a massive advantage but if it gives you confidence it is worth a go. You don’t even need to make your own lead’s to do this, you can just cut off the existing coating from a Korda lead and then apply your own unique colour. I often use GLT (gold label tackle) powder coating.
Leads are a relatively cheap item of tackle but when using safety clips etc you can get through quite a few over a season and at £1.20+ each it doesn’t take long for a smelting pot and a couple of moulds to pay for themselves.
I hope this was of some interest
Cheers, Jamie Simpson
by Shaun Harrison;
Just had a bit of an interesting lesson drilled home to me and caused me to take a step back and take a fresh look at my angling. I have always said I like to keep a open mind on things and try and be as different to others as I can. If everyone is using pop-ups I will use bottom baits. If everyone is on tiny baits I will try large baits and so on.
However, last week during a short day session I was totally outfished on my own water! I had taken a guest Dave Booth along with me and promptly sat there and watched him catch four carp whilst I struggled to hook one only to lose it again a few seconds later.
I was fishing down my local runs water and got talking to one of the lads their when he informed me he had never come across a catfish and didn’t really know anything about them or how to fish for them. This got me thinking about how many people were in the same situation and the information I could share.
The Catfish has a long body, like an eel, with no scales on it with a large head and mouth. The inside of the mouth has rows of tiny little teeth like Velcro on the top and bottom of its mouth. It has barbules, two long ones on the upper jaw and either two or four shorter ones on the lower jaw, for detecting its prey.
It has a small almost pointless looking dorsal fin whilst the anal fin stretches backwards until it almost reaches the tail. The colouration of the Wels can vary from fish to fish but normally they have dark eyes with a dark green black body with creamy yellow sides creating a mottled effect. Albino looking catfish are sometimes found but are very rare; these have red eyes and a yellow/creamy colouration to its body. continue reading…
by Pat Gillett;
One of the things that I have noticed in carp fishing during the last few years is the increasing amount of gear that carp anglers seem to be taking with them. In fact it seems that some anglers feel almost naked if they haven’t got at least a barrow load of tackle. I can appreciate the need for all this gear if you are going for a three or four day session especially at this time of year, but I am seeing guys with barrow loads of gear in the summer and they are only stopping for a day or a single night. I am sure that taking too much gear costs anglers a number of fish as it makes them very reticent to up sticks and move swims even when they can see fish on other parts of the lake.
When going for a day session my gear is cut to the bare minimum and I can fit it all into a 45-litre rucksack and small bait bucket (which will include a few Quest Baits boilies, matching paste & pop-ups, a few pellets & a few floaters). Add a lightweight 3-rod quiver, lightweight chair and an unhooking mat and that should be all you need. With this amount of tackle you can have your rods reeled in and be moving on to fish in another part of the lake within 5 minutes. continue reading…
By Jamie Simpson;
I managed to get out for an overnight session at the weekend as I had been invited to a water by a good friend. As we were sat discussing everything from fishing to politics, a subject came up that brought back a few memories and one that I now dont even need to consider.
The subject was the balance between rod and reel, now most people may not see this as important but trust me when you have spent as long and as much money as me being unhappy that my casting is not quite right for one reason or another, then you will see the importance.
For quite some time I had been more than happy with my 2 1/2 lb Armalites coupled with baitrunner 4500gt reels, but I knew they had seen better days and was planning on fishing a few waters where they would probably cost me fish so a new set up was required.
I went out and I purchased a set of Harrison Chimera 12ft 3 1/2lb rods and balanced these with Shimano big pit baitrunners.
Not a bad set up were my thoughts when I got them set up at home, yet on the bank they just weren’t right for me. I stand at 5ft 7in and I just couldn’t get the set up moving how I wanted. Now there wasn’t anything wrong with the gear at all, but it just didn’t suit my style and height. I also found playing the fish awkward and not really enjoyable. continue reading…
