During a recent winter session, when the lake was empty and all the other anglers were at home I landed 7 fish to 25lb 2oz. All the fish were landed using snowman hookbaits presented on helicopter rigs incorportating Atomic Jel-E-Wyre Hooklinks and Korda Wide Gape Hooks. The snowman hookbaits were topped with Mainline Hi-Visual Tutti Frutti 10mm Pop-ups.
Get out there and get catching.
Tight Lines
Dave
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Customer Lea had this pretty ghost carp recently from an Oxfordshire syndicate. Lea’s carp weighed 25lb 4oz and was caught on Mainline Cell Boilies. The successful rig was tied with Atomic Jel-E-Wyre to a size 8 Gardner Mugga Hook. Nice fish Lea, well done.
Best Fishes,
John
Regular customer Sean Bowen sent in this catch report.
Hi all,
hope you all well, just got back from a 3 night session on Welham Lake, my first session in the UK since last September. Pre-baited a spot a few days prior and was lucky enough to get back on it, which resulted in 17 carp being banked with a mixture of commons and mirrors, two of which where 20′s.
All fish where taken on T1′s and rigs used where claw style made up of ESP Big T’s size 7, tied to 15lb Jelly Wire and Korda Supernatural Braid.
Back over to France next week to fish the river Gav with my mate so will see you soon.
Sean.
Nice fish, well done Sean.
Best Fishes,
John
I had another good session recently banking 4 fish, 3 of which were 20lb+ including this immaculate 28lb Common. The fish fell to my standard Blowback Rig set up consisting of a Korda Wide Gape Hook, Korda Weed Green Shrink Tube and Atomic Jel-E-Wyre hooklink with an Armaled Locjaw Safety Leadclip, 3oz Korda Pear Swivel Lead and 3 ft of ESP Leadcore. The hookbait was a 20mm snowman presentation topped with a 14mm Solar Fluoro Pineapple pop-up. The fish were all landed with the aid of the new Korda Subline.
Tight Lines
Dave
Heres a nice common carp weighing in at 26lb 8oz. The fish fell to a snowman hookbait with a Solar Juicy Pineapple Fluoro pop-up topping the combination. I have had a lot of success this year using snowmans with bright fluoro pop-ups. The rig was my usual Blowback Rig consisting of Atomic Jel-E-Wyre hooklink material and a Korda Wide Gape Hook in conjunction with a 3oz pear lead, ESP Bulk Spool Leadcore in Original Camo and an Armaled Lead Clip.
Tight Lines
Dave
After a period of time away from one of my syndicates a recent trip back saw me land 8 fish to 24lb including this scaly scraper 20lb mirror that I’ve now caught 3 times, but who cares when they look like this! All fish came to Atomic Jel-E-Wyre hooklinks with size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook tied blowback style. The lead set-up consisted of Armaled Loc-jaw leadclips, ESP Original Camo Leadcore and Korda 3oz pear leads.
Tight Lines,
Dave
Which hooklink? good question, I’m going to run a little mini series featuring the most commonly used hooklink materials. I’ll also discuss the accepted wisdom as to their best use.
Coated Braids
Coated Braids as the name suggests are supple braid hooklinks covered with a thicker, stiffer material usually a plastic of some description. Some good examples are:-
Sufix Camfusion Atomic Jelly Wire Super Mantis
These coated braids have a plastic coating. The coating can be stripped back to reveal the supple inner braid so that you have a stiff section running from the swivel towards the hook and a supple section near the hook. This is essentialy a combi link rig but easier to tie, which is the main reason coated braids were developed. Coated Braid Combi Rigs can be used with bottom baits or if you put some tungsten putty where the coated section ends, pop ups. Coated braids can also be used without stripping back any coating to produce a stiff rig with increased abraision resistance.
Cut your desired length of coated braid, decide how much coating you want strip and grip tightly with your thumbnail (if you have any).
Dig into the coating with your thumbnail and pull away till the coating is removed.
If you don’t have any nails get yourself a Korda Strippa Tool they strip away the coating quickly without damaging the braid, they’re brilliant.
korda Hybrid Stiff/Soft
Korda Hybrid Stiff and Korda Hybrid Soft differ to the above because they have a fluorocarbon coating which is both stiffer and heavier than the plastic coatings. Because of their inherent stiffness the Korda Hybrids need to be steamed over a kettle to straighten them and to bed down knots though this is extra work it is worth it.
There are lots of different combinations that can be tied with these hooklink materials, imagination being the only limit.
Best fishes,
John
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