Recent content by Mike Hodgkiss

Could be fun if you were a little rotund in the belly department , under the belly , over the belly ? I reckon a waistcoat with a few pockets and a maggot bag would do fine . Can you still get maggot bags ? ....

That Barbel is no stranger to the pie shop is it , what a porker ! Great story , and well done for giving it a go despite your mobility issues .Round these parts a 12lb Barbel is a very big fish , nay a whopper ! I would suggest you get a large unhooking mat with a grass design printed on it ...

Yes I see ,just looked at some images . I guess the idea is to reduce the likelihood of the hook coming out , sort of barbed variation , interesting idea .

So whats the thinking behind the Pallatrax gripz hook ?

Ultimately the intention of a barbed or micro barbed hook is to reduce the chance of the hook coming out of the fishes mouth thus helping us land more fish . The debate should be do barbed hooks do more damage to the fish than barbless hooks when we are trying to extract them from the fishes...

Howsham busy , which bit of Howsham are you thinking of ? There's miles of it between the Howsham Bridge and Kirkham Abbey which rarely sees an angler . As to the original post , it depends what you are after . If its solitude and a challenge I would go for Howsham up to Kirkham Abbey , or the...

That must be a hell of a mouse to eat a whole landing net , never mind x2 bedchairs ! You are going to need a bigger trap . I'll get my coat ......

Worms and maggots will catch anything that swims . For Barbel, if I had to choose one it would be garlic flavoured Spam . These days I very rarely use a feeder when Barbel fishing , except with maggots ,so that part of the equation doesn't come in to it

Interesting read , thanks for that Terry . I am afraid the cons far outweigh the pros for me . I simply don't understand why braid manufacturers don't explain the actual/real breaking strain of their product , can't they be bothered ? I note that some of them break at nearly 50% lower than the...

Anyone have a view on braids breaking strain , i.e. stated BS and actual BS ? I have heard many accounts of its unreliability and tendency to break far below the actual BS, leading anglers to use braid in ridiculously high stated BS to compensate for this .

A face only a mother could love !

The best quality centre pin reel I have ever used / owned was made by a chap called Kenny Kendall ,crafted to amazingly fine tolerances , spins forever and very durable , I would never sell it .I think I paid £50 for ut second hand not that many years a go

Its biggest disadvantage is its utterly unreliable breaking strain ,this alone puts me off the stuff . There have been many threads of here regarding the pros and cons of braid , look back in the archives and you will find lots of opinions

I would avoid digital scales , there have been previous threads on this subject and many have experienced problems with electronic scales , I would go with reubon heaton dial scales or avons , avoid the reubon heaton mk2 flyweights, I bought 2 sets , small and compact they may be , accurate...

So if its minus 6c at night and plus 8c in the day where does that leave you ? I used to take water temps but gave up as at best they are only a vague indicator . For example last night here in york the air temp was + 5c , daytime temp now is +8c ,combined figure of 13c , fill yer boots ...