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What a wonderful post Mark. Thanks for taking the time to share and great angling!

There's no chance of crediting the 2 anglers with more intelligence than they need, I can assure everyone of that!! Thanks for the feedback, I did think it was an incredible coincidence that there would be 2 such similar fish in the neighbourhood. I guess it was how well looked after he was...

I was fishing last night with my mate on the middle Thames. There has been the odd barbel coming out recently but no real numbers of fish as yet. 9.30pm his rod rips off & after a very spirited fight we slip the net under a fat but well proportioned fish of 10lb 10oz. It put up a real scrap so...

Ok thanks everyone. A trip to angling direct it is then, fingers most definitely crossed!

That was my concern, has anyone contacted them directly?

Hi all. I've managed to break the quiver section of my Drennan Medium feeder 11ft 6 combo rod - the part that the push in quiver tips to in to. It's obviously an older rod, not the matchpro, but I was wondering if anyone had tried to get any spare sections from Drennan and how to go about it...

Read that this morning, absolutely appalling but unfortunately I'm also not really surprised. Nothing gets in the way of profit and dividends, including sh*t it would seem!

Hi Richard. I've used those before and they are very good. Part of the problem I've found is that I normally use meat when the Thames is up and 5 or 6oz leads seem to pull soft meat off the hair, or at least that's my thinking? I use the garlic sausage now, with straws in the meat and I use a...

I never used luncheon meat as I always had problems with keeping it on the hook or hair. I bought some polish garlic sausage ( the stuff with a rind which I peel off) last season and it stays on a hair no problem, it's a really tough consistency. If you like garlic spam you will love this stuff...

I had a pair of the 2500 X aero reels - lovely smooth reels but the line got trapped several times. I sold them because of it, I never lost a fish due to the issue but I wasn't going to take the risks. Such an obvious design flaw - I was really disappointed as I always rated shimmys. I got a...

Great stuff, many thanks.

Would these be ok for smaller fish - roach, chub etc? I was looking at them over the weekend.

Yep, excellent videos and not a carp in sight! I've subscribed for a while and really enjoyed the recent float fishing on the river and also the tench videos he filmed. Well worth a look if you haven't seen them!

I've got a pair of Daiwa BR 3500 that I've been very happy with. They do them in bigger sizes and they're front drag with a bait runner system. Around £75 a reel.

Thanks again for everyone's comments. One of the many wonderful things about this site is that a keen angler like myself, who is by no means an expert, can ask questions or other's opinions and it's possible to have a sensible conversation online. I fish the Thames, this season it's become...

I've got the Trakker 3 rod and it's a quality product - significantly more protection than the Drennan specialist which I have also owned. Drennan also do a 2 rod hard holdall for about £55 but I've not seen any first hand - I was looking into the same thing recently.

I've used a soft braid hair that comes off the bottom of the hook. I was planning on using it with boilies but could be used for pellets - I guess if you used a long enough hair it could be used for meat but that wasn't my intention. When I tested it and as Hatter mentioned the hook flips over...

Thanks Chris - I appreciate your comments. I've got no issue at all if people think that there have been no improvements since - 'John Wilson' used to catch them. At the end of the day if we closed our minds as human beings we'd never advance as individuals nor as a society.

Thanks for all the comments. I don't disagree that there is plenty of overkill in the carp world but if anyone has ever seen any of the underwater footage then it's clear to see how often baits get ejected, not completely sucked in etc. I appreciate different species etc and conditions but the...

The cold weather and a turbulent River Thames had me thinking about rigs. I currently use the 'flip' rig - curved shank hook with a small hook aligner and some shrink tube on the bottom of the hook. I've been really happy with hook holds and this made me wonder if the Ronnie rig could be used...