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I haven’t fished that area for decades; but both Mark Barrett and Steve Younger mention the sixteen foot (and Ely) in their books on zander.

There’s nothing wrong with my cheap luggage scales - they are more accurate than my Avons and my Reuben Heatons. Furthermore I’ve seen plenty of instances when people have mis-weighed fish on spring scales (both under and over). And don’t get me started on ‘pleasure’ anglers catching a big...

Tacklebox in Kent do.

Every barbel I have caught from the Thames has come from a particular area in a specific swim and that applies to fish caught from several different stretches many miles apart. I’ve fished scores of sessions (in good conditions) in other fairly adjacent (or not) swims and caught nothing but...

We used one (castable Deeper) when we first went on the Severn - you could get a good idea of the depths of a long stretch in a short time. Other ways to do similar include hiring a boat with a decent echo sounder; the modern ones have side scan as well as down scan - so would show a wide...

My comments are in Post 7, based on a year of use.

That squares with my recollection from talking to Terry. I had a pair from him in about 1979. One got nicked, I still have the other one.

Back in the day they also sold a Series 7 rod (power carp waggler) in the same configuration. I sold mine 18 months ago. You might find one of those and you could keep the bag and resell the rod ? BTW the rod was good.

Fighting drags are the best of both worlds - you leave the preset reel drag alone and simply dial in the tension you require for registering a take. Then when you get a bite you simply brake the spool with your fingers and tighten the fighting drag. I find them much more versatile than the...

Like some above; I find Quick drags to be a hindrance. I bought 2 fancy (used) Shimano Ci4 5500 carp reels and sold them on after about 2 trips. They were too sensitive for me. For the same job (and floodwater barbel) I now use basic Okuma 6000 front drag reels and they are great. I bought a...

It looks like comparing apples and pears, rather than apples and apples. The Gardner copolymer lines are great and significantly underrated for breaking strain. It looks as if the Gamma version is simply a truer (my assumption) rating. That could be construed as ‘clever’ marketing…… I use...

If it’s any help; I tried several Gamma lines a while back - both coated Fluoro and pure Fluoro. None of them were special.

Shimano XR series for me. Very light, biggish spool and a decent drag. Only negative for me is the very small anti-reverse lever. I tried a Cadence and Daiwa TDM beforehand. Previous ‘best’ was my pair of Shimano Aero Match 3’s.

I use similar to you - TA slim quiver and Saber (copy of TA compact) rucksack. I like the rucksack and find the quiver handle really good. I find it balances well. Tricast 2 or 3 piece landing net handle for really long walks as it is super light. Usually 1 rod, 2 rod rests and a brolly (only on...

Savay held some huge eels (as did Broadwater). I lost a fish at Savay that I’m sure was a very big eel and I’ve caught them on purpose in the past. I’ve no idea who runs Longlife, my mate got in via Thames Water/Clancy connections.

Peter Stone wrote about chub bite-offs 50 years ago. He ended up using braided hooklinks I think. I’ve had issues with bite-offs from tench when using longish nylon hooklinks. The solution was the short heli-rig that is standard issue these days. My current chub rigs reflect that and are...

We were targeting the tench (and bream). I had a Broadwater ticket when the BCSG still had it (to target the bream). But they weren’t very big at that stage. Also a Kingsmead ticket for a season in the very early days. Another mate got access to some of the other super waters (eg Longlife)...

Re Savay; if it any consolation, I (and my mate) were offered Savay season day tickets a while back - basically ‘on probation’. We both know Tom B as we have fished his CWP water. We fished Savay for a season without breaking the strict rules and hoped that a full syndicate ticket might...

It is a very good bait, put together by Stuart Morgan and the guys at Baitworks. I’ve been using it since the very first test batch as Stuart is my fishing partner. Since we started testing it we have caught barbel, chub and carp (and bream and roach too) straight out of the bag. There is an...

That’s a much better question. I have travelled far and wide over the last 25 years to (try and) catch interesting (to me) saltwater fish on a fly rod. It is an expensive hobby ! Long haul flights and lodges/guides are not cheap and you have to have decent gear or you simply lose the fish. I...