New !!! SKINZ Review . . . . . . . . .From Sonu Baits

Oh you are gonna like these!


Here they are .. . . . . . . . by rights these should have had a review in the Angling Times this week if memory serves me correctly, hailing from Sonu Baits who are a new company that is producing the exclusively on behalf of the Preston Innovations/Korum team - they're called Skinz, and are a completely new concept in hookbaits for 2006.

















So, just WHAT are they then?

Is it a pellet? Is it a Paste? Is it an Expander? Hard, Soft or what?

Hmmmm therein lies the tricky bit ! It is ....... all of the above! Hmmmmmm what are you on about i hear you ask . . . . . . . .

Well, it starts off in life as a rock hard pellet, erm shaped thing.... and you can get it in either 4mm, 8mm or 12mm, thereby giving you something for everyone whether you're into the match scene, pleasure fishing, carp fishing or barbel/river/chub fishing.

There is a groundbait pellet to come too, which is awesome to watch breaking down in a glass of water, i've seen them and they're unbelievable!! But, this is a review of the hookbait pellets as tried and tested by me last wednesday!

So, what do you do with them ????

Dead simple, chuck a handfull in a pot of water/bait box and leave them to it for half an hour or so, the smaller (4mm) 'hookers', take on water more quickly and are easily 'done' in about half an hour, the larger 8mm and 12mm probably need about 45 mins to an hour and half to be 'perfect'.

They don't really 'swell' like expander pellets so its pretty much what you see is what you get size wise from taking them out of the packet to putting them on the hook.
The picture below shows some in their 'hard' and 'soaked' forms ..........















The BIG thing with these over ANYTHING you're going to see is when you squeeze one....... they're like a squishy elasticated outer with a soft paste inner ! You can hook them direct on the bend of the hook, hair rig them, D rig them, in fact do whatever you want with them !

They will ACTUALLY CAST on a waggler, unlike expanders that have a tendency to fly off, in fact you can cast them on a waggler, a bomb or anything, and i'll testify to that 'cos i did !

They do not come off easily let me tell ya! I had some vicious takes on wednesday and even after striking it was still on ! The interesting bit is, when you split one in half and see the inner 'paste' thats inside ....... all encapsulated inside the stretchy, rubbery outter, it oozes out like porridge when you squash it, and , i have been assured - contains a plethora of fishmeals, betaine and attractors to keep that swim bubbling!

The picture below shows one i splattered in the name of a photo, althought its not quite as in focus as i would have liked but time is short !

















So you ask, what else can i do with them???

In short, anything you want ! Your imagination will be the only limit you can have with these little beauty's ........ the match lads will love 'em, especially those chuckin ' wagglers and feeders on commercials, the carp, chub and barbel lads will love them as an alternative to halibuts/ellips etc that are getting battered everywhere, and the idea's are already running wild in my head for the comin 'barbel' season !

Here's something i thought of already ..... pack a load of them (the groundbait version) in a feeder DRY for extra slow, extra long release and attraction, OR get some hookers, part soak them so they soften, then leave them for days on end in a flavoured 'glug' to fully expand and draw all the 'glug' in.......

They freeze well and defrost well, so no waste....... they remain in their hookbait state for a good couple of days if untouched, but are fully biodegradable should they stay untouched, but i can't see that happening!

You can actually squash them and mould them into a paste if ya like...... but you wouldn't .... probably ...... you could shove them in a pellet pump and pump them through to speed them up, or, you could pump a load of attractor through them .... see, the limits are endless, just give it a bit of thought !

I fished last wednesday with them, had a float rod and a bomb rod out, bagged up on a load of 'bits' fishing maggot on the float while i prep'd a swim for the bomb rod .....
i gave up on the float rod within half an hour of putting the bomb rod out as i couldn't handle the takes coming to the bomb rod on the Skinz ! The bream were having a go, as were the roach, and after getting smashed up on 6lb line the carp started to take an interest !

Final result was a scorching take and a carp just touching the 10lb mark sliding over the front of my landing net !

Tried, tested, and well impressed ! Due to hit the shop soon, we should have delivery around the first week in June so come along and check 'em out ! I know there'll be a few bags that won't see the shops shelves this year ........

check out the Skinz on the website here ......Click here for SKINZ

Tight lines . . . . . . . . Dave

Cheeky Little Tips Pt.3

On the subject of knots - to continue the theme, here's a couple more things to bear in mind or try, at you leisure.........

Ever question the amount of turns you put into a knot and what it effect it has? Well you should ......

Every article i can remeber seeing about knots always uses the classic example, and possibly the most well known knot in the world, the Half Blood Knot.
Funny thing is it's always shown using five turns which i never bothered to question 'till i started moving away, many years ago, from the old favourite line i had been using (maxima chameleon).

Trying out a 'more modern' line at the time, i was unimpressed to find the breaking strains weren't living up to the strain on the packet .........

Curiosity got the better of me and i started mucking about with different knots. Couple of knots later and a few pulls on a set of scales meant my old faithfull half blood wasn't living up to expectations which i couldn't grasp as it'd never let me down before ......... i knew there had to be a reason for it logically.

I started reducing the number of turns on the new line and bingo! better knot strength, a more compact knot and no problems !

Each type of mono has its own characteristics, i.e. a good line that has great abrasion resistance will be a bit 'stiffer' than a softer line (obviously!) , but the softer line lays better on the reel and casts smoother ..... therefore..... yep you got it, the softer line will not take a large number of turns very well because it basically gets 'squashed' easier when you try to knot it.

After hours of testing knots i found that a THREE TURNED tucked half blood knot gave me the best strength, neatest knot and the best reliability, especially on fine diameter lines. I've been using my three turned version ever since with no problems whatsoever, and can honestly say, the only times i've lost fish since has been down to me not paying attention or a snag that i hadn't accounted for but not my knots!

I dont get line breaks for no reason, don't get the 'pigtail effect' after tying one up and i am 100% confident that if my line goes, it wont be right at the end where it matters most .......

Another cracking knot . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This one's the Palomar, in stages - absolutely reliable again......

Simply form a loop in your line and pass through the eye ........








Then tie a simple 'overhand knot' 'granny knot' whatever you want to call it .....













Then take the hook or swivel that you are tying on, and pass it up through the loop you have now made ...........












Now 'tease' the knot smaller, wet it and pull tight slowly and evenly - taking care at the last stages as it's tightening up , to make sure it all looks 'even'.

If tied correctly this will give you as near to 100% knot strength as you're ever gonna get ......


The end result should look like this ........










Enjoy people and have fun !!!!

Fluff Chuckin'............

well ok, this won't apply to most of you reading this if you're a general coarse angler/carp/pike, well come to think of it anything but a river angler!

Yes, remember, it’s the closed season…… remember that??? I do …. every year!

Being a river angler, I still have to abide by the centuries old rule that says, keep off the rivers from the 15th of march to the 15th of june (both dates inclusive of course) ……. This of course was brought in to give the rivers a rest and the fish a chance to recuperate, breed, and to give the bank’s a rest from the constant traffic of anglers. As we all know, or at least I hope we do, the fish do not spawn to order at this particular time of year, indeedy – last year the fish on the River Dane were spawning as late as august…… ‘nuff said……

We might not like it, we might not agree with it, but – we have to adhere to it !

Personally, I’ve stopped being bothered by it now, it is pretty refreshing to take a break and come back to the rivers come June with overgrown banks and new features to explore, a bit like having to rediscover your stretch that you thought you knew like the back of your hand last year …..

And still, I always say…… you know what, I’m gonna go float fishing/beach casting/rock fishing on Anglesey etc etc and I never do ! I usually get a daft idea of a d.i.y project to do and end up stretching it out somehow to the 15th of June !

But not this year…… oh no, with the acquisition of a Prince Albert ticket and a prior purchase of a fly outfit, I’d decided, what better way to keep a track of what’s going on with the rivers during the closed season than wandering the banks with some fluff chuckin’ gear ! Perfect plan but I had to work out how to use the damn stuff ……..

Fly casting lessons started in the back garden, and mines big (the back garden that is), I say lessons, I wasn’t so much being TAUGHT as doing my own crash course …..
For anyone who’s never tried it before, like me, IT IS NOT EASY ! in fact, the harder you try, the more of a pigs ear you make !

Onto the ‘net’ to do some research , couple of min’s later I’ve found instructions detailing the theory and scientific formulas for fly casting! God this fella knew his stuff, went right over my head apart from the simple diagram which went, rod up, ten past – stop – pause – rod forward – ten to – stop……. Hmmmm ….. now this I could get, back into the garden, swish thisaway, swish thataway, …… result ! It’s all down to technique like most things, and this does require some serious practise and technique, but with a bit of patience and common sense, I soon knew that any trout that dared to venture within ten yards of the bank was in mortal peril !!! God how I hoped they didn’t live beyond my ten yard maximum !

Armed with my newfound ability to fling some fluff the mighty ten yards I decided to venture down the Dane, which thankfully you can spit across in some parts ! Armed also with my assortment of various bits of ‘fluff’, no idea what they’re called but they look good …. I felt confident that at least I could cast out! Always a good start …….
And now, two trips down the line – erm, lets just say the river is yet to produce the goods!

It’s not for want of trying believe me but these ‘ere trout and grayling just aren’t playing ball yet, in all fairness I don’t think I’ve actually seen one taking! But, I am enjoying myself, which is what it’s all about – I’m getting to see not only some new stretches that I am slowly discovering, but I’m out ‘n about where I’m normally not.

And when I do catch my first trout/grayling/chub or whatever on the fly, you will be the first to see the results !

Cheeky little tips pt.2 Braid Knots

Now then, anyone trying to tie BRAID to MONOFILAMENT might just appreciate this little tip 'cos it's been tried and tested by the boys at Trafford AS and it's turned out to be as near to 100% reliable as we've come across.

So what's the problem???

well, due to the nature of the two materials - this makes it notoriously difficult to tie without the braid bunching up nicely as you tease the knot down, but then as it tries to get a grip on the mono, it all goes pear-shaped and the braid just slips away to nothing!

Knots such as the FULL BLOOD KNOT just won't work. They are by their nature, strangulation knots which work well on mono's of a similar diameter, and to some extent on different diameter lines - but just not with Braid........


With the braid being a very smooth material with a fine diameter, and the mono being a material that needs some 'bite', tying the two together can seem like an impossibly frustrating task. Worse still is tyrying to tie two completely different diameter's together, for example when tying up a heavy mono shock leader (40lb for example) to a braid of a much finer diameter. Even braids at 40lb breaking strain will be less than half the diameter of the mono, so even though the breaking strain is the same, the actual diameters are worlds apart.

So what's the solution????

Well, after trials with a barrage of knots at the shop, mooching through an old book on knot tying one day, i came across a knot that described itself as......

For tying lines of differing materials and unequal diameter, for example tying backing line to a fly line........

Now how much different in diameter can you get than that? Fly line backing is generally a thick Dacron type material that's usually a bit chunky and the line itself would be a lot smaller in diameter so it had to be worth a go ........

We were actually tying this up for a customer called shaun who's well into his carping and needed to tie a 40lb shock leader to his 12lb braided mainline, so far without success ......

After studying the diagram for a few minutes we tied one up.... now bearing in mind with a decent knot, most 12lb mono's usually break at about 14.5lb 'cos all the manufacturers seem to understate the 'real' breaking strain, it went at a shade over 14lb tied up with no rig glue or anything else done to it, just a straight knot.

Impressed, we tied another, same result. A few practise knots later, a spot of rig glue and we had it breaking just under 15lb !

And the best about it is, the knot ends up very small and neat, it flies through the rod rings without a 'clunk' and, as Shaun later testified, stood up to his rigorous fish playing the next trip out! So confident was he, that he was piling on the power without a second thought.

Now the picture is a scan, not a bad one, so it will 'blow up' a bit if you use the windows picture viewer, just right click on the picture, choose 'save as' and send it somewhere easy to find like your desktop for later use.
If tied correctly and carefully, you will get as near as 100% breaking strain out of your line, put a spot of rig glue on it just to finish it off and see how neatly it turns out......

And the name of this Knot, The ALBRIGHT KNOT.

enjoy

Dave

Fox Stratos 10,000 reel

Well, we copped a look at a potential gem today during a visit by our Fox area rep', Steve Bailey. . . . . . . . .

Out of his box of tricks he produced no less than ........ a big pit ........
(i'll refrain from using the word 'baitrunner')
FREESPOOL Reel ! but we all know what a 'freespool' is . . .

So back to the reel in question...

On the face of it, it's got to be said, it looks tidy. very tidy.
The spool shaft has that slow oscilation that lays the line very closely and very evenly, in short it was as flat as a pancake - looked perfect.

It has a chunky feel that i like, it actually feels like they've put summat inside it instead of that hollow feel you get with some reels...... no soul some of them.
It doesn't look particularly 'flash', yet it just screams quality at you, and it's got some rather tasty features let me tell ya . . . . .

Shall we start with, ahem - no fewer than 16 BALL BEARINGS ! 16 for gods sake! where oh where do they put them eh? Oh sorry, i forgot the extra roller bearing, so thats 17 all in all!
Then there's the bail that locks in the 'down' position. Think on, it's only a small thing but most bails lock to stop them snapping shut during the cast in the 'up' position...... personally, i'm not a fan of this anyway, gets in my way - i like this downward thinking, very clever.

The spool is push-button, but, the drags on the front too........ hmmmm tricky, how did they do that you ask? Now think again, how many reels can you think of with a front disc drag, that have a push button spool too? Yep, same as me, none!
Aren't all push button spooled reels rear drag you ask? Erm, no, not this one.....

Very clever Mr.Fox.......leaves the back of the reel the space to stick, what should be stuck there, the FREESPOOL adjuster.(which is just as finely adjustable as the front clutch)

Also, the FREESPOOL lever folds FLAT when the lever kicks back into the gears, remember Daiwa doing that on their Freespools? Then they changed it to be 'in with the in crowd' Why oh why did they change it . . . . . . Well, Mr.Fox in his infinite wisdom, has gone back to the common sense way, and good on him. Why would you need the lever to be stuck out the back of the reel anyway? Surely it's better tucked away when not in use...... but i digress . . . . . .

So what else has it got? MASSIVE line capacity, bigger than that other well known one,(10,000xt) A very clever spool arbour for 'shallowing up' the massive capacity spools.
Did i mention a free spare spool? Or that to buy a spare spool (alloy) will only cost you £14.99 ! Cheap as chips i tells ya ...... Compared with......well, you know ;-)

Now then...... does it have any 'bad' points????? untill Darren said it, in his words not mine, its heavy...... i thought..... compared with what? a Shimano big pit baitrunner? nah........... not when you consider it's stuffed with 17 bearings!

I think it feels 'chunky' in a good way, solid even, all the usuall features and more..... plenty more, i've forgotten a load since seeing it, so i'll leave you with this pic' to have a look at........ enjoy, 'cos i will when i get my hands on one....

Wembley Carp Conference

As reported by Danny Hale, Rigmeister General of Trafford A.S

Nothing but good reports have been flooding in about the Carp & Coarse Show, 02.04.2006 which was attended by Trafford members, Danny Pete and Darren.

Many well known faces of the carp world were on hand for demo's on baits and rigs and talks on specialised subjects such as short session carping, and inside the carp's mind.

Record breaking stars such as Terry Hearn, Nick Helleur, Ian Poole, Mark Hutchinson Damian Clarke, Lee Jackson, Rob Maylin, Simon Crowe and many more were all on hand to answer any questions the public had.



Picture 1, one of the busiest stands of the day! The Free Spirit stand gets some much deserved attention.






There were many excellent stalls from the likes of Korda, Delkim, Sticky Baits, Trakker, Richworth, B.C.U.K, Gardner, Dynamite and of course Free Spirit.
Actually, full marks had to go to the Free spirit and Gardner stands which were second to none and well worth a visit for the impressive content they had.
There were many demo's of the new gear coming out soon like the new Korda backleads and the new Delkim buzzers.(available late April/early May)

So there's a nice little taster of what's to come for the 2006 season, and i can tell you, you won't be dissapointed!





Picture 2, Jamie Masson giving Pete and darren a run through of the new products from B.C.U.K

Cheeky Little Tips Pt 1

While i'm sitting around, waiting for Danny to bring me in some photo's of the Carp Conference i thought i might as well take the time to put a little tip or two together so here's one . . . . .

Going back to summer a few years ago, after getting my first half decent digital camera - it struck me that as i was sat there enjoying the sun, i'd realised like a lightbulb pinging over my head, the most obvious downfall of a digital camera.

After being used to years and years of carrying around an SLR camera (single lens reflex-35mm) i'd also got used to having my array of filters with me for these exact conditions - sunny no cloud, very bright - to take the 'glare' off the water for better clarity, and it also takes the 'shine' off the sky so for example, so the clouds appear very defined.

Gawping through the digital camera lens, the scene looked exactly as i expected it to be, way too bright !

In a flash of inspiration, the sunglasses came off my head and i held it over the lens of the camera, Bingo ! Sussed ! All became clear, no reflection on the water and clear skies just like that ! No great big bag of lenses, and as the sunglasses are always in my rucksack, no worries about forgetting them.

I rattled off a few shots and they came out just as well as if i had my SLR and a bag of effects lenses. I also figured out how to do a self portrait in the same mode by tying the glasses to the camera with the lanyard !

The pic below is from last summer on the Ribble and i think the clarity of the picture speaks for itself . . . . . . . So there ya go . . . . how to cheapskate around camera filters !

Carp Conference 2006 . . . . .

Well, pete, darren and danny are all off to the wembley carp conference tomorrow,

Dan will be armed with a digital camera and a keen eye on anything that looks remotely interesting and new. He is under orders to come back with some interesting news and views on the conference, that is providing they get there in the first place!

I did my bit, i printed pete off a full set of directions courtesy of multi-map, a friend of his borrowed him a sat-nav tomtom unit, so really they should find their way there!

I will report through the week on how the conference went, and what tasty new morsels are to be released to you soon.

a fine end to the river season . . . . .

Well boys and girls, the river seasons over . . . . for a while . .

After endless poxy weather conditions over the winter that were about as near to right as I am to John o’ Groats, I really was beginning to give up on a ‘red letter day’ at the end of the season.

Conditions had been hard to say the least, but like a true hardened winter warrior, I carried on regardless . . . . . (maybe I should go to the pub more?) I had tried everything in my armoury . . pellets, paste, boilies, bread – long hooklinks, short hooklinks, fluorocarbon, suffix stealth skin, you name it I tried it.

I began to doubt my own abilities, like you do, even though the forums reported that actually, I was only having just as bad an end to the season as the rest of em’. So I figured no matter what I tried, it would be a lottery for me in just the same way as everyone else.

Time was running out, the season ended on the Tuesday and I’d forgot to book the time off, doh! Pete was adamant he was having the Monday off, and him being the ‘big cheese’ at Trafford, I opted for the Friday and Saturday off instead – figuring I’d go Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I fished the Wednesday with me being half day and all . . . . not good, not good at all, not one single solitary knock on the rod tip – I was to say the least, gutted. (especially as I’d hiked all the way up to the upstream pegs)

My enthusiasm on Friday wasn’t exactly at its highest! I turned up late in the afternoon, but with a good hour and a half to get set up and crack on . . . at the car park, there wasn’t a soul in sight, was it luck or did the locals know something I didn’t! With little time I wrestled with whether or not to fish the car park peg, figuring that a lot of em’ that fish there are just lazy and couldn’t be bothered putting in the walk . . . but then again I didn’t have enough time to do ‘the walk’, I looked at a peg upstream before getting the gear out of the car, and as I passed the car park peg again, I just thought – sod it – no time – fading light – the fish are probably expecting some food to be thrown in the peg so why not . . . .

In went two rod rests, rods out, snap decision to tie on short fluorocarbon hooklengths with korda maggot clips tied up ‘d’ ring style and that was my set up done. I’d decided the night before I was going to go ‘au naturelle’ bait-wise so it was maggots for today . . . . albeit totally battered in turmeric and chilli powder! Well, I figured that seeing as I like a good hot spicy curry, why shouldn’t the barbel?

Extra lead, a good two and a half ounces worth, went onto a drennan heavy oval feeder – as the river was a good foot up and rising. And I already knew I would still end up fishing under my rod tip . . . . I loaded the korda clip with about 9 maggots, having already trickled a few in while setting up, dropped in the right hand rod and loaded the other rod with maggots too for the left hand rod.

I sat back on my chair, fished around in my rucksack for my flask, poured a brew and thought I’d check the battery level on my digital camera . . . . . oops, no camera . . . . ah well it’s not really gonna matter is it . . . . .

So of course the tip pulls round . . . . . and keeps on going . . . . . picked up the rod, and knew instantly that this was something special.
The rod arched round looking like it was under full compression, I played it cool of course . . . until I saw the size of the head looking at me just as I slipped the net under the bronze beast that was coming my way . . .

The scales came out immediately, take the sack off and it leaves me with . . . . . 10lb 7oz of beautiful river ribble barbell ! but I need a picture . . . . . . so on the phone to my good pal Danny who’s a few miles upstream of me. Luckily, Dan being the good lad he is, only goes and jumps in his car after packing his gear away and comes down to photograph my double!

I fished the Sunday after that, and blanked, dan fished the Saturday and had a couple of fish out, but after Friday, I really didn’t care if I caught or not! It all came together in the end, and that’s what it’s all about. . . . . . . . . but you still wouldn’t be seeing this fish if it wasn’t for
him so cheers once again danny!