The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Dave Burr wrote:

Shaun Harrison wrote:Sorry to be nit picky Dave but it was good old 11lb Sylcast Hutchy used to rave about. It was always in the odd numbers in the Sorrel he used before the black. 7, 9. 11 and 15lb.
I had a fish out of Savay on 5lb Maxima with a 18lb shock leader to reach them. These days we don't need to drop so fine with larger reels etc.

You are right of course Shaun - my head couldn't decide if it was 10 or 12 I used 9lb if I recall.... pretty horrible line but tough.

I never really liked Sylcast and stuck with Brent and Maxima for years not that there was much choice that was user friendly in the heavier breaking strains. I always used to joke about Sylcast that if you didn't cast far enough you could always push it out a bit further! I used to sell a lot of it though.

I knew Richie Mac well and Yateley! After the 80's though.

I still have the "bible" according to Mr Charman and fished some of the Boyers waters including the Willow Pool Syndicate with Phil Thompson and John Buckley who later became the Grass Carp British record Holder catching it from Horton.

Tackle as Shaun states was simple ledgering with a running lead for me! Conoflex rods& Mitchell 410s. A peanut over a bed of banana flavoured soy beans I remember as being effective. Sylcast, I still have a spool -- somewhere!

Shaun Harrison wrote:

Dave Burr wrote:

Shaun Harrison wrote:Sorry to be nit picky Dave but it was good old 11lb Sylcast Hutchy used to rave about. It was always in the odd numbers in the Sorrel he used before the black. 7, 9. 11 and 15lb.
I had a fish out of Savay on 5lb Maxima with a 18lb shock leader to reach them. These days we don't need to drop so fine with larger reels etc.

You are right of course Shaun - my head couldn't decide if it was 10 or 12 I used 9lb if I recall.... pretty horrible line but tough.

I never really liked Sylcast and stuck with Brent and Maxima for years not that there was much choice that was user friendly in the heavier breaking strains. I always used to joke about Sylcast that if you didn't cast far enough you could always push it out a bit further! I used to sell a lot of it though.

We used to make our own boilies, using ground down trout pellets, weetabix, oxo cubes and eggs to bind it, then hand rolled them to about 30-35mm in diameter. We attached them to a size 4 carp hook tied to Sylcast 11 lb BS mono, all free lined in 1976-77. The rods were set parallel to each other pointing with their tips into the water so the wind would not effect the line. Complete with Heron bite alarms that had trouble working in the rain and to finish, home made monkey climbers. Oh and bail arms open.

I was a mere lad in the late seventies and early eighties - but when catching small carp off a local canal: tackle of choice (not that I had any choice!) : 10ft glass Shakespeare Carp International; Abu 444 fixed spool or my dad's old Mitchell 314; hook - the awful Mustad Kirby, usually size 6 or 8 - line - this is interesting, given what's been said - yes, I remember Bayer, and Sylcast - Maxima too, but also Racine Tortue, Damyl, Abulon and a really great Daiwa black mono, which, despite being black, was great for surface work - we rarely went over 6lb bs, and 5lbs wasn't unknown - and yes, gilt Mustads for sweetcorn - didn't have my first 'corn' carp until 1981 - I felt so ultra-cult, and I'd left a Chemistry exam early to get to the swim before my mate.... I used to float fish corn, with the shot set precisely one inch above the bottom, close to the reeds - to give a good "flow" when the take came. I remember, for some reason we were mad keen on pole floats for carp - the sort with the bristle, and we usually attached top and bottom. Nets were a problem. My best friend used a Balcombe "fast net" - 24 inches, sturdy but heavy; I used a 24 inch pan - which finally collapsed horribly when I netted a common just under 9lbs and I forgot to grab the mesh! We used to weigh carp in plastic bags - usually with a Little Samson. Hooking mats were unheard of....
Good times, though.

Jack Hilton, George Sharman, Richard Walker books absorbed, re-absorbed and absorbed again - even now I still re -read them + Kevin Clifford's book on Redmire but the latter chapters are a bit of a struggle as they go (at times) beyond my style of fishing. Rods - James MkIV and Chapmans 550 - reels Mitchell 300s - line 8lb Maxima - line sunk and terminated in free-lined meat or bread. Folded card indicator on the line between the butt ring and reel - bale arm open of course but by the late 1980s I was using an Optomic although I still had the folded card on the line.

To see that card move up to the butt ring is an experience never to be forgotton and far more exciting than an Optonic going off - the movement in silence was just very special and still is.

The buzzers were terrible, herons, optonics uurrggghhh most mornings I'd wake up and a load of line gone off the reel and not a bleep from the blasted machine, then Mr Delkim came along, perhaps I should have used a pin, faultless !!

I used to have George Sharmans book,it was the first time I had read about using luncheon meat as bait.
Back then I became aware of specimen hunting two rods and the lads were quiet kept themselves to themselves,secretive almost.

I have George Sharmans book, I enjoyed half of it but then it gets a bit too deep and technical for me.

I have both Delkim Herons and Delkim Optonics. Needles with cut plastic wine bottle caps - later Gardner Monkeys.

I still use original Optonics XLs and find them excellent having lasted since their purchase years ago. 4 blade or multi blade internals.