The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

pduffield wrote:Or you could use brown paper like Mr Crabtree

Extra tip for this method is to use a broadsheet newspaper, lay the coils, close the paper, turn it over to reverse the coils, open the paper then cast.
When the fish fail to bite - read the paper!

I keep meaning to learn to Wallis cast but until I do I either opt for pulling line from the rings or coils in the hand. These get me to where I want to be most of the time....

JAA wrote:...or you can get out on the lawn with a big porcy and a couple of swan shot and practise casting properly :brickwall:

Indeed!! It ain't hard really, at least not as hard as some make out.

There was another method to facilitate long casting with a pin used in the early 1900's - coiling the line around a thermos flask cup.

st.john wrote:

JAA wrote:...or you can get out on the lawn with a big porcy and a couple of swan shot and practise casting properly :brickwall:

Indeed!! It ain't hard really, at least not as hard as some make out.

This is a cast I want to master, the garden it is for me tonight.

Yes,.......learn the ways of the Jedi-Caster you must!

Because of many large rocks close in on the Trent, it is necessary to freeline the bait. As soon as you put on a bomb it lodged in the gaps & you got stuck fast.

I get over this by freelining a pellet which I wrap with pellet paste. The same effect can be had with a large lump of luncheon meat. This is sufficient to allow the short underarm cast and, when the business end has sunk, allow the line to go limp from the rod tip. Bite indication is usually a violent pull on the rod & a lovely sound of the ratchet. My 'pin of choice for this style of fishing is my Mill Tackle Barbus, as it has a variable ratchet as well as drag. I like them both set reasonably tight, which give a slight bolt effect in case I am pouring a drink!

In this case the rod was a 25 year old Whisker Kevlar & the reel was new! This season I will fish the same way but will probably be using my cane rod currently undergoing some remedial work.

Bob

All of my margin fishing is done with a "Pin" (with check on in case of an unscheduled nap )
I tend to use a small piece of peacock quill (approx 4-5", fished top and bottom with the quill laying flat, but weighted with a pair of AA shot to get the bait down hard on the bottom... bait wise I tend to use the dreaded boilies as that is what the fish on our waters tend to go for, having said that I'm going to give some other more natural baits a try this season, like pinto beans, corn, kidney beans and the like, with hemp as the attractor...

Bluelabel wrote:All of my margin fishing is done with a "Pin" (with check on in case of an unscheduled nap )
I tend to use a small piece of peacock quill (approx 4-5", fished top and bottom with the quill laying flat, but weighted with a pair of AA shot to get the bait down hard on the bottom... bait wise I tend to use the dreaded boilies as that is what the fish on our waters tend to go for, having said that I'm going to give some other more natural baits a try this season, like pinto beans, corn, kidney beans and the like, with hemp as the attractor...

Bluelabel wrote:All of my margin fishing is done with a "Pin" (with check on in case of an unscheduled nap )
I tend to use a small piece of peacock quill (approx 4-5", fished top and bottom with the quill laying flat, but weighted with a pair of AA shot to get the bait down hard on the bottom... bait wise I tend to use the dreaded boilies as that is what the fish on our waters tend to go for, having said that I'm going to give some other more natural baits a try this season, like pinto beans, corn, kidney beans and the like, with hemp as the attractor...

I doubt there are more than a handful of waters where you would have to use a boilie in order to catch a good carp.

You can encourage carp to eat boilies and even particular flavour boilies by repeatedly feeding them large numbers of those boilies, but you can't take away the instinct of a carp to eat a wide range of other food if it is offered including more natural baits.
Its the classic case of the self-fulfilling prophecy where carp anglers read in all the magazines that you need to use boilies to catch carp ( along with hair-rigs, etc, etc) They join a club or syndicate and find the members who fish the water tell them they only catch the carp on boilies, and so they do likewise.
But if you actually choose to use something simple like breadcrust, worms, sweetcorn or dog biscuits you will find you will still catch carp.
At the first syndicate pool I joined six years ago, a now sadly lost idyllic traditional type of pool, I was told when I joined that although the syndicate owner wanted to encourage the members to use traditional methods and baits nearly all of them were using boilies ( and had been doing so for years). I was also told that although the carp are frequently on the surface no one catches them on the surface. Twenty minutes into my first session I caught a carp on floating breadcrust. Over the next four years I caught most of the carp in the pool on dog biscuits, breadcrust, lobworms, breadflake, and kidney beans.
I now catch carp in a smilar way at another syndicate pool where most of the other members have always used boilies.