Author: quentyn

Loop Knots, which is better ?

We use a lot of knots in fishing and particularly in carp fishing. One of the most often used knots is that used to create a loop. Whether it is to create a loop on the hair or in your mainline to create a loop for your leadcore we tie a lot of loops. In recent conversation with anglers I realised that many people use the overhand loop knot to create their loops, something that I also used to do. A few years ago I was shown the figure of 8 loop knot and I have found it to be far stronger and so it amazes me that some people still use the overhand loop.

In the words of Harry Hill,

“I like over hand loop knots, I like figure of 8 knots, but which is better ? There is only one way to find out….. Fight !”

I have therefore decided to run a fair and independent test to compare the 2 knots and finally put to bed the notion that the overhand loop knot has any use as a load bearing knot.

First lets look at the knots themselves and how they are tied

Figure of 8 loop

first make a loop ( note that I am using fluorescent string to make it easier to see what I am doing)
Continue reading “Loop Knots, which is better ?”

The evolution of a rig – the big pig line aligner rig

Let me begin this article by stating, for the record, that there is no original thought in this rig. This is not to denigrate the article or my thinking in the 1st line but there is very little “original thinking” in 99% of carp rigs today. Almost all carp rigs are just an evolution on someone else’s ideas or are designed to encourage people to buy more rig components. The main exceptions to this in recent years ( after the hair rig) have been the Drig, the Chod rig the combi rig ( and coated braid ) and the now ( thankfully) banned “bent hook” rig. There have possibly been more but these are the ones that I can think of and the ones that I use or have used on occasion.

This rig is the product of several years of thinking and would not have been possible with out ” a little help from my friends”. To explain, earlier in 2009 I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t get a good hook hold which was strange as when I 1st started to use long shanked hooks that is all I got but over time I managed to migrate to short hairs and stiff flurocarbon and the hook holds got poorer and poorer. Then a chance discussion with a mate ( who is sponsored) and an impromptu rig clinic on the bank and I was set straight. later in the year whilst on a fishing holiday I had the chance to have a good look at a mates rigs and ( with his permission) incorporate a good chunk of what he was doing into my rig design.  Not only did catch rates improve but also losses decreased which was crucial at the time due to the hard fighting nature of the fishing the lake.
Continue reading “The evolution of a rig – the big pig line aligner rig”

Review – CCmoore Meteor

A wise man once said, “bait is unimportant compared to watercraft, any bait if palatable will be eaten *if* the carp can find it”. These words have been the foundation of my carp fishing, however that is not to say that quality bait does not matter, it does matter and matter a great deal. My philosophy behind bait choice is that the bait must possess one of two qualities,
Continue reading “Review – CCmoore Meteor”

My 1st Shark !

Ok well not really my 1st as I have caught dogfish off of the Kent coast and a small sand shark off of the coast of South Africa but this was the 1st one for quite a while.

As you know I am in SF at the moment, and whilst I was over here I thought it rude not to try out some of the fishing that the bay offers.  A brief skirt around the bay ( well around pier 39) led to the website of San Francisco Boat Rentals run by Captain Tony.  An early morning start led me to the boat at 9am sharp ready for a days shark fishing.  As I arrived I could see that the tide was really high, amazingly high. As we went out into the bay and started fishing I could see that the water was moving at an amazing rate, indeed a poor sailing boat was having some issues making any headway into the current even with its spinnaker out.

To summarise the day, I had a really good time and would recommend Tony’s charter services to anyone, whilst the fishing was slow I am certain that this was due to the amazingly high tide and the conditions that it produced as with that much current the fish were probably not feeding all that well.  Anyway only 1 fish was caught ( loads of crabs though) to yours truly and it was a tiny, fin perfect spiny dogfish. After a brief photo op, the shark was gently returned to the water whereupon it swam off strongly.  Sadly itg didnt bing friends and it was the last and only action of the day. If the weather / tide changes over the next few days I might try again…. however there are vineyards to be visited 🙂

spiny dog fish

Check out the Golden Gate Bridge behind me, catching a shark ( even one so small) in these sorroundings is a memory I will treasure forever.

The USA bans fundamental statistical concepts ?

Well as you know I have decided to spend this Xmas in San Francisco with my wonderful wife. On my travels I have seen many strange things things in my travels around the world but I have never seen the banning of a statistical concept…

use of median prohibited

what next banning of averages ? wont this make life difficult ? though it would certainly explain what happened with the US banking industry 🙂 then again as a Brit I can hardly talk…

Anyway I will try to get more posts up later in the week including one from my latest fishing experience where I went fishing for Sharks in the SF bay. More later .

Breakfast of champions… very fat ones

Well some of you might know that I have popped over to the land of the free for a quick break. Whilst I was over here I decided that we had to try breakfast at Dennys., wow my arteries started to closeup just entering, you got the impression that there was more fur in the artieries of the patrons than in a cats home.  Anyway it is cheap and tasty.. I have no idea why Americans think that maple syrup goes with any breakfast item. I would like to state, for the record, that bacon with maple syrup is a crime against humanity. The court in the Hague should be involved.

dennys breakfast

just check out the grease, it has 3 types of cheese and mayonaise…. as well as bacon and ham…delicious

I will be mainly in the heart transplant ward for the next few years having my pipes dyno roded.

Review – Fox Horizon SFD rods

Well some of you may know that I was unhappy with my rods, don’t get me wrong they were fine rods but 2 3/4 lb tc middle / tip action rods were not actually cutting it where I was fishing. I have lightweight rods in my stalking kit so I decided that to go with my new Fox 12k reels ( well not so new now) what better than a set of Fox rods. I had the advantage of a “try before you buy” when I met up with Mark for a quick session earlier in the year and I was very impressed. So armed with this knowledge I bought myself a 3 some of rods off of the Internet.

When the rods arrived it was like Xmas and I couldn’t wait to get on the bank with them, I popped out to Bosbaan for a quick session in August. Well I was noting but impressed. As you can not loose feed in the lake I tend to fish with largish PVA bags or sticks. This used to present an issue to my previous rods as they lacked the backbone to really punch out a 3 Oz lead and bag. Not so with the Fox rods, they load up nice and slow and release all that power exactly where you want them. Some of the casts in the lake are 85-90 yards and with a big bag it is a difficult cast. Sure, anyone can punch a single hook bait out to 150 yards but add a bag and you really sort out the pack. Continue reading “Review – Fox Horizon SFD rods”

Zandering in the Rain

As we only had 1 day and as Bosbaan’s lines were still in myself and Marcel decided to go out Pike fishing. It had been good weather all week so we decided that Sunday had to be good.  Err welllllll, it rained. It raid a lot. It rained so hard I thought we were going to have to build an ark. I had to bail the boat out 3 times else I would have been sitting in 3 inches of water, and, as I write this post it is still raining.

Due to the inclement weather fishing was tough going, we needed a huge drogue just to stay vaguely on track in the water and with the wind turning the rain into horizontal bullets, our hears were not in it. Just after 2pm we decided to go and fish on the other side of the Nieuwe Meer Sluis, so with heavy hearts we moved on knowing that apart from jack pike there was not the chance of a good fish.

How wrong could I be ? with in 20 mins of starting fishing Marcel proclaimed to have missed a bite and the next cast this was his prize.

DPP_00066Not a bad Zander all things considering and a welcome end to the day. Hopefully next time we will be more mindful of the weather as there is no shelter on a boat when the weather turns like that.

Fox Coretex Review

Over the years I have been through the whole range of material to make hook links from. When I started carping on the distant past we used mono and then quickly progressed to black Dacron which as I was fishing a clay pit must have really stood out against the bottom. Strange that in the 20 odd years since I started carp fishing that we have effectively gone back to mono with the surge in the usage of flurocarbon ( for which I myself am guilty). Anyway recently after having issues with other hook link materials from another manufacturer a friend suggested that I try cortex. I dutifully bought a spool from my local tackle shop and had a play.

beginners013

As you can see it comes on a rather handy spool that is comprised of 2 plastic halves. This has the effect of sandwiching the cortex as it comes off the spool making over runs a thing of the past. On the rear of the spool ( not shown above)  there is a cut out that allows you to see how much of the product remains on the spool, handy to check before a foray to  the tackle shop. Continue reading “Fox Coretex Review”