Snags Tackle Blog

I am gonna run through some bits that are quite basic but useful for people who are just starting to night fish.

There are a few vital bits of kit that I take with me for a session and it tends to vary on the type of fishing that I am doing, so for example I take far less gear with me than if I was going for a week session somewhere.

My basic kit consists of Rods, Reels, Landing Net, Banksticks, Bite Alarms, Unhooking mat, scales, sling, tackle, bait and camera. These are the items that I take no matter how long I am going for or where I am going.

Just to run you through these basic items and give you a bit more information on why I use them: -

Rods: - Currently I use Wychwood Rage 2 3/4lb TC Rods, they are quite a nice thin blank with ali-oxide rings with quite a soft through action. A large majority of my fishing is done to a maximum of 60 yards range. These rods allow me to get a bag out to the distance but are soft enough to allow for sudden lunges during the fight. I am currently looking into upgrading these to something a bit more substantial for long distance work as I am moving into waters that require casting bait accurately up to 120 yards. Combined with a good technique it is best to have a fast tapered rod which is a bit stiffer in the action. The reason that this is important is due to the way the rod returns to being straight after the compression of the cast, basically when you cast the rod tip bounces back and forward until it returns straight allowing the line to pass through the rings more efficiently. Depending on how quickly this happens depends on the taper rating on the rod, the faster the better. I am thinking about the Fox Warrior Elite 3 1/4lb TC rods, it is an awesome casting tool with a massive 50mm Butt ring allowing smooth and effective line movement on cast, which in conjuction with technique and the fast tapering means that it ticks all the boxes at a good price.

Reels: - For most of my fishing I use the Daiwa Emcast Evo 5000 reels which are a big pit reel with front drag. It is in all sense of the words a budget big pit reel and is quite a popular choice. Personally I was looking for an upgrade to the Baitrunners that I used for years without a great deal of issue. The only reason that they were upgraded was due to a large amount of spodding and fishing to snags. When Spodding you get yourself into a good rhythm and when doing it with a bait-runner it tends to be quite an effort because of the short gear ration and small spool. With a large return for every wind of the reel it makes more sense to use a big pit reel for the job. When fishing to snags it is a similar scenario, whenever you fish to a snag you need to get the fish away from the snags as quickly as possible and with a big pit reel it can be as much as a metre in a couple of winds. That metre could easily be the difference between the fish of a lifetime and the one that got away.

Landing net: - I use a 42” JRC X-Lite specialist for all of my fishing. It is a very light three piece net with a fine micromesh and a removable net piece. This allows easy removal of the pole when folding the net down for transporting a fish to the unhooking mat.

Banksticks and Bite Alarms – I generally only use two rods, I use them with solar bite indicators, 6” stalking sticks and Delkin EV Plus Bite Alarms, I like the solar bobbins as they are light enough to allow relatively slack lines without being to light when the wind is blowing a hoolie… The Delkim alarms are in my opinion the best alarms on the market, the ability to change tone, volume and sensitivity on the alarm is essential for all the different weather conditions and swim choices we have in our angling endeavours.

Unhooking mat – This is absolutely essential when carp fishing and if you are angling for carp there is NO EXCUSE not to have one with you. It really annoys me to see people like John Wilson on Go Fishing where he lays them down on the floor and then holding them up for the camera. If that fish struggles and he drops it (which he regularly seems to) then that fish is going to get harmed. We spend so long and spend so much money pursuing our dreams that we must treat them with the utmost care when you are lucky enough to have finally caught it. I personally use the Angling Intelligent mat they released last year. It is massive, I could easily use it to sleep on! The mat is full of foam and polyball and it provides ultimate fish safety while it is on the bank.

Scales – A decent set of scales is also of utmost importance, I am amazed sometimes when I hear of people who have gone to fish waters that have big fish in them only to have their scales bottomed out. I use Reuben Heaton 60lb Scales that weigh in 2oz divisions to help give the most accurate reading of your prize.

Weigh Sling – I use the Angling Intelligent Weigh sling, these boys surpassed themselves when they designed this sling.

Sacks – Essential if you are fishing by yourself on waters that allow them, if you are having photo’s of your fish then using a sack allows you to get everything together that you need for the photo’s, Unhooking mat, Camera, Weigh sling, container of water and time to choose where the photo will be taken. When you sack a fish it is so important I couldn’t stress enough always do it in the deepest water you can.

Camera – I use a Fuji S5600 Finepix Camera which is 5m Megapixel. The camera is a similar design to a Digital SLR but as it has a fixed lens and doesn’t have rapid shoot it is not classed as an SLR. However for just over 100 notes the quality is much better than any equivalent snapper camera.

Tackle – My little goody bag of stuff that I take for every session. Having a good variety is helpful if you are moving around waters all the time. After a while fishing on a water you will probably find a rig that you feel confident with and that works, most likely that rig will involve a particular hooklink material, a particular hook pattern and the bits to finish the rig.

Bait – At the moment I am lucky enough to be field testing a new bait.. Not been using it long but I like what I see so far!! Watch this space….

That covers the basics wherever I go, there are a few more bits to cover when you go night fishing but I shall move onto that in another post!

Until Then, Tight Lines.

Hi Guys and welcome to my blog… Thanks for stopping by and spending the time on the site. I am an avid angler and literally every spare minute I have is spent either talking carp or fishing for them, yeah I know that sounds a bit sad but when you have a passion for fishing and for the fish you angle for then it brings you into a realm that most “normal” (if there is such a thing) people don’t understand. The passion for the sport has been bred through years sprat bashing on my local waters learning most of the trade which is the basis of my carp fishing today.

We see a lot of people now who come straight into carp fishing who have never fished before, and it is possible, I suppose, that instant carp anglers have been misguided into the sport because of the vast array of different technological advances that has brought carp angling back down to being an affordable hobby,

The way we fish for carp now as apposed to 20 years ago is also very different, gone are the days of putting a stone on the spool and a tin can underneath it. This I think has helped grow the carp fishing communities and have made sleepless nights a thing of the past.

I started fishing when I was about 4 years old, days spent watching a very static float on my local river waiting in anticipation of the fish that lay in the depths. It feels strange to think that the dreams that I had as a child still stay with me to this day, the quality and type of fish have got bigger as the dreams have gone on but one day its possible that dream may just turn into reality.

The progression to carp fishing came for me at about the age of 12 when a group of friends invited me for a nights fishing in someone’s back garden pond. I certainly wasn’t at all equipped for night fishing at the time and spent most of the night sat up in excitement, waiting for something to happen… Then as it is now I got to morning without a thing to report. In the lake there was a little tree stump that come out of the water. I remember walking over there and putting a bit of sweetcorn on the size 4 hook I was using, I gently lowered it down and within seconds the rod bent round and I was into my first ever carp. The scrap it gave me was like nothing I had ever experienced before but was certainly something that lit a passion in my belly that still burns brightly today.

Over the years I have fished some lovely little lakes and rivers but I think where I feel most comfortable on Snake Pit in Colchester. Most of my growing up in carp fishing come through Snake. I have met a few people along the way who are now very good friends and who are also awesome anglers. I feel proud enough to have taken some photo’s of some very big fish in my time, All I need now is the opportunity to sit on the other side of the camera. So here we are you can now read my quest to be sat there holding the fish instead of being in awe taking the pics.

My current antics see me wandering around some club waters in Colchester just trying to break the new tackle curse. Ever since buying a new landing net I have seemingly suffered a curse of not being able to catch anything, and I can promise it is not through the lack of trying. Keep and eye out on the blog front and I will keep you regularly updated to when and where I have been and hopefully what I have caught.

Till then Tight Lines!

Hoops