Fishing

used a ring cutting tool to cut both ends off

Yikes. Maybe it would have been better to leave it in. Join the ends together amd it would be very useful as a key ring/hook holder.

@Tadpole lovely stuff.

@EB holy shit - all the years I fished and I never had a hook in me that deep!

I was once fishing with my dad and uncle - we walked back upstream to have lunch with my uncle and as we reached him, my dad lost his footing and ended up running, involuntarily, down the banking right towards him. This was arrested by a sizeable tree and my dad broke a rib. As he hit the tree, his leading foot swung forward and his rigger boot hit my uncle just above the kidney, breaking one of his ribs also.

I could do nothing but laugh.

Caught a 3lb Grayling that day.

Ask me why it's over 10 years since I last used barbed hooks.

In all honesty, I lose less fish on barbless than I did on barbed and the smaller hook I use, the less hook pulls I get. My go-to is now size 8 with boilies of up to 20mm and 12 or 14 with pellets, I have caught high 20s on all of these.

The only carp I can remember losing to a hook problem in the last two years was three weeks ago, predictably it felt easily mid-20s. The bloody hook partially straightend, the first time this has happened to me since the early 90s. I listened to ModernCarpAngler bullshit about super sharp hooks and tried Cryogen, they went in the bin.

I loathe the multiplicity of pointless products at stupid prices peddled by Korda, I can't stand Danny Fairbrass, BUT, I can't fault their Kurv hooks straight from the packet and only use anything else for very specific applications.

I'll definitely give barbless a go now

Took my eldest out today. We've been before a few times but they always lose interest because they hardly catch anything and miss all the bites as they're not paying attention so I've been on the lookout for a more commercial type place. Found Ivy House Lakes, near Swindon with two match lakes which looked promising but a bit of a drive.

They'd bloody caught two decent bream before I'd picked my rod up and went on to catch 18 fish over the afternoon, mostly small carp but one 9lb 5oz!
Not only did they catch the biggest fish, they caught more than me 😭

£10 for adult and child with one rod each is great value for entertaining children too.

Well done for introducing the next generation to the glorious outdoors and wrenching them away from the ubiquitous screen. They are now probably hooked (like @EB) on the most pointless money pit of a pastime known to humanity. It won't be long before 'can I have a set of Basia reels for Christmas'....

My little one can ask for Basia reels but Santa will disappoint her. She’s got my old Daiwa 1000c and she can have my GS-13 once I’ve stripped and re-greased it.

She wants to go fishing again on Friday, oh well, if we must.

pointless money pit of a pastime

This probably applies to most hobbies :D and as always more expensive kit doesn't mean a better time on the bank. We fish with rods and reels almost as old as I am, most of my gear is second hand. Of course the new shiny will always appeal! I keep telling myself I need a rod specifically for lure fishing (which I do almost never) and a nice leger rod (which to be fair I do more often) but the float rod will do an ok job for both.

Fool. Modern fish cannot be caught without the latest shiny kit as seen on YouTube. They can sense old kit at distances of up to 150 yards and will instantly reject the bait.

Welcome to Bivvycam, home of the least hygienic pan on the planet. Note the mismatched rods and reels and deeply unfashionable rod pod. No Modern fish would accept a bait from a scruffy angler with scruffier kit like this.

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....Apart from this 26 from 30 mins ago.

You should buy the leger rod, though!

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Speaking of old fishing kit, I think the most recent thing we have (me and my dad, collectively) is either a carp rod they bought me one birthday (I forget the brand/model) or a John Wilson Avon all rounder rod.

There are a couple of lovely Mitchell reels and and old ABU leger rod though.

(Wish we’d had digital cameras when I was still fishing!)

Also on the subject of old rods, i've got a really lovely little 6'10 cane rod from the 1960s that my mum's friend left me when he passed away. He taught me to fly fish with it and i caught my first trout on it age 9 or so.

I stupidly left it in the shed over the winter and the tip ring has corroded a little. All the other guides are fine, and it's probably ok for the moment but could cut up the fly line in due course. Any idea how to replace it? I know on graphite rods you just use hot melt glue but not sure what the deal is with cane?

I could tell you how I do it, which yields tidy results, but if I were you I would message @adroit who built for Hardy and is thus a demi-god.

Also on old gear, the scales (regularly checked) and landing net frame and mesh above are both from C1982 and have never let me down. I still use a pair of Mitchell 410s at times and my cane Hardy rods from 56 and 61 are in fairly regular use.

Amazing, ideal as this is an old palakona Hardy!

6'10" Palakona? Do you keep it in the same shed as your Grail, next to your paddock of Unicorns?

See you at about 3am, I'll be the one with the mask and crowbar, next to the big lads. Go on, tell me it's a 3/4 as well, I double dare you...

#5, so you can put your nocturnal outbuilding exploration gear away for the moment. Casts a #4 snowbee DT nicely though, on an equally battered old marquis reel.

edit - will take it out this weekend if i get time, so please no pinching before then.

Explored a new bit of the frome today further up from where I normally go. Really lovely but river properly on its bones.

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Took both kids back to Ivy House Lakes on the weekend. Didn't have too long as we had plans in the morning but fished the afternoon and had somewhere around 13-15 (I stopped counting at 8) carp, all on surface or slow-sinking bread. Biggest was a bit over 6lb but a good afternoon out!

Also a new species caught: Moorhen!
The bugger went for my bread so I pulled it away but it had paddled over the line, and the hook caught it's foot. Released with no harm done, thankfully.

Couple of lovely Common en vacance in Breton.

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Fished the Tyne on Friday with my old man. Unfortunately lightening didn't strike twice (see post from last year) and no fish took my fly. However I did land a 4lb Ish Grilse during a spinning break from the fly fishing to a 15g black flying C. Absolutely mullered it.

On the subject of rods, this fish was landed on a spinning rod I got for £10 on marketplace - an old filatube with spigots that casts lovely and has survived one altercation with my car boot.

Fishing the Wye next weekend too for a day.

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Any recs for good quality hooks/split rings online? And any ideas what size hook might be suitable?
Should pop to a local shop I know really.. but there aren't many near me.
Cheers

I completely forgot about this, if you haven't had any luck I can source both from my local tackle shop and mail them to you. Size of lures would help with size selection.

will PM you ta!

Took some time out of a shit personal time for me at the moment to fish the Wye. Had 3 trout. Got one euro nymphing with a diy rig which I was happy with

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After a summer of my 7 yr old merrily catching assorted tiddlers in our little pool we went again yesterday and nothing. Not even a nibble. Went back this morning and spotted a jack pike which would explain why. It appears to have been washed downstream from the weir in the rains while we were off camping for a week and hoovered everything up. She’s now determined to catch it so we’re off for a spot of spinning in the morning.