Assistance required please.

Hi all
I have recently returned to fishing as a hobby after a 25 year break. :-(
I have now retired and am raring to go. I have loads of tackle from the old
days which I feel is a bit outdated nowadays, so I went out and purchased a
complete carp set-up from my local angling centre at an enormous cost. (I
could of bought a complete set-up in 1975 for what I paid for the reel alone
:-))
OK, now to the point, The set-up consisted of a huge array of specialist
tackle for the carp, most of which I can understand its function. But the
few things that have me stumped are,
1 - a plastic bag full of various sized polystyrene balls.
2 - A square type thing that has small herring bone like plastic parts,
(sort of like what you get in an airfix model) some are sort of V shaped and
the rest are like a 2" long stick with small indentations on them, it
appears that you take these of the square frame when needed.
can anyone explain what these items are for.
I managed to discover that the crochet needle was simply not to past the
time by doing some sort of needle-work, but was to assist in baiting the
rig. One last question, when you pull the hair rig through the boilie or
whatever, do you use anything to keep it on the bait, what I mean is years
ago when we put luncheon meat on a hook when river fishing for chub, we used
to insert a small piece of grass through the crook of the hook to keep the
meat in place.
I hope this makes sense to you, as it is complete nonsense to me :-))
best regards
Ray


..

"RJ" wrote in message
...
Hi all
I have recently returned to fishing as a hobby after a 25 year break. :-(
I have now retired and am raring to go. I have loads of tackle from the
old
days which I feel is a bit outdated nowadays, so I went out and purchased
a
complete carp set-up from my local angling centre at an enormous cost. (I
could of bought a complete set-up in 1975 for what I paid for the reel
alone
:-))
OK, now to the point, The set-up consisted of a huge array of specialist
tackle for the carp, most of which I can understand its function. But the
few things that have me stumped are,
1 - a plastic bag full of various sized polystyrene balls.
2 - A square type thing that has small herring bone like plastic parts,
(sort of like what you get in an airfix model) some are sort of V shaped
and
the rest are like a 2" long stick with small indentations on them, it
appears that you take these of the square frame when needed.
can anyone explain what these items are for.
I managed to discover that the crochet needle was simply not to past the
time by doing some sort of needle-work, but was to assist in baiting the
rig. One last question, when you pull the hair rig through the boilie or
whatever, do you use anything to keep it on the bait, what I mean is years
ago when we put luncheon meat on a hook when river fishing for chub, we
used
to insert a small piece of grass through the crook of the hook to keep the
meat in place.
I hope this makes sense to you, as it is complete nonsense to me :-))
best regards
Ray


.
The polly balls could be one of two things either pva balls to mask the hook
when casting through weed beds or more likely they are used for creating pop
up baits, normally found in boilies. The second part of the question you
basically answered yourself the v shaped plastic things I would imagige to
be boilie stops ie, pass them through the hair after the bait to stop the
bait from detatching from the hair like your luncheon meat. Hope that helps

marktattoo

RJ wrote:
:: Hi all
:: I have recently returned to fishing as a hobby after a 25 year
:: break. :-(
:: I have now retired and am raring to go. I have loads of tackle from
:: the old days which I feel is a bit outdated nowadays, so I went out
:: and purchased a complete carp set-up from my local angling centre at
:: an enormous cost. (I could of bought a complete set-up in 1975 for
:: what I paid for the reel alone :-))
:: OK, now to the point, The set-up consisted of a huge array of
:: specialist tackle for the carp, most of which I can understand its
:: function. But the few things that have me stumped are,
:: 1 - a plastic bag full of various sized polystyrene balls.

Drop a few into some water and see what they do - they may be PVA foam and
will melt after a short time, if they are polystryene beads, they are used
to pop up baits so that they are slightly elevated above the lake bed...PVA
foam beads do the same thing for a short while and then disappear, useful
for when the bottom is weedy.

Ray,
The poly-balls are to help `pop-up' your baits (boilies?) - the little
plastic gizmos are to keep your baits on a `hair-rig' (a bit like the
bit of grass you used to use to keep your meat in place)...

Declan

Cheers guys
Thanks for your help.
best wishes
Ray


"RJ" wrote in message
...
Hi all
I have recently returned to fishing as a hobby after a 25 year break. :-(
I have now retired and am raring to go. I have loads of tackle from the
old
days which I feel is a bit outdated nowadays, so I went out and purchased
a
complete carp set-up from my local angling centre at an enormous cost. (I
could of bought a complete set-up in 1975 for what I paid for the reel
alone
:-))
OK, now to the point, The set-up consisted of a huge array of specialist
tackle for the carp, most of which I can understand its function. But the
few things that have me stumped are,
1 - a plastic bag full of various sized polystyrene balls.
2 - A square type thing that has small herring bone like plastic parts,
(sort of like what you get in an airfix model) some are sort of V shaped
and
the rest are like a 2" long stick with small indentations on them, it
appears that you take these of the square frame when needed.
can anyone explain what these items are for.
I managed to discover that the crochet needle was simply not to past the
time by doing some sort of needle-work, but was to assist in baiting the
rig. One last question, when you pull the hair rig through the boilie or
whatever, do you use anything to keep it on the bait, what I mean is years
ago when we put luncheon meat on a hook when river fishing for chub, we
used
to insert a small piece of grass through the crook of the hook to keep the
meat in place.
I hope this makes sense to you, as it is complete nonsense to me :-))
best regards
Ray


.

I still use a piece of grass or small twig to stop my boilies / luncheon
meat / dog biscuits.....

works just fine!

SS wrote:
:: I still use a piece of grass or small twig to stop my boilies /
:: luncheon meat / dog biscuits.....
::
:: works just fine!

So do I - tackle manufacturers only 'make' stuff that has already been
thought of by actual anglers - they are simply cashing in on good ideas made
by other people.

Hi Guys (&girls/ladies)
Sorry about the short post to say thank you, I was in a bit of a rush, so
anyway, thanks to all that helped me on my posting.
Well! I took to the waters for the first time in over 25 years yesterday,
and I was amazed at how things have changed, all these high protein baits
for carp are very sophisticated indeed and the tackle has changed a great
deal. I took my pair of carp rods out of the bags and thought "this is a
bloody beach-caster, the fool in the tackle shop sold me the wrong gear" But
hey, aren't they light, and very good action on them, certainly a lot easier
these newer carbon fibre than my trusty old solid fibre-glass rod. Made my
tried and tested split cane look like something out of the museum. :-))
I didn't do too bad at all considering my long gap since my last outing. I
caught a good bag of roach all in the 8oz to 20oz bracket, the best being
19oz-8grm, I used my good old 13' match rod for those along with my equally
old Mitchell Garcia match reel.
Then I tried for carp on my new gear, I was soon into a 11lb mirror using
simple floating bread on the surface. Hey, I thought "this is great" I had a
couple of smaller ones under 8lb so not too bad for my first venue
(Cefn-Mably lakes South Wales)
I thought if I may, mention what I used to use for carp-fishing 40 years ago
as the baits nowadays have changed dramatically and in my opinion, are a
little expensive although they are very good.
One trick I used to use for carp was to make the usual ball of bread for the
ledger, but first flatten the bread in the palm of your hand, moisten it
slightly and sprinkle either sugar or a bit of the herb (basil) onto the
bread then make up the bread in the usual fashion. Worked very well and I
would expect the carp haven't come across that one recently. Another
brilliant bait in those days was a simple single "Sugar-Puff", we used to
pull the hook & line right through the s/puff leaving the hook about half an
inch in front of it. we never had hair-rigs in those days :-) If I recall th
e old carp had a very sweet tooth so to speak and sugar etc was used quite a
lot. As you know these species like natural baits so a great deal of the old
kitchen spices were used in the bread-balls for the ledger, they were/are
easily obtainable and cheap enough, and omit quite a strong smell to attract
the buggers.
I thought I would mention these old baits as from my experience the carp do
tend to get a bit lethargic in the summer and also tend to get a bit wary of
the same type of bait if used to often.
Oh! before I go, one last good old tried and tested method was to fill your
swim feeder with sage and onion stuffing, put in about 6 maggots as well to
help the stuffing break up when in the feeder, on your hook put luncheon
meat/sweetcorn or whatever, used to do well with that. don't forget NOT to
cook the stuffing mix though, just mix it up fairly thickly at home with
boiling water let it cool and stick it in a bait box or something.
OK, that's me finished Sorry if I bored anyone.
good-luck
regards
Ray

"RJ" wrote in message
...
Cheers guys
Thanks for your help.
best wishes
Ray