Thanks for the response so far, gents. It seems that everyone has their own way of doing things, all of which are right for the individual and conditions.
Nicky and Daji.
You both appear confident that you can unclip in time if you need to; I'm not nearly so dexterous (cack-handed, in fact!)
Lord Paul and The Blanker.
The method I settled on was intended to avoid having to unclip and re-clip each time. Because of family commitments I'm limited to relatively short sessions, so I want to maximise the time spent with a bait in the water. (OK; I admit it, it's just laziness!)
Jim.
Most of my fishing's currently on small stillwaters (maximum 4 to 5 acres) with a reasonable head of fish, but not heavily stocked like the pack-'em-in style commercial venues.
A couple hold hefty carp and occasionally I'll set my stall out for them, but most of the time I'll fish in a more general way, but with the emphasis on bigger fish.
I have an awesome track record for losing big fish, clumsy git that I am, and clipping up seemed like just another way to improve on that tally which is why I spent years avoiding it, irrational though it sounds.
Now that it's a regular feature of my fishing, not only have catch rates improved, but so has consistency.
The longest chuck needed is about 60 to 70yds, and at that range the effect you describe is obvious, but I'd always put it down to extra stretch due to having so much more line out. Whatever the cause, by the time you feel the full weight of the fish there's usually a fair few turns of line back on the reel and the chances of a fish taking you back out to the clip have been much reduced.
Closer in - on my fave water there are a couple of really productive small patches of silt at about 20yds - with the more direct contact, fish fizz off with gusto and almost always unclip me, the clipped stop knot does it's job really well and the pitfalls I was so afraid of are avoided completely.
It works, so I've stuck with it. I'm pretty sure that the more direct contact close in means that the fish feels the full pressure of the rod almost immediately, hence the mad dash for freedom.
The Wychwood Solace reels. To a large extent, I'm pleased with them. They have a reassuringly solid, unburstable feel. Both drags are lovely and smooth, with a wide range of adjustment. Casting, due to the sensibly large (but not huge) spools and excellent line lay is as good as you would expect, although one reel had to be changed because of poor distribution - the line coned towards the back of the spool - but it's replacement is fine.
The ACS clip works as it should - once I realised that the spool should be rotated before casting so that the clip faces downwards - so no problems there.
The only bugbear (and it may be a personal thing) is that the gearing feels a little high. When you first start the retrieve it's like setting off on a push bike stuck in tenth gear. I'm a fan of double handles, so that's what's on the reels, and get the feeling that they should have been a bit longer. However, the solution may have been staring me in the face. It's possible that the single handles
are a bit longer, which may ameliorate the problem once I get round to digging them out of the loft.
I shall let you know in due course.
Edit - I don't know if you're aware, but the lower half of the ACS clip functions as a normal line clip, so if you can't get along with the ACS system it ain't a major problem.