I had to sort some angling Magazines this morning and one was folded open. I was a article by Martin Gay on the use of sweet corn for Tench fishing. Quote: A lot of anglers have lost there way over the last few years, and their headlong dash for more and more fish is causing headaches for those that steered clear of many of the tactical, so called advances. You only advance to a mutual benefit of all, and it is my opinion that bolt rigs, hair rigs, frightners ect., notwithstanding initial euphoria, have no place in Tench fishing. There are ways around all angling problems, but they will not be solved by greed and easy ways out. How many angling writers would put that in a article today I wonder.
A extract from Coarse Angler August 85
- Thread starter tiinker
- Start date
sagalout
Well-known member
What was/is perceived as a problem with these?
Apart from my missus, whats that then?
barbelboi
Well-known member
Originally Posted by tiinker View Post
frightners
Is it a bite alarm? - they scare the sh1t out of me when used by some....
PS I believe it's anti tangle tubing, or similar, that was used on the hook length to stop carp taking the line so far down that is was being snapped by their pyaryngeal teeth.
frightners
Is it a bite alarm? - they scare the sh1t out of me when used by some....
PS I believe it's anti tangle tubing, or similar, that was used on the hook length to stop carp taking the line so far down that is was being snapped by their pyaryngeal teeth.
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Frightners were pointed objects put in baits to make them bolt needles cocktail sticks that kind of th
ing. Also called the bristle-rig as useual it started off using a plastic bristle and it got replaced by needles ect.
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cg74
Well-known member
I reckon plenty would still write it, if that's what they believed. Though they may have toned it down a little, as it's only an opinion and one with very little substance to support it with.
My opinion of the quote is that it's just a load of sanctimonious pomp, written by a man trying to enforce his ideals on others.....
Besides the test of time has proven his thoughts to be unfounded.
Most of biggest tench have been caught on a bunch of red worms, mounted directly on the hook and a fair number have come from waters where the vast majority of anglers use hair-rigs etc
barbelboi
Well-known member
Re: 'frightener' - found it, page 186 1st answer..............
The Beekay Guide to Carp Rigs - Kevin Maddocks - Google Books
The Beekay Guide to Carp Rigs - Kevin Maddocks - Google Books
sagalout
Well-known member
Nasty!
Cheers for that Barbelboi, I have never heard of carp biting through the line before.
flightliner
Well-known member
Bite offs-- just a thought but which carp anglers had the highest incidence of it happening--- guys on their rods or guys in their sleeping bags?.
barbelboi
Well-known member
That's an interesting topic flight. TBO I fished for quite large carp from the late 50's/60's and can't remember it happening to me (although we did tend to stay awake then) - maybe I didn't get enough bites..
Looking back though we did tend to use somewhat longer hook lengths in years gone by than is usual for today so it was probably more probable.... (if that makes sense)
flightliner
Well-known member
Bbb, It never happened to me either! I did tho hear of it happening to others. To be honest I used to think it was an excuse (rightly or wrongly) by some to explain a blank day as I tended to think that fish would have a hard job biting thro a mono or braid. Predators would be an exception but that would like as not be cut offs from front teeth in the main.
cg74
Well-known member
I can't get my head around this; a big carp's pharyngeal teeth must be 5"+ from its lips, so to bite a 10-12" hooklink in half the lead would have to be next too, or just inside its lips.
So a shorter hook length can't be bitten in half, can it?
Unless I'm missing something; the figures don't stack up.
Oh, and it's never happened to me, even though I'm a happy camper.
So a shorter hook length can't be bitten in half, can it?
Unless I'm missing something; the figures don't stack up.
Oh, and it's never happened to me, even though I'm a happy camper.
Phil Adams
Well-known member
[QUOTE
My opinion of the quote is that it's just a load of sanctimonious pomp, written by a man trying to enforce his ideals on others.....
[/QUOTE]
You took the words right out of my mouth, then made them "acceptable".
My opinion of the quote is that it's just a load of sanctimonious pomp, written by a man trying to enforce his ideals on others.....
[/QUOTE]
You took the words right out of my mouth, then made them "acceptable".
geoffmaynard
Content Editor
You took the words right out of my mouth, then made them "acceptable".[/QUOTE]
Disagree. MG was one of the best anglers of his, or any, day. Rather than force his methods on others, he was refusing to have fashion dictate to him which methods to use. He enjoyed the ambience and ethos of traditional angling and thought the modern camping methods and self-hooking rigs detracted from the enjoyment of angling. At the time I disagreed with him, me being a full-on carper at the time. Today I think he had it right. Mind you he had an advantage over most of us, being someone who could catch a fish in a bucket of dirty water...
terry m
Well-known member
Gay was indeed a talented angler, though I disagree with his theory on this one.
flightliner
Well-known member
Wasnt he the guy who had a humongous carp that was the centre of controversy some years ago,-- ?
What was it all about?.
cq74-- and your a happy camper--
GM-- no water neede if the angler has the GB factor.
What was it all about?.
cq74-- and your a happy camper--
GM-- no water neede if the angler has the GB factor.
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Wasnt he the guy who had a humongous carp that was the centre of controversy some years ago,-- ?
What was it all about?.
cq74-- and your a happy camper--
GM-- no water neede if the angler has the GB factor.
He had many very big fish across the board and yes he did attract a lot of attention at times unfairly so I thought.
I,ve heard of bite offs from chub but never from carp.i,ve watched videos of feeding carp and when a carp sucks in a hair rigged boilie the hook follows and hooks the carp, the hook and line whether it be mono or braid dos,nt get any where near the throat teeth, so in practice the hair rig eliminates deep hooking and bite offs. I,ve carp fished for 20 years or more and I can honestly say I have never been bitten off.
laguna
Well-known member
MG was a prolific fish catcher of that you can be sure, a traditionalist with an opinion too but to be honest I never understood his way of thinking. Fred Wilton's early experiments with boilies for example meant that a large bait with a hard outer skin, meant that other species such as tench and bream were less able to consume then yet what did Martin do? He stuck a massive boilie directly on the hook without a hair for tench and caught! I wonder if the tench just had to "have it" (the HNV food source) or was he making a point to Fred about resisting the advancements of the nutritional value of the boilie invention, hair rig, or both?
This is from the same article. When in 1976 I went back to Tench fishing with a more serious intent. The sweetcorn thing was starting to emerge as carp anglers became a little more open with their findings. So it was that I started what turned out to be seven years of frantic tench fishing on a series of three pits. Sweetcorning initially, but latter developing the HNV approach with Fred Wilton and several other mates.
laguna
Well-known member
Although tench readily inhale large baits intended for carp, smaller baits that mimic their natural food can often yield more bites. Crunchy little casters are unbeatable tench tucker, as is hemp. They're also complete suckers for sweet corn, worm and maple peas but massive 25mm boilies?
I can understand why Martin didn't hair rig his bait, it was originally designed in the 70's purely for carp as it was believed years ago but so was the boilie so why he used them to catch tench instead of sticking to his usual sweet corn I do not know, unless of course it was the ingredients used in the HNV bait that singled them out?
So how would you present to a tinker tiinker, would you ever consider a large boilie?
I can understand why Martin didn't hair rig his bait, it was originally designed in the 70's purely for carp as it was believed years ago but so was the boilie so why he used them to catch tench instead of sticking to his usual sweet corn I do not know, unless of course it was the ingredients used in the HNV bait that singled them out?
So how would you present to a tinker tiinker, would you ever consider a large boilie?