Weed Effect uses

The Weed Effect gear has been a revelation since it came on to the scene and it's helped me to put a few extra fish on the bank for sure. But what has really got me excited about this stuff are the different uses it has and the situations where it's helped for reasons that weren't obvious to start with.

It was back at Cassien in the summer when I realised that although the obvious use for the Weed  Effect gear is to help camouflage everything, that certainly wasn't the only use. Back then I was using it in very clear water in areas which had no weed, but I was catching plenty of fish and it was obvious that although the Weed Effect gear was easy enough for me to see, the fish didn't connect it with anything dangerous.

But more recently I was across in France fishing a fairly shallow lake which is also very silty. The problem has always been one of presentation and casting out at any range with a heavy lead would invariably bury everything with the force with which it was landing. The Weed Effect gear helped in two different ways; firstly I noticed a while back that the leader material slows down the drop to the bottom considerably, almost like a parachute effect which definitely helped to stop the rig sinking in to the silt. But secondly the Weed Effect leads dont bury in to the soft silt anywhere near as much, instead they plug in almost on the surface but at the same time they are harder to dislodge. So not only is the presentation far better but so is the hooking potential when the fish picks up the bait and moves off. So there's a lot more to the Weed Effect gear than just camouflage!
cheers Briggsy..............

Club Mix continues to catch em’!

I know I’ve gone on about The Club Mix quite a bit this last year in UK magazines, but I really can’t speak enough about it. It just keeps on working wherever I take it, the big fish really taking a liking to it. My latest biggie isn’t a monster by national standards, but it’s from a lake that’s very well stocked for its size, yet the Clubs still managed to single out one of the better fish on my first ever trip there.

I had a two-day trip planned for CEMEX Angling’s Chigborough Lake in Essex as part of a slot for Rob Hughes’s Extreme Carp Show which is to be aired on Sky Sports in the New Year. I knew virtually nothing about the lake other than what the bailiffs had told me, and settled into a swim known as Bailiffs Corner. It was a lovely swim with lots of overhanging bushes in a bay to the right and a nice gravel bar in front at 30 yards which stretched from the corner of an island to the right-hand bank.

Being a two-rod water, I put the left-hander off the gravel near the island over a handful of 20mm Clubs, with the right-hander going towards the overhangs on the same tactic. Almost immediately I was into a low-double mirror from the right, followed by a low-twenty on the left. The action was fantastic during the night, slowing down once day broke the next day. I’d landed five nice fish to low-20s. Nothing happened until dusk the next day when the action kicked off again. Each rod would go with some really hard fighting fish, and then at 8pm I struck into one I knew straight away was a decent lump. It kited to the right along the bar and then plodded its way towards me. It put up a great scrap in front of the cameras, and when it surfaced in front of the net I knew it was a decent kipper.

On the scales it went 32lb 8oz, a big mirror known as Two Scale. For my first ever time on the lake it certainly made me smile and just goes to show that Club Mix can produce the biggies without any pre-baiting whatsoever. It’s an awesome bait and has accounted for some great fish to myself this year, and like the rest of you I’m not out on the bank 24/7. I’ve a busy lifestyle, dashing here there and everywhere. To know there’s a bait around that can produce the goods without any previous introduction gives me masses of confidence every time I’m out there doing it.

The success of this bait globally is second to none, whether it’s monsters from Rainbow or biggies from your local lakes.

Crowy