PB Products

So I placed an order with PB Products the other day because as I was going through my rig box I noticed I needed a few things and thought it was time to check them out after hearing some very good reviews.

I decided on several products and filled in my order online and paid with Paypal making my payment fast and free postage! Bonus! So a few days later a small packet lands on the door mat and at first I thought it was something else that I had ordered the wife for Xmas but opened it to find my PB products (nice pun eh?) very fast delivery so first tick in the box.

I spread my bits out on the desk and had a look at all my goodies! First thing I checked out was the Armabraid. Wow, just wow! Super supple, silky soft and a lovely deep green flecked with a soft clay color  I tied it to some swivels using a few knots, Bloodknot, Grinner etc and the material bedded down extremely well with all of them. I tied some to a stiff rig material with an Albright knot and again it bedded down perfectly.  I took a Super Strong hook, which I will get on to next, out of its packet and tied a simple knot to knot and KD rig. I found the knot smooth and it gripped the hook super tight. So Armabraid, one word, sublime.

Armabraid...excellent stuff.

As mentioned I bought a packet of Super Strong hooks along with one packet of the Chod hooks, both in size 8. The first thing I have to say is how surprised I was at how light the hooks are. We might not really notice it when we are not looking for it but I compared a Chod with another company’s pattern and the PB hook just felt lighter. Its coating made me take notice too being a satin black finish which will blend in with most lake beds with ease. I took several hooks out of their packets and tested them for sharpness on my thumb nail. Every single hook grabbed my nail and was super sharp, perfect. Both pattern of hooks has impressed me and can be used with every rig I use, KD, Multi-Rig and Mulit-Chod, good times.

Chod Hook

Super Strong Hook

I also bought some Chod Speed Swivels and Hair Stops. The swivels are very smooth and the coating again is a satin black that doesn’t rub of at the merest touch like other swivels I have used before do. The hair stops are made from a firm plastic in a dull green colour that blends well even with fluro red boilies! 

They also don’t skimp on the amount per packet!

Hair Stops

So all in all I must say I am very impressed with what I have seen so far with PB Products. If the rest of the range is as well manufactured and packaged like this lot then I think the top tackle companies might need to watch out. I’m looking forward to seeing how this relatively small company grow over the next few years!

Chod Swivel

Thank you to Steve Carrie from PB who has kindly let me use product pictures, my camera is down at the moment. 

Matt.

Saturday Rig Special

Hey folks its Donk here, welcome to my Saturday rig special.

So I ran out of my stiff rig material the other day and purchased some Korda Mouth Trap and had a play with a rig I have been working on over the past few months. It's my take on the Chod-rig and has an element of a Multi-rig in there as well. I call it the Multi-Chod. And here is how I tie it. After this I will explain why I use it and what advantages I think it has over the standard Choddy.

You will need these bits to make this rig.

So first of we need our rigs bits. As stated I have the Korda Mouth Trap in 15lb breaking strain. And I will be using a size 8 Choddy hook and a micro hook swivel but you can use a rig ring if you would prefer. I like the extra movement that the micro swivel gives over a rig ring. A super buoyant hook bait, in this case I am using a DNA Baits fruity pop up Jase was kind enough to give me last time I was there, these will be available soon and smell the nuts! Love them! 

Overhand loop

So first off we take a length of our stiff material and tie an overhand loop in it just over the length of our hook.

Curve it!

Now is a good time to put a curve in the material, you can do this by hand or steam.

Micro swivel

Thread the material through the front of the eye and slide on your rig swivel or ring and pass the hook through the loop creating in effect a Multi-rig.

Two turn blood knot

I have decided to tie on a large ring swivel now with a two turn blood knot.

Trim and blob

Trim the tag end after pulling the knot down carefully and blob the end down. Now if needs be re-curve the material using your desired method.

Tie on the bait

Tie on your chosen pop up. Here I have threaded some bait floss through my micro swivel and pulled it through my pop up, pulling the swivel into the bait and then tying it off with a boilie stop.

Short aggressive D or........

 The hook should sit fairly tight on the material allowing you to set the angle the hook and bait will sit at. So you can have a short D giving you an ultra aggressive hook or have it a more open and longer D which adds great blow back properties to the rig. All that is left to do now is to balance the bait with putty on the swivel. The swivels allow the hook to flip around super fast and all the hook holds I've had have been great.

............blow back.

So why would I use this over the standard Chod-rig? I'm pretty sure you can see the benefits  how many times have you have to remove a leader or strip down a Choddy after checking the hook point and finding it blunt? I've lost count but now I don't have to, I can change the hook and bait in seconds and as we all know in this game those seconds can be crucial in getting back on the fish before they move on. I have also used this combi-rig style with a length of coated braid tied to the ring with a double over hand loop knot. 

So anyway that's my Multi-Chod. 

And another blog for the Hobos so hopefully we will see you out on the bank soon.

The Hobo CarperS

So one of the things that triggered me to start writing this blog was after I got talking to a young angler at the UK Carp Cup eliminator at Poolbridge Farm in York, Kieran Mcdonnell. I had spoke to the lad via the internet before through Welham Lakes Forum and was really impressed with his attitude and passion for the sport.

Well after spending some time with him and getting to know the lad a bit more his passion rubbed off on me and that, combined with my love of writing, sparked the Hobo Carper. So it is only fitting that I have invited him to contribute towards the blog and it will be renamed to the Hobo Carpers.

Like me his swim was a bomb site last time I saw it, so I think the name is apt for both of us!

PVA Bag Work

I am a huge fan of PVA bags. A small, attractive pile of freebies with a rig nestled in among it. Ready to fool an unsuspecting carp (or bream or tench) in to picking up a hook bait.

My PVA set up consists of a mixture of products that I find work very well together. I use the Avid carp bag loader with Korda and Avid bags, I love that the small loader fits the Korda XS bags perfectly. I don't tend to use large bags so this set up is perfect for me. I couple this with the Korda kwik melt tape, Avid carp bag leads in size 1.5oz and a Nash diffusion leader. For my hook link I use a soft braid, Supernatural, and have it approx 3 inches long. Sometimes shorter.

Hook baits. The sky is literally the limit with hook baits inside a PVA bag, you can use pop ups, wafters, bottom baits, critically balanced baits, fake baits, the list is endless! As long as it doesn't melt the PVA and fits inside the bag nicely then you can use anything.

I prefer to use a wafter for the majority of my bag work but will use a pop up sometimes if I want the bait to stand higher. If I am using a pop up I like to use a small multi-rig, I have the loop just big enough to pass a hook through and balance the bait as much as I possibly can. For my wafters I use a good old KD rig with a small shot on the hair just to balance out my wafters if they need it.

My bag mix is a right old mix of odds n sods. Below is a video to accompany this blog and you'll be able to get a visual of it all. The basis of my bag mix is the stick mixes from DNA, the NuttaS and S7 mixed and then added to this are left over boilies which I have crumbed down quite fine with a Krusher, I have used pretty much every bait in the DNA stable and all of these have found their way into my 'bag' bucket. I have added hemp oil, molasses, krill hydro-state and sunflower oil to the mix in small doses and this has helped preserve the boilie crumb as well as giving it a slightly damn feel which helps it explode from the bag.

I tie my bags as tight as I possibly can, no matter on the distance I am fishing as I feel the bag breaks up better with it being as tight as it can be. On the video you will see that there is still air trapped in the bag no matter how tight I get it. But ensuring there are several small holes in the bag, I use an old baiting needle, the air can escape quickly and help the bag break down. Once the outer shell has melted the bag contents literally explodes and spreads out letting the hook bait sit proud.

So that's it for my little blog for today, I hope you enjoyed it and please feel free to share it with others. Please check out the video below.

Little Day Session

I had a cracking few hours after work on Friday. My traveling light approach defiantly paid off as I was able to move into a swim and get on the fish with in minutes of seeing a fish crash out. This lead to 4 takes and 3 fish on the bank. On a day when the two other anglers fishing the lake (who I might add brought everything for a night session and more for the four hours they were on the bank) blanked.

Now I too would have suffered the same fate if I hadn't made the move and got on the fish so did having less equal gaining more? I think so.

Winter Is Coming! Scaling Down!

So like the title says winter is well and truly on it's way. Winds and rain and even a light snow shower the other day. So while a lot of anglers will be hanging up the holdalls and sticks there will still be a few of us on the bank.

I personally will be fishing as much as I can but unfortunately for me it is days only sessions this winter (Maybe sneak out for a few nights but not many). This is due to many things but work being the main one. As we are trying to save for a house deposit (which is a nightmare!) I will have to take as much over time as I possibly can and this means less fishing time. Also this time of year my online game usually delivers it's latest expansion pack and this year is no exception (I know, I'm quite sad but we all have our vices!)

So as a days only winter I feel that I need to make the most of my time on the bank and this means a scale down is in order. The following photo is of my normal over night gear (Minus rod holdall and sleeping bag)

Overnighter gear

This will be shortened considerably now with the steps I have taken, and this photo is my normal day session gear. The holdall has everything in it imaginable and weighs a tonne so I decided that now was the time to declutter and scale down.

Day session gear minus rod bag

Masses of leads and other bits

Full of gear we never use, right?

The ever faithful hundred pots of pop ups!!

Buzz bars, spare sticks, alarms and indicators.

So the start of the scaling down began with purchasing a bucket bag. I got a Trakker one and it's great! It takes a 10ltr bucket and has a cushioned lid which can be used as a seat, so out with the day chair! Next the pop ups where attacked! I love the corker wafters as well as the PB and malty milks so a few tubs of those and a mixture of other pop ups in a pot will cover pretty much every situation I should come across. These now live inside the bucket along with a selection of pellets and some liquid additives.

Smaller selection of hook baits and liquids

The new home of the hook baits and catty! 

So I looked in the holdall and decided my PVA products could live inside an old bait box that was in the bottom of the holdall. This fitted nicely inside my PVA bag mix bucket. Excellent. 

My PVA products now live inside a small bait box in my bag mix bucket. 

So looking at my bank stick pocket I picked up my usual set up and now decided that will live in my un-hooking mat. I know what you maybe thinking, damage to the alarms, but the next purchase will be some cases for them and they should be protected enough.

PVA Bucket and sticks now live in my un-hooking mat.

So going through my other pockets in the hold all I found my scales, carp meds and rig bits tray fit perfectly inside the two small pockets on the bucket bag, good times. 

Scales, Meds and rig box.

With my bucket bag I also bought a small bits bag. Again this fits perfect in the bucket bags front pouch and stores everything you could need for a session, long or short.

All tucked up nicely

In here we have bait floss, hooklink material, scissors, forceps, marker elastic, putty, a selection of leads and leaders, hooks a lighter and some small shot, oh and a touch for those walks back to the car in darkness.

Bits and bobs.

So all in all it fits together quite nicely. My weight is greatly reduced now which means if the fish move I can super quick. I don't have to worry about a barrow or having too much gear. By holdall lives in the car which will 99% of the time be a short walk away so anything forgotten or a change needed then I can get it quite easily.

The essentials and easy to transport

Well thats about it. Add a thermos flask and some sandwiches and boom, day session carping just became simple again. My rig wallet will come with me as tying rigs with cold fingers is not something to cherish.

The finished article, compact, light and essential. 

So thats about it for this blog. I'm just waiting for my new rods now and then my next session will reflect on if this has been worth it all, I have a feeling it will be. Till next time folks.