Tim Kelly

Ha ha, thanks AJ. A friend of mine, fishing not that far away had a 6lb 10oz perch the same day! Unbelievable fish.

I'm just back from a moderately expensive trip to Holland which the weather spoiled, only allowing us to fish on one day. The guy I went with bought a load of expensive lures at a Dutch tackle shop, which were half price. He was telling me all the way home how much he had saved........

You need to pinch the plastic and pull it way from the hook as you pull it over the wire keeper. Just trying to push it over as you would with a normal plastic doesn't work very well.

Longer butts help casting heavier lures as it gives you some mechanical advantage. I suppose if you swap hands to reel then the longer butt would be more awkward to pass round your body. I hold the rod with my right hand and reel with my left, so never have to do the swap hands dance. ?

I have a rays spool in a tatula CT and on the right rod it will cast 1/16 with 3/4 of a zoom tiny fluke on it reasonably accurately and far enough. It's not as easy as my alphas with cosugi spool, but then it doesn't cost anywhere near that either. The Tatula CT and 100 both take the same spool, so I would imagine it would work fine for you too. The rays spools are well worth getting if you want to cast lighter baits. Put some 10lb braid on it and it's very benign to cast.

? Watch the you tube films with Jacob Wheeler or Travis Manson using spinning gear. They really have appalling technique and look super inefficient, but they've both won a lot of money despite! ? I think learning to use spinning gear well is a much more difficult skill than using casting gear well.

It was about 70f in London today! Keep running the V8s America, loving it!

Winner.

Then you get up to make a cup of tea for you and your wife, come back with tea and find this....

There has to be something wrong with the set up or the hull. No way that's representative of the boat or the brand.

I'd definitely struggle reversing that rig down the ramp.

Klein and Duckett at the top of the leaderboard. Is Putin involved?

Just had to have a look! Doesn't even look as good as the pure poison as it just has a banded skirt rather than the strike king skirt they use on their spinnerbaits and the pure poison.

Poke a bit of heavy mono through the head, like it was going through the eyes, then run the hook behind the mono and it will help reinforce it without adding weight.

The 3" one is a tremendous finesse swimbait. The tail works at very very slow speeds, It's been one of my better finds, but they seem to be getting harder to buy.

It's the two days fishing for 20th, and the second day the guys who did well in day one barely fishing that spoils it for me. One day fishing for 20th I'd be fine with.

That sounds like a great format. I really enjoy the MLF TV shows and have subscribed from the beginning. I like the idea of the weights being wiped on the last days and a new body of water, or section. For me though, the current BPT format needs refining.

Yes, you're right, but the trouble being that the weights getting wiped after the first two days makes everything about the top places worthless and the only passing interest is who has or hasn't made the top 20. If their weights carried forward it would be interesting, as it is in the best 5 formats, but with the weights wiped, meh.

Yeah, I get that, but struggle to get excited about fishing for 20th place.

I just about ran aground there in about 3" water when I went exploring. I was amazed how little water it would float in though 6" is plenty! It's a British built hull, to an Australian design I believe. Seastrike Boats http://www.seastrikeboats.co.uk/semi-flat.html Mine is the 12ft model, because it's the largest that will fit in my 16ft garage. Swing away tongues are illegal in the EU for some reason. It fits by about 1/4" if I get the angle exactly right!

I don't know. I've followed the action for a bit the last two days, and it's nice to see people catching and the coverage is quite good, but when it's all completely meaningless I just can't really care. You're following the leaders, who will inevitably barely bother fishing on the second day because there's no need to beat their fish up as long as they get a top 20 position. What am I not getting?

Should be called the Strader and Lee show. Between the two of them they've been hogging all the action. Seems a bit of a shame that the first two days don't count for anything and the guys that have done well today won't fish hard on their second day, but I guess it's just the nature of the game.

Ah, well done! At least I only need two tabs open at the moment then, bass live and live mix! LOL. When all three are on on the same weekend I need to go fishing or else I'll drive myself mad trying to watch them all. ?

Can anyone spot the link to FLW live on the FLW site. I've just spent 10 minutes clicking round all the obscure places I could think of with no success. Surely I'm not the only one that finds their website utterly baffling as a fan.

I've been having a lot of fun in mine this year.