Sneak of the week

[Straight Shooter]

When I was a lad, old jim took me to Brecon .....fishing...... tickling .....first he cut a nut tree branch....the shape was a Y ......then by the riverbank led down .....put his arm in close under the bank....after few mins flicked out a trout onto the bank ....then fed the trout onto the nut stick through the gills out the mouth......go on have a go! .......when you feel one gentley stroke the belly .....then when its all calm flick it onto to bank.....down I go..........feeling under the bank....bloody hell jim I feel one.....shhhhhhhh he said ....ok when your ready son.......I flick it out......and shit myself .....its an eeeeeeeellllllllllllllll shouts jim laughing his head off......well done lad well done.

[Mortblanc]

[Lightspeed]

12lb line might not be too heavy in the US Mort, but I can tell you for a fact that it is too heavy for our freshwater fish, no freshwater fisherman in the UK would consider using 12lb line for Roach, Perch, or Bream, such line is used for Pike etc. 12lb line would be considered too heavy for our freshwater species. Scythe the line will cut you if not respected, but it's just a matter of "watching" yourself and being careful.

TH as you said at the outset, its not about sport its about survival.... 8lb and 10lb line in freshwater works fine, and overcomes snags that would break lighter lines.

For more shy small fish, lighter leader to the hook is the way to go.

[Tartar Horde]

If I used 8-10lb line for Perch, Roach etc my catch rate would fall quite sharply as the line is too heavy, even if I use 3lb hook length. the heavier line is simply too visable in clearer waters. 8-10lbs line would be used for larger species like Carp, Tench and Bream. I sometimes fish with 3lb mainline and a 1lb hook length size 20-22. Using such fine line enables me to catch a lot of "whitebait" sized fish.

[Jace]

Was out for a late night stroll last week and saw a bloke on the edge of our local river with some type of small net, basically just chucking it in water about 2 meters in, then hauling it out a few minutes later. I watched him for about 15 minutes, in which time he must've caught at least 20 fish. None of them was very big, but would have provided a meal for two for very little time or effort.

Meanwhile, a couple of hundred meters downstream, there were a couple of dozen anglers with all the rods, lights, bait, hooks etc that you could poke a stick at, yet none of them had caught anything in the hour or so that passed from when I first passed them.

[bigpaul]

fishing with a road and line is very time consuming and many times you come away with nothing....and I'm talking from experience! if you want a feed your better off with a net or some form of trap.

[Grumpy Grandpa]

that is called noodling over here.

In Scotland (don't know about the rest of the UK,) we call it 'guddling'...

[Mortblanc]

[CharlesHarris]

The military speedhook is so effective, that it is illegal for sport fishing here, but I can tell you that with six feet of stainless steel leader and attached to to 20-lb. test braided nylon it works excellently on 10kg snapping turtles and large water moccasins! Just the thing for culling the undesirables from your pond!

[Tartar Horde]

Mort, the fish absolutely know what fishing line is, and that there is an association between that and getting caught.
The thing you need to appreciate is that nearly all our fish are thrown back and not eaten. Over the years they become accustomed to fishing and so become "hook shy" this is why I need to use fine line tactics to overcome their suspicions. If there are any Carp anglers on this forum they will confirm to you that fish do very much notice line, and certainly notice the angler if water conditions are clear enough.
The reason you stateside can use a more agrarian approach is that the first time a fish sees a hook in the US, is its last, they simply don't get used to being fished, and never live to learn from their mistake.