Just Another Blog Update - With a Belly Rub!

Dear Readers,

It's been too long since my last update. Sometimes writing is easy, sometimes it isn't. Well, just to summarize my season - it was nice. Especially as I didn't have so many nights out on the bank. My fishing notes regarding this year however were quite good considering the seasons to come. I learned a lot of new things. I even managed to pull off a 4 carp night fishing alone. Considering the low number of carp in our lakes, it's more or less an achievement here.

Hopefully you will enjoy this picture of a very concentrated belly rub!

Sometimes it's good to have a landing mat with walls. Carp can get veeery active when you don't expect it.

Some product talk here. I started using the Prologic C.O.M. pod this season. It is really nice on tight swims, and its low profile is really stealthy, so you can stay below radar on waters where you don't want to be seen. The light attached to the pod is just to humor me, and to give me an indication where the pod is (in pitch black conditions).

My current set-up (Switching hangers to Prologic Windblades for 2015)

Rod pods, tripods etc. vol 1

Hi again! It's been a while, and I am pleased to see that I have been writing this blog through the hard winter. As you probably know, winter is really a winter up here in Finland. -28 degrees Celsius is not the optimal angling temperature. I tend to start my season in April-May, so it's still a long wait until then.

I would like to comment different types of setting the rods on the bank. I started with traditional pod type, which had very little adjustment options. I soon found out that it's no good in natural terrain. I always had to search available spots for my pod. Usually it was really hard. When you had flat terrain where to put the pod onto, it was overgrown with grass, etc. And if you didn't clear the area, the grass would sway in the wind and pull the line (which in turn had the alarms beeping all the time). The good side to this type of a pod is that you can transport it almost fully assembled! It's ready to go in seconds.

Traditional rod pod with very little options for adjustment. Good for man made angling pegs, very hard to use on natural terrain.

Of course there are more advanced types of traditional pods available. They come with extending legs, adjustable buzzer bars, etc. You should be able to use this type of a pod with ease in almost every situation.

So now a few words about tripods. For one good reason I have started using the "tripod" type of a pod. It's got three legs, and the rods can be tilted so that the tips can point into the water or up into the sky. The reason why I am using tripod is that with the rod tips pointed up, I can get the lines over the vegetation in the water. Because of this, no reeds are touching my line and causing constant beeping from my bite alarms. This way I get some sleep at night hoping that a carp would wake me.

Tripod - rod tips pointed up, no reeds or grass is touching my line. Even in windy conditions I wouldn't get false alarms from the swaying vegetation. In the picture is my previous pod - Prologic Tripod. Now I am using the Prologic "New green" Tripod.

Old Tackle and Jinxed Tackle

I clearly remember the day I got my first bite alarms. It was the end of August 2007. There was nothing special about them, as I bought the cheapest models I could find. I wasn't a Money Man then (the situation remains the same even now!). Anyway, I also got my first rod pod (which was also the cheapest available). Yet I had them, and I would proceed being a successful carp angler. (NOTE: Success hasn't reached me yet)

Here are my trusty old  alarms. Reliable, yes. Pretty, no. Without remote alarm function, useless.

Putting up my new pod and alarms plus the swingers was a bit tricky. When you haven't seen it anywhere, nor you can ask your mates, you just have to assemble it like a small jigsaw puzzle. Looking back, it sounds really stupid having problems with things simple as that. But it was fun back then. Everything was SO new and exciting. Having a few years of action with these cheap alarms, I decided it was time to go for better ones.

Where am I aiming with this... Well, I think my newer alarm set (Prologic Polyphonic), which I bought after the old set, was jinxed! The old set had me my first carp, my PB carp, several good ones, nice bream catches (including a triple run!) and good memories in general. When I got my new alarm set, I was really happy. It looked nice, worked perfectly, but I caught zero fish with them... Nothing had changed in my tackle, only the alarms were different. My fishing mates caught carp, I blanked. Several times. The first carp I caught with this alarm set was from UK! I thought the curse had been broken. But when I returned to Finland, I realized the curse was for Finnish carp only! I remained on a blanking streak.

I reckon I had brought the misfortune on me for being a tackle tart. I think I could have managed with the old alarms, but really, can you have a 30 € alarm set with a rod set worth 600 €? This curse of jinxed alarm set was broken by the carp mentioned in my earlier blog 600 hours = one carp. It really took time to break the curse.

I think I have become a masochist. I bought a new alarm set. Already I am having problems with my new MP3-alarms (Prologic WUSB). I just can't find a good song for a carp run... :) Wagners "Ride of The Valkyries" could be the one... Or maybe "Carp Fishing on Valium"? :)