http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/ Carp fishing forum, UK and europe carp fishing forums, carp fishing tutorials, carp fishing articles en Fri, 18 May 2012 11:48:41 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/images/styles/AestheticaGreen/misc/rss.png http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/ http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/1315-Cheap-Hemp!?goto=newpost Sun, 06 May 2012 12:53:13 GMT Where is the best place to buy a load of hemp seed?? Pre cooked would be better.. Thanks Where is the best place to buy a load of hemp seed?? Pre cooked would be better.. Thanks ]]> Wanted p4rksy87 http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/1315-Cheap-Hemp! http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/1314-Swim-Shelter-2-man-bivy?goto=newpost Thu, 03 May 2012 21:21:15 GMT Hi guys following on from my buy or bin it thread, heres an intial review of the two man swim shelter bivy, now at this point i must emphasise the... Hi guys following on from my buy or bin it thread, heres an intial review of the two man swim shelter bivy, now at this point i must emphasise the bivy has not been used, this is purley first impressions.As you guys are aware i have a dislike of carp tackle manufacturers claims and the crazy prices we are expected to pay for substandard fishing gear. So once again this is not a detailed opinion as to me fishing equipment needs to be evalued after a years hard use, which is what intend to do with the swim shelter bivy, so heres my first opinions and thoughts.

So after 20 years of abuse and one hell of a lot of use, my second hand hutchy apotheosis, finally gave out, i probably used it 5 or 6 times a year, often weeks at a time when the kids were on holidays and 4 or 5 week long sessions in France etc when my son or wife came with me to share the joys of angling.

Ive been on the lookout to replace the bivy since last summer, as most of you will know, i very rarely buy new tackle, mostly cos i believe we as carp anglers are ripped off left right and center for substandard products.I have been scouring e bay and bid on a few bivys, but was very controlled in what i thought they were worth, hence come this march i was still without a two man bivy, now dont get me wrong, there was plenty i could have bought, but i have specific needs for my bivy, after angling for as long as i can remember.

So even though i was looking to buy second hand, a smart looking bivy caught my eye The Swim shelter two man bivy,now as ive said i rarly buy new, i read all the blurb about a hundred times and it seemed to tick all the boxes, but i had a budget and although on special offer, it wouldnt sit right with me spending that kind of money, especially as i needed reels more urgently, and i like to see the products first. So i put it aside in my mind, but every few days when scouring e bay this bivy would come back into my thoughts and id read all the blurb over and over. I was impressed with all the blurb, as i said it appeared to tick most of my boxes, and i thought the swims shelter answered all of my questions without me having to ask, and that doesnt happen often in my world. This process took about 3 months from my initial first time seeing the bivy online to where we are now, so as you can see, im very skeptical when it comes to fishing products and the in my book false claims and exorbitant prices charged.Sadly in my hesitation and uneasiness of spending this amount of money the bivy went up in price, so that was it, id look elsewhere.

i kept coming back to this bivy on ebay, the blurb and explanations of what the technical stuff meant was impressing me, also the feedback was a hundred per cent, but i was still worried cos id av liked to have seen it before i commited to paying the price, now there were claims as the bivy compares favourably with most other well known makes, to me thats not hard cos imo most are a bucket of shite for the money. So eventually i decided to bite the bullet and pay the £299 for the two man bivy and winterskin, which did appear to be very good value for money in comparison to the same on other makes, or as swim shelter say more bivy for your buck.

so wed 25th april at 3pm i paid via paypal for my bivy, as swim shelter had said i received an e mail on fri stating the bivy would be delivered on the following monday, unfortunately for me no one was going to be home, so i arranged a day off work to receive the bivy. sadly and much to my disappointment, there was no delivery. I asked a neighbors boy if he would house sit for me on the tues just incase, cos i know what parcel force are like(swim shelter u should choose another company to deliver your gear, because parcel force will ruin your reputation.) I rang the boy at 11am to see if it had been delivered no joy so i came home from work after beggin for an hr off, to ring swim shelter to complain, as i pulled up outside my house a parcel force van pulled away afer delivering the parcel a day late it was 11.30 am. Now i know what parcel force are like, i dont blame swim shelter, i like the fact they bothered to email me to tell me when the bivy would be delivered, but at the end of the day it cost me a days wages and it didnt come, so thats bad service, they need to sort that before it ruins there buisness, so not impressed swim shelter. funny cos at the end of the blurb, they ask if you have any probs at all to fone or email them first before leaving bad feedback to give them a chance to correct the problem, now i think thats fair, but i also think if theres a lot of problems and they are firefighting by correcting them after the problem,they they are giving false claims. I havnt been in touch with swim shelter yet to tell them of my problems due to my work load and the fact i wanted to put the bivy up to check it was ok, once i have done this intial review i will get in touch and of course let u know there response.

So fast forward to today, now the box was a bit battered, not a prob as long as all was good inside, so first impressions i was worried cos the strengthening poles and groundsheet were not inside the bag supplied, they were just in the box, my intial thought was why? maybe they didnt fit in the bag? mmm the bag seems of reasonable quality as stated i would say, plus a nice touch in the roof of the bag is a compartment for the strengthening sticks . a nice bag for the bivy pegs, but i feel the quality of pegs lets them down, imo the collars will break very quickly and slide down the pegs, experienced anglers will know what i mean. the groundsheet is as described and heavy but very good, the bivy itself as u would expect from the factory rolled up very small, now as we know guys doing that on the bank just aint gonna happen, so it would be interesting to see how it went back. The bivy itself went up quite easy the joints were easy to put together and more importantly for me to take apart, the bivy is huge and appears to be of a good quality, but time will tell, rolling up the bivy was ok but didnt go back as small(they never do) as it arrived, but everything bar the winterskin fitted into the bag, imo the bag needs to be slightly bigger to accomodate this, i have one man bivy bags that are larger, as an angler i want it all in one bag. yes if you spent ages on rolling squeezing the bivy on a nice dry day maybe just maybe it would fit, but the reality of it is that it wont, and the weather wont be like that, so for me slightly bigger bag please. The whole bag with everything bar the winterskin in is heavy i think 18kg is the same as the nash titan, so comparable when u condsider its a two man and a big two man.

so there you go sar far i think its value for money, but as ive said for me it should be tested over a years fishing only then will we know if its a good quality, but its a good start. one other thing it would be nice if the was instructions or dvd to go with it, for me its simple enough to work out but there are those who could do with the help or are new to fishing, just an added welcome feature in my book.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-MAN-CARP...ht_6922wt_1396 ]]> koiguchi http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/1314-Swim-Shelter-2-man-bivy http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/1313-Born-again-carper?goto=newpost Thu, 03 May 2012 10:03:28 GMT Hi Everyone, I fished when I was a nipper, tied the rod to my handlebars, bag on my back and rode for miles to try and catch fish (I remember... Hi Everyone,

I fished when I was a nipper, tied the rod to my handlebars, bag on my back and rode for miles to try and catch fish (I remember catching big gudgeon...... funnt that). I stopped fishing when I was about 15 (more interested in girls etc). However, I am now 56 years old and caught the fishing bug (again) 6 years ago and love it. My preference is carp fishing and, eventually, invested in some good gear (Shimano reels etc). My work takes me away for 7 months of the year, however, I get 3 or 4 weeks off every so often,so I can fish to my hearts content (her indoors permitting !!). I live in France and I am quite spolit for lakes. I would like to ask a question............is it me or is the fishing scene getting so complex that I feel like I am studying for an exam whenever I research methods of "how to catch fish". I remember ledgering with an arlesley bomb and 2 maggots and getting loads but now, unless my bait is "critically balanced" or I have applied various specific links, lines, etc then my chances of catching appear minimal. Whats happened to fishing scene, its way to complicated. ]]> KB1307 http://www.carp-fish.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/1313-Born-again-carper