blimey SIZE 4 hooks.surprised the fishery owner allows this practice to go on.

book a seasons matches away from waters with big carp in and se if they get the message

Unless the venue rules states the things they are doing are banned they aren’t cheating. It is morally wrong though and very crude!

Andy, I would be quite surprised if they could consistently win matches fishing that way with bags of foulhooked fish, as a good percentage of foulhookers will come off even on a big hook ?

If they aren’t breaking any rules then unfortuantly there’s not a lot you can do. Perhaps just have a word with them will be the best way to sort the problem out.

Intentionally foul-hooking is not allowed, trouble is you’ve got to prove the intenet to foul-hook.

Maybe you could run some bait limited matches (quantity and maybe type) and see how that goes.

Size 4 hook??? Where i am from you find it hard for a commerical to let you use a hook bigger than a 12….If thats the way they want to fish there is nothing you can do about it…( you will never prove it)…I would just carry on and ignore them, and maybe get the club secretary to re-enforce the commerical fisheries rules..ie types of pellets, amount to be used, hook size. etc and get the baliff to inspect there tackle?

no its not cheating…its barbaric!

i belong to a small club very similiar to yours. more thatn likely we fish the same venues as were based in sussex.

we have your own small set of rules that club memebers must abibe by, such as not feeding floating baits etc. could your club ask their members to fish hook sizes of no more than a 12?
or i guess it would be a quite word especially if some club members are upset by their “catching” methods i would say that members are not happy and could they change their tactics

Most commercial fisheries have a limit on the hook size normally no bigger than a size 10 hook, you could always get the club to impose a maximum size hook in their matches in the name of fish conservation, however on all our matches fishery rules apply so it’s very rarely a hook above a size 10 is allowed, I think most of the lads don’t go above a 10 anyway and would only use that size of hook when fishing the paste.

Andy could it be that presumably its been guessed what the guys are doing ? Maybe they are doing something which catches fish I suppose when somebody first saw another angler launch a pellet waggler he laughed then after he saw them catch remained envious ? Im not saying your envious and Im not ruling out that their cheating just I have never known people who consistently win who cheat ! Just an angle on the above question maybe they have something seldom seen to us.

fetch a maximum hook size in i.e 14 ..12 smallest hooks..only a idea

A club I fish with had a similar problem. I think they overcame it by having a minimum hook size of 12. As others have said, few people go bigger than this anyway.

Sounds barbaric to me.

like a few others have said,, if you know they are doing it,,just tell em they aint welcome cos thats bang out of order!!!
who gives a shit what they say,,,!
sounds like they need a good kickin to me!!!!!

“NOWT A BIT’O WYBOURN DANDRUFF WONT SORT”!

tricky one this!~think why bait ur hook with a massive piece of paste if ur looking to foul hook them~think if there winning on most lakes with this tactic they must be doing something else. i wouldnt have it if they are doing this and i think all your members should get this tactic banned and get a set of club rules drawn up.