Lead choice is often a personal preference, often dictated by the distance the angler is choosing to fish, however Ian Chillcott believes that if you put a little extra thought into your lead choice then you could end up putting more fish on the bank. In this article he explains why...

"I’m often amazed by the way some people refer to the lead on their line, and what they think it is for. Probably the most popular description is that it’s for casting, and only has to get bigger in order to achieve the required distance. Which is all fine and dandy, but in the main we are all fishing for highly pressured carp, and if casting was our only problem, then we wouldn’t have a great deal to worry about at all, would we? A lead is one of the most important parts of our terminal tackle, and in essence, has a large part to play in the rest of our gear being used to its full affect!

The size of the lead is vital!

For me, it doesn’t really matter how the lead is set up in the terminal tackle area, as long as it’s done safely, of course. The way we use our lead set-ups, in most instances, is purely down to boosting the anglers’ confidence….or, rather Lemming like, following a fashion or trend. However, there is one thing that always springs to mind when I am setting up. For a huge percent of my fishing I use a lead on a lead clip. There are some very important reasons for this, and fish safety would be top of the list. One other necessity is to reduce the risks of tangles. That is why I always fish them with an Edges Slow Melt PVA bag attached, the size of which only depends on how far I want to present this set up.A lead clip is, for me, the safest way to fish.

I do use stiff link pop-ups on a helicopter set-up when extreme range is required, and this set up is used simply to avoid tangles, once again. And this leads nicely onto the next salient point…..