The advent of summer last weekend certainly gave this summer's fishing a kick-start with more anglers on the bank than I've seen for some time.

That's great news for tackle dealers, fisheries and, of course, the anglers themselves. One thing I would like to mention is the amount of red skin I saw. There have been enough warnings about potential long-term effects of sunburn but surely that nasty, stinging sensation and the inability to wear most of the items in one's wardrobe are enough to convince me that sunscreen is the better option.

For my part, sunscreen was completely irrelevant as I was drawn under a canopy of trees, virtually the only sheltered swim on the entire fishery! I was fishing a charity match raising some much-needed-funds for Les Webber's Angling Projects, the subject of one of this Friday's Tight Lines films. It was also held in honour of the late Bob East who, for many years, ran the matches for the Metropolitan Police Angling Society. Intertype AS hosted the match on their Colnbrook complex, which has two lakes, the Front Lake being the match venue with the Back Lake a serious big fish water. We were on the match lake and the perfect draw had to be the north bank, into which the breeze was blowing and, natch, the sun was shining. It was quite obvious by the bow waves and large, dark shadows that much of the carp population was following the breeze, a common occurrence in the summer months.

I decided on a 'pole or bust' policy, using 13m to get to the near edge of the ripple. Mick Rowan, the organiser, had told me that there were often bream and tench to be caught straight out, usually at 8-9m, but I took the longer option. Mick also informed me that the two trees which afforded me such complete shade often had some decent carp taking advantage of their shelter, especially as there were lily pads close to both.

With that in mind I had some paste ready for the close-in spots, with pellets, corn and luncheon meat cubes for further out. I kicked off by cupping in a 150ml pot of 4mm pellets with a few grains of corn and 6mm cubes of meat, then flicked some 6mm and 8mm pellets (big enough to avoid the hordes of roach) into the margin spots.

Nothing much of any note happened for 90 minutes and I'd not seen much going on elsewhere, apart from the angler dead opposite, sitting in the sun with the breeze causing the lake to lap at his feet, having caught a decent carp on the feeder. I stuck to my game plan and when my float started to dither occasionally I knew a fish or two had found my feed. Eventually it shot under and I lifted into a fish.

Expecting this to be a carp, I was quite surprised at the relatively slight resistance but the appearance of a bream I estimated at just under a kilo floundering on the surface explained matters. As I lifted the landing net to administer the coup-de-grace the flipping thing dropped off!

Twenty minutes later my next bite produced a similar sized bream that at least had the good grace to hang on long enough to make a visit to the keepnet and the next 15 minutes produced two more of similar stamp.

After this brief spell of feeding activity, the waiting game resumed and despite trying both sides of my margin, the trees did not appear to be harbouring any scaly residents beneath their boughs. I could see the angler opposite now catching carp fishing shallow with a pellet waggler and they appeared to be decent-sized fish too, in the 3kg bracket.

Out of the blue my float dipped again and another 3-bream procession came about, all slightly larger than the first trio, with the last maybe getting close to 2kg.

Les Webber popped by on a break from entertaining a group of Nottingham policemen at Angling Projects to thank the participants and whilst he was with me I hooked and lost a carp, almost certainly foulhooked as it bottomed-out my elastic and the hook pulled free. Next drop a good bream, over 2kgs, became the final admission to the Big Keepnet.

When the scales came I knew I'd done quite well on my bank but I'd watched a procession of carp being netted opposite. The scalesman told me I had 22lb (10kg) to beat and I felt I had a chance. I put my fish into the weigh-net and was relieved to see the dial bottom out at its 20lb (9kg) limit. I removed my final bream and the scalesman called my weight at 18lb 10oz (8.45kg) with that last bream weighing 5lb 9oz (2.57kg) on its own, giving me top weight on my bank. I knew I didn't have enough to beat 'carp-man' opposite and I'd guessed that he wasn't alone in bagging up but I was wrong and his 62lb 10oz (28.4kg) was easily best, leaving me in 2nd spot.

I didn't detect a single sign of life from either side of my margin spot, which led me to the conclusion that the carp were all sunbathing. I hope they used enough sunscreen.

Now let's take a look at your questions this week...

IS BARBLESS BARBARIC?

Dear Keith, what do you think about barbless hooks? Do you think they are good or bad for fishing? I think barbless damage the fish. I have fished places were they use barbless and fished were they use barb hooks and the mouths were they used barbless are damaged, far worse than were barb hooks were used .Tight Lines, Mr R. Bishop, Chorley in Lancashire.

KEITH SAYS: There are a couple of schools for thought on this and, as always, it's a bit of a Johnny Nash - more questions than answers. My view is that barbed hooks, when used in conjunction with the currently fashionable self-hooking, bolt rigs incorporating excessively heavy leads, go in to the lower jaw and are held in place by the barb. I believe that these rigs are the domain of highly experienced anglers only, but they are not and are readily available to anyone in the 'instant expert' culture which carp fishing (in particular) seems to generate.

For the AVERAGE angler fishing with 'normal' tackle I believe that barbless hooks are far more appropriate. I use them 100% of the time, by choice, but (and this is NOT a criticism) I do all my angling wide awake and strike at every bite, not using deliberate self-hooking techniques. I believe barbless hooks give me far better presentation of living baits: maggots, worms etc, and infinitely better penetration. What's more using standard tackle it is almost impossible for one to drop out. Using heavy leads or massive feeders (did I read that 8oz feeders are being recommended for fishing flooded rivers - that is imbecile from a fish welfare angle, in my opinion) a fish cane very easily use the weight as a lever to remove a barbless hook, and frankly I believe that in many instances anglers are inventing science to suit circumstance: using barbless hooks with self-hooking rigs means more fish lost, so make a case for using barbed.

In my opinion there are three things causing mouth damage in carp: inappropriate tackle for the size of carp captured, by which I mean 3lb t/c rods, 15lb line and 4oz leads used in commercial fisheries with an average stock size under 5lb; exploitation of immature carp by match fisheries, by which I mean stocking too many very small carp and then having matches on the lakes, and the use of floating baits, particularly with braided lines. The pressure exerted on the fishes' mouth on the strike, with no cushioning by water pressure as the braid floats, is enormous and in my experience fisheries where these examples above are prevalent have bad-mouth fish. Waters where the management is designed around fish welfare have far less, or no mouth damage.

IN THE MIXER

Hi Keith, Saw your programme on Friday with Kev Green. He soaked some Chum Mixer and I missed what it was he soaked them in. Could you tell me please also what the colouring he used was? Great programme, thanks very much, Ron Gardner.KEITH SAYS: I have been in touch with Kev and he has very kindly sent through the recipe for you. Here we go:

For the mixers:

1 - Weigh out a kilo of Tesco Premium Mixers and put them in a bucket that can be sealed with a lid.

2 - Pour 100-150ml of water into a plastic drinks bottle.

3 - Add your attractors to the water - I use 5-6ml of Nutrabaits LPX flavour, 3-4ml of Nutrabaits Sweet Cajouser, 20ml of Nutrabaits Nutramino and 20ml of Corn Steep Liquor. You don't have to use all these flavours if you want to save money or use flavours that you prefer.

4 - Dust the mixers with red colour (optional: I use Nutrabaits Red but food dyes will do) then pour the flavoured water on the mixers.

5 - Put the lid on the bucket and shake the biscuits for a minute or two - the liquid will be absorbed.

6 - Give the bucket a shake an hour or two later to stop them sticking.

7 - Leave the biscuits to soften over night.

8 - In the morning you will have spongy biscuits bursting with your flavour mix.

They can be frozen although they will be slightly softer still when they thaw.

For the hemp goo:

1 - Get some uncooked hemp and soak it in water overnight.

2 - Put it in a big pan, bring it to the boil and simmer it for 20 to 30 minutes until the white kernel pokes out of the split shell.

3 - Put the hemp in a food processor with some of the cooking water and blast it for 30 seconds or so until the whole cooked seeds are pulverised into a hempy slop. Different blenders do have different performance levels.

4 - Add some chopped boilies to the goo or better still cook some tiger nuts (soak overnight then boil for 35 minutes) and put them through the blender to produce a nut shrapnel. Blend one part of tiger nut pieces to approximately 10 parts of hemp goo - two bits of nut will then make a great hookbait over the top.

A FRESH FISH-O-MANIA

KEITH SAYS: Hello Andy, The venue for the Fish'O'Mania Grand Final is bound by several criteria as the facilities required for a massive, live outside broadcast are very specialised. If you've been to Hayfield and watched the event, and had a peek in the car park, you will see what I mean as the broadcast trucks and staff cars require a decent acreage. Other technical stuff, such as ISDN capability and 3-phase electrics are also a must.

Now think catering for the crew alone (a lot of mouths to be fed and watered, their day starts at 7am and ends at near-midnight, some even longer) and then add spectators into the equation and you begin to get some idea of the logistics.

Then there is then the requirement of spectator parking and access, hotel accommodation with at least 80+ rooms in the immediate vicinity for crew and anglers, plus their guests. All that's required then is a fishery with decent stocks for the main event, Junior Fisho, Ladies' Fisho and space for the NFA coaches. Being fairly central is also an advantage.

That being said, Hayfield as the final venue is NOT cast in stone and there are regular suggestions for alternatives which are all discussed and, where relevant, inspected. I couldn't say whether Fish'O'Mania 15 will be at Hayfield, because neither I, nor anyone else, yet knows.