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Had a lot of bad luck on little pond today started out with a light carp rod set up and lost a small common to a hook pull, later swapped over to the old cane float rod with mitchell 410a lost 3 carp in a row on stick float fist to a hook pull second lost to knot letting go 3rd the 3lb hooklink parted, re rigged and a blank saver 10lb common, it put up a very lively fight and i was well aware of the 3lb weak link but some skillful playing on a very light clutch and in the net, awful pic of me

Now the leaves are grown the tree at the right does look more like Scotty dog. Just to the right out of pic, there are a couple more trees that to my mind and imagination look like cartoon characters, a squirrel, a pig and a 1940's cartoon aborigine.

The bait is on a sliding ring so can slide up and down the shank. It is stopped by a stop opposite the barb so the hook sits up as the pop-up lifts it upright. Don't forget it is sat on my hand, not in the water. The Nutty Bait natural colour pop-up is very buoyant, although I can't use a natural colour Monster Crab pop-up as it is too buoyant. As it 'stands' it sits perfectly. I just pulled the hookbait off the floss at the end of the session, so it makes it look funny with the floss still on. I'm like you, never had any mouth damage, and I think bans occurred because anglers didn't make sure the carp was in the bottom of the net before lifting. (Having seen some ITV4 Korda sponsored shows where the net is lifted by the handle when the carp is only just in the net, anglers copy)... Our rules are self enforced, and the only rules are no tiger nuts, peanuts or fake baits. Almost every fish goes up on the syndicate Facebook page, exception being a couple of anglers who don't do social media. I've tried the Spinner and Ronnie rig, and just have not had the same positive hook-ups as the 360 rig. I don't think that it is fish/rig related as unless every stock fish is super wary already, (they are already putting on a lot of weight on naturals), but the lakebed itself.

The 360 rig was my go to pop up rig for a long while, I used it with the long shank nailer hook pattern. Had stacks of fish on it and hand on heart I can honestly say I never had a fish with mouth damage and yet a couple of the lakes I fished at the time banned the rig.

This is my alternative spinner rig 👍

Well done on catching this week, can't help but think that rig looks like it is going to sit weirdly with the point pointing up in the air, might just be the photo but everytime I look at it I can't see how it is going to sit nicely with a bait on.

Nice set up B B 😎

Penn Tidal 13.7 feet £110, paired it up with my Okuma 8k reel but with a different spool of line

I must admit to going back to the 360 rig this week on 1 rod, the middle one, and that was the rod that went off with a fish. It may have been how I was fishing, over maize and the lead and rig in a bag with a few whole boilies and pellets. I do like the Multi-rig and my bog standard pop-up rig with the olivette as the counter or balance weight, and catch fish on them, but at the moment I am fishing mostly pop-ups. Notes with the 360 rig, make sure before you lift the net up that the fish is right at the bottom of the net. I have a micro mesh base in my landing net, so the eye doesn't catch but in a larger mesh the eye of the hook may need covering. My version in the picture is with a size 4 Gardner Incizor, a small sinker on the braid hooklink. The dental floss is where I had attached a 15mm Nutty Bait pop-up. I also use a run ring for the lead, which was a 2½oz dumpy, although the wind meant I had to fish a tight line. I got a couple of bleeps and a couple of minutes later it just went off. The fish was hooked just to the left of centre in the bottom lip.

That first comment is how it starts 😂 Then you start to notice other things that would be useful 👍would be good to see some cheap boat mods that work though so good luck with it.

I really dont need GPS on a boat to send it out 30 yards or so and drop rig and bait under a tree or the likes, as for battery i will end up using a 2S lipo from the many i have or making a Li-ion 2S battery from a set of 26650 cells i have a lot of choice from my stock of rc gear, TBH if i wanted to be silly i could put a pair of brushless 5200kv motors and have it go like the clappers, but no point, i will be mounting a Runcam Thumb micro camera to the deck for some footage

Brilliant tbh, within a few clicks it can be locked up and then each click back allows it to move a little easier.

Can't go wrong with daiwa, if I was to moan about anything it's the random addition of folding handles to some but not all of daiwa reels, I'm looking at two small dawia reels one nearly twice the the price of the 40 quid reel, yet it's the 40 that comes with a folding handle, nice little float and ledgering reels.

Yes I have read good things about those Okuma Reels I had the old Interceptors years ago and they were great reels Whats the quick drag like on them ?

I haven't used them myself, but if you want a similarly priced bulletproof big pit that's smooth with an excellent drag, perfect line lay. I can recommend the Okuma 8k, honestly I've used them for 3 years or so now and they are still as good as when I bought them. They also come with a 5yr warranty. https://thetackletavern.co.uk/product/okuma-8k-carp-big-pit-reel/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21835214607&gbraid=0AAAAACLTViSbZ0Nj-jR2v3SlfHNiHvHdi&gclid=CjwKCAjwz_bABhAGEiwAm-P8YWOae89oupbUzW_XCgFo9cxFtIziyrkN-i4VUKqtIMysL7xapbXrChoCwS4QAvD_BwE

Decided to change my reels and go back to QD instead of baitrunner Anyone using these Daiwa reels and how do you rate them ? Daiwa 20 Crosscast Reel 35 SCW 5000C QD

I've owned 2 boats, one was cheap and awful, the other was an actor plus, which did the job better. Sadly it's hard to get decent and budget friendly boat, actors are OK, I used one in France but you really need a compass model so it drives straight. And the batteries seem to die very easily. These can be replaced but costly. While I might be at a disadvantage not owning a boat currently, I can't justify the expense of one that would do what I wanted.

Well, i have placed an order for the super budget bait boat, been lurking on this for a good while, a mate has been saying dont get the cheap one it wont last but he forgets i build RC projects from drones to planes to rc cars and rock crawlers, i like to think i know a bit about RC stuff so if any thing pops i can fix and upgrade, also i think a boat to carp might look like a duck and just maybe less likely to spook them of

One of last years stocking, I think went in at 11.12, now 19lb.

Oh the bit on top, a tenner as a gesture of goodwill, thought that was a bit light myself, end of the day I'm not out of pocket, the fact they sent a barrister to defend a civil case in lower courts made me very wary of proceeding their legal bills were huge the lower court agreed I wasn't liable to pay them.

Someone on the VE day flyover managed to get this picture, proper aerial view:

Pain au Chocolat, chocolate croissants or chocolate brioche dunked in hot coffee, proper French breakfast. An absolutely wonderful fishing snack!

Are you packing custard?

I do really like apple pie and custard 😂

The send button malfunctioned 😂