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So I did my best to get shots on the phone - apologies for the poor quality. This fish is one of the bigger koi in the pond. It's a Gin Rin Platinum Ogon. Gin Rin meaning 'scaled' i.e. a common, Ogon meaning metallic, solid, single-coloured koi, and Platinum referring to the white/silver colour. In our carpy language it's basically a pure white common. The kids have named it 'Whopper', which imo is an absolutely rubbish name, but they love it so the name stays. I put Whopper at about 28 lb despite the local pond/koi expert being adamant she's a 30. Stick to your pond building mate... I know a 30 when I see one😅 Whopper is actually a young fish, possibly as young as 5 or 6, so if I want to grow a real monster (which obviously I do😅) she's probably my best bet in the shorter term. She's probably the most friendly fish too and will always be first up at feeding time. I'm taking it easy with the food at the moment due to dropping temps, but next year I'll up the feeding during growing season. Whopper should easily be 30lb by this time next year. I've taken a lot of advice on how to grow as safely and as naturally as possible. I don't want to heat the pond, I want the carp to have a 'natural' annual cycle, so I just need to optimise feeding at the right time.

Not automatic but it is the 'Eazy' version so no need to get wet when cleaning. You just shut the pump off, isolate the central chamber, turn on airlines to the central chamber, leave it for 5 mins and drain to waste with a ball valve. Top the pond up with water and you're good to go. Takes about 10 mins, and of course while you're doing it the carp are milling about next to you at about chest height. I'm still loving this little job.... but it's still the honeymoon phase innit. We'll see how much fun it is in January in -4 C with no carp on top to stare at. Looks like a great set up. I was thinking about putting some 'proper' carp in mine. Will see what happens in spring. There are 3 or 4 ghosties among the koi and while they're all a bit different I might want to take 1 or 2 out and replace them with fish of my own choosing. I found out last night how difficult it is to get good shots of the fish with my phone camera. My proper camera isn't yet onsite (it was relocated prior to our house move, with my fishing gear, separately of the removal trucks, to avoid damage) and I haven't yet collected it. For now the rubbish phone pics will have to do.

Hi Jules . I'm glad your pop up tent is green as my local lake has a green or camo only rule for bivvies . 😄

Having been back at carp angling for a year after the massive long break, i did not figure to go back to doing any overnight sessions at all, years ago i sold of my bivvy and bed chair, i also promised my good lady i would not do nights, so as a compromise i have found a lake i can do 24 hour sessions on and my mrs can stop at a good friends house close by in catterick 5 mins from green lane fishery. Seeing as this night fishing is gonna be limited to less than 5 24 hour trips in a year i have decided to do a bad thing and get a pop up green tent, single air bed and generic 4 season sleeping bag, all this gear is a nice way to avoid carp tax with the whole lot costing less than a bedchair and taking up a tiny bit of room, i have brew making and cooking gear in our main camping kit, sadly this will have to wait till next year before i can go, but moving in right direction

Lovely sized pond mate, I'd love one that size but I know they are pricey to build/maintain etc. Do you have the automatic self cleaning nexus. Looking forward to seeing a few pics of the fish. I've got a tiny 2 metre square pond by 900mm deep. I built it soley for goldfish originally but I did have 6 dinton carp in it once upon a time and believe it or not one of them grew to just shy of 10lb and the rest all over 5lb. Sadly they all died due to a freak accident. I've now got a few goldfish, one gold tench, 3 x carp that i grew from spawn in 2020 from my old lake, one of which is probably 6lb and 2 x koi that are knocking 7 or 8lb.They've out grown the pond really and i do need to upgrade mine really. Time and money holding me back at the moment. I've got a bog filter on my current one and boy do the plants grow in that, especially when I up the feed in spring. The first picture is after I built the bog filter. The next picture is after one month, second picture after 2 months and last picture after 5 months and cutting it all back after 4 months.

I foresee that you are right😅

You would never guess that was 6m long in that photo I foresee a load of heartache, love, time and money being poured into that

Wow that's mega.Will look forward to seeing the updates, Why does no one ever build a bream pond, 😂 Also why doesn't Rob Hales try and grow the world's biggest bream in his swimming pool? That would be quite interesting to see.

So this is what the pond looked like when I arrived. The pond is 2m wide, 6m long, and 2m deep. It holds 24,000 litres (~5.2k gallons), with the filtration and pipework capacity taking it to over 30,000 litres. Construction is by way of reinforced concrete base and walls set into the ground by ~1.6m, with the top ~0.4m sitting above ground. The wooden decking on the left is essentially a lid that is raised using a pulley system. You can then walk down into the filter house, which is also set into the ground just like the pond. The filtration system is gravity fed, which means there is a bottom drain in the pond. The water is pushed down the bottom drain, along some pipework, and up into a Nexus 310 which is a high-performance combination mechanical/bio filter. First the water is pushed through the mechanical filter section which removes dirt, grime, and weed etc. The water is then passed to the biological filter section which uses a filtration media, agitated by air lines, to foster friendly bacteria growth. This bacteria converts ammonia and nitrite (from carp poo) into harmless nitrate. The water is then fed, by pump, into a UV filter which passes the water through a tube under UV light which kills algae. The treated water is then returned to the pond through an outlet ~15cm below the ponds surface. There’s also a skimmer system which filters contamination from the surface of the pond. Water that goes through the skimmer is then pumped into a ‘veggie’ or ‘bog’ filter (an additional shallow, gravel-filled pond, planted with moisture-loving plants). This section, located over the back of the main pond, is currently blocked off due to a leak – I’ll worry about this next year. So, as you can see, it’s far from just a hole in the ground. I’ve spent loads of time online researching how all this stuff works, and spoken with the local koi centre, and the local pond builder. I’ve replaced a pump, and the UV bulb in the UV filter, trying to get the existing system working as perfectly as possible ready for winter. We have loads of trees, which means loads of leaves, and this could be a problem when autumn hits properly, especially with the skimmer system blocked off. I’ve purchased a massive fine mesh net to protect it this year and I’ll just chuck this over when the time comes. In the coming days I’ll post about the best bit…… the fish.

Of course!!

Sweet 👌 would love to see some pictures if you do 👍

As some of you know I've inherited a koi pond after the purchase of a new home. It's not your average garden pond... in fact it's pushing 7000 gallons. Quite an installation I tell thee. It holds 16 koi to nearly 30lb, and 1 albino grass carp which is also a biggun. I'm considering doing a diary of sorts on here to document my journey keeping koi. I'd talk about the set up, any changes, and more importantly the kippers and their condition and growth. Obviously I know a thing or 2 about carp but I'm a complete newbie to ponds so it could be interesting to share in the fun of it all, as well as the blood, sweat and tears that are bound to manifest!

That's kind of what I read was just a coat of glycerin to soak into the bait then leave to dry, was just thinking I could add some flavour (low level) and liquid to boost it at the same time. I'm now thinking of just making sausages and boiling them and chopping post boil, I also don't want to air dry and make them rock hard as that doesn't lend itself to short session fishing. Thanks , I just like the idea of them being a shortish shelf life and If the glycerin makes them more instant like you say that will suit my fishing. That's also why I've settled more on the chops as I think they will breakdown and give off quicker signals into the water. That's the plan anyway 😂

A glycerine and sugar syrup is now frequently used to make 'identical' freezer and shelf life boilies. The base mix is the same, but instead of freezing after drying, the baits are given a run around in the bath and then dried again. Freezer baits tend to have an attraction 2 or 3 days after thawing as the enzymes, salts and sugars migrate to the surface due to moisture, where I personally think shelf life's have the added instant attraction due to the glycerine. They may both be food baits, the same recipe but the glycerine make them more instant. The two can be used together, or separately. Shelf life boilies I have found to be harder, and the longer you leave them, the harder they get to the point of drilling. You can air dry, without freezing the standard bait to rock hard, it will need drilling to go on the hair, but they take on water more quickly and almost explode. Back in the early 2000's I played around with bait soaks and glugs, with ideas from the original Nutrabaits Bait soaks which were Nutramino and Multimino PPC and added my flavour and essential oil combination; the Peach Nutrafruit was on glycerine/glycerol. The hookbaits after a couple of weeks were rock hard and able to withstand the attentions of small silvers and chub in the lakes and rivers. I have played with other glugs, often based around Liquid Yeast Extract I did play with matching of flavour sprays, but they did need watering down to put in an atomiser bottle. One thing I did find was neat flavours could be a repellant or create a feeding area or attention area actually away from the hookbait. I can't remember which Tim Paisley book it is in, probably Carp, but both him and Rod Hutchinson came to the conclusion that the flavour was acceptable a distance away from the bait, and it is there that the carp boiled, rolled or attempted to feed. So use flavours at low level, or avoid them altogether and stick with natural attraction.

Guys I read about how glycerine is used to preserve some baits, I am looking into making my own boilie chops and was thinking I could make a cheeky glycerine liquid using the same flavours and liquids that will be going into my baits. If I was to use a 50/50 mix of glycerine and the extract I am planning to use and some flavour to give it the same label as the bait and boost it post boiling. Is this a good idea and will it work still as a preservative (just a bit not enough to smother it just a coating) will it also slightly harden the baits? Also I would like to make a hookbait spray to match but not sure where to start with this if anyone has any pointers would be appreciated Thanks. Elmo

Wow that is insane, he's caught a lifetimes worth of fish in a week, mega result. He must be superhuman.

Just done another 24 on the canal, found a nice clear area so thought I'd put some time in here, a bit of prebaiting etc. What I didn't take into account is that I'm set up under a motorway... safe to say I didn't get much sleep 🤣 on a plus note my spot is getting cleared and I caught a tench 👍🤣

I did a couple of hours on the local river, so overgrown so few swims but had 3 perch on small crayfish lures ned rig style. Thought it was gonna be a bit too warm to fish slow but it worked anyway From what I'm hearing the new Rapala soft baits are a bit special, apparently the fish like the salt content and hang on. 👍 Mates just had a 30 and 29 out of Rutland on them.

Final tally of photograph worthy fish 110 roughly inc 5 x 60's, lots of 50's and 40s - think he's done there now. Several will have blanked, it's become very swimmy, he slowed down second week didn't fish for 24 hours after someone took the mick and wound him up.

Well I can't even upload a screenshot atm🙄 He had a nice little perch about 1 1/2 lb. Needless to say he now wants try live baiting next time. Predator fishing is allowed on my ticket from October with some perch around the 3-4lb mark. Well that is if we get some more rain and increased oxygen levels in the water🤞

Sad to hear the fish are dying there @Golden Paws. The lack of rain this year is really taking its toll. On a brighter note, took my son up to the little farm lake again. After trying every lure we had, I foul hooked a small roach with the lure & thought shall I leave it on??? This was the result..

I'm Autistic and can remember back years. It's not always a positive!

Just got back from a 52 hour blank. Very few fish came out and the lake looked pretty uninspiring being incredibly low. A dead fish drifted into the next swim to me and this is on the back of 2 of the biggest fish in the lake turning belly up recently. Hopefully it's just natural although I did wonder how low the oxygen levels were. One bloke did catch one in the next swim about 50 yards away to me and he asked me to take a photo during the day. During the night I heard 4 very loud bleeps and assumed he was doing alright despite my rods being static. It was bad enough blanking without it being rammed down your throat how well he was doing! I was having my breakfast the next morning and I heard the really loud alarm again but he didn't come out of his bivvy what seemed strange. It began to dawn on on me something wasn't right and I concentrated a bit harder and when there was another loud alarm, I realised it was coming from my pocket! It wasn't a run but the low battery warning! Luckily I had a spare and wasn't disturbed again.

If you were to use a curry powder mix as your spices, are there any spices within that, thinking stuff like nutmeg, ginger, fennel etc that might have a negative impact on your bait? Also I want to make some pop ups matching and maybe coloured? What % of cork dust would I need for matching roughly? And what could you do to make the hookbaits stand out more than the base mix? And if I was to use a coloured pop up mix what ingredients should I add to make it similar and what kind of % please ? Thanks in advance