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Quality 👌😎 My mates got a fishing room, in progress - got ornaments of fish and everything lol I'm hoping to get a few for the mantlepiece - perch, pike and zander, but they're all good, he's got nearly all including the super rare carp. Not got a thing about nets, just annoyance that mine don't match - hmmm ££££ cost inbound 😀

Flat

Bivvy fetishism struck again !

Thanks crusian,and yes to your question ...( a lot of generations esp in mining/ saddlers)

Is that the flat mat or the walled version?

I got a Korda Spring Bow net delivered last week. I have a thing about real decent nets and have inadvertently amassed a bit of a collection. It drives the Mrs mad. A pal of mine showed me his Spring Bow a while back and I was well impressed so I've had a search set up on fleabay/marketplace for a while. The right deal finally came up so it's now racked up with the various Dymags and Chris Brown nets in the fishing room, much to the Mrs' annoyance. I'll use it on my next session out of principle and then decide if it replaces the Dymag mk2 I tend to use most of the time.

After a chat on here about mats I treated myself to the Thinking Anglers mat, its very light and actually will be great for stalking 👍

Lovely colours , Roughtor . Sorry I can't remember but , are you are a proud Cornish Man ? .

What lovely 'photos , Ouch . I especially like the little girl holding the Carp's tail .

As i no longer bivvy up i dont have the bivvy/rats problem, have to say on the lake i fish i have not seen a single Roland, but the fishery is tolerant to Mink, for the rat control reason and it seems to work

Rats get immune to poison, and learn to avoid traps, and as you say with traps you have to be careful with where they are put in position. I think that that is possibly because of patrol route? I'm not 100% sure, but they use their patrol route as the base as it were, then when finding or sniffing food expand from there.

My staffy would probably run away from a rat 🤣

On the couple of waters I fish most often, the bailiff's come round most days to check the rat boxes for poison but I think they have learned to avoid them. They are probably better off with traps but you have to be careful where you put them. Shooting is another option as they are getting bolder but obviously comes with risks and has to be on private ground.

My spaniels seem to mark the perimeter of the swim and I think that deters most, they deffo will not come in the bivvy. Whilst dogless I had one eat through the side of the ridgemonkey porch - with an open front (dumb creature), thankfully it was the only bivvy I've ever hated so not bothered! It has to be the amount of bait and food about on day tickets. 👎

For years there were no problems at Taverham, then more anglers started fishing it when Anglian Water took it on and litter started becoming a problem. Klaus bought a brand new bivvy and rats chewed their way in through the groundsheet and into his bait and food bags. He found a chewed pack of bacon dragged outside the bivvy. We get a few rats on the syndicate now, not many, and as you can see, they don't cause me any problems, thanks to Sky. How she can wait patiently on the lead until they get close enough to her to attack them amazes me, she's normally head down and charge.

Easy mat is a good choice and it’s quite light

Drennan twin tip, my mates got 2 of these - look mint 👍

I bought a new dog because of rats at fishing, having them climbing up my spod rod in the doorway and running all over the bivvy was the final straw at Bluebell lakes. I'd never experienced that level of rat infestation there before because of my previous dog largely keeping them away. I keep all bait in buckets outside the bivvy. They've damaged cars there eating wires and getting into the vehicle for food/bait. Not seen one on my syndi in 3 years!

Here it is packed away, comes with a bag too Great design and not too bulky to carry around

So to start the thread I mentioned the steak, so here is the real deal. And that is a Fishing Dinner: Rare rump steak with mushrooms, sliced green beans and sliced fried potato, a dash of mixed herbs and a crushed clove of garlic.

This was the other bundle I retrieved. I think that I pulled that lot in with my marker float and lead from memory. A few Korda leads in there, inline and lead clip. This is where I think people had been fishing to the spot and getting right under or going through it to the bank. The only safe ways I could think of fishing it was with tight line and being on the rod, or being in the corner swim and keeping the rod down under the snag branches, allowing fish to run out and away. Personally I stuck with fishing to it with the tight line and using the arc to get fish away from it.

Some of the rigs people throw out are shocking tbh.

Why not just use a bucket? they've never breached my ridgemonkey yet. I never leave my bait in the bivvy either. And always close my food bag, then I throw boilies in other people's bivvies works a treat 😂

At least they paid £2 for a premium lead though.

Agreed. I'd not even noticed the swivel on the leader on until you mentioned it! Absolutely shocking set-up.