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But there’s some excrement about exporting them dodgy politics once tasted you never look at the bland ones we have the same way again

Domoda is Gambian peanut stew a bit like Satay the peanuts over there are five times as nice as ours they are absolutely outrageous

You can strip part of the loop in coated braid so the knot is thinner but still one side of loop coated

I rarely have any problems with the Gardner Braided Hair Needle. They will go through most baits except rock hard boilies. https://gardnertackle.co.uk/product/braided-hair-needle/ It may be an eBay job if you can't get them from your American supplier. The other possibility is whipping a softer thinner hair to the hook shank. Rod whipping thread and dental floss are both pretty good. So tie your hook on with a standard hook knot, and then simply tie the dental floss/whipping thread to the eye, whip it down the hookshank and overhand loop the last two turns to create the hair with a decent loop.

You beat me to it. I also found this: https://hammertackle.com/en/blogs/blog/vantastic-lukas-carp-fishing-adventure-in-greece

Nah that roach activity old chestnut doesn’t work on some tough lakes better some places just chance your luck to have intact hookbaits waiting for a long time in the right places the right amount of roach (thousands) will muller everything soft and bitty you give them, and I don’t want to lug their banquet around!

Not sure if northern specials is a specific American bait by Nash as never heard of that one. cc Moore make a northern special which is a hook bait. you could try around a 1mm drill bit or American equivalent. (Around 1/32 give or take) drill slowly and it shouldn’t break the back of the boilie out

Quickest Google search Lake Plastiras: Near Karditsa, known for carp, catfish, and big barbel. Lake Yliki: Near Athens, with carp populations. Other notable lakes: Lake Kastoria, Lake Aliakmonas, Lake Ladonas, and Lake Pinios also offer carp fishing opportunities. Lake Aoos: Near Ioannina, known for carp, sturgeon, and trout. Lake Pamvotis: Also near Ioannina, with grass carp and common carp.

What about A12 fisheries that’s a day ticket I have never fished it but a few have. www.a12lakes.co.uk

Back in 2016 (!), I fished Alton Water near The Wonder and caught roach to 2lb 5oz on the cage swimfeeder, size 16hook and either double red maggot or maggot and caster. The first 2 or 3 swims down the slope I found the best at around 30-40metres, regularly recasting. The fish tended to switch on from around 4pm until last light. Birchwood on the other side I found better for bream on the feeder, and for float fishing for silver fish if you go to the right. That is down a small farm lane with a combination lock gate at the end. You get lock number when you buy your ticket. Ardleigh I was fishing back in 2005 for carp, but the bream would come on big beds of groundbait and if you could prebait the day or two before would often be there all day, with the occasional carp. Go into Ardleigh, and down Lodge Lane, near the petrol station. There is another Lodge Lane on the other side of the reservoir. Wick Lane dam area is also easily accessible. I never did very well up near the main fishing lodge.

just checked it on the old web and it looks perfect, never fished a res before so this will be a nice bit of both fun and a learning curve also i must admit i still love swimfeeding or method from days past.......

Alton Water and Ardleigh Reservoir are both within your 30minutes of Colchester just off the A12 towards Ipswich. Day tickets via their website, and should come up on Google fairly easily. I spent a lot of time on both of them in the past, and the swimfeeder and heavy baiting can be the best approach for bream and roach, although carp tend to be late afternoon through the night on carp tactics, but day tickets don't allow night fishing.

Get the small rudd feeding on my water, the tench move in, often followed by the carp. It's why I frequently put in a bucket of mashed bread and birdfood. The small seeds and bread keep the rudd amused, boilies pick up tench and carp.

Best way to use maize is sprouted, or just as it starts to ferment. I prep mine by soaking with a teaspoon of soft brown sugar and salt, then after a 24hour soak, boil it up and leave for another night. I've watched the carp ripping up the bottom to get to it. It's a mix of roasted peanuts, coconut oil, lemon juice, chilli and garlic with added salt and sugar, and depending on supplier, soy sauce. Actually with a natural preservative or two. The worry about preservatives in a bait kind of amuses me, as sugar and salt, lemon juice and smoking were done for that exact reason naturally before we started playing about with chemicals. Another preservative is glycerin or glycerol, and I think is an attractor in its own right, as well as being the base of some very successful flavours. Synthesise it and you can get diacetin and triacetin, which were the original base solvents of Scopex and a number of flavours, Chocolate Malt and some spice flavours. The big problem with triacetin and diacetin is the cost compared to glycerol. I would struggle putting peanut butter in a bait, I love my crunchy peanut butter sandwiches too much to waste it... Saying that peanut oil is a very good additive as the lipid and fat content; 10ml peanut oil and 10ml of olive oil is pretty good.

Depends on your water though, I've found that feeding rudd can also make the carp feed with gusto, they stay the party as it where.

It is still going Thanks Guys, Ken can be contacted after 2pm Mon-fri at unit on 01268 417444.

after a few ideas of somewhere near Wivenhoe where i can meet my lad for a day session as he is at the Uni and i am about 60 miles away so unable to pick him up and go to my local. i have dug about a bit on the old google and it seems that the local Wivenhoe waters (layer pit) are run by CPTAC and members only unless there is a day ticket route i am unaware of? Abberton res would seem good but it doesn't look like it's fished anymore? anything within a 30 min drive from the uni would be good and it6 doesn't have to be a Carp water as we will most likely just have a blast on the old floats and just have the day to ourselves. any help or steers to clubs would be greatfully recieved

Satay sauce is basically thinnned down peanut butter, probably thinned down with fish sauce or soy and coconut milk or something, I like eating it too much to waste it on fish though 😂

Peanut butter is very rich and heavy, high in lipids and would fill the carp up too much and not break down would be better off using some mixed with baileys, thin it out I experimented with it on maize years ago but was never a big fan of maize in the end manilla is based on peanut extract (soluble peanut protein).. my supermarket liquid suggestion would be real maple syrup

It’s very easy (well not actually) to create a faffy and expensive glorified slowish breakdown roach groundbait.. I don’t want to feed the roach and that’s why I don’t like soft boilies

Nothing binds like eggs, I tried loads of fish in a mix before and it ends up too soft. I don’t want high liquid content I don’t like soft baits and don’t want to start messing around with endless powdered hardeners besides I think eggs are underrated we are somewhat partial to them and so are the carp they’re magical food Im not making bulk here I’m making a useful tub of base feed/tough hookbaits which complements my other old favourite trickery such as pimped up ABS, DT frozen etc plus some top secret tiger nuts which took me years of trial and error to get right (they are both soft and highly shelf life and I use no preservatives in there whatsoever)

That liver, squid and semolina mix was very successful on Savay. Don't think that baits that start breaking down quickly are ineffective, they can be better than washed out baits. The instant attraction of the actively working enzymes and the proteins. I don't know if you remember it, but I was using up my old mackeral and herring deadbaits by liquidising them, and adding to chapati flour mix, which is basically maize and wheat flour. Simple, again no eggs, and again they wouldn't keep out of freezing, but they didn't need to.

Well said mate, good words of wisdom, its odd i used to fish this lake way back and felt i knew the lake but just seems every session is a new learning curve, will stick with it

This video may also be of some interest to you guys, quite like the idea of DIY solubles tbh.

Maybe you could try this in place of liquidised liver? Might make it keep a bit longer.