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This can be true. I’ve had a single bleep and woken up to my line pointing at a right angle and reeling down to a snagged fish that has just kited in to the margins. Slack lines don’t help this at all but sometimes needs must. Another thing to be aware of, if your pop ups are balanced so they very slowly sink, if you get done, you will still be fishing. It may have moved or turned the hook point so always worth a check but leave it a half hour and see if you get another pickup, can easily happen. Like I said though. A sharp hook is a must, the fish isn’t getting hooked using the weight of the lead when fishing chods so it’s even more critical.

Are you going in with preconceived ideas of what worked in the past will work now? Lakes can change over time, from being a boilie only water to a particle water, or vice versa. It's just a case of watching and location. Not the easiest thing to do, but instead of fishing spend a day looking. Even 'waste' a show if you see something by casting a marker float and lead at the spot and finding what they are on. You had the liners, that's a start; were they liners or dropped takes? Investigate the area between the bank and where you were fishing, out with the lead and marker. Maybe they were liners and you missed or overcast the feature they were on. If you were using a Chod rig, maybe you were done, something (not so nice) to think about, but I have found helicopter set-ups really reduce indication at the rod end. A single bleep and I was done, or an absolute screamer when the fish couldn't get rid of the hook. I have also had long range helicopter rigs moved over 30metres with just a couple of bleeps and a shake of the indicator. The last time I used an 'unejectable' rig on a helicopter setup was when Bent hook rigs were allowed!

Don't give up mate, you will get one eventually 👍 did you say you have a bait boat? Maybe get a deeper on there and map the lake or as yonny said get the marker out and spend a day or two mapping it with that 👍 I'd be doing laps of the lake with sunnies mate, try and find some clear patches in the margins, small bit of bait and see if they clear it a day or two later 👍

I use the Hemp ones on a multi-rig over hemp and in the bag of pellets https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/naturalz-wafters/ I'm just as happy with the 360 rig and a sliver of pop-up or a Nutty Bait pop-up over the bag as well. With the 15mm Nutty bait pop-up I have put in 3 or 4 whole boilies in the bag. The sliver of pop-up is usually fished over spodded maize and birdfood when I want a small hookbait. I say sliver, I've trimmed it to the shape and size of something in the spod mix, either maize, maple pea or whatever.

I fish chod rigs a lot on leadless leaders. You need a sharp hook as the most important thing. Just spread boilies, they’ll work over smaller items of bait but the hooking mechanics don’t suit the way fish feed on small items. Yonny is right, you’re missing some part of the puzzle and a shake up of tactics is probably worth a go. Find some nice firmer spots, margins are vital on smaller waters from my experience, and fish bottom/balanced/low pop hookbaits over it.

The bag probably costs more than the boilies do.

You're doing something wrong mate - you just need to figure out what it is. You mentioned earlier in the thread you were chodding it. Have you considered getting down there for a day and marking up properly i.e. find proper, clean, fed-on spots? They're just carp mate, they are catchable, you're just missing a piece of the puzzle.

Sonik Tackle has a bad reputation with me!

I think I might have thought of something similar in the past. I feel like the cherry on the cake seems a bit obvious amongst a load of 2mm pellets. A quick flick of the tail and that's all that sits there still.

I use PVA almost every cast, either over spodded bait or 'empty' areas. I've had a fair few fish from the syndicate on patrol routes with just a bag that has been cast in for about 5 hours. I don't have much rudd trouble though, there are not that many silvers. The big rudd tend to stay down by the western end, and rarely go up to the shallows at the east end. I did say I get silvered, but I also think that the pellets break down. My bag mix is mixed sizes of pellets with some crumbled boilies added in.

I used bags quite a lot when I joined the last syndi, on one of the lakes I'd get lots of knocks as soon as the bag landed, fizzing the lot - then after 10 mins all quiet. I'd re-cast and the same happened. I'm convinced they were hiding in the weed coming out blowing the bag, eating the loose stuff then leaving just my hookbait. This went on all day and no takes. I've now got some mega 8ml barrel wafters in pellet flavour from CCMoore with exactly this in mind for later in the year. I also came up with a few ideas around decoy baits after this that I will use one day. Not giving too much away I think this will be a real winner.

I often think that and never get round to it lol. I often think with bags and stuff if they havent gone in a hour or so they aren't going to go and the Rudd would have destroyed them, so would probably rechuck every couple of hours.

Yeah they are cheap nowadays. £20 for 5kg usually.

Still not caught any on main lake, i used to think i was half decent at this carp lark but really losing the will to fish now, today was another blank to add to the running total, been back on this lake since last October and still nowt other than a couple of liners, spent a small fortune on a lot of new gear and TBH starting to feel like i have wasted my hard earned, 3.5 acre lake with a stock around 200 head of fish, it should be a runs water! Its tempting to move onto a new venue but nothing close enough that appeals, I think i will take a little break from the fishing, go back to doing my RC rock crawling

Never used the method, however if I were on say Mallard lake Bluebell I'd be looking to re-cast maybe hourly or less depending on the situation. Might give it a go 👍

Apparently made/rolled by munch baits they sold their baits for about 50p a kilo.

Sonik reels have a bad rep, so It will be interesting to see if this one is the same as all the rest. Looks nice and has a big old retrieve on it. If they have got it right could be decent.But we might have to wait for @Higham1987 verdict on that one. RRP £89.99 with a finger stall.

On Ardleigh I tended to recast The Method every 5minutes for the first 30minutes then leave the last cast before hitting the sack. That way I had a decent bed of bait in the swim. I didn't always spod bait in, sometimes just relying on the recasts. I'd usually prebaited the area a day or so previously. As for PVA bags, stringers or mesh, I could just cast the once and leave it for the next day if I know it's on spot. If I'm not happy it is reeled in and recast. I'm not too worried about the occasional patch of bait elsewhere. A bag or mesh of pellets and crumbed boilies will get silverered. A few loose boilies in the area won't do much harm.

At £14 a kilo I'm never gonna try it.

Watching for the mouse or whatever that surfaced and dived back down. Something like that, although I don't actually write it down. I remember every swim and the distance from the original high water casting spot. I did message a mate this week after I got home: "After last night's phone dilemma, it crashed, I lost a carp this morning, hook pulled. Monster crab pop-up sliver on a coated braid Multi-rig. I'd played it from aiming at sneaky squirrel around 40metres. It ran right, so I waded out with my net, got it to go left, and it went past middle rod and hook just popped out. Not a good session. So upset I packed up a day early".

i managed to get out for the first time in over a year this week and did one rod on method and another on solid bags, method i recast every 30 45 mins or so and tried to hit the same spot but also prospected a bit with it. the solid bags i did about every 45 mins and always near the margin. solid bags caught me about 5 lovely carp over the course of 6 hours but the method only managed a skimmer during the same time frame. i do love the feeder set up though but must admit on my little local water thye solid bags work every time

Let's take this another level. Suppose you are fishing say the Method or Pva bags. How often are you recasting then?

So if someone read your fishing log which said , say " 15 wraps in line with Sneaky Squirrel " it would mean absolutely nothing to them ? . 😃