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for me the language, but i remember the first week of the test 11 people failed out of about 50. and they were ofcourse native germans

Welcome to Carp.com. Difficult due to language or due to the questions and competence test itself?

You can book an appointment with an official and get a tourist licence, but that is really touch and go, Germany is no longer efficiant like they were before sadly, and I do not mean that bad against the German people they are great, they are also tied down by red tape.

Welcome! I had to look up 'Fischerprüfung'. How on earth do tourists get to fish in Germany if you have to take a course and then pass an exam before fishing? That sounds a bit too much, but maybe it would keep out some of the less desirable fishermen. 😁

Greeting, new member here from Germany, originally from Shepperton, fished the amazing Thames for carp, then after 4 years of moving to Germany I finally took the dreaded Fischerprüfung last year! and yes it was pure hell. lol

Just bought a set of Bitekeeper Cube alarms. I am not so bothered about how customisable they are as most is just gimmicks but I honestly think rechargeable alarms should have been done a long time ago. Arriving tomorrow so will see how they get on. I did search the forum but didn't see anything on here about them. BiteKeeper Cube

although i do still have my Street Triple, i did buy a sports tourer last year in the form of the Suzuki GSX S1000GX.

This is that "mycamoalien" guy on Insta I believe. I think he is, or was, a bailiff on the Wraysbury waters? He's had most of the bigguns over there and did well at Wingham too. His dusted bottom baits look good but I've not tried them. The pop ups seem expensive to me but the attractor combos sound good. You'd be surprised.

I was very interested in Rod Hutchinson's writings on flavours, and his Ultraspice and Megaspice regularly appeared (along with Chocolate Malt) and someone else mentioned Garlic oil as an attractor so I combined the spice flavours with a Garlic and soya bean oil used in bird feeds as it was supposedly an appetite stimulant. It was not for allicin, but simply because they were good attractors in their own right and work well combined. The additional benefits regarding digestion and health were a beneficial 'side effect'.

Great post. I completely agree. So what is it about this Garlic, spice honey combination? Synergy? Allicin? Higher receptor for certain ingredients?

Rod Hutchinson and Ken Townley have both made the point, coat a stone in a sweet flavour and it will be picked up, it is down to the rig whether you hook it or not. Carp don't have hands, to inspect an item physically they have to take it into their mouth. An item may taste like food, that can possibly be tested before they eat it, but to physically check hardness, they have to suck it in, or pick it up. A hard food item has to be taken to the back of the mouth to be crushed by the pharyngeal teeth, where smaller or softer items are often passed straight through the mouth, no additional crushing; although how a carp can consume a whole swan mussel and pass it through and out, and the flesh in the shell is eaten I don't know. Constant sucking and blowing, intake and ejection whether the food is attached to hook or not. No end of videos on YouTube or whatever channel you watch on showing that, be it boilies, maggots, sweetcorn or other particles. I have mentioned the 'super' high attract pop-ups, there are some attractors or flavours that almost force the take; N-butyric acid was one, Bromelain, (look up pineapple-n-butyric as a pop-up), but there are other attractors that at higher than standard levels will work in attractor baits, or in low levels in food baits. Incidentally, the high attractor level may cause the low level food bait to fail or blow. The attractor becomes a source of danger, and while carp don't think, continued hooking on the same flavour will get them to avoid it, for a period of time or permanently, or to inspect it carefully, at which point we have to look at the rigs again. Other attractors, may be a mix of enzymes or amino acids, could be flavours, chemical or natural, could even be something as simple as sweeteners like sacharrin. Sacharrin did cause cancers in tests on animals, but in the low levels we use, have not been considered a risk in humans. I have mentioned an attractor blend I love, Garlic Spice. Stinks, but catches.

I would hazard a guess that this above may be met with as much venom from some too? I double dare you. lol

Put this post on the “ other “ forum haha dare ya… Only heard of them through another forum. its easy to produce a bait that fish will pick up as carp will put anything in their mouth to try it. watch them in a tank. its marketing that sells now..

And therein lies much of the problem. Big bait companies have had an advantage; if I buy a kilo of semolina it's around £1.80, if a big bait company buys a tonne of semolina it will work out at a lot less per kilo, around £920 per tonne, so £0.90 per kilo. Do the same with every bait ingredient and my homemade bait costs double the price to produce. Billy one man bait company in his garage or shed, won't be buying fishmeal, semolina, liver powder or maize by the tonne! As a result his prices will be more than a big company. The days of Bill Cottam expanding from his (parents) garage to a large industrial unit are long gone. Bait and boilies specifically is a 'busy' market, and it seems anglers don't necessarily understand it, from the bait itself, to using it, and even the difference in cost of buying it from tackle shops or direct. Nutrabaits, Mainline, Nash Baits, CC Moore and others had a recommendation on food baits, and a recommendation on attractor baits (originally shelf lifes). Feed the food bait, continuously, prebait, and the carp will accept it and take it comfortably. Good results will follow. Attractor baits, use as that, don't fire in loads, maybe a few freebies around the hookbait, use the few to attract the carp to try the hookbait. Then along came the published 'Korda' method, (used earlier but Danny Fairbrass did well writing about it), put in plenty of pellets, and spod mix and get the carp feeding on that. At the same time we had the mega high attract hookbait, the single pop-up that got a take, or not. Fishing moves on and backwards, now we are using high attract baits, maybe with added hydrolysates, liquid glugs over spod mix in the hope that the fish pick it up first. The food bait is 'gone' for various reasons, cost of ingredients rising, becoming harder or impossible to get hold of and even big bait companies changing direction or disappearing. Lots of little bait companies pop-up, disappoint or disappear. They are able to charge silly money for baits because fewer anglers have loyalty to a company anymore.

Are we ok to mention bait companies? I guess it is a busy market out there. Gone are the days when it was only half a dozen bait companies to choose from. Every man and his dog seems to be producing something bait related.

As @salokcinnodrog said, never heard of them, but tbh have zero interest in yet another person selling £20 plus tubs of hookbaits 😂 One thing the bloke might have to really take into account is that these Tubs seem to be popping up - no pun inteaded - so many times now. As for catch reports, I very much doubt anyone on here has been to Gigantica 😂, Wraysbury.... etc etc @greekskii, you might choke on your keyboard, but have to say a certain bait bloke, once again I am not a Troll, has deff got the market for this stuff sown up as far as I can see, shame he never actually did a book about his early days carp fishing. I would have bought it 👍 So @Asterman, not sure if you are on here to promote the stuff, guessing you won't get much luck tbh?

They are only a small company, a one man band actually, so i guess his marketing is very low/small scale and targeted. I do follow on Face ache and Instagram. Caught some real big fish from Gigantica, loads from Wraysbury, Wingham etc.

Never heard of them! Not being funny, but 'getting good press'; advertising now is more dissipated as social media takes over. I used to be very up with knowing bait companies, but when even long time companies are falling by the wayside. I keep making this point, if you have a cake of 30centimetres across, with 5 companies taking a piece, each has a decent slice. Now the same cake with 10 companies taking a piece, the slice is smaller. That is what is happening to the tackle and bait trade.

Hi guys I hope that you are all well. Black spot Hookbaits seem to be getting a lot of very good press and are catching some really good fish home and abroad. Carl Pettit is the owner/ designer of these baits is a very competant angler and really knows his stuff. Has anyone had success with his bottom baits or pop ups since their release and are willing to share your results, views on these? Have a great weekend.

Great combination of products When needed.

Same. The original and best.

Thanks mate. I already have those Korda sleeves and beads. I'll go with the leadcore. Probably get the ESP bulk spool in silt. Thats the stuff I used back in the day. Cheers. 👍

I'd always go for leadcore unless distance is an issue in which case I'd go leadless. One thing I would say is get some Korda No-Trace beads, regardless of the type of leader you're using. An underrated product which imo doesn't get the praise it deserves.

Thanks Pal

Mainline straight through to the lead. I did all the experiments on leadcore years ago and the simple answer is, I don't use a leader at all unless fishing at maximum distance, and it's always with run rings and running leads. The leadcore especially wasn't safe, beads stick, rigs don't eject, and helisafe doesn't work as the leader needs the lead to stay on to eject the rig. In fact I don't even like helicopter setups as bite indication is so bad compared to inline or pendant setups.