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Good evening all, so this trip came about after my sons have come to visit for the last few days and my younger son wanted to get the rods out at the park lake. So last night found us winding our way down to see what was occurring. we were trying to get on the night before, but the available swims were all taken, so the following morning saw the boy and I hurriedly chucking the gear into the motor and driving, whilst becoming increasingly frustrated, through the school run traffic to the park lake. Now the night before, I hadn’t slept well, the baby has his first sniffle, and every time I closed my eyes, I could see serried ranks of carp anglers lining the banks, with no room for the boy and I, which would have been a bitter disappointment for him as he only had limited time before he needed to travel back for work - hence the rushed and stressful arrival at the park lake! Before the car had even stopped rolling, the boy was kicked out the door like a paratrooper jumping from a plane with a couple of buckets and my voice shouting “run!” ringing in his ears as he scarpered down the path and through the fishery gates to secure a couple of swims before the dreamed of carpy hoards arrived. I started unloading the car as the boy came sauntering back up the path, “I don’t know what the rush was dad, every swim is empty!” Still, the swim he loves was bucketed, as was the swim next door. (One, coincidentally, I hate!) but this trip was about him, so as long as he was happy, I’d make it work. As we set up, the hurried bomb-burst from the house soon proved to have been unwise, as I had left my spod and marker rods, as well as the water container and food bags behind! Now the boy went into his favourite (and mine) swim, where he has had 95% of his captures from and where my 3 fish hit from last week was from and was soon wrapping up, prepping his gear and chucking up his brolly, whereas I sat scowling at the swim my boy had bucketed for me, the bucket looking forlorn in the corner. I really didn’t like this swim, I’ve never found any spot that do bites with any regularity and I always feel as though I may as well close my eyes and pub chuck the rods any old where. Having a quick wander up the bank found me in a swim that always looks good, I know the spots that produce, I’ve seen them there, but my luck never runs, the fish either get caught just before or after I’m there! In fact, since 1997 fishing the lake on and off, I’ve never caught from this swim, although I know it can do the biz. The barrow was moved into the new swim, rods and home set up and before I could get them out, it was back to the car to drive the 10min drive home to collect the stuff I’d left behind. Once back on the lake, the X4 Horizons were soon sending the 3.5oz lead to the overhanging bushes on the far margin where they thudded down onto firm clay/pebble/concrete (this is a disused man made reservoir with a concrete “ring” jutting 2-3 rod lengths out before giving way to silt - the years have mellowed the concrete and a layer of clay and gravel now cover most of it) the newly collected marker rod showed 8ft of water level with the overhanging bushes, distance 18.5 wraps @12ft (no idea how many yards that is) I opted to initially bang a 7 bait stringer on each rod, rigs being fox cortex coated braid to size 6 esp barbless claw hammer hooks slip D style. My boy was nicely set up on the hard patch that weeks of prebaiting, spodding hemp/pellet and fishing over has improved nicely. Distance was a lovely 8.5 wraps with 14ft over it. Three (not immediately obvious) landmarks on the far horizon made recasts easy, the firm crack as the lead sank marked the spot. with the rods out, I set about wrapping up the spod to 18 wraps (taking into account swing back of the lead at this range) and tried to put out a bed of hemp, pellet, sweetcorn and whole/halved/crumbed homemade boilies onto a spot, but whether it was the blustery wind, the tackle or (most likely) my utter ineptitude on the day, I don’t know, but I think only 60-70% landed on target! On other occasions, in this swim, to this spot, I’ve not had this problem. I found I really had to “step into” the cast to get it flying. As the spod crashed into the surface over the left hand rod, this same rod started trickling off, “damn it!” I’ve picked up the line with the spod! Then the middle rod started going too! Realising that I’d had a take, which had kited and picked up my middle rod, I struck and was soon bent into a carp. The fight was fraught with issues, as at one point I had the spod, middle rod and a long length of unidentified line trailing all over the shop! My boy came to my aid by carefully retrieving each rod in turn before slipping the net under a lovely common, where the unidentified line was, well, identified! Nestled in the bottom corner of the fishes mouth, near to my size six embedded in the bottom centre of the lip was another rig! It had a fused leader, a lead clip with the tail rubber pushed on so tight that the 4oz lead hadn’t discharged! There was about 30yrds of thick, 20-25lb mono attached. Once that rubbish had been removed and bagged up, he was hoisted up for a happy snap. scraping 21lb, I was well made up! I’d finally caught one from this swim!! A day bite too, which is a rarity. My son was muttering something about me making a hard lake look easy, but it’s been 25+yrs of learning the place that had led to this string of captures, knowledge that he is reaping the benefits of too. As the day wore on, what came apparent was that the number of anglers who had booked on for the night hadn’t bothered to show up, so as it drew on to early evening, the spod was wrapped to 8 wraps and the boy soon had a nice bed of bait out, ready for the late evening/early hours bite window. The carp drop away from the shady margins and into open water spots at night to feed up. My son’s swim was soon fizzing like a jacuzzi, fish evident by topping and subtle head shows in the moonlight. My boy was being pestered by bream, but was rewrapping and restringering after every one, although he did swap the usual 12mm hook baits for “mega-baits” boilies of 30-40mm (and larger) that my daughter rolls from the scag ends. Some of them are like ping pong balls, but they do deter the slabs! He got his head down at about midnight after swapping his beloved mini microns for my spare delkims as they were low on battery. I too, was soon in the land of nod. At 2am, the shrill warbling tone of a delk split the night, my boy was into a carp! It soon went boring down the margins, but he had the better of it and it rolled into the net without too much problem. it was a gnarley old beast, weighing in at a respectable 26lb. That was the last of the action for each of us, although we couldn’t complain. We had both had a fish. It was an early wrap up on the dawn of a busy day, so by 8am, the lake saw only our backsides as we headed up the path and back to the car. caught on the astronomical start of Autumn, my favourite time of year!

Good luck fellas 🍀 🤞

Back on it, 3 nights - full moon coming, fingers crossed, not seen any yet, but didn't last week either. Very happy with all 3 rods this time 🤞

🤞🤞🤞

quick park lake overnighter

I found Baz's Bees honey by 'accident'. I used to fish Alton Water and as I drove through Tattingstone noticed the honesty box next to the bus stop. At the time there was a QR code for direct payments. If I can buy surplus eggs or fresh fruit direct I am happy to support. Anyway this honesty box had jars of honey in, so out came my £5 into the tin. Since then whenever I drive through Tattingstone I have a look see if he has any for sale, and return the cleaned jars. Otherwise I buy honey from my greengrocers or Jimmy's Farm. If you have a local farm shop or garden centre or nursery they might have a supplier who is local.

I wanted to buy some locally produced honey as it can help with hay fever apparently, getting you used to the local pollens. Sadly the FB seller didn't send me the link I needed to pay - but interesting all the same.

Only the best!

Bargain..... Manuka Health NZ MGO 950+ Rare High Grade Manuka Honey 250g | H&B

If you’re not lathering your catches in the highest grade Manuka then you can’t call yourself an angler imo.

Yeah was a nice steady take on a fairy tight clutch, then when I got to the rod and tighened further made some savage lunges taking line in spurts making it's way over to the far margin. I was nervous about the trees in the water off the island but turned it and got it half way back (think that was more it's decision) then it kited left all the way around the point into the left nearside channel and tried to find snags in the near margin, treelined again obvs. Nerve jangling moment again but got it back bit by bit - no rubbing on branches - probably because the water is 3ft down. Then of course it picked up the left rod fished single style into the left nearside channel, making it impossible to bring fully over the net. Bail arm off and with another go it went in the net. Glad you asked it was proper scary tbh especially as I was expecting a blank lol. Hopefully more to follow fingers crossed doing 3 nights instead this week from thursday, going for it and baited up as I left. Heard another good fish roll after the fish and having that one made me think the big common must have been there that night, maybe having a few boilies too - close but no cigar! It's coming - feeling it 🤞

Nice one @kevtaylor I hope it fought as mean as it looks. Proper warrior that one

Cheers Kev. 👍

For comparison, I'm 6ft with a 34 inch waist, bought the Large which fits OK but could also have gone for the XL You will not be disappointed with these - so warm, you'll not need the coat.

Thanks Yonny. 👍

Maybe, but to be clear, propolis does not contain honey. It's a completely different substance.

I know honey itself is one of the healthiest substances available. There are a few c&p's coming: Due to honey's high sugar concentration and acidic pH level many microorganisms cannot grow in it Honey is a folk treatment for burns and other skin injuries. Preliminary evidence suggests that it aids in the healing of partial thickness burns 4–5 days faster than other dressings, and moderate evidence suggests that post-operative infections treated with honey heal faster and with fewer adverse events than with antiseptic and gauze.[103] The evidence for the use of honey in various other wound treatments is of low quality, and firm conclusions cannot be drawn. Antibiotic Honey has long been used as a topical antibiotic by practitioners of traditional and herbal medicine.[108][109] Honey's antibacterial effects were first demonstrated by the Dutch scientist Bernardus Adrianus van Ketel in 1892.[110][111] Since then, numerous studies have shown that honey has broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, although potency varies widely between different honeys. Sorry about the Wikipedia numeric references left in place, but Wikipedia was the easiest place to confirm my own understanding. Mind you I WILL NOT be covering hookholds in honey, I love it too much on toast or with peanut butter in sandwiches, (blame my daughter Lily for that one). The other thing with honey is that supermarket honey has been found to be 'fake', so I always get mine from a local supplier; an honesty box in Tattingstone (Baz's Bees) or greengrocers who have another local supplier. Would set or runny be better for hookholds?

Probably doesn't help at all but I'm 6 ft 4 and got XL. They fit fine, if anything slightly too big which I like. This is off the Fortis website: Size Guide Elasticated Waist (inches) S: 30″ M: 32″ L: 34″ XL: 36″ XXL: 38″ XXXL: 40″ Inside Leg (inches) S: 29.8″ M: 30.8″ L: 31.8″ XL: 32.8″ XXL: 32.8″ XXXL: 32.8″

I don't think that's 100% accurate. I had a look at the report that this article is based on when it was first published and (I think*) I recall it was looking strictly at propolis products rather than all carp care treatments. I have mentioned several times on here, way before this stuff was published, that I question the use of propolis in angling. The use of propolis originates in koi keeping. It creates a barrier on the wound to lock out any nasties rather than act as an antibacterial/antifungal solution (although dodgy marketing from the tackle firms would have you believe otherwise). This barrier effect is fine when a koi is living in a posh pond with clean, filtered water with controlled salinity. Not so fine for a carp lake - my opinion is that you risk locking nasties IN to any wound. There are other (non-propolis) carp care treatments options available that are genuine antibacterial/antifungal treatments. How effective they are is open to debate but one thing is for sure - they cannot do any harm to the fish. Even if it washes off straight away you can be safe in the knowledge that the hook-hold or wound was completely free of anything that could result in infection when you send mr carp home. My overall opinion is: we don't really need to use treatments, but if the right treatment is used, it cannot be a bad thing. Propolis is actually the "mortar" that bees use to build there hives! I think it's a mix of beeswax, bees spit, and plant resin. Clever little [censored]s aint they!

I used to fish a little place in France and the fish mouths and bodies were always immaculate. Just using an iodine solution. you could see where the fish had been mouth hooked before as there was a yellow mark around the hook hold.

Hi, I'm looking to buy the Tundra salopettes by Fortis online. I Would like to know what size fits best for a person that is about 5.9ft tall, 30 inch leg and 15 stone. Does anyone have these thats's a similar size to me? Cheers.

I go back to my previous comment about water quality, if the water is good the fish will heal naturally. I did think that maybe the propolis may be good, being as it's made from honey and used by koi keepers I believe but even that sounds un-proven in the report. A baillif in Belgium asked me to treat the hookhold of one whilst we were about to take pics, thankfully I had a kit with me.

I was reading through the thread that I think Andy ( @crusian ) started on Carp care treatment and recalled the advice not to use them from a scientific perspective. If anyone is interested here is a link to the webpage: https://www.ukfishingschool.co.uk/post/carp-care-liquids I must confess, I did stop using Kryston every time as I was wondering about whether it worked as 'it says on the tin'. I have had a couple of recaptures, and spoken to other anglers who have caught fish I had caught and I can honestly say of those fish there is no apparent mouth damage, and a few of them have been out regularly.

https://youtu.be/7bL7Zjcxa54?is=rWWvadn-Z2SNBYH1 nick helleur has it right. I believe things were better back then too .

Now this has made the forum even better for me. A bikers chat 👌 I've had my 1998 Yamaha thundercat since 2016 . Been all over the uk on her , been through great times and bad times and she's carried me through heartbreak and a divorce . Many great friends and family have been made because this old girl. Bikerlife 🖤