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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.

I had that on my syndicate lake, for almost a whole year. I joined in September 2020, and did not catch a carp until August 2021, just before renewal when I had a double and a 20 in the same night. It was a stressful struggle. I got to the stage of if it could go wrong, it would go wrong. The next few years were gradually learning the lake, a few more carp, and pike in winter or on the occasional pop-up, but getting to understand the place. That learning, just when you think you have it sussed, it turns around and sends you gremlins.

I went through that too when I restarted. I've had about 5 sets of rods in the last 6 or 7 years, sonik, wychwood, daiwa, sonik, free spirit, In my opinion you are best off just buying the set you really want now and save yourself going through loads of cheap rods. I had 10ft 3lb soniks and within about 6 months of use they had gone a bit soft. Also the weather is now turning in your favour, just stick at it, find the fish, bait them and you will catch them,

I am having a bit of an issue with getting new rods, the lake i am fishing is proving to be dam near impossible to catch a carp, been at it since october and so far nothing and spent a small fortune on replacing my gear/new end tackle and so on, but there is the smaller pool on the complex that has plenty of fish and are catchable! Starting to feel like i should just call it a day on big lake and stick to small pool, and stop spending on all this gear, that said the Hutchy Sceptre rods are very well priced, decisions decisions

Where can I get info on carp fishing holidays in greece

really dont want 12 footers mate, im geared up for shorter rods with my little pit reels

Or look at The Enduro's if you want to look at12ft. I know they are 12ft, but not a bad price: https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product-category/sale/

Don't forget that hydrolysates can also be solids (!). Certain fish meals, beef meals and other proteins are types of hydrolysate, so can be used in the mix. I have mentioned about eggs being the 'curtain' that stops the soluble proteins being released, although there is a but; in solid ingredient mixes with low protein ingredients, the soaking in a liquid hydrolysate may make the bait attractive even if the solid bait itself is just a ball of carbohydrates. Now make the same semolina base mix, but instead of using eggs mix in liquidised fish, liver, or squid or both. They don't keep well out of freezing, but the attraction is the enzymes that are breaking down the protein for easy digestion. Those three alone are natural hydrolysates!

Depends what you are trying to achieve, i thought the reason the liquid was added first was to get it right into the mix. My point was about trying to get a liquid right into the boilie post boil. I've always done pretty well when washing them out with a hydro mixed with some water, maybe the fact they ooze attraction and become fully saturated helps.

I saw those cheap on ebay recently.

might get a set of Rod Hutchinson Sceptre