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It's only light hearted fun mate 😂

I did rig trials in Dec taking my stiff hinge pop-up rig and adapting (longer/straighter) for bottom baits and wafters. I got 3 takes on it, all drop backs which indicated to me that they were the bigger fish (proper Kingy fish always do this) but all shook the rig before I connected. Whilst this was disappointing I feel that the rig actually worked OK hooking the fish in the first place, they always come towards you and shake it free anyway (barbless) so really the problem was the semi fixed lead. I clocked this and changed over to running set-ups but no more takes to prove the theory. In a recent video Myles Gibson was trying a very similar rig. Probably going to be Dec again before I come off the pop-ups and onto wafters and continue the experiment again.

Your choice mate, deff not going into this anymore 🖐️

Rigs are all tied and ready on the pb jelly wire, did alright with the the jelly wire previously so it's my first choice, all sitting in the box having a straightener, pretty much ready to go bar the arrival sandwich I take for afternoon lunch on the first day.

I think that the stiff coated braid was wrong for the multi-rig over that area of lakebed, and the hook sits wrong. It might work in other spots, or maybe a standard braid would have been better, but a hookpull is a hookpull, and I analysed it thus. I thought that over particles the fish would pick everything up, but I think that the stiffness stopped it being taken in properly, whereas the braided reverse combi could be sucked in. The reverse combi rig I had one take today, and the hook was well in the mouth, so definitely was the right choice for that spot. Oh, and relevant to another thread, it was cast out in a PVA bag of mixed pellets and chops/crumbled boilies. It is weird that despite the right and middle rods being at the same distance how the lakebed is different within 10metres. I do check presentation for the rigs in the margins and at times on the spots.

Don't admit that, when I changed from a slip D back to a spinner rig after a hook pull I got loads of beef. 😬

I'm still using both the 360⁰rig and the reverse combi rig, and both still catching. I've tried a Multi-rig for the pop-up slivers over maize and birdfood, but did lose a fish to a hookpull, so went back to the other rigs, and specifically the reverse combi over the particles. I've shortened the fluorocarbon section over particles, to no more than 10mm.

I have the wychwood epic oval mat great bit of kit just too heavy for my style of fishing great if I’m”carmping” though

How you doing? This session was a rather decent one, despite managing to leave my hookbait bucket at home with my medium Spomb in it. I spent an hour cursing and swearing as I used the small Spomb to put a bucket of maize and birdfood in. The first night produced a tench of around 6lb on a straight out of the bag bottom bait, which somehow managed to go across the middle rod. The 2nd night was quiet. Last night around 11pm I had a strange occurrence on the middle rod, it pulled to the right, with what appeared to be a run, but there was nothing there, so I recast with a fresh stringer. At 3am I had the same thing happen again. I think that it was a goose or swan swimming through the line just in front of my rod tips, or a swan picking the hookbait up. A couple of miscasts with stringers, but 3rd time lucky. I was sat drinking coffee and eating breakfast when the rod went with a 22lb mirror, one of last years stocking, and a 10lb weight gain. Caught on a 360 rig with a meshed 15mm Nutty Bait pop-up with a stringer of 6x 18mm Nutty Bait boilies. This morning I was starting to tidy up ready to pack up when the right hand rod went, which was the rod over the maize, and managed a rather nice 26lb mirror on the 'sliver' of Monster Crab pop-up on a reverse combi rig. This fish was from the 2021 stocking and went in at 11lb.

Wychwood do a similar mat that's decent, they do a walled one and inside it has a removable oval mat, I actually just have the oval mat and that's decent, it has a slightly concaved middle recessed bit and also a mesh that can go over the fish if it flaps to hold it down. I guess it's similar to the thinking anglers one https://www.wychwoodcarp.co.uk/products/fish-care/unhooking-mats

Booked in for Sunday, they reckon it's boilie and pellet only, yeah I'm taking a lot of sweet corn... and boilie, I know,.. I pre booked even picked picked my peg, been before but not in a while, I'm trying to stay local so it really limits specimen carp waters. I had a look a Bishops Bowl but they have a lot of filling in work going on so the actual specimen lake is pretty much closed unless you fancy a bit of a hike,I have never fancied Mitre pool it's a bit like Barston, if the rod goes at 4am might be a good un but more than likely not. So Dog Lane is looking good, I was thinking about Mineral lake but they have Sturgeon to 180lb I think I will give that a miss shame as there are some really big carp in there. So it's two rods on what is a margin venue from what I can work out, bait boats are very popular and no one uses a boat to fish the margins, I like my peg choice as well, nothing to the right of me and the next two pegs to my left are empty and have been hemed in by myself and whoever is in the third peg to my left. Shame they don't draw pegs on the day as it's a 10am start for all anglers arriving on that day. Food for me will be simple, a breakfast and shake before I leave home and a few bit for the evening the next day will be porridge and pot noodle. I'm thinking, get there for 10, set up and sit back real quite in the hop the fish come into a less pressured area with lots of corn to hold them, see what the fish are doing before putting my rods out around late afternoon time. I'm in a slight bay swim so can set up back a bit. It is a nice venue nothing built up or main roads near by, the old fellas son runs the place, I used to get on alright with his dad, as in he would let me do overnight without a bivvy just a tent. Although Dog Lane is said to hold over 250 large carp, they don't always show up from what I can gather off recent online reports I got rigs to tie, well booms to attach to spinner and loop rigs, will be using PB jelly wire as it's a clear flat bottom something very supple would be my choice I've a feeling it don't take much in the way of rigs standing up or bows of floro in the hook length to see them do the offski.

another evening, another few hours spent by the lake side

If your after a well made,super light walled on the floor mat that's well padded ,folds up quick and is a realistic pack down look at the Carper tackle speedflex mat I like it...

Removable base so if you fish a water where sides are not needed you can leave that bit at home

Thinking anglers new one looks pretty good maybe the walls could do with being slightly higher but still 100mm https://fb.watch/A9qijnzvSU/?

I would then fill it in with spombs,marker floats, deeper etc when I was leaving let them know exactly what it’s like… that’ll learn em

Brand new alarms and pod left in swim when packing van up and having to go back jag compact pod set up (in grey when they first came out) and ace i3 alarms total of about a grand lol about the worst

Cant say i really make mistakes other than fishing this ruddy club lake that i used to fish and thought i new how to get a few out, but not really got a lot of choice so have to stick with endless blanks and dont help doing days only rather than sessions but night tickets are a long wait and i dont have bivvy and stuff no more

I've done that one, and required a hospital visit for a grass splinter in the eye. As for other stupid mistakes, leaving the tackle box at home a few times, requiring journeys home to pick it up from Weybread No.1, Suffolk Water Park and Earith. I've left my rucksack at home, and this trip my hookbait bucket which also contained my medium Spomb. Not checked a combi-rig knot after landing a fish, I just recast and on the next take the hooklink parted at the knot. I've forgotten how many times I've fallen in from leaning over too far, a couple of times from a tree, and the numbers of pairs of sunglasses I have watched go 'plop' from the top of a tree, although at Yew Tree I did manage to recover a pair that fell off. Oh yes, the wading one, I even had a wading stick in hand, but as I waded back to land a large pike decided I was invading it's territory and went for the stick and me. I fell backwards and over the top of my chesties in water up to my chest. Oh yes, and I think possibly the worst, leaving my insect repellant at home and getting a bite that caused the blood poisoning which despite not being a disease, caused the life threatening illness I had last year.

I don't know families are over rated 🤣

Put your shades on if pushing through undergrowth or climbing trees, you don't want to have something go in your eye during a trip 👍 Can you tell I'm accident prone yet? 🤣

For me it's the things I forget like: mug, frying pan, leads although I have all except frying pan spare in the car now and gotta remember to put the spare mug back in the car from last trip. Also forgot my sling and mat at Bluebell but luckily borrowed one off Trev the bailiff 👍 Have I lost a fish due to not checking the line - maybe I imagine, must have happened at some point. Stupid things: stepping into 2inch of water just past the reeds, ended up sinking upto my shoulders in silt - very very scary, never go in without a prodding stick, falling in several times - head first once whilst reaching to clip backleads on, climbing a tree in waders - never do this the grip isn't there and never climb a tree whilst on a lake alone and over the water - I literally could have fallen and hit my head and noone would have known until the next day at the earliest.

Aqua do 3 nice mats, one rolls up small, one has a recess that prob acts like sides and ones a mat/sling. Cotswold do a nice one too but with prices in the 90 - 150 bracket might give it a miss as what I've got is in decent condition still, I'd be buying for the sake of buying which is not like me 🤣

That's brilliant - bro's ended up attacking each others swims 🤣 It's one thing moaning about others and getting on with it, plotting their downfall all week is likely to lead to mental health probs! You should write a book, I bet you've got some great memories 👍

I'd say my first 3 or 4 years on there were my best, it then became a circus and at times unpleasant. Sad really , as Yonny rightly says, " it's just fishing".