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Yep Ben said you're gonna capsize us lol He's not happy in the massive boat on the pike ressies either tbh 😄

I laughed about the boat... my sons were the same. Scared of getting wet??? Glad you had a good time mate

View OF the bivvy doors - this is camp from the last trip, thankfully the trees left side of the swim covered us from mid morning until 7pm. We moved the Nash tarp and used as a wall to block the early morning sun - worked a treat. 👍

At Brackens I knew everyone else was going to recast around 6pm at night, so I would make sure I had my baits in place long before that, and use their disturbance to move the fish out of their areas. Quite frequently I would get fish about 8 o-clock at night while they blanked. I also try not to change hookbaits, even after a fish. The smell of 'me' is gone, the first fish found it acceptable, so changing it might upset that. That attitude also comes with me now at the end of a session. My pop-ups are already counterbalanced, on floss and lighter blobbed, so don't come off unless pulled. I can quite easily just attach a fresh bag or stringer without actually touching the bait. The only time Sky goes silly, talking and jumping, when someone comes to visit, and most people she loves, but there are one or two who she is not keen on for some reason, possibly because they are nervous about her. I don't mind the majority of people if they move in next door, but sometimes there are some you wish hadn't. I make sure Sky is on bark mode, lol. I try to spot fish, and if I do have to move in next to someone I will just stringer and one cast rather than make a massive disturbance.

In the 1990's Daiwa and Shimano came up with the idea of one major tackle shop in the region supplying the rest. That major tackle shop got the biggest discount, who then sold on at a reduced discount to 'local' tackle shops. The smaller tackle shops did not want to buy from the biggest shop. Local shops preferred to buy stock out of the region. It partly caused the rise of the mail order shops being able to sell cheaper than the local shops, and created the argument about retail recommended price to the mainstream. Then you had the rise Fishing Republic and Angling Direct who were tackle shop groups that got big quick

This is something that bothers me always has and something that came up on a recent Korda Podcast where Dovey of all people admitted to doing it all the time. To me this is pure noddy! Re-casting at dusk, what is that about?!?! Was taught early on you get the rods set and leave them ready for the key bite times with no disturbance i.e dawn and evening into dusk. So on what planet does it make sense to reel in during bite time, cause commotion and smash the lead back out for no reason whatsoever? We find a spot were happy with, cast accurately, use rigs we know present and reliable bait that stays as it should, it washes out (ages) along with the freebies and can stay out for the duration of your trip, unless you suspect something has got away with it. Why would anyone re-cast at key times when you should be sitting on your hands - it's beyond me tbh - smacks of not being confident with all of your previous steps so doubts have set in, if not that why would you want a fresh hookbait that now looks alien to the rest? Stupidity IMO

Awesome @kevtaylor

Went back to Belgium Carp Arena Lilly Pool late July-Aug and was regretting the booking in the run up with the extreme heat forecasts. First day set up camp and got my son fishing and he got off the mark with 2 x 30s within the first 12 or so hours so all pressure was off. Sunday I got my rods sorted and didnt take long to get off the mark too with another low 30. The heat midweek killed the action but we got a couple late on in the week. We ended up with 7 for me including the biggest in the lake and 4 for my son. Mega week for me practicing boat skills to drop rigs, bait up and play a few that became weeded up, my son loved the bait boat and wasnt keen on the actual boat as he felt unsafe with me moving all over the place trying to help him hand line fish out of the weed etc. Tactics were my low pop-up rigs, match the hatch baits and small scatterings of boilies which seemed to work well considering the conditions. No night bites which seemed odd but great, all fish came between first light upto 10pm with 7am - 10am the most productive. Will go back coz I love the boating element and a lake exclusive.

Is that you Ollie? 🤪

Poingestres Southampton closed with immediate effect retirement.

I had this last year as the lake I was on had a lot of catkins and they dropped into the lake causing a huge raft of drifting debris. It was so thick that I had to stop retrieving the reel after about 10 turns and carefully bite it off the line. Unfortunately the berg became saturated and dropped to the bottom and sucked in oxygen out of the water and at least 25 carp perished. All the catkin trees were removed and the lake pruned to prevent the worst of the leaf litter problem.

Exactly! What's wrong with these people? 🤣

Well done for rising above all the provocations and triumphing . I mean did these numpties not realise from your hat that they were dealing with a serious carper ?. 😁

Tru dat, didn't give them an inch to hide lol

You've certainly got the swim covered lad!

Last week in Belgium, rods far and wide on a lake booking between me and my son.

With the big pit covered in a giant weedberg on the end of the wind where I wanted to be, I decided to pop to the local day ticket for my monthly session. I experienced all the highs and lows associated with such places - plenty of carpy activity but got casted over, spombed at, hemmed in...... but all's well that ends well. Caught a few with these being the prettiest. The linear is typical of the stock of this water, but the other one is a true leather. Quite a rarity nowadays.

From a few years ago.

Although I've no real need to buy bait I would most definitely give these consideration if I did, I know a few lads using them and only hear positive comments about them on very difficult waters too.

This is a tricky one to respond to. When I lived in Surrey - many years ago - there were 3 main tackle shops I used to visit and buy stuff from. KC Angling (Sutton): Long gone now and a very big help to me when as a Junior and match fished with LDAS club, Kenny Collins an absolute legend for help and advice, and also an England International Steve Gardner worked there too. Used to buy my Casters, maggots and hemp on a Saturday ready for fishing on Sunday. Gerrys of Wimbledon: An iconic shop, stocked everything at the time anyone could possibly want, prices were always top rate but the help advice was always great, I believe it has now been sold and a furniture store now? RoseHill Angling: Very small local shop, long since gone However: Cheam Angling: Still going strong I believe and moved across the road from it's tiny shop I remember it was. Do I use tackle shops? Very rarely now as tbh I don't need any more rods / reels / nets / alarms etc. I might nip in my local shop very rarely for hooks and a bit of a moan but obviously that won't keep them in buisness. It really needs a good web site, socials etc to keep the on street shops going I suspect? Having said that, Flea Bay, Amazon and a Google search brings up so many options for buying fishing stuff now

No digital stuff in those days as you know, I do have a few more but seems hard to believe now but a 'roll of film' only had 24 or 36 pics to take, oh and the wait to get them back from boots! 😃

Yes it was, there were a few others in the South too - now closed Bury Hill springs to mind - 'any method Trout fishing' 😂 At that time the South West didn't have a close season I remember?

I've been known to move swims if someone shows up next door with a mallet and a ten billion lumen headtorch. Can't be doing with that. Tbf I'm not bothered if someone moves in next door and they're quiet and show etiquette. If I see fish in an empty swim I'll move in there regardless of who else is about, but I'd be mindful of the situation. For example, I'd not cast out at bite time if there's guys on the fish next to me.