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You know what... you're right mate. I ditched them on Northey because it's all close in stuff. They'll be great on the big pit.

Be handy on the pit when the wind is up. You might have to dig them out so I can see what ancient relics look like 😂

Yes! I have a couple of sets of these. They look great but the heads are very heavy. No good for close range stuff. I ditched them for some of the original Solar heads. So, so light.

About £15 a pop, and Korda 3x 25mm were the cheapest for my Solar heads. I had to buy 3 to fit my old Solar indicators after I broke an IPRO head. Perfect world I now want some clear shrink tube to go over them... Custom Reel King or Matrix might be worthwhile.

Thank you so much. Frantic googling will now ensue ! Cheers Ian

I think Keith @ defiant mps does them

Hi having returned to using light weight swingers from using bobbins on chains for many years. The swing arms I have purchased have a 5mm male thread at each hinged end. I would like to carry on using my old illuminated bobbins (Osprey Kryptonites remember them?) As a result I am trying to find an adaptor that is 5mm thread female down to a 2BA male (3 of). Ironically Solar do one that goes 5mm male to 2BA female lol. Anyone know of anywhere that can supply these as putting isotopes in the supplied heads doesn`t appeal, have you seen the price of isotopes these days !!!! Cheers Ian

Also think groats, bit of an old skool thing, might also soak this stuff up too, if you can be bothered with it all now

I remember those days mate, "You can add these liquids to your spod mix, your particles, your powdered groundbait, your pellets." Agree with the groundbait, maybe glugging air dried boilies too, if anyone ever does that now? Tbh, otherwise a waste of time and effort...... Tin hat on! 👍

Not always like that Ian, A fantastic swim for floater fishing back in the day, before flying rats arrived 👍 Just if anyone is actually interested, back then it was an early fox bed chair, think an Argos sleeping bag and a blanket on top...... did me ok at the time 😟

I can see why it's called Winter Bay. Ian.

There you are , Newmarket , David Sullivan gone ! . 😃

Based in West Sussex mate, My main venue now is a certain group of club lakes off A27, have to say it's not what it used to be ...... sign of the times I guess, lovely big beds of pads ripped out and slowly turning into brown puddle lakes ☹️

not sure on the one in blackboys

Yes Myles I believe the owners name is; very small lake. There's also Park Fishery up near Blackboys if you know it?

i’ve heard of it, run by mayfly aqua care i believe. Not much info around on it though

Do you know about Longreed?

legend 👌🏻

I've not forgotten Jack, my mate is finding out for you. He did say it has got very tricky there but some decent sized fish to try for..

The new Bulin T4 is in use. I think that I paid £20 for the original when I was fishing on Alton Water, so that makes it at least 5years ago. Not a bad life for it to wear away with plenty of use. The new one despite shopping around did cost £31 though. Despite having the piezo ignition, the carbon builds up on the burner so it eventually stops sparking, or the button sticks, so I always have a lighter.

It's wonderful to obtain firsthand information and experience shared by European anglers. This is a fantastic forum with plenty of kind people.

As @yonny says, your eyes are the most important tackle item you have, although I do sometimes set up without seeing fish, on a 'hunch', in a swim I have been baiting or down to what I expect from the weather forecast. Although I do sometimes get it wrong that hunch often pays off. It may be that without realising it I have noticed some sort of indication that there are fish in the area. You may walk around and see obvious signs, coloured water, bubbles, fins breaking the surface, even rolling and jumping, they are obvious reasons to set up in an area. When I am in my swim, my binoculars are always close to hand, but I also put store on hearing fish. At night I spend plenty of time just listening to the lake while I read a book, you can hear fish crashing, which can give you the need to move or recast towards them. I don't own any of the technical equipment you mention. My bottom substrate composition finder is a marker float and lead. The lead on the marker rod, cast out and retrieved slowly tells me the lake bed, if it is weedy, silty, gravel, sand or clay. Each feels different. Cast the marker float and lead out. If the lead goes into silt it will plug, and need a fair pull to move, it then glides back but feeling 'sticky'. Hit a gravel patch it's like wheels going over a cobbled road, sand and clay is like a smooth road. Cast into clay, the lead may stick, but then pull and glide easily. Look at the lead when you have reeled in, clay and silt will often stick to the lead, weed will be caught up around it. Hit weed with a cast and it can stick, reel in, it feels like it is pulling back. Any of those spots you can normally find the depth by letting the float up to the surface, although weed is difficult. Do I think about bait? Yes and no! Sounds silly, but! If I am fishing over particles I don't normally want a big boilie, I want a bait the same sort of size as the particles, so maybe a 8-12mm boilie. If I'm fishing boilies I use the same boilie as my free baits. I know my boilies are acceptable, I know that the fish eat them. What works on one lake will normally work on another. To be honest, the main reason I change what boilies I use is down to baits becoming unavailable or occasionally just because it doesn't seem to be working. Originally when I joined Brackens Pool I was using Smokey Mackeral, and it worked. The company I was testing for gave me a new bait, I just could not get it to catch, so I I had to change. That new bait did work on other waters and was released, it just didn't work on Brackens. I was using KMG on Nazeing Meads and Alton Water and I loved it, it was catching me fish from both, and on Nazeing, possibly the garlic element was reducing crayfish interest (not sure, don't know, but I had less problems than with other fishmeal boilies), I took it to Botesdale, and started catching on it, then the bait company stopped making it. Again, I could not get confident in the new bait, hence a change to Shrimp, which I have caught on within 3 trips on a very temperamental water.

Just watch any video with terry Hearn in it Most of the time the fish are not on the bottom anyway so most of that can be discounted at times of the day watch for strange movements in weeds look for bubbles. look for bow waves. find one and you will usually find more once you know HOW to look. use the wind and follow it down or across the lake.

Yes, nothing at all on the Witney bank at that time, except for a wooded footpath. Remember an old "newsletter" we used to get that suggested the CS wanted to somehow put 'islands' in the middle of Winter Bay, obviously never came to anything 😂 Think they wanted to / did some sort of stock pond on the trout bank around that time too?

I have polarized sunglasses and binoculars. I’ve never tried observing from a tree, but thanks for bringing that up; it’s helped me see just how important this is.