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Thanks mate, that's deffo some food for thought, I've been thinking of rolling a shelf life bait, had a little look into preservatives but never got round to it, easier just to put them in the freezer 🤣 I've seen a few companies are now storing their baits in rock salt as a shelf life. Any thoughts on that? Speaking of salt, seen a couple lads spombing pure rock salt onto a spot, surely there's only so much you can put out before it becomes harmful for them?

Shock horror i managed to winkle out a little carp from the smaller pond, i was fishing mainly a bunch of maggots on size 10 hook with 10ft Diawa spinning rod and small freespool reel caught an Ide about 1.75lb, then a snotty (the Ide was a new species for me) i was just packing up and went to switch of bite alarm when it sounded a full on run, landed this nice little mirror just under 10lb but sadly the rod snapped for an unknown reason, might just be its age

Its time to move on to a different rod TBH some pretty big carp in little pond up to high doubles better to use a barbel rod or light carp rod in there

Could always try eBay!

It's how a lot of boilies are being made shelf life now, a mix of glycerine, sugar and boiling water before drying. The glycerine stops the boilies from drying totally and with the sugar is I think an attractor.

odd one today, fishing small pond and hooked a sub 10lb mirror carp, steady fight soon in the net, fish on the unhooking mat and top section of rod had snapped, this was not a carp rod but a Diawa Proteus 10ft spinning rod rated to 100g casting weight, had loads of carp to mid doubles on these rods, have to wonder had rod been damaged in the past causing the break, rod is now fit for bin, cant see me getting a new top section as not been produced for a good few years

Boiling with sugar and water sounds interesting, do you think the boilies take on the sweetness? I remember reading somewhere about using garlic cloves in your boiling water 👍

This time of year drives me mad mate, it feels like it should go off but it doesn't lol. One of my local lakes they just bask on the top all day, massive groups of them, 30 - 40 fish, chuck a floater out and they ain't even interested 🤣 roll on August and September 👌

Anyone used these reels? I'm looking at getting a set for my 9ft scopes. Or does anyone have any suggestions? Don't need anything too big, they are for the river and short range fishing 👍

I found this last night in the Andy Little book 'My Passion For Carp' page 58: "The bait I used was very similar to the one I had used at Darenth during the previous winter........... I had slightly changed the original nix of Casien, Lactalbumin, Calcium Casinate and Gluten etc. In the new mix I substituted some of the lighter milk protiens with Semolina........ ended up with a heavier Casein, Semolina and Gluten" Goes on to say it had a maple flavour, 20ml in a 10oz mix!! also says he used to add granulated sugar in boiling water as a sweetner!

I've not read Kempastini Book of Baits, so can't say it is in there. In Big Carp, Chris Ball chapter, I'll Let you be in My Dreams had a bait recipe for that water that Andy Little came up with. Andy Little has written a number of articles and books, and I have read a fair few, so it could be one of them. I don't know if it has been mentioned but soy sauce is something I add to particles as I soak them. I'm not a fan of salting them, and hemp adding salt in the soak stops it splitting, but soy sauce for some reason on birdfoods gives them an added kick. Then of course we have the old favourite of condensed milk on them.

I packed up today after a 3 day blank. I felt that last night or this morning I should have had a fish or two, but it was not to be. Monday was boiling and I had to set up in the deepest shade possible, opposite my usual pre-baited swim. It was not until the weather cooled yesterday and we had some cloud and rain I even felt I was near the fish. Oh well, let's hope that everyone manages to get on the carp this month.

Me too, depending on what I'm trying to achieve. A decent bait shouldn't need boosting as such imo. If the carp find a decent bait, they should eat it. If they don't, it's the wrong bait or the wrong time of year. For me, the purpose of glugging in hydros is simply to pull the carp in i.e. help them find your bait. To optimise this you want them as stacked full of those free aminos as possible - so they pump them out stronger, for longer. Mixing with water will just alleviate those food signals, and reduce the amount of time those signals are pumped out. There is a place for water for certain applications (such as washing-in with glugs/saturating to prevent or slow down the taking on of silt for example), but for attraction you want it neat imo.

Hmm, bugging me now too! 😃 Never mind, probably all secret stuff has long gone now.... err to much social media? I still like my day sessions at a local lake complex, can't be bothered with the latest 'wonder hookbaits' etc, still think it is a location thing. Mind you, I am now getting fiddling around with a method mix, not sure many now use this for carp fishing?

If you live in Trump land, why bother with rigs like that, surely a plain and simple mehthod feeder with maize flour etc and a simple Anmesia short link with tiger nuts or maize would be a lot easier and may produce results for you: This might help:

As said already I'd use it neat on my boilies. In fact I used to use the tuna goo from Bacarel as a soak. 500ml in a 10kg bag and I'd turn the bag regularly. Ive also used the crab and the squid in the same way. The crab is a very thin liquid. I found the tuna to be the best one by far.

Kempastini book of baits? he had a guest section in there with recipes or could it have been Andy little’ book the complete angler?

I remember reading it somewhere, and it is going to bug me where I read it. I think that the other protein source may have been lactalbumin. I know that there is an Andy Little chapter on Savay in Chris Turnbull's Big Fish From Famous Waters, on how he was putting in massive amounts of bait at range and killing catapults regularly. The maple flavour, one that worked best at high levels.

Just looked in the Big Carp book, couldn't find it. but tbh it seemed the bloke was one of the first on Savay to use the hair rig and to fish with massive amount of bollies - at that time - at long range. Sure I remember reading that he did simplfy the baits, and at that time the carp had probably not seen anything like his way of fishing it?

I think I would use it neat if I did slightly longer sessions but because mainly do overnighters, I've found thinning it seems to be an advantage as the fish seem to eat it quicker as they are pre washed out.

Personally I’d use it neat to soak in to them but I don’t do washed out type baits. I use enough for the boilies to soak in, but stay firm. Basically they just get heavier. This way you can still stick them out. elmo was right on ratios. Use the leftover water, frozen for next time or to add to pellet/spod mixes. I see so many anglers just tip it away. Crazy.

I usually just chuck some in with the water tbh, I quite like the liquid to be thinner as it soaks through the bait more. I would use more than a capful, maybe like 25% hydro 25% squid brand and 50% water something like that anyway. Might be less that seems OK , you can add whatever you like though

Right under the trees it's been bearable, except between 4 and 8. Sky has been swimming every day as we walk around to keep cool. I'm up in the shallows, but until this morning I hadn't seen a thing. The deep end is wall to wall with thick weed and is unfishable. The weed is what had drifted, so I was able to net it out. It left me enough room to have the rods over the top.

Good grief , Nick , did you drag that humungus pile of weed out of the lake ? . How did you manage with the heat of Monday , and Tuesday ? . I should be fishing tomorrow in the relative cool , but to fish in the deepest part of the lake , or the shallows ? 😀

Ooh, alarm ears! I'd forgotten about them. There were two types that you could add to your Optonics: the fixed ears or the moveable ones. I had the moveable ones so I could put my Optonics in the box at the end of the session. I had painted the fronts white so I could see them. I also remember the multi-pin jack plug sounder box that Efgeeco made. Here is a pinched picture The funny thing is that originally Dellareed recommended Del Romang to convert them as far as I can remember, then changed their minds and took it to court. Catchum, Rod Hutchinson's original bait company! Seafoodblend, probably one of the first fishmeal baits, and very effective.