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You haven’t said the size of fish that are in the lake if they are smalll ones I would give the chod a miss I think I would keep it simple In no particular order go with what the bailiff said just to get the bite. stick a pva bag put with a small 10mm hook bait put a zig out go in with a float and worm and hunt them down weather due to break this week so that will help a bit.

It's the vogue rig because it works, I've done countless posts on my version and have 100% confidence in it. Lots of people catch plenty using them. If it rains fish at the inlet. And if the weed is that bad you could try and rake a spot. But probably there will be clear spots, they will be showing themselves just keep your eyes open. You could also try fishing solid bags into the weed. Good luck.

I feel your pain Are there 200 carp in the lake ? where did the info come from, are other anglers catching if they are tell them your struggling and would appreciate any info. The reason I ask about the 200 fish is a mate fishing a water last year found it more difficult than usual then found out recently that there had been a fish kill which he didn’t have a clue about. Warm weather is here and il be on the zigs 👍

Out for a night or two on a 4 acre lake, it's looking good down in this bay. There's been a few shows in the far margin so boated a rig over to it, then put one down my right margin which is about 10ft away from a air pump thing 👌

Some more info on this place A bailiff told me Ronnie rig with small 12mm pop up and just a a small amount of freebies (6-12 boilies) around said hookbait but cant help thin that 90% of anglers are using and suggesting Ronnie as its the "Vogue" rig this year. The lake bed is littered with rocks/bricks/building rubble , very snaggy, this was caused many years ago when the put the 3 islands in, so fishing close to the islands is a good way to snag up and go out in the boat to free up Canadian pondweed is rife, its really hard to find a spot to fish due to the weed, clear patches are few and far between. As for getting a Deeper, sorry but thats a £200 spend on yet more kit, feels like throwing good money after bad at this stage! The lake is long with the islands mid point from most of the margins depth starts at around 3ft, soon drops to about 6-7ft then hits an "underwater channel that runs round most of main body going down to 12-14ft before getting to what they call the "road" running out to and intersecting the islands and that is about 6ft deep, but with lots of snags either side of the road, the lake has an inlet from larger Ski lake and an outflow into local canal, the inlet flows into the back bay that is less snaggy, a bit more shallow and less weedy I have put a pic up the red line sort of gives an idea of the deeper channel that runs round main body, the green lines show whats called the road

This can be true. I’ve had a single bleep and woken up to my line pointing at a right angle and reeling down to a snagged fish that has just kited in to the margins. Slack lines don’t help this at all but sometimes needs must. Another thing to be aware of, if your pop ups are balanced so they very slowly sink, if you get done, you will still be fishing. It may have moved or turned the hook point so always worth a check but leave it a half hour and see if you get another pickup, can easily happen. Like I said though. A sharp hook is a must, the fish isn’t getting hooked using the weight of the lead when fishing chods so it’s even more critical.

Are you going in with preconceived ideas of what worked in the past will work now? Lakes can change over time, from being a boilie only water to a particle water, or vice versa. It's just a case of watching and location. Not the easiest thing to do, but instead of fishing spend a day looking. Even 'waste' a show if you see something by casting a marker float and lead at the spot and finding what they are on. You had the liners, that's a start; were they liners or dropped takes? Investigate the area between the bank and where you were fishing, out with the lead and marker. Maybe they were liners and you missed or overcast the feature they were on. If you were using a Chod rig, maybe you were done, something (not so nice) to think about, but I have found helicopter set-ups really reduce indication at the rod end. A single bleep and I was done, or an absolute screamer when the fish couldn't get rid of the hook. I have also had long range helicopter rigs moved over 30metres with just a couple of bleeps and a shake of the indicator. The last time I used an 'unejectable' rig on a helicopter setup was when Bent hook rigs were allowed!

Don't give up mate, you will get one eventually 👍 did you say you have a bait boat? Maybe get a deeper on there and map the lake or as yonny said get the marker out and spend a day or two mapping it with that 👍 I'd be doing laps of the lake with sunnies mate, try and find some clear patches in the margins, small bit of bait and see if they clear it a day or two later 👍

I use the Hemp ones on a multi-rig over hemp and in the bag of pellets https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/naturalz-wafters/ I'm just as happy with the 360 rig and a sliver of pop-up or a Nutty Bait pop-up over the bag as well. With the 15mm Nutty bait pop-up I have put in 3 or 4 whole boilies in the bag. The sliver of pop-up is usually fished over spodded maize and birdfood when I want a small hookbait. I say sliver, I've trimmed it to the shape and size of something in the spod mix, either maize, maple pea or whatever.

I fish chod rigs a lot on leadless leaders. You need a sharp hook as the most important thing. Just spread boilies, they’ll work over smaller items of bait but the hooking mechanics don’t suit the way fish feed on small items. Yonny is right, you’re missing some part of the puzzle and a shake up of tactics is probably worth a go. Find some nice firmer spots, margins are vital on smaller waters from my experience, and fish bottom/balanced/low pop hookbaits over it.

The bag probably costs more than the boilies do.

You're doing something wrong mate - you just need to figure out what it is. You mentioned earlier in the thread you were chodding it. Have you considered getting down there for a day and marking up properly i.e. find proper, clean, fed-on spots? They're just carp mate, they are catchable, you're just missing a piece of the puzzle.

Sonik Tackle has a bad reputation with me!

I think I might have thought of something similar in the past. I feel like the cherry on the cake seems a bit obvious amongst a load of 2mm pellets. A quick flick of the tail and that's all that sits there still.

I use PVA almost every cast, either over spodded bait or 'empty' areas. I've had a fair few fish from the syndicate on patrol routes with just a bag that has been cast in for about 5 hours. I don't have much rudd trouble though, there are not that many silvers. The big rudd tend to stay down by the western end, and rarely go up to the shallows at the east end. I did say I get silvered, but I also think that the pellets break down. My bag mix is mixed sizes of pellets with some crumbled boilies added in.

I used bags quite a lot when I joined the last syndi, on one of the lakes I'd get lots of knocks as soon as the bag landed, fizzing the lot - then after 10 mins all quiet. I'd re-cast and the same happened. I'm convinced they were hiding in the weed coming out blowing the bag, eating the loose stuff then leaving just my hookbait. This went on all day and no takes. I've now got some mega 8ml barrel wafters in pellet flavour from CCMoore with exactly this in mind for later in the year. I also came up with a few ideas around decoy baits after this that I will use one day. Not giving too much away I think this will be a real winner.

I often think that and never get round to it lol. I often think with bags and stuff if they havent gone in a hour or so they aren't going to go and the Rudd would have destroyed them, so would probably rechuck every couple of hours.

Yeah they are cheap nowadays. £20 for 5kg usually.

Still not caught any on main lake, i used to think i was half decent at this carp lark but really losing the will to fish now, today was another blank to add to the running total, been back on this lake since last October and still nowt other than a couple of liners, spent a small fortune on a lot of new gear and TBH starting to feel like i have wasted my hard earned, 3.5 acre lake with a stock around 200 head of fish, it should be a runs water! Its tempting to move onto a new venue but nothing close enough that appeals, I think i will take a little break from the fishing, go back to doing my RC rock crawling

Never used the method, however if I were on say Mallard lake Bluebell I'd be looking to re-cast maybe hourly or less depending on the situation. Might give it a go 👍

Apparently made/rolled by munch baits they sold their baits for about 50p a kilo.

Sonik reels have a bad rep, so It will be interesting to see if this one is the same as all the rest. Looks nice and has a big old retrieve on it. If they have got it right could be decent.But we might have to wait for @Higham1987 verdict on that one. RRP £89.99 with a finger stall.

On Ardleigh I tended to recast The Method every 5minutes for the first 30minutes then leave the last cast before hitting the sack. That way I had a decent bed of bait in the swim. I didn't always spod bait in, sometimes just relying on the recasts. I'd usually prebaited the area a day or so previously. As for PVA bags, stringers or mesh, I could just cast the once and leave it for the next day if I know it's on spot. If I'm not happy it is reeled in and recast. I'm not too worried about the occasional patch of bait elsewhere. A bag or mesh of pellets and crumbed boilies will get silverered. A few loose boilies in the area won't do much harm.