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No boats allowed lol and yes it's 2 buckets a day, we found that if you weren't spodding you weren't catching. He will probably come back ill from it all again, missing meals, missing rest, up all night if it's night bites. We were lucky first trip it was day bites and we reeled in at 7pm for dinner and didn't put them back out till morning, think I only had the rods out on 2 nights. Some trips he's had it rocking to the point he's flipping 30s, 40s and mistakenly some 50s without doing pics simply because you can't keep up.

I had to work it out it was frying my brain lol, it's just over 20kgs a day of baiting, doesn't seem so excessive that way, but that's a lot of spodding. He must have arms like popeye,i would have to use a bait boat I think.

If it wasn't for fishing we would all be millionaires

Probably not checking mate but again I've not seen otters on it yet and they are blatant as anything - cannot be missed IMO, when they were on the medium lake I saw them straight away. I did see it stated that my lake has 250 fish in it when they were selling tickets in spring, that figure's gone straight back down to the 80-100 usually stated lol Prob lower than those figures too in actual fact

XXX Wafters, hard hookers, 2ltr Hemp Oil, 2ltr Bait booster and 25k hallibut pellets mixed sizes. Think the pellets were cheaper than going to the big boys as free delivery and the bulk suppliers are not. Was gonna buy 50k earlier in the year but the price with delivery put me right off tbh but can't be avoided forever as only got about 5k pellet left. 🤷‍♂️ This fishing lark doesn't half cost some money it seems never ending tbh

No it's a big van and that's a lot of weight, the guy who's van it is will take a 10th of that amount and catch barely anything but he's not serious at all whereas my mate will spod night and day and smash it if conditions are good, he's a machine when need is must. Travelling to Belgium this year in my car and taking 20k of boilies each that's it anything more is banned by me - buy pellets etc there if needed. The only place I would want to take 150k plus a week is for Parco, very few places are like that, although it's not what it was a few years ago.

I have been off work with the old Co vid this week. And I've been spending time looking at bait making, god knows why but there we are, I think it started with something about an electric caulking gun I saw, then I went full production mode, then I saw a comment saying "if you are making your own, the last thing you want to do is make them round" So I got to thinking what is the best way to cut paste sausages without them all going out of shape (like with a knife) has anyone used a pizza cutter for this task? I've seen the method where you boil the sausage first and then chop but I would like to boil after cutting if possible to seal the boilies if I can. I've developed a simple nut mix using AA Baits base mix with a couple of extras but keeping it simple. Probably won't save much in cash terms but I would have a fresher, better bait which might increase catch rate and be more attractive to the carps and different to most anglers on the bank with their round balls.

Oh yeah it would be a dream to have that sort of time for a trip, maybe one day Kev. I guess you get out what you put into it, In my head that amount of bait doesn't even fit in a van 😂

They'll go for the easiest target for maximum reward so the birdlife may well be doing you a favour mate. Interestingly, at Denton you'd tend to only get a couple of carp taken in winter as they're all sat in the middle 250 yards from the nearest bank - difficult for Mr Otter to take. Then, in spring when carp start to gather for spawning in the shallows the otters would be back and you'd see a flurry of kills. Easy pickings innit. The issue where you are is the island on the big lake..... the bailiffs used to go over there and find corpse after corpse after corpse 😔. Not sure if they still check?

Indeed mate lots of prep time and fairly costly granted - final tally 340k including liquids, but this is Parco and as he's been about 10 times prob knows it better than anyone tbh I'd love a 2 week trip somewhere - proper chilled with the security of a 2nd week should the first be rubbish.

That seems a lot still and a lot of preperation. Must have cost a small fortune.

Our lake has had them on, and in winter coots were the main diet. We rarely lost swans, but did find occasional pike were on the diet. There were a couple of carp with damaged tails. Again the lake is open access, and unable to be fenced.

Wishful thinking then, some of ours have obviously managed to avoid them for decades but show the signs (eaten faces the lot, other old ones are mint still), they've open access to the site but I've only seen them on one lake so far but the swan deaths were on my lake every spring. Is it then partly down to having big numbers of swans and geese also on the menu? The lakes have always been there and otters have never wiped the fish out- something about the lakes makes it difficult some how - no idea really they obviously get some. Up at Bluebell they swim past without a care in the world, packed out lake - lots of dogs, no worries until my man turns up to move them on! 👍

" A granddaughter who pinched and ate a couple of chunks of luncheon meat dusted in turmeric and garam masala... " . No wonder that you didn't catch any Chub if your Granddaughter is eating your bait ! . Maybe Carp.com could club together and buy Bromeswell 😁

A granddaughter who pinched and ate a couple of chunks of luncheon meat dusted in turmeric and garam masala... Bromeswell is on a few estate agents and as much as I would love it...

Dunno mate. The Denton biggun finally got eaten last winter after years managing to deal with their annual onslaught. It was a tricky carp and I honestly thought it had learned to deal with them. Alas, no carp is safe.

No tigers - whole, chopped and powdered, 10 x crates of corn, maples and boilies.

Is that just boilies?

Mates going Parco again this week, taking 330k of bait for 2 weeks, something like that might last someone years, there it's nothing special.

Same as me ,simplicity is key .. Location Presentation and bait .. Got taught that by Gerry Savage many,many years ago I've got LP.B engraved on my landing net ,stainless butt. Can't add anymore ,what you wrote is spot on...( I used to blog,test for Haiths )..was good fun ...interesting..

Forgot to add my flavours so just eggs, basemix (Aminos) and Salmon oil - worked so well, probably better than with flavours TBH

I do need to look at the ABS baits range once Tony stops the base mixes, my local tackle shop really rates his gear, back in the day he used to stock premier gear (I brought my first base mix from him in the 90s - premier aminos with some GLM to chuck in) he started stocking ABS when Geoff started doing that. Can’t say I’ve looked at the CC Moore bases, I haven’t needed to as of yet. I buy the robin red HB (Hook Bait) direct from Haiths, it’s a lovely deep red, it smells the business and i wouldn’t be without it, whether it’s the true original or not, I couldn’t say, but it works! Im pretty stuck in my ways when it comes to bait, I had sleepless nights when I couldn’t get any more boiled ham flavour from richworth, I did get a bottle of nutrabaits UTCS smoked ham, but it wasn’t “the one” for me (that’s not a reflection on the flavour, more my own views) so I just omitted the boiled/smoked ham flavour and just stuck to the hutchie shellfish sense appeals only, results didn’t change, but I found the new hutchie appeals didn't match the original ones, so I substituted it for the premier shellfish sense appeals, which was bob on. Caught a 42lb common on it first time out, so I was well happy with that one. The CC Moore belachan flavour I stumbled across when looking for a flavour I could pop in a 3 egg mix that my son could use on day sessions at a local runs water, rather then him emptying my freezer of my lovingly crafted boilies every weekend! I got him a maple flavour and popped the belachan flavour in the online basket as it caught my eye. When I opened it, the smell knocked me on my backside, eyes watering, gagging, the works! The wife was furious, so I knew then it might be a winner, which it’s proved to be. Only needs 1-2ml per 6 large eggs. of course, seeing as the bait has remained consistent despite the different flavourings over the years, this would suggest the base itself is the reason and the flavourings matter not a jot! Still, confidence is key isn’t it? I like to split my carping into 3rds, (I’m a simple soul) what (to me) are the important aspects?? 1: have I got my location right? 2: do my rigs work? 3: will my bait work? well, I know no3 is nipped, the bait has produced wherever I’ve taken it, so no concerns there. no2 - I have been using the slip D rig on size 6 ESP claw hammers tied with fox cortex coated braid or ESP coated braid for several seasons, the hook holds I’ve had have been to my satisfaction, and over the last 2 seasons, I’ve only had a few hook pulls - usually as a result of my sleep deprived stupidity! If im fishing a pop up, then for a high pop up I’ll use the good old hinged stiff rig, or a low lying pop up calls for a spinner, but as im fishing over particle and pellet this time of year, it’s bottom baits. that leaves no1 for me to have to concentrate on, arguably for me the most important, location!

Just remembered to say Haiths have changed the make up of Robin Red it's not the same ,a while ago now .. If you go on Haiths baits blog ,you'll see Ken talking all about it ,he's been the face of Haiths for yrs ..

There was also a well used push through ,hollow leading drekkly to the lake ... Just be vigilant one and all,it starts now,when first frosts come and rivers spate ,that's the time

No,makes no difference if they want the fish they'll take them ,found my first female spraint of the yr ,they smell a bit like Jasmine ,seriously .. This is on a pool I recently discovered