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Week in Belgium for the first time, trip was everything I'd hoped for and more - lake to ourselves 2 anglers 6 acres, paid more but wouldn't add another angler tbh Epic week, tough fishing but so interesting, acting on sightings as usual, spreading the rods far and wide obvs to the point where I was quiver tipping from the pod in both directions at one point lol. This kicked me hard after a bleep in the early hours suddenly turned into a rod flying through the air into the pond as the clutches were too tight. 3 boats trips later after much panicking I picked up the line, got the rod and landed the fish unbelievably. Several boat battles each, quality fish averaging mid 30s, great company, many laughs, team work - learning on the job in boats it was mega in truth, didn't want it to end. By the end of the week we had a well established pattern of only ever catching on a spot on the first night/dawn, no spot did another bite after a fish came off it, so if you weren't moving spots you weren't catching end of. On the last night we predicted that we could both reel in 2 rods and only leave the new one out and obvs it was true - one take each that night on the new spots - pretty mad really. We caught by far the most on the complex and laughed the loudest I reckon. My 'GET IN' when the rod was back in my hand must have woke the complex lol 8 fish for me from 26.8 to 42, my mate 6 from 29 to 44.12 I had all mirrors which is perfect - he had mostly commons again, interestingly he caught mostly commons last trip I didnt and same on a syndi water. Only difference I've noticed he uses a yellow topper, I don't. My second biggest fish's pic wasn't focussed unfortunately, I didnt show him half pressing - usually give him the remote- cant go wrong with that but thankfully re-mastering it made it semi useable so sorry about that. Ian again, thanks for the camera tips etc, got my best night takes ever of mateys big commons and enjoying using my remote - should always do it tbh my self takes are always my favourite pics of the trip. 🤦 I've had worse tbh another mate chops your head off lol Carp Arena, Lilly Pool - drive and survive, small supplies shop, bbq area with fridges, freezers, drinks, chocs and water. Flushing toilets near clean warm showers, bio toilets elsewhere, saw dust is amazing no smells and emptied every 3 days. We didn't get bothered once which we loved, others who blanked on other pits moaned about just about everything so it's not a complex for everyone I guess. Looking to re-book the lake and possibly have a go on Clover Lake 😎🇧🇪

Like Ian I've tried making snail baits from real shell and canned snail meat, looked mega but a waste of time in the end. The fake one's again look great but try reeling them in and you have a spinning propellor so your rig whether zig or bottom fished will be ruined every time it is brought back in. My next approach to this will be the black NS1 pop-ups that I've bought, looks snail enough in my mind 🤷‍♂️

You have loads of water in the Lea Valley. Look up Lea Valley fisheries https://leevalleyfisheries.co.uk/ they have loads of waters. While some are on a waiting list others are still open for tickets. I was fishing Nazeing Meads from 2008-2019 and if travel wasn't such a problem for me from Suffolk I would probably still be there.

Sapphire lakes and Cromwell lakes in notts have some accommodation maybe a bit far to travel

What mk version are the alarm heads and are they compatable with said receiver

Moormill has just gone membership syndicate cmcs fisheries after taking over from verulam angling Croxley hall syndicate carpenders park but days only. on a good day possibly get to Carthagena in 90 mins or and other lea valley lake then you also have the colne valley lakes theres loads within 90mins just set a couple of hours aside and use google. if you live in Hemel go and speak to Ian or his wife in the tackle shack he will help

Booked quite a few trips well in advance this year based on previous good trips according to my diaries. I went 2 weeks ago and it was pretty grim, only 2 people caught out of the 18 pegs. It was just stale and the lake is still low from the lack of rain this year. Unfortunately didn't book last weekend and missed out on Storm Amy. Went on Friday this week for another 52 hour session but it was even worse. No wind, no rain and overcast. Barely saw a roach dimple but did have one possible sighting. I did have one bit of excitement when all 3 rods went within seconds of each other but there are some big cats in the lake and was probably a trailer. My bivvy was bone dry this morning which is unusual , ever drier than my landing net! I did have a one blip bite at 2:30 a.m. and that was about as good as it got. I knocked it on the head after 24 hours. I could have stayed but didn't think I had any realistic chance of catching as the weather forecast was for similar.

Hi on here today looking for Amy recommendations on carp lakes either a membership or a syndicate to join within 90 mins drive from hemel Hempstead. Any recommendations I would appreciate please

3rd time this year ffs 🤣 I've had 5 fish from this lake and 3 of them has been the same fish 🖕🤣 29lb 8oz lol

They are full of stinky winky though mate, the chemicals and stuff the flavours are made of are toxic lol. Wonder what health issues are gonna come about in 10 - 20 years time lol

Once it clears though you will be able to wakeboard behind the catfish though 😂

Rod licence renewal....... £55.30....... How has this nearly doubled in the last 5 years????

Hi all, a couple of friends and I have got back into carp fishing and would like to go away for a few nights somewhere. Ideally we would like to have some accommodation next to the lake so we can night fish but haven't got any idea of where to go, so looking for some suggestions please. We are in Berkshire and don't mind travelling so Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex, Oxfordshire, Bucks, Wiltshire and Dorset areas are all good. Accommodation doesn't need to be anything amazing. A roof and electric would do! Thanks in advance

anyone looking for a large car might want to look at the kia sportage the older ones are cheap and pretty much hassle free just make sure it's a diesel as the petrol versions are very thirsty, loads of cheap honda CRVs about in petrol same again though thirsty on the fuel but in good condition the older CRVs in diesel are normally well used and hard to find one that isn't a MOT money pit.

i had also been a heavy smoker before that but consultant i seen one of the counties top respiratory professors is very anti vaping it was him who told me no more inhaling anything other than fresh air, felt like a crayon eater lol

Well done getting off the vapes 👍 I'm a nightmare for them, puff on it more than I did with roll ups, used to rinse 2 - 3 disposables a day lol. Its a good reminder for me reading this to get off them as well.

Could just get the catfish rods out instead 🤣 They were weed cutting yesterday and it's made it pretty much impossible to fish, big weedbergs the size of transits floating down wiping the rods out 🤣Weed cutting again today and over the weekend 💀 they aint removing it either so it's just getting pushed up and down by the wind 👎

not visited in a bit thought i'd pop in. been sorting my health out, gave up inhaling anything as advised no vaping has made a big difference basically i got that illness you can get from vaping means i'm using steroid inhalers for life going forward, very early COPD. i do feel a lot better than this time last year, just need to avoid chest infections to the point i got issued a rescue pack which consists as strong antibiotics and anti inflammatory pills to be used if i get a chest infection coming on. i could moan about no bad weather fishing trips but i have always been a summer only kind of guy 😀

You should try would be fun getting dragged up the towpath for miles 😂

End up hooking a catfish 🤣 there's a few chunks in the canal and its only a matter of time before one of us gets stripped by one🤣

Not from land snails unless you eat them, more likely to get parasites from water snails, and I do keep sanitiser handy after picking them out.

Use big pellets,you can get some nice 17mm Aller aqua bream chokers 😂

Sorry to bore everyone to death on this topic.... Just opened up alarms to fit new batteries as recomended, errr no rubber seal thing on the internal slot.. if that makes sense? Anyway, really looking forward to, hopefully, see them in action 👍

Just rooted out some old pics from the times I had on there when the CS took it over. I was one of the anglers who paid the money for them to actually purchase the lake, not sure what is going on there now tho. Wondering if there is anyone on here who actually fished it back in the day, so many good memories and people I met there. as ever time moves on and lost contact with everyone.... no Mobile phones and social media in those days

That's some dedication mate, I didn't mind picking the water snails but there's no way I'm touching garden snails or slugs, can't you get ring worm or some other parasite from them? 🤣