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Just enough to redecorate the house plus new soft furnishings and a few bob left over to go towards a bit of summer pocket money, was thinking a holiday but she is still having ops so not much point, plus the prices for UK holidays are shocking.

Took me a while finding one at a sensible £80 ish price Packs away small and fits rod hold-all Easy to pop up and take down Its a bit like my old Fox Specialist Brolly similar size and features

I keep looking at day session shelters after my TFG brolly with storm sides broke at the wire on a very windy day session. It didn't go inside out, it actually got blown 'shut' with the wind coming onto it. I might be able to repair the TFG, but I have a feeling that a spoke did poke a hole in it.

Nice one i've got a few of those smaller buckets and one from Kent particles. Gonna try the big trakker bucket first trip and when taking very little bait will stick a water bottle in the bucket also for the weight distribution 👍

I keep a 3L crafty catcher clear tub in it full with pellets and it hasn’t fallen out yet lol so you can put the smaller buckets in them which is a bonus. this type below but tbh I’m not much of a carper anymore nowadays so rarely go out with it. the 9 footers sit better on it also as it’s lower. wrapped it with pipe lagging so they don’t scratch 👍 i imagine using a bigger bucket the weight is even better distributed. I can push mine using 1 finger on each hand.

How you getting on with it? My Trakker bucket is a perfect fit, the Ridgemonkey bucket has little tabs in the corners that prevent it going upto the rim. Planning on putting my front bag on top - first trip using this starts Thursday night 😎👍

Got bought the same thing at Xmas from the kids 👍👍

New bucket holding front barrow bar (left) to replace existing (right). Not only is this a great idea they've fixed the 2 things my mate and I were discussing previously, too high and shelf not as low as it could be. Might help me to get round without tipping over (live in hope) 🤣

Just had the Korum delivered as a day session brolly and I’m very pleased with it. Sensible size and weight and plenty of pegging points and storm caps too. This is replacing the Trakker 60” brolly that went back as it was huge in comparison!

The neoprene covers are a godsend lol they also have the magnet to turn them off

Terry Edmonds used them when he broke his casting record if that means anything lol I like them and had them years

I remember Rod Hutchinson giving a taped interview on I think his Woldview fishery. He said that the smaller carp go for it first, and the big girl would not be among them and actually avoided the warmer water until she was ready which was mid to late June. I've seen on our lake it is the younger stock fish that start the spawning motions long before the original fish, and don't necessarily use the same 'year in-year out' spots of the original fish. This year so far the dam wall was the spot, last year it was halfway along by the rushes, yet the original fish use the shallows by the island. Going back to Hutchy, he caught the big girl in the last chapter of The Carp Strikes Back (reprint) in August from memory and she was shedding spawn in the landing net, so what should have been his first 40 was 39 something. I used to think that it was temperature only, but the number of times I have seen carp start to spawn around a specific date (late May), even if it is cold, and then go again once it is warmer is pretty regular, so I am sure daylight hours has something to do with it. Even pike will go at a specific daylight hours if the water temperature is low and go again when it reaches optimum. I was on my syndicate this year watching them go first week of March, then mid April they were in a mates swim winding him up bumping lines and spawning. Totally, predators before the silvers, and no fish spawn or small silver fish are safe when the predators are eating them. Big pike bursting into a pack of roach or perch to grab a fish, or even grabbing a mouthful of fry. I do and don't on the closed season. I used to hate the Easter holidays as I couldn't fish, but it gave everything time to recover, birds to nest, banks to regrow and fish to spawn, yet proper spring fishing after the cold and wet of winter...

That's what happens now on dinton pastures i think, they close for 4 weeks or so once the spawning starts. The other lakes I had tickets for had a similar policy. In fact I have kept one ticket for a lake in colne valley. Took me years to get the ticket after being proposed and seconded by a couple of mates who were members, so I may return to it one day.

Back of the net! Just got awarded a smaller amount than what I was asking for but a win is a win and it is a tidy amount, plus it's more the principle, I don't like being mugged off when money is involved, the only reason they have offered a payment is because they know with a solicitor to do the upper court for me I would clean up, I can't do it myself as you only get one chance and if you get it wrong all costs will be on you, no ifs no buts.

Absolutely right the Pike go first then Perch so their offspring can predate on the later arrivals - very clever isn't it. 😎 Fished a few waters through the Nene valley and they all seem to spawn Late June maybe into early July, not sure if it's a depth/temp thing, the small stockies may well go for it early but the better fish seem to wait longer. On these particular fisheries closing for a few weeks once they actually start spawning works OK but not if they choose to start when the tiddlers go first. If it were my choice I'd ignore the tiddlers and close for 3-4 weeks once the proper fish start. Tough to get it spot on every time, I saw one of the big girls spawning early Aug, just that spawn bound fish and a few males - mad sight.

I think the March 15th til June 16th was because you have different species spawning at different times. Correct me if I'm wrong but the pike and probably perch spawn first early spring so that their young then predate on the fry of the fish that spawn later so the time scale was to hopefully cover all the spawning of all the species. Always certain lakes that buck this trend . My old lake dinton pastures white Swan lake nearly always spawned a week or 2 after the season opened on June 16th and the anticipation was something I looked forward to. Used to spend the close season pre-baiting, sorting gear out, rigs etc. Maybe the odd day ticket session but everything geared towards the opening night. You had to do a work party if you wanted to fish opening night and the draw for your peg was a buzz. I obviously don't fish Freshwater now but if I did i certainly wouldn't bother me if the close season was to return. When dinton scrapped the close season the fishing that first spring was insane to the point that a fair few members literally only fished it for the 3 months of what was the close season each season after that because it was so hard the rest of the season.

I do follow Julian Cunddif on twitter he is such a nice guy funny as well got loads of time for people he don't know and to top it off he comes from a very well to do background and not at all snobby.

I think media driven is the right description, where even in the early days of printed media, magazines you could see anglers making the decision to fish full time in return for sponsorship or employment. I do think that social media has to some extent stopped it a bit as while Facebook and TikTok, YouTube and whatever are around it does not seem to be getting to every angler anymore like the printed word, it is too dissipated, too broken up. I mean almost every angler bought one or more magazines, yet I am positive that not every angler can be bothered following every YouTube or TikTok of all of those anglers putting stuff up. For myself I am less interested in social media than I ever was in the printed word. I do do Facebook, but more for anti-establishment and comedic posts than anything else, although I do put fishing ones up occasionally, but who would want to follow me?

Great result mate, that lin is a corker, well in

12 weeks garden leave and then I got made redundant 2 weeks before covid hit and lockdown happened. You would have thought after 23 years they could have furloughed me and then Made me redundant. 25k redundancy later and a new job in July on more money I think I won. 👍👍 the MD who made me and the others redundant was made to resign or get sacked 18 months later. just checked he has done 4 more jobs since “leaving”

I would recommend Lemons Hill North car park, cross the bridge and walk towards The Wonder. What was 'grassy bank' has 5 or 6 swims, and then the next swim is around half a mile along the reservoir. Walk back and go along the bank towards White Horse Lane, the top footpath is away from the swims, so take the lower footpath at the bramble bush. It comes back up to the top footpath and then splits again before the swims are right next to the path. There are a few swims on the other side around 200metres from the smaller Lemons Hill car park. Oh, don't forget that AW in their wisdom have put blooming meters in the car park, which is why I frequently park at the bottom of White Horse Lane adjacent to the houses and do that route in reverse, making sure to look around the area at Lemons Hill car park. Anglers do get free parking included in their ticket, but I would be darned if I would pay to walk around the reservoir. Don't park on the bridge, cars do get tickets for that.

I caught my first/ last fish just before lockdown around the 20th March first session back and caught my first after lockdown 18th May I had a 10 fish hit and the next morning whilst sitting in my bivvy, I got a call from my boss telling me I might be on a short list to be made redundant. That was a week after my dad's funeral. So it sticks in my mind a bit. I'm all for a shut down post spawning but 3 months feels excessive to me.

There was always an air of anticipation on June 16th (usually followed by disappointment ) I think it should be re introduced but as a floating shut down once any of the species starts spawning then close for the 3 months not just carp. Nature would also appreciate it. think back to covid everyone was gagging to get back to it thats how it felt way back when. and from memory it was March to June

Well done mate - great stuff 😎👍

I was taken aback by how good it was tbh. Never really liked the look of it but needs must. It cast well (although I was only baiting ~30 yards out) and opened every time. Seemed quieter than a spomb. Really impressed.