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Good morning to you all, so as I defrost in front of the fire i shall regale you with a tale of carp, rain and mud! (I’m like a cut price Terry Hearn!) This tale has its foundation in last week, when I found myself once again ensconced in a stuffy hotel room for a “preparation course” ahead of my final exams next week. Chatting to wifey on the phone, she asked why I didn’t take any fishing gear with me, I explained how there wasn’t any time to disappear to a lake for a few hours, so wifey suggested that I get an overnight trip in as she is working and daughter is at nursery and I probably won’t be missed! Still, as the wifey and I have another baby on the way, due in the summer, opportunities to get the rods out are going to become few and far between, so I prepped the gear, my daughter and I rolled some bait and on yesterdays dawn I was gone, heading for zombie sheep lake. In arriving, I found the lake looking grey, sullen and foreboding. The water level was up by a good 2ft, meaning one of the islands had disappeared completely, and the other, only a few sorry looking branches poked above the water! As I was alone, and the wind was piling in, with this being a rather barren landscape, with little to stop the howling wind between the Russian Steppes and my bivvy, I chose to set up on the back of the wind, tucked in behind a sorry line of bushes that did at least act as a wind break. It wasn’t raining, so I took the time to have a lead about to find my usual spot albeit from a different angle. Happy with my spots, HMS Jenny (my bait boat) was launched into the chop, where she gamely battled the waves to deposit two pva bags of boilie crumb, pellet and maggots onto the spots. With that, I was fishing. Both rods being Fox Horizon X3S’s to Fox EOS 12000 reels, to lead core leaders, 3 1/2 oz leads fished as helicopter rigs to fox cortex braid, ESP Clawhammer hooks barbless size 6 fished slip D style. Bait was my usual Premier Superaminos with belachan, shellfish and salmon oil with added robin red, I tend to just keep feeding the same bait all year through here and still keep having bites, plus it helps keep it established for next year. A good quality bait gets better with application in my eyes. With the rods out, it was time to set up house and have a cup of tea. As I was crouching down by the rods, watching the water for any subtle show that there may be fish about, my right hand rod tightened up, so the tea was flung to one side and I snatched up the offending rod, on hitting it, the rod took on its battle curve as the battle was joined. After a spirited 20min scrap, where it bored remorselessly around the flooded margins, it finally rolled over and hit the net. I checked all the fins were flat, popped the hook out and rolled it up in the mesh for the short walk up the bank. As it is rather steep on this side, with all the rain, it was like an ice rink, and I managed to slip over, landing on my bum with a carp in my lap! Still, the fish was undamaged so I laid it on the unhooking mat and unfurled the net. I was faced with another rig in its mouth! Hanging from the scissors was a pink boilie, attached to a rig, safezone leader and a 4oz lead that had no chance of discharging from the lead clip as the tail rubber was jammed on tight! So I unhooked it for the second time and held it up for the happy snaps at 28lb exactly, he was in rude health, I don’t think the other rig had been there long as the mouth was not torn, but I treated both hook holds and let him go, a 4oz lead lighter! I felt that he could be the start of a few, to get a bite so quickly, but alas, it wasn’t to be. HMS Jenny continued to battle the waves to deposit my baits back out there, the rain closed in and started hammering it down, I discovered a few leaks in my bivvy that will now need attention, the bank became a quagmire and it soon became a challenge to stand upright without slipping, let alone walk anywhere! So diving into the stand of trees, I picked up a carrier bag full of pine needles, pine cones and twigs, which I made a path from my brolly to my rods, now I had a grippy surface again, I got my head down and had a peaceful nights rest! This morning, I awoke and redid the rods, or at least tried to! HMS Jenny, my indefatigable little Amazon special bait boat, finally gave in. Her props still spin, she splashed bravely through the waves, but when it came to drop the baits, the hoppers refused to release, the motor working the release mechanism had given up the ghost. HMS Jenny was like a WW2 Escort Corvette who’s used its last depth charge, it can sail gamely on, but not a lot else! I chose to stick on a stringer on each rod and cast them out for the last hour or two, whilst I slowly packed up. Sat on my bedchair, looking at the bags that needed packing away, whilst trying to drum up the enthusiasm to make a start, my left hand rod registered a rapid drop back! I leapt off my backside and promptly landed back on it again as my feet shot out from under me in the slimy muddy bank, and I landed flat on my back, picking my self up I watched the embryonic take fizzle out, I’d missed it! This proved to be the motivation I needed to pack away and go home. With the barrow loaded, I slip and slide my way back to the car park, load the car and head for home. This proved to be a more mentally challenging session due to the conditions, and it did cross my mind to pack up and go home, but I gave my head a wobble and stuck it out. Besides, a 28lb common in February isn’t a bad reward! Now time for a hot bath, get HMS Jenny in dry dock and see if I can get her back to her little bobbing best!

There are still some true leney carp around today. My old syndicate had 5 or 6 different known Leney's still in there from a stocking done in the 60's I believe. I was fortunate enough to catch one on my second trip to the lake, the others eluded me. It was 50 plus yrs old when I caught it and that was over 10yrs ago. It was caught last year along with 2 others. So still definitely 3 in the lake and it makes them 60 plus years old. I'm pretty sure the committee of the lake have the receipt in a picture frame. This is the one i had, probably one of my most memorable captures if I think about it. Weight was irrelevant but it was 28lb 02oz. Sorry about the quality, had to take a picture of my camera screen.

Nothing exciting, but the boy and I managed a few commons this morning to start this years captures. now have to find a tip eye for a fox warrior 2.75lb rod (any ideas?)

And my biggest common came on a white shrimp cork ball...... ....... so it's settled..... yellow, pink, orange, white, and match the hatch are good for big commons. And mirrors. 🤣

Nice 1 @ouchthathurt Looks like it's got mouth issues, similar to the little fella I had. It could barely get the pop up in its mouth

Interesting session today, I had a premonition that I needed to be in a certain swim, and got up early, abandoned wife and children to their prospective fates and shot down the lake. No cars parked anywhere, so the swim was mine! only it wasn’t, as when I parked my car on the grass verge, I could see there were a couple of guys fishing it! I went to drive off and park up and discovered to my horror that I was now stuck comprehensively in the mud! My father rescued the day with a 5 metre length of astroturf, wedged under the front wheels soon had the jalopy free again. Still, try again! A quick glance around the lake and I saw a couple of very subtle shows, reeds knocking etc. then one fish put its head out at around 100yrds in the far margin. An orange northern special pop up soon landed on its head followed by a krill bottom bait against the knocking reeds in my near margin. (Not a usual go to winter bait, but my son has done well this winter on them here, so worth a shout.) 2hrs later and a recast (with a small pva mesh bag of tutti fruitti crumb) and the orange NS pop up was properly ripping off! at a single ounce over the 20lb barrier, the first 20 of 2026 has hit the net.

I decided to start making bait for myself recently, now I've got a lot of the bits I needed I thought I would start with some hookbaits. Not perfectly round but good enough 😂 1egg, liquid preserve, 5ml creamy scopex, Betaine, milk B and butterscotch sweetener. Pop ups are mainline polaris dyed yellow and wafters are AA Baits pink wafter mix + a bit of tropamino basemix as I run out of wafter mix whilst mixing. I think the wafters turned out better and actually came out fairly round, both do what are they meant too when attached to a rig so that's good, now air drying and will give them a splash of extra flavour once they are dried,then all I've got to do another time is match the hatch hookbaits and start rolling kilos and kilos of boilies. Don't think I'll buy polaris again though will get some AA Baits pop up mix next time. I've also been using Copilot to make up loads of recipes, I've got 20kg of tropamino basemix to use up first though. But I've started down the rabbit hole.

I fished in much worse! 🙄

Mate, spent so many days on there in the summer holidays and a few overnighters in the snow lol Loved it, seemed massive when I first looked across and bottomless lol Mostly fished in the edge, watching them come and go it was mega. You could hear Tom coming for his money from his house 'Mr TAYLOR' he'd bellow in my ear - happy memories, he was like a fishing dad to about 50 local kids over the years probably more, legend! My first 20 from there would have been an original leeney 😎

Now that takes me back..... I fished there probably 30 years ago as a spotty teenager. I remember turning up with all my kit on my back and there's these proper carp anglers with barrows everywhere. I loved it. I recall on my first session I hair rigged a cube of luncheon meat and hoyed it as far as I could (which wasn't far with the absolutely rubbish rods I had back then) and had one within 2 minutes. I got some right dirty looks from the proper anglers 😅

If its been touched by Donald I'm out.

Just joined, more a browser than anything else, interested in bait, less in tackle or methods so will watch and listen. Hello everyone.

This mornings 5am to 10am session

Yes , they do come big sizes. I told my mate about them and he uses the 6's. He absolutely loves them. And the bonus being, no carp tax.

Dark moody and damp February session

Made a couple of 1 egg mixes with the AA Baits super buoyant fishmeal pop up mix, my sausage gun was perfect the last couple of times but I think this mix just expanded a bit more, so the sausages came out a bit big and I ended up with some pillows and odd shapes, but never mind flavour wise they are pretty banging one is scopex, black pepper and bergamot and the orange ones are banana scopex, black pepper and bergamot. They are very buoyant though, and one is holding up my rig nicely next time I will make some matching wafters and I'll have made enough hookbaits to last a life time.

" On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors. " Well that's blown that theory then , emmcee , Just don't tell Kev. as he's after a big Common ! . 😁

When i first started out carp fishing i met a bloke on a lake i fished in the Colne valley. If I recall, it was before the hi viz hookbaits were all the rage was about but they were starting to appear more and more in the shops. Anyway, this bloke was a margin fisher, made his own bait but all in pellet shape. His hookbait though was always a hi viz pellet so he could see it better in the margin. He'd catch a few fish but he saw that the hi viz hookbait would be ignored mostly when one or two carp were on his spot but readily taken when 3 or more were feeding. I think most would agree that carp are easier to catch when they are competing with each other. He wanted to catch though when they weren't competing. One day i watched him bait a spot with his homemade pellet and slip in a hi viz one as well, the difference being the hi viz one was a freebie and his hookbait was a match the hatch (clever angling I thought to myself). His catch rate more or less trebled by making that change. When he couldn't get a margin swim he'd fish pva bags in open water and fill the bag with his pellet and one "decoy " hi viz pellet and he caught plenty. On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors.

I use SHB pretty much exclusively for pop ups nowadays. Caught plenty. Probably would have caught a proportion of those on another brands pop ups. Do I believe they’ve caught me fish that I may not have caught on a different hookbaits? I’d say maybe a few. But I’ll never know. Have I blanked on them? Yes. Down to the baits? Probably not, my decisions on location, rigs, baiting approach, etc at fault. you’ll catch a carp on a lego head in the right place. You’ll blank using an all singing all dancing hookbait in the wrong place. I’d choose SHB above any other pop up though. As Yonny said it’s a confidence thing. Plenty of options priced similarly with much less to them. I’ve looked at making my own, similar but obviously not comparable as I don’t know his process in and out. I’m talking cork chunk pop ups with a curing process of my own. Doable but I don’t have the time. IMO buy with confidence but they aren’t a miracle worker.

I can't say I pay too much attention to branding. The value of branding is down to one's individual perception based on the product and, I hate to say it, marketing. Most of what I would consider to be 'premium brands' offer their fair share of stuff I'd never use but I'd not want to devalue any brand based on that fact (apart from Nash, obviously 😂). A brand is just a name for a company imo. Do I think SHB make decent/premium hookbaits? Yes, absolutely. I only use them for certain applications, but I've done so for probably 10 years + now. They have caught me some very special fish and that breeds confidence. Confidence is as important as anything in carp angling imo.

Many premium brands as @yonny has said are pop-up mix and flavour, that could be any brand, although there are some that have that something. Garlic is one of those additions that can really put fish on the bank, but it is finding the garlic that works; in pop-ups I never found powdered versions work, possibly not enough smell, and I am not scientific enough to work it out, but in a food bait they may work well. Oh those coatings can be fun to make, can be as simple as rolling dried baits in egg, then rolling in powder. Funnily enough I have caught far more on a food bait equivalent than on a yellow pop-up on most waters. The yellow pop-up produced fish on 'small fish' waters, but not on big fish venues, although the past couple of years did produce stocked fish rather than original fish on the syndicate. Thinking back to various 25lb+ commons I have caught, none came on yellow baits, all but one were on snowman baits, food bait with an identical coloured pop-up (not necessarily same flavour), the one that didn't was on a single 15mm food bait. As an add, I did remove the 'disagreement', not going to have it get nasty. Express an opinion, give your point and don't have a go.

Syndi was shut due to flooding?? Estate lake water levels were high on Tuesday, calmed down a bit yesterday. Had a little pasty for my troubles

Mad!! 😂

Will say having used a couple of pop up mixes in the past, the best I found was BAF before they stopped selling it. AA would be my choice if I ever make any more though.

Just fork out £20 for a tub of magic beans mate..... all your worries will be over! 😂

Get yourself some "Varivas Chinu" hooks from Veals Mail order. They are a sea fishing hook, Sizes 8's and bigger. They are choddy style hooks, super sharp and half the price of carp hooks. If i was still carp fishing I'd 100% be using them.

If anyone’s interested, I’ve edited my catch pic above with a full catch report.

The NGT canisters if you are talking about the 500's are actually some of the best gas canisters out there. The ones to avoid if possible are Coleman!

Pretty sure he’s gone in to some level of detail about the process and how long it takes. Also in to how the cure works on the baits and why. I thought I recognised your style and tone from the other forum. end of the day, you don’t think they are worth £22 a pot, plenty do. Personal choice eh. As I’ve said, can’t deny the baits catch plenty of fish and they are used by plenty of sponsored anglers on the sly, or more recently publicised that they use them. This speak volumes on its own when people that get free hookbaits chose to buy something different. plenty more expensive air balls out there that are nowhere near as effective based on catch reports. Massively publicised in mags and things, SHB is irregular social media and a paid for thread on a forum and has an incredible customer base. Again, that says a lot. Enjoy your fishing as you say, probably don’t focus on continually trying to discredit SHB. Especially when you obviously have no idea about what goes in to creating the baits 🤷🏻‍♂️

That's a can of worms Kev, I'm sure someone will be able to assist but I used Co pilot to try and understand bio active ingredients a bit better. Still don't properly but this is something I learned which may help 😱 😂

I did start a thread on this back when I had a Yately ticket (& more than 3 people posted on here🤔), must have been around 2018-19. My take away was scope baits seemed to catch slightly more commons, yellow was favoured, but not a given. Although, my mate did the lake record (Slate grey (along with a few named ones) with a yellow topped Cell snowman.

I've been buying some bits for the upcoming year. 12 cans of ngt bargain gas 28lb katran wild carp camo line And I have had to remodel the spinner rig as some key parts have become less easily sourced. So I've been on JPrecision and ordered some gape x hooks and some different kickers and bait screws and bits to play with. I have used kranks before and seem to remember them giving decent hook holds. I looked at alternative rigs even made a nice soft hinge rig , but it all seems too much faff 😱

Hinders pop-ups are 7 quid and a bottle of their pop-up glug is a tenner so you're actually not far off after inflation.

Thanks for the input chaps.

Over thinking imo. Crack on. Personally prefer bigger baits but I have used PJPU 13mm with size 4s in the past and caught, on a fairly tricky water too.

Just my thoughts, didn't realise this thread was started so long ago and now has sparked to life again! As for the 'company' involved: 1. Can't deny any of the carp pics posted elsewhereare very impressive. 2. Are those venues actually available to the 'average' angler?... I very much dought it 3. Can you question the blokes comittment in early days? Deff not as I believe he had some great catches from the Thames. 4. He provided some valuable 'insights' into tiger nut, maize and other stuff preparation. However, should a certain company appear to have so much influence, on say, another forum? I don't think so. It appears this company are now planning to ditch the web site in the coming months and sell direct to shops instead, probably an economic consideration? Anyway, just my personal view.... I don't need to say this to the long standing members on here, but no one will convince me a so called wonder bait will ever be replacement for location and hard work on any venue, Sorry, mini rant over 👍

yep, got my account banned on there during the scamdemic time, though i had no interest in shb at that time, i remember him really having a go at peeps big time for not getting jabbed, quite a few got banned for being so called conspirloons ..fast forward today and the truth is finally coming out, even in the msm.....

Yep that does it. Think it was crayfish meal so same thing. Very light ingredient! to be fair they good alternative ingredients to make pop ups with basemix! Take some testing on inclusion levels though.

Heard of 50kg pop ups that went on a trip to France with some mates once 😂😂 can’t remember which ingredient did it though.

Well the Big Common would be the icing yes, but No the remaining target on my syndi is a 50 common 'white tips' so the yellows will be coming out, thinking of maize or corn as feed possibly. On the syndi I've concluded that baited patches are not the one, Kingy and Sandmartin PVA sticks and maybe a few with the stick, cannot see me using much bait this year TBH but you never know

Something else that sticks with me is Elliot Grays description of what he wants his hookbait to achieve and that is to give the fish a choice of whether to take it or not. He makes his hookbaits a blatent pink pop up or wafter and by making it the most clearly visible highest attraction bait in the swim. The fish then has the choice. I can see these pop ups doing the same sort of job.

If you like a garlic bait, Urban baits - absolutely stink and very reliable bouyancy, great baits - was using these with the Premier Aminos Garlic and Tuna. MEGA!

As special as they come that is mate. First class.

having another go

Totally. I bet if we saw it now it'd look tiny 😅

Had a little go at a 6 egg mix turned out alright I think, made 1.5kg, didn't use my boilie roller made some 15mm on a table and some pillows from the spare paste. Used my electric caulking gun today that made light work of the dough. That's a bite.

Leney descendants* I'm talking about the real thing.... as in touch by the hands of Donald himself.

Welcome. Its a bit quiet lately, but there's a few good gents that have helped me out over the years. @elmoputney is all about bait atm

Just fitted my new rod locks ready for spring - hopefully no more flying rods 😆