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With the big pit covered in a giant weedberg on the end of the wind where I wanted to be, I decided to pop to the local day ticket for my monthly session. I experienced all the highs and lows associated with such places - plenty of carpy activity but got casted over, spombed at, hemmed in...... but all's well that ends well. Caught a few with these being the prettiest. The linear is typical of the stock of this water, but the other one is a true leather. Quite a rarity nowadays.

Went back to Belgium Carp Arena Lilly Pool late July-Aug and was regretting the booking in the run up with the extreme heat forecasts. First day set up camp and got my son fishing and he got off the mark with 2 x 30s within the first 12 or so hours so all pressure was off. Sunday I got my rods sorted and didnt take long to get off the mark too with another low 30. The heat midweek killed the action but we got a couple late on in the week. We ended up with 7 for me including the biggest in the lake and 4 for my son. Mega week for me practicing boat skills to drop rigs, bait up and play a few that became weeded up, my son loved the bait boat and wasnt keen on the actual boat as he felt unsafe with me moving all over the place trying to help him hand line fish out of the weed etc. Tactics were my low pop-up rigs, match the hatch baits and small scatterings of boilies which seemed to work well considering the conditions. No night bites which seemed odd but great, all fish came between first light upto 10pm with 7am - 10am the most productive. Will go back coz I love the boating element and a lake exclusive.

Many thanks all! 3wks in and the sleepless nights are starting to catch up! well I took the new aforementioned banana baits to a local club water the other day for a quick few hours while my daughter was in nursery, I had 3 out to 21lb so that’s the biggest hurdle crossed when making your own bait, knowing it works!

Afternoon all, so my fishing has taken a back seat for the moment with the birth of my youngest son 2wks ago, so to stave off the carpy withdrawal symptoms, I have started to play about with a few things to keep me busy… for a while, I’ve been thinking about bait, specifically something for the winter when realistically, I’ll be able to get my rods out again (my choice, a new baby is hard work!) my usual bait, consisting of premier supermarinos basemix, with cream palatant, belachan flavour at 2ml per six eggs, shellfish sense appeals at 2ml, a dribble (0.5ml) of monster crab flavour, 20ml of salmon oil, added haiths robin red, and a dash of blood powder to help harden the baits (the resulting baits are a tad soft for hookbaits without the addition of blood powder or egg albumin to harden them up - I don’t want to boil the granny out of them!) has for years been all I’ve ever wanted from a bait, it catches carp wherever I take it, so what more do I need?? well in the depths of winter, I felt that the bait might not be for the best, so I wanted something different… but what? now “back in the day” my go to winter bait was good old Richworth banana ester readymades, an awesome banana aroma, bright yellow in colour and something a little different to the usual pineapple baits most were using. Going to the big one show in Feb sparked the memory of banana baits when I brought a limited edition pot of banana pop ups that took me back to my youth! so why not just buy a bag of banana readymades and be done with it? Because I freely admit to being a bit of a bait snob, and would rather roll my own baits than buy a bag… (yet I have a bag of krill bottom baits for quick sessions and theres no bait in the freezer! I am a contradiction in terms!) i wanted a bait that would be a nice high leakage banana flavoured, yellow bait like a readymade, but I didn’t want it too in your face and I wanted it to have a nutritional value, so I wanted a readymade that isn’t a readymade, that hit you with a banana aroma but didn’t… in short I didn’t quite know what I wanted!! turning to premier, I ordered my usual 10kg of supermarinos basemix and also ordered 10kg of premier milk protein/birdfood basemix which they recommended for winter use. Tony also threw in a free bottle of monster crab/shellfish sense appeal blended flavour free of charge as he knew I use it - legend! now, I knocked up a quick mix of the birdfood mix with 5ml of CC Moore banana flavour - which smells exactly as I remember the old richworth bait to smell like, perfect! I used 10ml of salmon oil, which didn’t sit right with me, it didn’t quite match if you know what I mean! initial thoughts? The basemix wasn’t quite as “predictable” as the fish meals I'm used to rolling, I found the mix dried out and shrank, making it harder to roll and squeeze out of the boilie gun, some baits also split on rolling, so some work was needs there getting the mixture right. The resulting baits turned out ok, the flavour profile felt right to the nose, but I felt I could improve on the mix. when I first started bait making, I used carp company fruit frenzy basemix with essential bait fruit factor 6, which had a lovely “zingy” flavour, I then in 1998 discovered premier Aminos basemix with green lipped mussel and richworth boiled ham flavour or rod Hutchinson mixed herbs flavour - that was a killer flavour! I’ve used premier base mixes ever since. I was straight onto essential baits for a tub of fruit factor 6, I also found a bulk oil, “fruit seed oil” a blend of vegetable oils and fruit esters, that felt more in keeping with the bait then the salmon oil, so that went into the basket too, finally a bottle of thaumatin red (a fruity intense sweetener) also ended up heading my way… bring on the bait making! so this time, I added 1/2tsp of fruit factor 6, 0.5ml of thaumatin red, 20ml of fruit seed oil and 5ml of banana flavour to six eggs then added the milk protein/birdfood basemix slowly until I got it to the point that the mix was still slightly sticky. Giving it 10min to rest left it in the perfect state to go through the gun and roll nicely without any splitting. the baits were given a 1min 20sec boil that gave them a nice skin with a slightly rubbery texture, and to the nose they have a lovely banana/fruity undertone. They are a nice pale honeycomb shade with birdfood flecks. so have I achieved the “readymade/not readymade” bait ready for winter? Who knows!! I’ll give it a go on a few waters during quick 3-4hr sessions whilst my daughter is in nursery to see how acceptable the concoction is to my local carp, if they like it, then I’ll start trickling it into the winter waters to get them used to it. (Do we even need to do this anymore? I still do anyway…) my next project?? I have 20 x 2m black 28mm rigid conduit pipes, a can of expanding foam and a baiting spoon to see if I can fashion a DIY baiting pole for around £40-50… It’s amazing where your mind goes when you’re bottle feeding at 3am!

Six egg mix ready for the pan, I’ve dusted them with dry base mix to prevent them sticking togetherafter boiling for 1min 45secs, (timed once the waters actually boiling) they are left in the garden to air dry for half hour or so, giving them a shake every few mins baits bagged and ready for the freezer

Moody one from the weekend..

One from this weekend.. Only taken on a phone but with some editing they can look ok..

Last week in Belgium, rods far and wide on a lake booking between me and my son.

France on 5th so fingers crossed mate and rude not to give the syndi another go at the weekend - oh and just bought a Bluebell winter ticket. Determined to turn this season around after a poor start through ill health. 👍

Saturday morning at the big pit. Big blank to go with it.

During the long blistering hot summer we've endured, I've had more joy with the camera than the rod on some waters! The shot with the rods were on zigs just under the surface and the dragon fly was on that Common for quite a while.

on the deck at the end of the sesh

few quick hours while the girls at nursery

WHAT?!?! now that's dedication right there 🙌

I felt the switch Sunday night. After a few trips not using the bivvy it was put up as soon as the rods were in this trip. As I was setting the rods up we had a light shower in North West Suffolk, and at 2.30am it rained properly for an hour, and fish started crashing. Yesterday a massive difference, fish moving during the day. First time I have felt comfortable putting in any more than a PVA stringer or bag full for months.

Big switch this week lads and while it's still warm, it's looking mega outside in Northants. Overcast. Rain overnight. Great temps. I predict the carp will switch on big time this week. Best of luck to anyone out this week.

View OF the bivvy doors - this is camp from the last trip, thankfully the trees left side of the swim covered us from mid morning until 7pm. We moved the Nash tarp and used as a wall to block the early morning sun - worked a treat. 👍

At Brackens I knew everyone else was going to recast around 6pm at night, so I would make sure I had my baits in place long before that, and use their disturbance to move the fish out of their areas. Quite frequently I would get fish about 8 o-clock at night while they blanked. I also try not to change hookbaits, even after a fish. The smell of 'me' is gone, the first fish found it acceptable, so changing it might upset that. That attitude also comes with me now at the end of a session. My pop-ups are already counterbalanced, on floss and lighter blobbed, so don't come off unless pulled. I can quite easily just attach a fresh bag or stringer without actually touching the bait. The only time Sky goes silly, talking and jumping, when someone comes to visit, and most people she loves, but there are one or two who she is not keen on for some reason, possibly because they are nervous about her. I don't mind the majority of people if they move in next door, but sometimes there are some you wish hadn't. I make sure Sky is on bark mode, lol. I try to spot fish, and if I do have to move in next to someone I will just stringer and one cast rather than make a massive disturbance.

You've certainly got the swim covered lad!

From a few years ago.

Good morning all, so the last 3wks have flown by in a sleepy haze of sleepless nights, nappies, bottles and sterilising bottles, however yesterday wifey told me it was time to get the rods out! Trying to overcome my surprise, after all I hadn’t planned an overnight trip for many months into the future, why the free pass? My wife wanted a practice run of looking after the children alone for when I return to work next week, so I was banished to the lake! well you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth do you?? luckily, if you saw my “playing with bait” thread, you’ll see that I had a bag of bait tucked away in the freezer, so the gear was dragged from the shed, food and bait loaded and I was off to the Kent boarder to fish a lake I’ve christened “zombie sheep lake” I needed to pop into the tackle shop to pick up a few bits and while browsing the shelves, my eye wandered over the racks of bivvies all in a row… now my JRC STI 1 man bivvy has finally died a death after far too many years to count, indeed it had been coughing up blood for at least 10yrs and now I’m in my 40s, the thought of doing winter sessions under my trusty oval brolly and storm sides really didn’t appeal! 13yrs of Army service, sleeping under a poncho in a ditch had meant that I was pretty used to kipping in less than favourable conditions, but any fool can be uncomfortable can’t they? so I ended up going in for a few packs of hooks and pva bags and left with a JRC Defender bivvy… oops after a 20min detour to the bailiffs house to pick up a part of my carp porter barrow that I left behind on my last (blank) trip 6wks ago, I got to the lake about 1pm, happy to see that I had it all to myself. I barrowed my gear round to the point swim, as I can see and cast to a large portion of the lake, where there was a nice gentle breeze drifting in, and set up the gear. I rigged up a pair of Fox Horizon X4S TT 12ft rods with my Fox EOS 12000 Reels spooled with 12lb synchro XT mainline, to a length of Korda leadcore fished helicopter style, hook links being 10” fox cortex soft coated braid, fished to a size 6 ESP Clawhammer hook fished slip D style and a 1” length of shink tube, line-aligner style. Bait was my fishy boilie offering. breaking out the marker rod, I found a nice silty hump with 7.5ft of water over it, with the surrounding lakebed 9ft deep. It was plenty big enough for the 2 rods that I would be using, although what was obvious was the lack of water, it was at least 2ft down from its usual summer levels. As a result, the lake hadn’t been fishing well, but who cares! I’m out on the bank in the sun and a carp just came out up to the wrist of its tail only feet from my marker float bobbing about. i catapulted about 100-150 baits over the hump and cast both rods to their respective spots. One on a 7 bait stringer and one in a pva bag. Now obviously, a soft coated hooklinks 10 inches long aren’t ideal for for pva bag use, and I really couldn’t be bothered to faff about trying up soft coated braided links, so snipped off the corner of the large pva bag and threaded the hook link through the hole so the hook link dangled out the bottom. After filling it with 1 & 2mm pellets and crusher boilie, I sealed it all up, then nicked the hook into the bag opposite the lead. It looked a bit noddy, but it was worth a try! with the rods out, it was time to get the base camp set up! You can see how low the water it as that gravel shelf is usually under water! now it was time to break out the new bivvy!! I lovingly unpacked it from its bag, laid it all out, fanned out the poles and started clipping it all together, only to find that one of the poles was snapped! Nightmare! Despite all my bodging attempts, this bivvy was knacked, so in an absolute huff, I wrapped the bivvy back up, reeled in the rods and trudged back to the car to chuck the bivvy in and grab the oval brolly, no decadent abode for me tonight! returning to the swim, I redid the rods (again!) and threw up the oval, still muttering to myself about the injustice of it all, a quick brew soon sorted me out though. the night soon drew in and the carp were getting more active and I retired to the carp cot around midnight confident on some action to christen the X4S rods that haven’t had a decent carp on as yet! at 1am, the left hand pva bag rod gave a flurry of bleeps, with the dinky esp bobbin tight to the Neville, so I struck and found myself into a plodding weight. After a pretty unspectacular fight, a carp was now nestled in the folds of my landing net. at 23lb, I was buzzing! The dodgy tied pva bag had done the job! with that working, another found it’s way back out there, and I got back to sleep. At 4am, the same rod absolutely flew, the Neville was screaming as I made my way to the rods, one shoe on one off. This one started beating me up from the get go, and after a spirited battle, a 21lb common hit the net, along with 20 tiny perch. with the pva bag working, I pressed repeat and got it back out there. As the sun was rising, I made another brew and watched the water as the sun came up (proper carpy that) once dawn had arrived, I climbed into the bag to get some kip, although it wasn’t to be, as the pva bag rod dropped slack. Winding down i soon felt the weight and soon had the carp boring down the margins, where it promptly beached itself! I couldn’t get it in the net, so gently guided it into deeper water where it rolled into the net first time. At 26lb, it was an immaculate common! (Check out the realtree MC Hammer pants!) I redid the rod and had a celebratory cuppa, when 4 day anglers arrived, that was my sign to wrap up and head home, slightly earlier than planned, but I had my share, it was time to let the day guys enjoy this delightful little pool. swinging into the tackle shop on the way home, I exchanged the defective bivvy for another one, which is sound, so alls well that ends well.

I was having the typical bivvy thoughts while fishing and made a major realisation. In the days of a standard sleeping bag, it would fit onto a standard bedchair, from sunlounger to Lafuma, to original Fox bedchairs. There were some decent cold weather sleeping bags, manufactured by cold weather sleeping bag specialists. Tackle manufacturers got involved in the sleeping bag market, sleeping bags with pockets for the bedchair to hold the top and bottom on the chair, so it would not slide off. Then came the gradual switch to 3 and 4 legged bedchairs and the now universal flat bed, and tackle manufacturers discovered a problem that they had created; with the position of the legs the pocket or flap holding the bedchair was now not suitable. Sleeping bags could rip, get caught up and tear. Next innovation is the 'sleep system', bedchair and sleeping bag combined. It takes money away from other industries and puts it as a fishing essential. The 'Realisation' is that this tackle innovation is to solve a problem that tackle manufacturers created for themselves and anglers. Now having been outside at -12 in a sleeping bag, I would much rather be outside in a sleeping bag created for survival at those temperatures than a tackle manufacturers sleep system. Of the bedchairs I have had over the years, from Lafuma and springs, to Fox, Bison, Badger (heavy, but very comfortable) Saber, Chub and Solar, probably the most comfortable was the Bison, not a flatbed like the Chub and Solar. Not just in bedchairs, but in tackle, rigs and ideas, are we going forward or backwards?

the “screw fix sausage” gun with nozzle cut to 12mm (ish - I’m not that accurate!) my eBay rolling table with sausage ready to go rolled 12mm baits

The base attractors, 20ml salmon oil (free with the basemix) 2.5ml belachan and 2.5ml shellfish sense appeals. Couple of oz robin red and a heaped tablespoon of blood powder added to 6 eggs, then enough supermarinos basemix to mix into a slightly sticky, tacky ball. (just the basemix, oil and shellfish SA on their own would keep the cost down and still produce a decent bait, the basemix has robin red in it, so it’s not essential to add more) the flavour shelf in the shed! white basemix is the protein bird food, the reddish sacks are supermarinos

Correct😁 Dunno.... I could have done with some help on Saturday 🤣

That’s exactly where I am when it comes to bait, i much prefer a food source bait over a bait that’s all food signal/smell but little substance. I could have used the same attractor profiles, flavours, oils and powdered attractors and bunged them into a 50/50 semolina/soya base, I would get bites on it short term, but I like having something nutritional that they will come back to, in the thought it is doing some good. of course it’s all guess work really, my fish meal baits have shellfish sense appeals and monster crab as a flavour, when I smell them, they smell like, well shellfish and crab! But that isn’t how the carp smell them do they? They don’t smell like we do as such, they recognise them at a different level, maybe the chemical base of the flavour. So theres me thinking well it’s 2ml of shellfish SA and 0.5ml of MC, but as the flavours are from the same company, which probably use the same base for these flavours, the carp are just detecting 2.5ml of the base chemical? After all, when we smell ethyl acetate, we smell pear drops, but the carp just detects ethyl acetate? So use 2 different fruit flavours with the same ethyl acetate base and to the carp it’s all the same? In colder waters, I want a flavour that’s more soluble, so it can escape the bait, I also wanted a coarser base to help with leakage, hence the bird food. Yet I added fruit factor 6 as a powdered attractor, which won’t have the same solubility, but can help in “repelling” silt ingress to the baits - my waters are pretty silty, but again, is this important? on one of my waters, I was told that I won’t catch unless I use pop ups to keep the bait out of the silt. All my carp in the last 2 seasons have been on bottom baits in the silt… when I fish pop ups, they tend to be low lying pop ups over the gravelly edges in the margins, fished in complete isolation. I know that the carp are in these margins regularly, so a single pop up in the right place will produce the goods. there is a belief that silt tainted baits will not be as acceptable to carp, but I disagree, they are used to feeding in silt, their senses through their barbules are extremely sensitive, if they detect a boilie in the silt they will still recognise the food signals it’s kicking out. One lad couldn’t believe that I had 4 runs in one night fishing bottom baits in the silt, when we talked about it, he said that when he fished bottom baits in the middle he caught nothing. But that’s not the bait, but down to the type of silt, where the hook bait was placed. some silt is horrible sour crud that the carp doesn’t like to feed over, but some silt is much finer, with a more neutral “taste” (?) without that sour smell that the carp will happily feed over, it’s where bloodworm and other goodies are naturally found so the bait presentation wasn’t the issue, the location of that bait was. if I offered you a nice meal on a clean plate, you’d eat it, if I offered the same meal on a plate that was smeared with human excrement, you wouldn’t go anywhere near it. That’s how I see it anyway. I still like to sniff my marker leads, as well as drill and score them to collect silt so I can see what it’s like

I feel for you , Kev . I've lost my last 4 Carp in the lillies , and although probably only low to mid doubles it still anoys me , and I think " what could I have done different ? " . One of the loses was when I rushed sideways to hustle the Carp away from the lillies only to kick the water bucket ( that I'd forgot was there ) ; so I look down to see why my sock was wet , and that 1 second delay in playing the Carp was all it needed to shed the hook . So next time out you'll just have to catch an absolute monster to help the painfull memory of your loss to fade away . 😃

Baiting poles are a real faff I must agree, I've barely used mine due to the reasons you say, but for the swim I was going to be targeting, just perfect. I do have a bait boat with good sonar and yes it has caught me some extra fish where I couldn't have casted - or would have spoiled it casting too much to find the very best area. But like the baiting pole I don't usually use it or even take it with me most of the time. New venues I will take it coz you don't know what you'll be faced with. You're wasting your time on Yonny - he will NEVER own such a thing and doesn't need any help catching, I know I've fished with him. I buy things because I'm bored and want some retail therapy not because I NEED them, as you'll have seen in the new purchases thread 🤣

The best line out there imo.

Bought 2 spools of Hydro Tuff and found one was enough to do the 3 reels - so got a spare for next spring. Wasn't going to try the 3rd reel as I didn't want to have to strip it all off once it became apparent it wasn't going to fill the last reel but went for it anyway and it did it with a little to spare. On that basis I've deffo got enough HD left to do 3 reels on the 2 spools I bought earlier in the year as I did 2 reels off one spool and one off the other spool. Ordered another 75 leads from Riverside Leads - not heard anything back on those yet so jury is out. ESP stalker boilie pouch to help with baiting up Fortis - large brimmed hat Cotswold reel splash mat, this will prob never get used - but needed to spend more for free delivery so it kind of made sense lol Is this an illness?

I spotted something odd in the edge at Bluebell and pulled out a Fox Bivvy and later spotted a landing net and handle in the reeds - gave both to my mate which he still uses now. This was months after a big storm where people obviously lost tackle 😀

I have one! Thing is it's miles round this lake so taking everything isn't really an option. In fact I'm taking as little as I can get away with! I'm even leaving the brew kit at home 😧

I almost always do this nowadays, albeit with a micro ring swivel. Even for chods. Dead easy.

Yes , I guess I have , Yonny you wise old owl . I'll start of with a basic plastic screw , and maybe then upgrade to a small rig ring and attach the pop up with floss . 😃

If you have seen that with your own eyes, I think you've answered your own question!

Like @InteraX I don't like them. I would prefer a bit of nylon or bait floss on the D or rig ring as I have found that bait screws can work free and drop the bait, no matter how much a swelled bait is supposed to grip better. It takes a big plastic one to grip properly! Incidentally, I save cut down used rig materials for that specific reason, to use create a hair or for mounting pop-ups. It doesn't matter whether it is monofilament, coated or uncoated braid. The only thing that doesn't lighter blob nicely is fluorocarbon.

I just walked Sky round the lake and to talk to the bailiff who was fishing. As we walked round I was keeping Sky calm, she likes James, so bounces, and because I thought he was margin fishing I called out 'hello' well before I got to him so he could come back to the main track past his swim, rather than me walk along the bank and possibly disturb his fishing, especially as I could see fish in front of him. We did stand talking fishery, syndicate and rules for around 30minutes, and the fish in front of him evading his baits. He was no more than 5metres from his rods even on the path. Hopefully it is respect.

I hate them! A bit of floss on the end of a micro ring swivel gives the bait a bit more movement.

I was out Sunday as soon as my fishery reopened. Whilst it was still hot, it was overcast. The fish were a lot more active. From about 11 am, I had 8 bites and landed 5, all mid to upper doubles. I lost 3 in what I think was snags that were unknown to me. My mainline just parted which started to get concerning. Overall I used least thank 1/2 a kilo of boilies and packed up around 5. I think they're on the feed now. It's good to hear others are able to get out and are having good sport.

I went yesterday to my local days only park lake and managed 14 with 13 doubles with a 16, 17 and an 18. Kept them coming all day by regularly sending out the bait boat and got through a pressure cooker of spod and about 3kg of pellet split over 2 spots. Probably going again in a few days time and have 2 pressure cookers soaking as it's cheaper then pellet. That said, I have started buying my pellets in 25kg sacks as it brings the cost down a fair bit. It really is a case of "buying your fish". The more I chuck in, the quicker and more aggressive the bites.

I've not set the bivvy up since May! Instant!

Same as nick pick up the flashing led rod it’s usually the one with the bend in it for me as I fish clutches a little tight. I have never needed an isotope either.

I have a very simple system: My indicators and alarms are red, white and green. The receiver bleeps and the led lights in those colours. As I go to the rod I check the bleeping buzzer for the correct led, and look at the falling or rising indicator. This works with anglers who have a choice to be like me with different colour leds on the alarms, or those who chose to have one alarm led colour. The receiver will bleep, an led will show. Now in the UK, there is a legal maximum limit on the number of rods an angler can use, a maximum of 4, and clubs may limit anglers to 3 or even 2, so the numeric readout is not a particular need.

Exactly! What's wrong with these people? 🤣

Well done for rising above all the provocations and triumphing . I mean did these numpties not realise from your hat that they were dealing with a serious carper ?. 😁

U fortunately It’s in the Briney. lol

Is that you Ollie? 🤪

Not always like that Ian, A fantastic swim for floater fishing back in the day, before flying rats arrived 👍 Just if anyone is actually interested, back then it was an early fox bed chair, think an Argos sleeping bag and a blanket on top...... did me ok at the time 😟