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After working a 2pm-2am shift, I popped down to a local park lake to await the morning when I would be able to park on my road (that was my excuse anyway) I managed a carp that probably wouldn’t look out of place in Yonny’s koi pond, but it kicks off October

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 😎🇧🇪

So this is what the pond looked like when I arrived. The pond is 2m wide, 6m long, and 2m deep. It holds 24,000 litres (~5.2k gallons), with the filtration and pipework capacity taking it to over 30,000 litres. Construction is by way of reinforced concrete base and walls set into the ground by ~1.6m, with the top ~0.4m sitting above ground. The wooden decking on the left is essentially a lid that is raised using a pulley system. You can then walk down into the filter house, which is also set into the ground just like the pond. The filtration system is gravity fed, which means there is a bottom drain in the pond. The water is pushed down the bottom drain, along some pipework, and up into a Nexus 310 which is a high-performance combination mechanical/bio filter. First the water is pushed through the mechanical filter section which removes dirt, grime, and weed etc. The water is then passed to the biological filter section which uses a filtration media, agitated by air lines, to foster friendly bacteria growth. This bacteria converts ammonia and nitrite (from carp poo) into harmless nitrate. The water is then fed, by pump, into a UV filter which passes the water through a tube under UV light which kills algae. The treated water is then returned to the pond through an outlet ~15cm below the ponds surface. There’s also a skimmer system which filters contamination from the surface of the pond. Water that goes through the skimmer is then pumped into a ‘veggie’ or ‘bog’ filter (an additional shallow, gravel-filled pond, planted with moisture-loving plants). This section, located over the back of the main pond, is currently blocked off due to a leak – I’ll worry about this next year. So, as you can see, it’s far from just a hole in the ground. I’ve spent loads of time online researching how all this stuff works, and spoken with the local koi centre, and the local pond builder. I’ve replaced a pump, and the UV bulb in the UV filter, trying to get the existing system working as perfectly as possible ready for winter. We have loads of trees, which means loads of leaves, and this could be a problem when autumn hits properly, especially with the skimmer system blocked off. I’ve purchased a massive fine mesh net to protect it this year and I’ll just chuck this over when the time comes. In the coming days I’ll post about the best bit…… the fish.

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

You go off places - sometimes unexpectedly it happens, I do agree with Yonny though in that you've got the ticket and there are whackers, it's a great time of year now right into Dec. You've paid the money why not commit to having a good bash if you're not renewing, nothing more rewarding/inspiring than seeing the broad back of a monster in your net! All it takes is seeing one patch of bubbles at dawn and you might have unlocked the autumn feed-up area and a hit could be on!

Tricky one mate. I never fish as well on a social as I do on my own. When you're on your own it's easier to put 100% into your angling imo. I guess you need to ask yourself why you're not feeling it. In my experience, catching a few good fish is the best way to start feeling it, so I'd go all out to bag a good'n before winter hits. Staring at a 40lber in the net is a sure fire way to get the buzz back and you have the opportunity to do that right there in front of you. If it were me, I'd forget about the socials and get down there with a plan to watch, and watch, and watch, and move onto them at any given hour. Hard work always pays off and the harder you work, the bigger the buzz when it all comes good.

Thanks, well added them crushed to a mix made it smell decent, looked good on the deck too, but rigging the snails was an absolute nightmare and won't be doing it again lol. I dunno, I don't think they are the one lol. Spent most of the day walking the canal and finally found them, fished amongst them for a couple hours until they disappeared. Not a bleep. 🤣 It's cool though, I'm pretty happy I gave it a go lol.

Fish to your own limits and conditions. I think that we have conditioned ourselves for fishing to be plotting up at the lake Friday night, popping the bivvy up, making ourselves super comfortable, then catching or not and packing up Sunday. That's 'carp fishing'. I went through a stage on a particular park lake where I didn't want locals knowing (a) I was there. (b) I was catching. I would sleep on a camping air mattress roll, with a tarpaulin cover after arriving as darkness fell. I could get the rods out more quickly, and in unfished areas. I've posted this pic before, but I could get up close with minimal disturbance and be off very quickly in the morning.

As some of you know I've inherited a koi pond after the purchase of a new home. It's not your average garden pond... in fact it's pushing 7000 gallons. Quite an installation I tell thee. It holds 16 koi to nearly 30lb, and 1 albino grass carp which is also a biggun. I'm considering doing a diary of sorts on here to document my journey keeping koi. I'd talk about the set up, any changes, and more importantly the kippers and their condition and growth. Obviously I know a thing or 2 about carp but I'm a complete newbie to ponds so it could be interesting to share in the fun of it all, as well as the blood, sweat and tears that are bound to manifest!

Note to self, don't use a bait boat on a weedy canal 🤣 man what a nightmare, so last night we thought we should send the baits/particle out with the boat. 3 rods went out sweet, dropped the 4th, turned the boat right when I should of went left and it into that scummy weed that sits on top the water. Wrapped around the propellers and stopped the boat in its tracks. We had no way of getting the boat back so had to do 4 mile trip to get to the other side, safe to say the travel was the easiest part, I then had to go through about 5ft of nettles in the dark to get to the waters edge and still couldn't reach the boat, so I tried with my net handle, which had nothing on the end so I couldn't even hook it out 🤦‍♂️🤣 in the end I just slid down the bank hanging onto brambles and managed to grab it with my other hand and launch in back up into the hedge 🤣 I got stung all up my hip, back and arm and hands lol and to make it even worse, the whole time I was over there trying to get it out all I could hear is my mate roaring like a child 🤣🤣

Gotta have a decent bedchair👍 I'd struggle getting off an air bed these days lol and pumping it would drive me mad 🤣 If you're using a barrow I'd deffo be taking a bedchair/sleep system, fish under the stars, shroud, brolly, bivvy, whatever suits 👍 @salokcinnodrog I rate it, thats hardcore but no thanks 🤣

You will end up buying a proper bedchair and bivvy after one night, No way I would be sleeping on an airbed these days, by morning I wouldn't be able to move. Some things are a good investment I see a bedchair, sleeping bag and bivvy quite essential, there are some good deals about if you know where too look.

So I did my best to get shots on the phone - apologies for the poor quality. This fish is one of the bigger koi in the pond. It's a Gin Rin Platinum Ogon. Gin Rin meaning 'scaled' i.e. a common, Ogon meaning metallic, solid, single-coloured koi, and Platinum referring to the white/silver colour. In our carpy language it's basically a pure white common. The kids have named it 'Whopper', which imo is an absolutely rubbish name, but they love it so the name stays. I put Whopper at about 28 lb despite the local pond/koi expert being adamant she's a 30. Stick to your pond building mate... I know a 30 when I see one😅 Whopper is actually a young fish, possibly as young as 5 or 6, so if I want to grow a real monster (which obviously I do😅) she's probably my best bet in the shorter term. She's probably the most friendly fish too and will always be first up at feeding time. I'm taking it easy with the food at the moment due to dropping temps, but next year I'll up the feeding during growing season. Whopper should easily be 30lb by this time next year. I've taken a lot of advice on how to grow as safely and as naturally as possible. I don't want to heat the pond, I want the carp to have a 'natural' annual cycle, so I just need to optimise feeding at the right time.

In my opinion you will absolutely increase your average weights by using pop ups. The higher you fish them off the deck, the higher your average weights will climb, and it's purely down to the mechanics of how fish of different sizes approach baits. If you whack a pop up 3 inches off the deck you'll hook fewer small carp as it just looks alien to them. Bigguns can't even tell as they're approaching from above due to their sheer size. Just my opinion of course..... I have a mate that fished the same waters as me for 5 years. Great angler. His average, every year, was significantly smaller than mine, and he caught just as many fish if not more. Only difference is he fished bottom baits where I used pop ups. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not..... During my most focussed campaign after 1 particular fish, I increased the height of my pop up rigs significantly to avoid smaller fish. I landed 16 fish after that modification with an average of over 30 lb, and then the biggun. Normal average on this water was mid 20, my smallest fish was 25. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not..... You might sacrifice bites with big blatant pop ups but when the bite comes it's normally one that matters. My first piece of advice to anyone looking to target big fish would be to use blatant pop up rigs. You'll still catch smaller carp, and you'll still catch tench/bream, but imo frequency will be reduced.

They're two separate tickets mate. The estate has about 2 miles of bank, over 4 stream fed lakes in a valley, a lot of it is unfishable. It is lovely, with natural English carp rumoured to e around the 30 mark. Just talking about it is making me want to go

It's took me a while to adjust from the ressies as well mate, I love everything about it. Fishing at range, spodding big beds of bait out, hauling multiple 20s a day 👌🤣 I haven't really done any fishing on the reservoirs this year, its been mainly the canal and the complex. Totally different type of fishing imho, really weedy waters, trying to find little holes in the weed then trying to present a bait over it lol. I think out of the last 30 days I've spent about 5 at home, and only had 2 carp (same fish 🤣) Starting to feel burnt out from it now, ended up coming home this afternoon, but now I'm watching the weather forecast and we've got some low pressure coming in and now I'm thinking should I go back down 🤣

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 🤷‍♂️

Well I've been out and got around 100 snails, got a special mix on the go in the bucket 😏 tedious picking in the waders 💪🤣 I'm off to the canal tomorrow morning for a night or two. Both rods are gonna go on snails. I will update how I get on 👍

1. For the ultimate in being a tart, take a bivvy, brolly and gazebo. Don’t laugh, I saw it last weekend on a commercial where you can park your car behind the swim. 2. Have a splash mat under your reels, the ultimate in tartyness. 3. Carry 20 different types of pop-up but only use 1. 4. Take a 2 man bivvy but you only do over-nighters. 5. Take a powered fridge despite the fact you only keep your sandwiches and lager in it. 6. Own a 5-season sleeping bag despite the fact you hang your rods up in October. 7. Have a power bank that could keep a family home going for a couple of days in a power cut but you only charge your phone and torch. 8. Your rod-pod has so much stainless that you have to wear sunglasses to look at it. 9. You have a power barrow with so much grunt it could stop an average scrum but you only fish a 2 acre lake with manicured lawns. 10. Your phone is permanently on FaceBook so you can keep in contact with both of your friends. 11. A pair of 10x25 binoculars is more than ample and fits in your pocket when folded down. So why do you take a set of field glasses that can spot a mouse a mile away? 12. You wear bivvy slippers to keep your groundsheet clean. 13. A head torch is a necessity after dark but you need to keep it down to keep your night-sight when you turn it off. Your 8000 Lumen monstrosity resembles the Blackpool illuminations. 14. You bring your camper van to a commercial that allows rear of swim parking and stay in it all day and night watching TV or reading a book and only come outside once a day. Don’t laugh, I have seen it. 15. You own 2 sets of rods/reels/buzzers because you fish different waters and don’t want to handicap yourself. 16. Despite having a double burner and family sized returnable gas bottle and associated cookware, your meals are delivered to your swim from the local greasy spoon and pizza shop. 17. You have a bait boat with GPS and Sonar despite your lake being as pancake flat as the day the bulldozer created it. It also has a 4kg payload despite the fact you only use PVA bags. 18. Everyone loves a bivvy table. A small one just big enough for your tackle box, scales, phone and receiver is ample. A true tackle tart pushes it to the max and I saw 2 blokes in adjoining swims with a decorating table that you use for hanging wallpaper. 19. You have a top of the range DSLR with an impressive pixel count but the deal clincher was the 40 frames per second burst shooting rate it offered. Despite the fact you will never use it. You only shoot in Auto and use the photo’s unaltered on your FaceBook page. 20. You take 3 nets with you, “just in case.” The water you are fishing is rock hard and 2 fish a season is considered good going.

I have another pond down in the main garden with goldfish in.... the heron can have them! Otters...... now there's a scary thought. We're 3 miles away from the Nene... but there's a small brook just 250m away. Fencing the pond, or the garden, isn't really possible. Maybe a steel mesh over the top of the pond when I'm not around?

That's certainly made me think! I have tried hinged stiff rigs and even Ronnies for a while but didn't really set the world on fire with them. I always test my rigs in an old ice cream tub before I cast them out to check that they behave as "natural" as possible. Your analysis on the average size of fish using blatant pop-up's is really interesting. I remember reading a Dave Lane article where he forgot his rig putty and so cast his pop-up's out anyway and had a red letter session!

Just reading through this thread and it got me thinking 🤔. I'd say about 95% of my UK big fish captures (35lb plus) were on pop ups and they were nearly always different colours to my free bait.That being said, I fished nothing but pop ups for a very long time so if I hooked a lump then it would have been on a pop up. It was only in the last 4 or 5 years of my carp fishing that I started using wafters a lot. I'm pretty sure that most of my French fish were on wafters though. A mate on dinton once asked me "how come you catch a lot of bigguns?". I put it down to the spots I was fishing if I'm honest and a large slice of luck but this thread has maybe changed my mind on that as I virtually always fished pop ups, he was a snowman or bottom bait angler. Interesting for sure.

I'm not going to get all technical ,here's what I've learnt over time .. I had an old friend 'Egloskerry Tom' Tom had a massive influence on me as a youngster ,as far as carping went he was God.. I used to watch him set up a rod ,cast his latest rig out ,with the latest homemade RH recipe, Partridge hook ,then came attaching backleads ,sinking the line ,....you get the picture !...a right kerfuffle!.. He didn't catch many ,but I loved him as a friend .. Anyway I used to turn up with a bag of Richwoth tutti, some not looking to good ,just found some ,spots that I felt held fish ...one Sunday I turned up he'd been there hours same routine etc ....and nowt ...by lunch time fishing simple running rigs and so on I had 7 nice carp...what that taught me is over complication looses against simplicity .. I fish similar even today, simple is best ,no gadgets or gimmicks ,just a sharp hook in the right place carp are simple creatures...if they don't feed there is nothing you can do about it...and boy ,don't those tackle manufacturers know it they play on people's insecurity..

So, I joined a little syndicate recently. Well stocked to a few early 40's, Initially thought there's a few odd rules, but whatever. As times gone by (4 x 48's), I've had a low 30 on the first visit) I've sort of lost interest in the place. A few mates are on the ticket, but we haven't been free at the same time for a social. After fishing a reservoir and that feeling of having something no ones caught before, I've just not had the same buzz with this place. The search for a decent venue continues i guess??

So this weekend was great. I've been doing a lot of work to improve water quality/clarity and on Saturday morning I realised I can now see the bottom in 2m of water. Result. The skimmer I put in is working a treat. A decent weekend all round. Fish are still happy but the feeding has slowed right down in the reducing temps.

Now that's what I call a catch report😬 I'm not jealous at all @kevtaylor. Not one bit🤥 Well done mate.

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🤣

The storm on Friday gone was a nightmare for the leaves.... I put a net over the pond but it was useless. I'm worried about the leaves blocking up the bottom drain and filter, and drawing oxygen out of the water as they decay. I have the local expert round tonight to quote for replacing the skimmer system and I've ordered the best temporary skimmer you can get. Should do the job for now, but we'll wait to see the cost of the the permanent solution 😬

Having been back at carp angling for a year after the massive long break, i did not figure to go back to doing any overnight sessions at all, years ago i sold of my bivvy and bed chair, i also promised my good lady i would not do nights, so as a compromise i have found a lake i can do 24 hour sessions on and my mrs can stop at a good friends house close by in catterick 5 mins from green lane fishery. Seeing as this night fishing is gonna be limited to less than 5 24 hour trips in a year i have decided to do a bad thing and get a pop up green tent, single air bed and generic 4 season sleeping bag, all this gear is a nice way to avoid carp tax with the whole lot costing less than a bedchair and taking up a tiny bit of room, i have brew making and cooking gear in our main camping kit, sadly this will have to wait till next year before i can go, but moving in right direction

So I've tried snails, my mate is still keen to try a kilo of chopped worms with 2 rods over it. I will let you know how we get on 👍 tbh though I have done alright on boilie at the beginning of summer, I think im just having some bad luck at the moment so I'm gonna continue with boilie for the rest of the year. Unless he has it off with worms 👍🤣

Thanks for that timely input I was thinking it could be a right edge but I can't be bothered to harvest them, that takes a lot of effort and I hope it pays off for him, looks like it's back to plan 3283638 for me then 😂

Yeah I did years ago. I used live ones, dead ones, dehydrated/dried ones.... and they were all rubbish. Imo the carp get on the (natural) snails simply because it's the easiest food source to harvest at the time. They're tuned into the food sources available in their watercourse and I don't think you can compete with that with any snails apart from those that are plucked out of the venue - so @jh92 has the right idea. Even then, there are other natural baits (maggots and worms) that will do a much better job of competing. The snail discussion comes up every few years. Lots of guys try it. Hardly anyone has any real success. Imho, snails are just not a great bait.

Fake ones? Real ones for a spod mix 🤔 https://www.carpparticles.co.uk/product/micro-snails/ Also don't dynamite cook their hemp in the tins? Does that mean they are unaliving snails in the tin too? 😱

Thats a proper unit, though so is the one in the picture with it if the grassie is a metre long roughly. It's surprising how big they can grow in a pond. My two koi i currently have are both knocking 50cm to 60cm. One is a Sanke and the other a perfect zip linear karashigoi, I'll try and get pics but my water clarity isn't to good as I've just not had the time this year to keep on top of it.

I've got a universal mozzi mesh that fits on most brolly /bivvies cost me about 10 quid I think. It was a jrc one I think, thermocell backpacker and an open front is more effective though I think. Rarely get bit with the backpacker.

A LOT of very good kit sells second hand I'm told, I wouldn't exclude that route for some bulky items, some guys don't even use it then sell half price it's a bit mad really!

I'd planned to introduce another kipper today but was busy as owt last night and didn't get the chance for photos. I did manage a quick filter clean on dark and grabbed a shot of how the pond's looking now. You'll notice I've removed most of the plants, basically taking it back to a blank canvas to help me visualise what I want to do with it. The water still isn't quite as clear as I'd like, probably due to the fact the UV filter hadn't been changed in ages. This was done last week so hoping to see an improvement for the weekend. Although I don't want to, I may have to remove the water lily too. The carp are smashing it to bits as it dies back for winter which really isn't helping the clarity. Not sure which would keep the carp happier tbh... keep the lily at the expense of water quality or get rid at the expense of the carps favourite 'toy'!

I'd hate to see the size of the heron if it was to eat "whopper". That said the otter protection is a good shout if near to waterways.

I couldn't do this I need a proper bed, the SP Tech is so good for my back I use it at home if I'm struggling. When I did single nights on Welly the bed was so bad I wouldn't have been able to do the second night anyway.

Lovely sized pond mate, I'd love one that size but I know they are pricey to build/maintain etc. Do you have the automatic self cleaning nexus. Looking forward to seeing a few pics of the fish. I've got a tiny 2 metre square pond by 900mm deep. I built it soley for goldfish originally but I did have 6 dinton carp in it once upon a time and believe it or not one of them grew to just shy of 10lb and the rest all over 5lb. Sadly they all died due to a freak accident. I've now got a few goldfish, one gold tench, 3 x carp that i grew from spawn in 2020 from my old lake, one of which is probably 6lb and 2 x koi that are knocking 7 or 8lb.They've out grown the pond really and i do need to upgrade mine really. Time and money holding me back at the moment. I've got a bog filter on my current one and boy do the plants grow in that, especially when I up the feed in spring. The first picture is after I built the bog filter. The next picture is after one month, second picture after 2 months and last picture after 5 months and cutting it all back after 4 months.

Just done another 24 on the canal, found a nice clear area so thought I'd put some time in here, a bit of prebaiting etc. What I didn't take into account is that I'm set up under a motorway... safe to say I didn't get much sleep 🤣 on a plus note my spot is getting cleared and I caught a tench 👍🤣

Well I can't even upload a screenshot atm🙄 He had a nice little perch about 1 1/2 lb. Needless to say he now wants try live baiting next time. Predator fishing is allowed on my ticket from October with some perch around the 3-4lb mark. Well that is if we get some more rain and increased oxygen levels in the water🤞

Bear in mind it'll likely mean less bites..... if you have the time to wait for the ones that matter that's great. If not - you could be screwing yourself over. I don't measure, I just do it by eye. I guess I'm talking about the bottom of the pop up to the deck/substrate.

two little 2lb test 11ft shimano aero rods with little shimmy bait runners out this evening, left rod to the tree in the water opposite, right rod next to the platform right of shot. Had 3hrs out, landed 5. Nothing huge, but nice to be out again

Agreed although I only really use 3inch pop-ups in spring and catch all sizes because it's spring, it's been proven over and over and on film that the whackers cannot tell it's off the deck so it singles them out. I should fish them more tbh 👍

Wicked post mate 👍 what size pop ups do you use? My mate uses hinges instead of Ronnie's due to the bait being higher, reckons its harder for smaller fish, nuisance species to get hooked on, swears by it lol. I've done really well using big snowman baits over the last couple years, with the bottom baits being between 18 - 24mm, and a pink pop up between 14 - 16mm. I would say my majority of captures were rarely under 20lb. I wonder if it's the size of the bait or the bait being sat up right topped off with a pink pop up is selecting the bigger carp for me? Why is when you think you've got things sussed out another rabbit hole opens 🤣🤣 For years I've mainly fished big open ressies, presenting a bait was fairly easy as the bed was mainly silt, with a few hard spots. As I was fishing mainly around 100 yards my thoughts behind it would be that the rig and and several yards of line would be flat on the deck and out the way of the Carp. Never really had an issue. When I started fishing the canal and complex this year it felt like a whole new type of fishing as I was dropping baits in holes of weed, having my line semi slack riding up out over the weed. My head was falling off as I couldn't see how it would it catch with line coming up off the spot, like surely its going to spook the fish off🤣 my mates take on it who's been fishing there for years was saying I'm over thinking things, the carp are coming out of dense weed, are they really gonna feel the difference between a semi slack line and a strand of weed lol. I still have my suspensions but tbh after I kinda just settled with the idea and continued to fish like that I've started to get through to them when fishing like that 👍

I'm not saying you won't catch on bottom baits. I just feel pop ups are more selective and smaller fish tend to ignore them.

Whilst this is mainly true some of the trickiest carp to catch can be those that have seen it all on a daily basis on a busy commercial, I reeled in a bent hookpoint after one bleep last trip so deffo been done. 95% of bites are dropbacks and you rarely connect, that is NOT normal - this is my finding on Bluebell's Kingfisher anyway - cute as anything. On my big, low stock lake I think they are scared of baited patches which again seems pretty rare, they usually say find them and you'll catch, here it's find them - cast out and they're gone lol This lake is so clear I've been looking at my flouro leaders thinking well they're easy to see - should I go back to leadcore. Minefield!

Got lucky on my Bluebell trip, arrived Sunday morning as swims became free from the weekend - lots of swims available on Swan but onto my favourite Kingfisher for a lap. Fairly busy but suprisingly the 1st and 2nd points had become free and had the wind smashing in for the duration of my trip. Within minutes I'd seen several shows in each so I bucketed the 2nd point and went to pay and get my kit. With my kit in the 2nd point I noticed more activity in the 1st point so quickly moved and got set up. I gave it a couple of hours watching to identify the main areas they were showing in then checked with a light lead - all presentable with just tiny bits of black silk weed coming back on the swivel. I decided to go in with pva mesh bags with mixed pellets and crumb and 10ml pellet wafter hookbaits. Conditions at this point were banging 50 mph gusting winds, low pressure and rain. Sunday evening as the rain became biblical the right rod signaled a take, I frantically fumbled around for my coat and got out there. Waders on out in the pond playing a fish in the monsoon - head torch shining through the spray it was mega and I netted a lovely 26lb common. 10am Monday the activity restarts and a guy round the corner leaves who was taking the mick in my water so I get the left rod repositioned where I actually wanted it. Late morning and early afternoon I had 2 doubles from the 2 rods straight out so 3 in the bag and I'm praying for a big un. Then at about 4pm i hook what feels a better fish and it kites right this time then I feel grating as it finds weed. No drama it's still coming and I get ot free, but after 2 heavy head lunges it slips off - gutted. Early evening after seeing a bigger fish roll on the left side - the left rod is away, this time it's in weed straight away but I manged to keep it coming bit by bit weedbed after weedbed and then after a great tussle close in I slip the net under a long common. It wasnt until I plonked it down on the mat that I realised how wide this fish was and that I had made a mistake not going for the bigger scales. The Ruben Flyweights bottomed out at 43lb so unfortunately I'll never know how big it was exactly but who cares when they are knarly as anything - best fish I ve caught for a long time - absolutely buzzing. The rest of the trip got slower and slower by the day but who could be disappinted, I'd made the most of my weather opportunity - right time right place and no bait boat, spodding and distance sticks 😎👌