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It makes a change for me to start one! Started well yesterday morning, got here around 7, saw a few shows, small bag with a few 10mms and pop up combi rigs put out in that direction. Literally within 5 minutes (whilst I was down the margins putting out a few freebies), my left hand rod had ripped off. I felt it on, felt a good weight, then the dreaded snag. I just kept tension & bump, it came off. Dejected I redid the rod and put the kettle on. Just about to pour & the middle ones off. Good little scrap and lovely little scaled 16lb mirror. Went a bit quiet, sun was up so tried zigs in a few different spots , moving them about every hour or so. Not even a liner! As the sun dropped , I thought I'd switch back to bottom baits as I'd already caught and felt more confident for the night. Nothing through the night and just as I was stirring the left rod was off, happy days. This one felt a bit heavier, then the line went slack, I wound in faster and found the tension to the fish, it tussled a little bit, but was easily netted. As I pulled her out I thought this is a good 30 odd, could be a new pb? Scales topped out at 43 exactly, it is a new pb! Sent a pic to my mate (who's also on here), turns out to be the big girl of the lake. I'm absolutely made up

Went to a little pond with my youngest boy yesterday and he caught his first ever carp. Lovely little 7lb common. He's got the carp bug now😉

Woke up at 7 on the dot to a lovely 27lb linear. One of my best trips for a long, long time. Not sure the moon phase had any effect as they were all caught at first light

My daughter bought me this at xmas, at first i did not notice quite what was printed but this is the perfect one for me seeing what my user name on here is and my err.....catch rate

Fishing cost is always personal. Personally I find £24 for 24hours too expensive and I baulk at even £10 for a day session. I know one local water is £35 for 24hours! I could not justify a minimum of £2000 for a years fishing at day ticket prices. However I can justify a £500 syndicate season ticket or even £300 for a club season ticket. Fishing is my 'get away from the world', my relief from pain, from being trapped inside the flat. It is cheaper to be fishing for 3 or 4 days than the cost of electricity and gas in my flat.

In 2024 I visited the worlds largest cork producer in Portugal with work. It was amazing.... saw all the processes from harvesting of the bark down in Lisbon (they even let me have a go!) all the way through to production of wine stoppers and everything else they make up in Porto. Was one of the best work weeks I've had. Those trees take 12 years to get to the first harvest then once every nine years after that. It takes nearly 50 years to get to the quality required for natural wine stoppers. Some of the trees were 150+ years old. It makes sense, having seen all this, that the price of decent cork balls has gone up so much. They have something like 4 million acres of trees and in the middle of one of these huge plantations they had a reservoir providing the water. I was standing there watching the water (as you do as an angler) and a big common whalloped out. I pointed it out to my host, their technical director, and it turned out he was a carp angler too. He had this reservoir full of massive carp in the middle of nowhere that only he could fish. Incredible.

I used to fish one trotting rod for pike and got to the river and couldn't find the rod. A 60 mile round trip found it propped up at the rear of the house against a wall. Well, it was dark when I set out! Another time I had 2 conoflex barbel rods but they were slightly different. I picked up a top and bottom piece and when I got there, discovered they were from different rods and wouldn't fit together! Just drove home and sulked but after that, always kept the rods made up and held together with bands.

When I first started carp fishing, I bought my first set of bite alarms. They were wired to a receiver as that's all I could afford. Anyway... I got a run in the middle of the night and the receiver blurted out the tune to jingle bells.

Similar to yonny, I had a £75 club ticket last season, fished there for 3 nights and a £275 ticket (June-june) and I’ve only done 3 nights so far! Expensive trips. Spent most of my year fishing a club water for free as I’m on the committee! But none of those club lakes really do it for me tbh. hopefully fit in a couple more nights on the ticket before June but then I don’t know whether I’ll renew. See how it goes. Pretty expensive trips!

Swings and roundabouts innit. Most decent syndi's now are 600 plus. Many have now exceeded a grand. Last year I fished ~5 nights on my syndi - for 650 quid. Add your bait, fuel, food etc... and we're talking maybe 200 a night. Makes a 30 quid day ticket seem cheap! I'm dropping the ticket this year. Just can't justify the cost for the time I get.

Nope, they will still get people there. Supply and demand and the demand is still damn high everywhere you look. More and more members only lakes are becoming invite only due to silly enquiries for the waiting lists. The rest are raising prices to ensure a lower membership costs costs. it makes the day tickets more money off the back of it.

Of course not. But tbf she knows that whatever I tell her it costs, she has to double it then add some 🤣

4 pints of wrigglers, 20k of 10 & 15mm boilies, some matching glug and stick mix. About £50's worth of plastic and bits of metal. New catapult elastic. New alarm batteries BIG SOCIAL next week, so I'm probably talking the kitchen sink as well!

New wands 😁

a mid double common to christen the new rods

Have you seen the crimp-it or whatever it’s called. Same thing but not a toaster, could use it to prepare them before your session and then just pop it in a toaster device if you’re choosing to heat it up. Interesting to look at RM as a business. A redesign of a toaster device, simple and easy, has propelled them in to what they are now. Goes to show how something incredibly simple can lead a business to be extremely lucrative!

If it's bright I'd be starting at ~ 25% depth (from the surface). If it's dull I'd be trying mid-water i.e. 50% depth. Colours for bites or black for the biggun.

Often times the women and children are in an”safe country” and then men make the journey to Britain as the risk is high in the channel. Then once here they bring the family. Your statements show you need to do some internet research as you don’t fully understand any of what you’ve said. Women and children in Ukraine were FLOWN out at the expense of other countries taxpayer money to those countries. The men were forced to stay, those that left cant go back. One that did flee got a visa here and lived across the road from my parents. I’ve spoken to him first hand. Avoided duty because of a bad back, was here working as a labourer the following week. They have a choice on where to go. They might prefer British food to Italian. Simple as that. They have freedom of choice. also, it just sounds like you don’t care about women and children sexually assaulted by British men. So much focus on these migrants and what they’ve done when a majority of SAs in Britain are carried out by white men, same with child SAs. Get a grip on reality please. Villainising a small % of the perpetrators and ignoring the majority is utter stupidity. Are you as vocal about British rapists? If all of these migrants disappeared will you still be vocal about rape and sexual assault? Were you before they were here? they are a recent phenom after all.

Another 3kg of 15mm done on the table, I think I've got my mix about right now 6 egg mix makes 1.5kg and mixes pretty well. Guns and rolls pretty well. Big common food. ✅☑️✔️✅

I just had one, no big surprise! I thought it might be nice to share some valuable, heart warming experiences. I just went with my son to get his first razor. Explaing the do's & dont's was very humbling for me.

The first image is a wind up, unfortunately the second isn't! I would just like to thank the pair of clowns on Big Hayes last year for the inspiration!

What's the day???

After not going carp fishing since August due to having personal issues to deal with regarding my dad I managed to get a couple of trips on the bank this month. Last week was Wednesday to Friday. I got to the lake, and fancied an area towards the shallower east end of the lake. I did have an angler on the opposite bank slightly to my left, so I made sure I wouldn't interfere with his fishing, and got myself set up. Sorting out my dinner I realised I had left my cutlery set at home, no major issue as I had a fork in the spares pocket of my food ruckbag. It did mean that I had to gauge 2 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee though. The more important issue was the bucket of birdfood to get the ducks and swans to clear some weed if the carp didn't eat it, and worse Sky's food bowl. I was in the sleeping bag for 8pm, but awake listening for fish. A few crashed between Dave and I between 8 and 10pm when I eventually fell asleep while the frost was forming. Sky refused to come in the bivvy, and slept outdoors. Thursday was a walk around looking, but nothing made me want to move. That night was most definitely warmer, but nothing crashed, so Friday saw a slow pack up with a blank. I wasn't intending to fish again for a week, but Sunday I got back to the empty lake, complete with garlic soaked birdfood particles. I hadn't forgotten anything this week, set myself up in the same swim, although checked the wind forecast to the 3nights and had the back of the bivvy facing North West. Two quiet days, despite searching and walking around the lake with Sky on Monday and Tuesday. The only action I saw was the swans, tufties and coots mooching around the particles, although they never picked up a hookbait Tuesday night, just after dinner Sky decided to come in the bivvy, so I knew that the rain and wind forecast was coming that night. Around 8 I crashed out for a couple of hours, but at 10 got woken up to the short bivvy pegs being pulled out of the soft ground by the wind getting up to 50mph. Sky was sitting on the umbrella skirt/groundsheet join, so it didn't blow away, but it was close! I got out my long pegs and bank sticks, and went out to swap pegs and push them in at least 50cm. Managed to get sorted, but stayed awake until 1am, when I realised that my 20year old Aqua rod holdall had been blown away, and is likely to have sunk. This morning was a bit of a pig to pack away, my mix of banksticks, tent pegs were difficult to pull out, and obviously trying to juggle loose rods, landing nets, slings and throwing stick into the car. The sad part is that the historical black poplar has finally given in to old age and nature. Expectations or hopes were a fish, reality was a near disaster.

Mine usually involve not checking wind direction before setting up the bivvy, (not this week despite nearly losing bivvy), but include leaving tackle box at home more than once, discovering I'd left rucksack at home after an 80mile drive and once leaving my rods at the reservoir as I packed and loaded car up in the dark.

Likewise, syndicate ticket £650, been for 5 x 48hrs. Probably 1 more before season end of April. Estate ticket £190 EA season closure, but went for 4 x 48hrs. I'm not renewing the syndicate, the estate is a no brainer. With end tackle, bait and grub it's still not a cheap hobby

One of the little clubs I belong to is an hour away ,and it's only 40 quid a year, no nights ,days only with a great mix of members ..thats the sort of place I like,especially the 5lb perch in the pool.. That's great value even if I only went 3 or 4 times a year ..

I daren't work it out 😂

nope! Ive never felt the need to loose so much of my fishing time, travelling abroad. This social coming up is 3 nights, I haven't counted everything, but it's well over £500 + 2 days off work🫣

Great points ,can't disagree with any points of view... I guess, I'm one of the few that thinks it's putting a few off going ,what with the Catch App ,which I personally detest ,if it rises any more ,on a couple of places I love ,money wise ,then I'll have to vote with my feet . I got other hobbies but angling is huge to me .. But we all have to remember ,prices are rising in all daily aspects of our lives ,hobbies are fair game vs eating or living expenses.. 'Fish on '...!!

The OP is included all costs bait, fuel, food etc. £100 a night ounds about right, for somewhere decent. That's if you're not taking time off work. I was asked to do an Italy trip (fishing) that worked out about £2.5- 3k for 5 nights (with time off added)

24 hours is £35 on virtually all the waters I fish. Have you gone to a profession football match or played a round of golf recently? Me neither but you know what I mean. Unfortunately fishing is being treated as a business and it is a case of supply and demand. https://my.rkleisure.com/membership-options Do you fancy a black card? I used to fish some waters on the Cotswold Water Park many years ago on a club card that cost peanuts in today's terms but they got swallowed up by a multinational concern and the remaining waters on the old ticket now have a waiting list to get on and even allowing for inflation, aren't anyway as near as cheap. Unfortunately you can't do much about travelling and with the Iran war in progress, fuel prices are only going one way. Fishing can be as cheap or expensive as your expectations. When you read books of articles by top anglers, the amount of pre-baiting some do raise eyebrows as some are literally filling the place in to tip the odds in their favour.

It is, if I get the big one 😉

I may have got rumbled for my extra sections of bushwhacker, luckily the first one got through customs without being scanned.

Made me chuckle. That's what the mrs calls it when I show up with a bunch of those little packets 😅

I've made some hard hookers today and some sinking wafters, or light bottom baits as I prefer to call them. I then made a glycerin based bait spray, that is too viscous to spray 😂 But I've given my hookbaits a coating, and they now smell amazing. And will hopefully harden more and become crayfish resistant.

And then I got another £25 off voucher so bought 5 extensions for £55, I'm now up to 6 wraps capability. Can't wait for next week now.

A real good 10mm cork ball will be ok but it's tricky to get really good cork balls nowadays. It's a lot safer bet using 12 mm cork balls for a 14 mm pop up.👍

Today I lashed out and bought a Nash Bushwhacker.

Quick update on the pond/fish. The covers are back on temporarily as the trees are blossoming and there's petals everywhere. On a more positive note, water temps are around 10C now and the koi are eating every day. Water quality is looking good and the fish are looking absolutely fantastic. You'd never guess they've been overwintering. I've been busy this week installing a 3 x 3m square parasol that can be erected to cover half the pond. It sees a lot of sun so my thinking is that A) it should help a little to prohibit algae and blanket weed growth, and B) it'll give the fish some shade at the height of summer. I have some bacteria boosters ready to go in when temps are 12+ and the bulb in the UV filter is being replaced again this month. I have some blanket weed treatment ready to go in case I need it but thus far it's not required. The bio filter is topped up with media. Shed loads of food in the garage. Basically all is ready for growing season.

I noticed my name got mentioned in one of those links for some reason lol. close the thread and let’s get back to being an SHB free zone hey Elmo have you rolled any today ?

I fished a rather secretive place that the members referred to as Toe-to-the-Brow Lagoon.... because that's how many guys set their zigs 🤣🤣

Nah you didn’t the thread just came to a conclusion and fizzled out

I used the blue or great variety of anatomy rather than nipple but like you it censored it lol but high was the closest it would let me go as well lol

Off on a 48 tomorrow, what with the sun out today, im thinking I might have to give them a try. Another minefield of depths and colours etc I'd appreciate anyone's suggestions on what's worked, as im pants at it

I went to the tackle shop Saturday. And I only bought two things. Sticky pineapple pop ups and a Gardner baiting spoon Quite proud of myself tbh. But then I bought 10kg of pellets and wafter mix off AA baits. 10 hookbait pots and 5 bait spray bottles.

We argue a bit and move on. Hence why the long term members remain. Rather argue about something that matters than if a hookbait worth the price 😂

Where the hell do you get the impression i don't care about the sexual assault of British women and children by English men? That to me is a typicalresponseby a woke lefty. How dare you say that, i personally know a victim of a sexual assault by a white English guy and i wish him an unsavoury end. So yeah, i would be vocal about rape and especially the rape of juveniles, whether that is by english or any other race /religion. They should be locked up and throw away the key, be that white, black, Muslim or whatever. Our judicial system is as corrupt as anything in my opinion. Child predators being given minimal sentences blows my mind. I live 10mins from a migrant hotel. It is hotel/pub /restaurant and the pub/restaurant is being boarded up soon due to the unsavoury place its become. No one wants to go there anymore because you get verbally abused by the imigrants staying there as soon as you get out of your car. The outside of this hotel is like a rubbish tip from the waste thrown out the window's by the men staying there. The local Asda has had to hire extra security because of the rise in shop lifting since the hotel became a migrant hotel, not a coincidence. If these people integrated and behaved like normal people then there would be no problem, and yes you get that behaviour on some housing estates in England so I know its not a thing that just migrants do. As for them preferring British food and that's why they come here, do me a favour. They come here because our pathetic government give them everything they want pretty much.

Ok. Got it now As long as I receive my order by the 25th, I'll give you a 5 star trust pilot review.

It’s the same with all these people harping on about Iran, that regime is/was only there because they overthrew a brutal and sadistic dictatorship installed by the British under proxy for the Americans, because the leader at the time who everyone in Iran loved, wanted to nationalise oil and cancel the contracts with BP. A history well documented and factual, but that they bury whenever they can. History repeating itself again. What do they say, if you keep on doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, they call you crazy. Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran…

The second session is at Waterside next month. Not that I'm looking forward to it (much), but there's been a reminder this week, of what we could end up connecting with🤪 https://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/news/stories/uks-biggest-common-carp-banked/