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Just scraping in the December report with a cheeky little 8lb mirror carp, caught it on a 12mm pink Mulbz pop up from club lake

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?)

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 😎

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

Perfect timing..... my first sesh of the year on Friday!

Good try mate, but you're facing milder temps, winds from the South and by Friday it will be 988 pressure, DEFFO should give it a go if you can, seems bang on TBH I should be on a work party Saturday, may do the night after.

sat behind the rods in a wet and windy low pressure system, the lake was frozen last week. blanked unfortunately, but try again soon!

I've gone a little bit nuts again but completed the production line 😂 Thanks to @greekskii for the tip off though. I am made up tonight. I now have all I need to start really making some boilies.

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.

If its been touched by Donald I'm out.

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! 😂

Hi Kev. A tackle shop on their facebook post has pointed out that Weds. - Friday the air pressure is dropping , but not a super low ?, so I'll probably stay home in the warm safe from the rain , and the mud . 😁

Would hanging cds like the farmers do help especially if at different heights?

I will invent a poopult to deliver it back 😂 Either that or the lake owner wouldn't see it because I would have already trodden in it.

I've trained him to do it behind your bivvy, then we'll get you banned and stick rods in your vacant plot! Edgy! 👍

Right I've had it with this Kev's corner business - back off, I have a dog and not afraid to set him loose! So you better have some snacks or be pestered to death! 🤬

Soon to be know as Yonny's poaching corner..... 😉

Handy for not Kev's corner. 😂

It's for washed out baits only.

having another go

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

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 😅

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

Agree that investment has lacked but can’t say they don’t invest at all. I’m part of a £5billion portfolio…which does need an extra 2b to deliver fully. that’s over 5yrs. Most of that is to just keep up with either tightening regulations or demand from development. The underinvestment in the 80s/90s isn’t rectifiable now. Not quickly anyway. Even if the money was there, the workforce isn’t. It’s catch up and plasters to the tune of enormous sums of money. whatever’s happening with your water company is shocking. Be interesting to know exactly what the issue is. Must be major to be offline for so long!

another go for 2hrs today, another blank! My little girl had a fair few roach and rudd though.

If its Gardner its good...

Nutrabaits and mainline etc is still expensive tbh. There is a lot more choice nowadays thankfully, and a lot more info and ingredients available. But regardless to turn a profit at £3 a kilo and covering costs etc. It's not going to be decent. I've been learning lots lately and am trying to work out all my own mixes, for a decent balanced food base mix I think I am looking at around £4/5 a kilo if I buy 50kg worth of ingredients so I can save a bit and still make a good bait. But I've got to roll it all myself. That's the payoff really.

Not the best start to 2026. The filter house is protected by a massive wooden lid that keeps the rain out. It's been so cold and wet recently that this wood is now completely saturated and weighs an absolute ton. It opens by means of a pully system that's attached to the house. On Sunday I was opening the lid to clean the filters and the fixings pulled out of the wall. I popped to B&Q to get some bits to repair it and thought I'd done a good job, until it pulled out again, hitting me in the face, cutting my nose, and giving me a lovely black eye. Monday morning at work everyone was asking if I've been in a fight 😂. Water temps are rock bottom, with 3 degrees C the lowest recorded. All the carp are sitting on the deck doing nothing, which is probs a good thing since we've spotted a heron stalking the pond on several occasions now. I have a couple of months to figure out how I'll address that. All that said, the carp are looking healthy and the water quality is good so I can't complain too much. I have to say it's tricky getting the motivation to get on the bank knowing how these temps are effecting the fish. I'd probably blank fishing the pond, let alone my syndi water!

Old thread i know, but the only one I could find How much longer are we going to put up with the complete ack of reinvestment in our infrastructures. My town (estimated 16,500 homes) is without water, due to a burst mains. This has caused utter chaos all day. These private firms pay out to the shareholders and hope everything else sorts it's self out. Then they have the cheek to say we got to pay more. Oil prices are another, perfect example of us being bent over Reform is needed, just not the party.

Sorry it has taken so long, but after we have managed to get server sorted there is now a section for videos: https://forum.carp.com/forum/51-fishing-videos/

If its not Kev's corner, it will be Jacks poo patch 😂

Seriously though these are a great design, so simple 👌

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

Not sure if this is the right section to add this but.... Many over a certain age will remember the original series, it's now on YouTube with a new series and they have their own channel. I have watched the first two episodes and have to say I really enjoyed it, so refreshing to not hear some bloke banging on about big carp captures, which in my opinion has been done to death. I am no way associated with the channel, but if you want a break from the usual stuff, maybe give it a try?

Well the end of the year has gone well. The koi are doing great and still feeding most days due to the elevated temps. The nets/covers are now off since the leaves are gone. The water clarity is insane.... you can see every little detail on the deck in 2m. The temporary floating skimmer has worked a treat. I picked up a pond vacuum a month ago and gave the bottom a good clean at the weekend which means there's no detritus for any nasties to hide in ready for the spring. It's a real shame I can't post vids on here as I have some great footage of the koi milling about. So now I need to plan for spring which apparently is the most tricky and dangerous time of year. Parasites wake up before the koi so it's essential I do everything I can to keep their immune systems working as well as possible. If you lose your water parameters early on, you're chasing your tail all year, so I have to be bang on it to stay a step ahead of any issues with algae, weed, DO, and ammonia, nitrite, pH etc. Really enjoyed the last few months and looking forward to my first full year with the pond. Looking to feed heavily next year to get some good growth, while maintaining the water quality. I'll keep this thread updated from time to time for anyone that's interested.

Literally ,right in,amonst those dying reeds,i had placed my bait..you can see the line cutting down from the peg on the bankstick it was good knowing your freebie and rig were spot on

I’d need to have a look mate, but they’re not the original ones with the x-wrap, shame, I loved those rods! My local tackle shop thinks he may have one in their rod rebuilding stuff, so im going to drop the tip in so they can have a gander

Water temps shot up to 7.1C last week after the really cold weather disappeared. Yesterday I popped a handful of food in and the "stockies" i.e. smaller koi ate it all. The temps were so good I went fishing on Friday night. Blanked, obviously(😅), but on Saturday morning the sun came out and I saw carp with their backs out! Chucked zigs at them for an hour but was already late for home. Always next time.

Nah they are current models 🤪

I had to keep quiet about Welly to get into my current syndi. I'd not have stood a chance if they knew! I had no idea when I joined Welly tbf.

Since Saturday?! That's criminal tbf mate.

no not really gt80+ is good but I think I'm going back to hydrotuff next time I spool up.

I'll have a look see if I can transfer them

New pb from the syndicate will do😂 but looking forward to next year, onwards and upwards good luck next year. See you for the big one.