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Change of scenery, equally mega - got a rod on the spot I know does the biggun and one I've caught from before so fingers well and truly crossed with these poor conditions - still, easteries, high pressure and misty 👎 Still in it to win it, just fab being out and getting the swims I want for a change🤞😎

Managed to get out for storm Austen and it was great fun. I really enjoy being out in extreme conditions and while it was a bit sketchy at times, I came out the other side free of injury and/or death. I got myself right on the end of that massive wind so careful placement of the brolly was required to prevent losing it. The rain wasn't actually too bad where I was, but the wind was every bit as strong as forecast. Just as the storm hit, I managed a nice low/mid twenty common which made the trip worth it. I added another little one later that went back without a pic. Saturday morning was fantastic..... wandering around surveying the damage, branches all over the place. All in all, a fun little trip.

2nd time I've seen the odd bubble come up in this tiny back bay, this time though the culprits moved about up in the kelp bed on the left, didnt look big but a bites a bite. Nothing overnight but heard a slosh amougst the fireworks last night, fingers crossed - last trip before a venue switch.

One from last week just prior to the storm and right on dusk at a days only water. A lovely half-lin at 21-8, one of the nicest looking fish I've ever caught.

Fogged out ! 🤞🤞

To anyone thinking theres a lack of ladybirds this year - wrong! Same as last year when parked down the lakes. Love nature!

No mate big fat blank but loved it, was gonna do an extra night tonight but ran out of supplies, deffo fishing a spot on the middle sized lake there that does the big-un. I absolutely love this lake, drawn between two - a nice problem to have. On the plus I did find some suitable wood to make a hobo stool for the garden lol. Back next week sunday - tues 🤞

That's good, you know to ask the naming committee first - i.e. me and Elmo 🙃 and NO Dayvids Mirror/Common is not allowed!

Well I actually went back Tues to Thursday armed with particles including tigers, same swim, not a touch. Could see fish in the swim opposite, two anglers went in and both failed, watching them I figured I was pretty close and went long after them but same result. Was kicking myself for not getting maggots instead of the particle choice as they are clearly on naturals in the areas still containing surface weed or where that had recently cleared. Found 3 fish on the back of the wind on the 2nd afternoon and said to myself I'll move down here if no action for the 2nd night, with one being a good sized common, but the following day no fish in that area so a move turned into a go home early. Social at Bluebell this week but then back to the syndi end of Oct armed with maggots, worms and/or casters. Always disappointing to blank but have to remind myself it's 2 fish per acre at best so never easy.

Going Sunday to Tues for the first trip, been getting bait ready. Moved over to the Live System range for winter. Pics: Bag mix bucket: crumb, bag mix, 2ml pellet, 6ml pellet and 21 bags ready to go! Glugged boilies bucket Mix bucket: crumb, mixed pellets, boilies Everything is glugged in a few liquids lol: Corn steep liquor, Amino Blend 365, Bait Booster, Feed Stim XP, Hemp Oil Kits been moved into the barrow luggage so I'm quicker to move. Oh and the dog has a new Merino wool jacket and fleece, to say we're ready is an understatement. Weather looks to be changing perfectly for the 1st trip, rise in temps, southerly winds, rain and a pressure drop - fingers crossed 🤞

2pm sunday I was packed up ready for a move or home with just the rods left out when the weed started moving again, this time a tail came right out and again swirls and the weed lifting up as they hunted snails or mussels or whatever. As you can imagine the camp went straight back up and another night was on the cards. Changed the rods over to longer hinges as the bottom wasn't great, placed one rod at the near side and one the far side of the potamogeton bed. Again nothing overnight, then as I'm packing up 9am I see a ripple coming from the left treeline, then 30 seconds later a carp comes up at the far end of the weedbed and starts pushing the weed around again, swirling and tail out. So I leave it until 11am but no more activity and can't wait all day. I can see me doing more time on the medium sized lake next year and these little ignored areas round the back are right up my street!

Always use a wading pole. And don’t just prod. Push down with your body weight. You’re heavier than your arms will push down. I’ve had numerous dealings with silt in waders. Falling down a silt hole whilst playing a fish was fun. One leg thigh deep in a hole. The other just about keeping my wader from overtopping about 3ft higher up! All in 2ft of water already. Harder crusts can form on silt, You prod it and it feels firm. Step on it and you sink. I also remember losing a boot of my wader whilst working on a fish farm in heavy silt. Boot stayed, I stepped, silt closed round the void. I couldn’t get my foot back in so was on hands and knees crawling out of my waders to the nearest firmer area whilst the other lads were howling! I was lucky the lake was empty.

Well done mate - great stuff! I was on Bluebell Swan Thurs to Saturday with a mate, nothing came out despite the favourable conditions but good to get the feel for it ahead of the winter ticket I guess. Picked the shallower end after seeing some fizzing close in but could only get drops, no pull back so ended up swapping over to hinges for the 2nd night. Think I probably ended up fishing in eel grass and not presented well enough despite all rigs coming back clean every time, weird one!

Tbh, I'm generally a summer fisherman. I have avoided going when it gets below 6c at night. My bag is a big snooze+ 3 season jobby. I'm over 50 now and am fed up with being uncomfortably cold without good bl**dy reason. So, a heated blanket for a few hours with the bed cover so I'm not climbing into a freezer seems like a sensible idea and a weight sacrifice I'm willing yo make. It runs off my Ridge Monkey Vault 26000mah powerbank which I take anyway, so its a negligible change for me. I don't get the self flagellation at the altar of discomfort. If your doing something to save weight great you do you, but doing something just because it was done like that 30 years ago seems like madness to me. 20-30 years ago I smoked, mostly used a bike to get around and used to go raving. If I hadn't changed I'm not sure I would still be here, let alone have a decent job, house, be married with kids going to uni. If carp fishing had stayed the same we'd still be using argos sunbeds, optonics and cheap 50" brollies with a tarp over the top. Just look at your phone in your hand. How old is that and how old is the tech? The world changes, moves on and progresses. Embrace it where you want to/can justify it. I would ask, do you use a throwing stick/spomb/bait boat/baiting pole/sonar/gps? None of those were available 30 years ago, at least not in their current form. Back then, were there any carp reels, rods with the specialised ringing we now use?

Finally on the bank for a night 🤞

I've started on my 1:48 Harrier GR9

It's not just deep water that is risky! The water depth at Botesdale is currently no more than 1.6m, or 4feet. That is water depth, but the silt itself can be a couple of feet deep. The causeway itself is wadeable, you can walk across it, it is a proper stone causeway built around the 15 or 1600's, a stone pathway built across the marshland to the manor house before Lancelot Capability Brown created the lake. Step off the causeway towards the shallower (east) end and most of it will go to no deeper than thigh depth, however carp have fed up and created holes that go chest deep. Step off the causeway to the dam end and you will be going into water chest deep, but with around 1-1.3mm or 3foot of silt you can sink in. Put a marker float out and if the float comes up you will get 3-4feet of water, the lead sits on it, as @greekskii says, it has a hard crust, except, again where carp have fed and it is softer. There is also a stream bed running along the lake on the house side, which is a metre of silt.

It only takes one step! There are areas on my current lake I will not wade at all; between the causeway and the dam wall is a definite 'no chance'. A mate went in, in his wetsuit and life jacket, rather than chest waders, to land a fish. He said that the silt he stepped in came up to his knees, and without someone pulling him out with a rope he had tied himself to would have struggled to get out.

And finally finished Bismarck I think that the reason I left it so long was it got so fiddly to add in the smaller gun mounts and masts. This must be the closest HMS Hood and Bismarck have ever been... At 1/600, the range of the battle between them would work out at 23metres apart!

If it doesn’t hurt anyone else’s fishing and it is not against any rules then fill your boots with whatever makes your fishing more enjoyable. boat drone baiting pole hair rig nylon line or a bite alarm

My 2p for what it's worth..... The best and cheapest source of heat available to you at any time of year is the heat from your own body.... you just need to harness it. If you get a really good set of insulated togs (i.e. jacket and salopettes), they store the heat you produce. The trick, which most guys miss, is not to wear too much underneath. A decent base layer and micro fleece mid layer is all you need. Anything thicker than that (like a hoody) interferes with the system and prevents your body heat from heating the insulation. Same as a sleeping bag basically. It's why I'm happy in a brolly all year.... I've just learned how to use the heat my body produces. I'm with you on this. Not a big fan of technology in angling but when it comes to winter fishing and warmth, you fill your boots imo. Use whatever you want mate. The situations we'd put ourselves in back in the day were frankly stupid and certainly a little dangerous. It's easy now to look back with rose tinted specs but I think back to the completely inadequate gear I'd use in the depths of winter and I shudder. If I caught my lad heading out in minus 8 with the rubbish I used to use I'd go ballistic at him 😂

Np. I didn't mean to sound like I was having a go back if that's how it came across. I was just letting loose a little. And, again this isn't meant as a dig at you personally, but there does at times feel like theres a bit of hypocrisy from some people when it comes to comfort/more recent innovations. If there wasn't any progress, we'd all still be using split cane rods with 10+ rings all sat within a few mm of the rod blank and centerpin reels loaded with cat gut. As I said, you do you. Everyone's entitled to do what they want as long as it's within the rules and doesn't affect others. I've never fished through the winter before and have had previous few nights before, so a bit of comfort/warmth will be very welcome. Who knows how long any of us have left. If there's something you want to try, I say go do it.

I'm thinking maybe Interax doesn't want to end up crippled with arthritis in old age and unable to go fishing / enjoy his retirement ? .

That is the reason I nearly always make mine fresh just before casting. I do use a mix of pellets for bagging and meshing; halibut, CSL, bloodworm, koi/coarse and GLM in various sizes. Note, the Crafty Catcher bloodworm and GLM seem to be oversprayed. I managed to leave some Nash bags in my trouser pocket once, I was quite surprised that they were still undissolved after an hours 40⁰ wash. The plastic bag they were in had allowed water in, but the bags themselves were still almost intact.

I don't think it matters, but it also winds me up. I don't use bags a lot but when I do I protect the hook between a couple of little bits of corn starch packing peanuts (what most people call PVA nuggets). The corn starch is released more easily than PVA, and tends to keep the hook/barb free of debris. It also protects the hook point from penetrating the bait(s) in the bag.

Big hike? Not being funny, but a big water I'd stick with 12ft rods. Ardleigh and Alton reservoir, 160 and 500 acres respectively, even Nazeing Meads Lagoons, around 65acres, could be some long walks to swims, and 12ft rods do give you better casting range. Sounds simple, but co-ordinate your barrow and tackle you carry. Do the standard take out non essential stuff that 'I might need one day'. I use a Carp Porter Porterlite (original), and I can take the gear for 3 days in one trip, and the 12ft rods and bivvy on top of the barrow.

Bought the Bluebell Lakes winter ticket which runs 9th Nov - 12th March for £299, setting this up to encourage me to document the trips and see if I end up getting value for money. Not sure when the first trip will be as I'm still giving it a go down the syndicate.

Look for the carp. If you can see them, fish for them. Generally they'll follow the temps as the water cools but they're animals..... they don't follow any rule to the T.

i like the idea of the toggles But I don’t like a firm pillow I guess if it sells then they may bring out a wider range of stuff to suit. heated blankets in 12v I know a couple do those already though. at least it’s made in Britain 👍👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

I think the 2 year guarantee, makes it worth a punt

Best of luck @kevtaylor.

I am not on here very much lately, i have already told Nick, im having lots of hospital appointments leading up to Aortic valve surgery to replace my worn out valve in the heart as a result not been fishing in a fair while. I have known about this for 7 years and it has been stable but recently it has got worse, hoping the opp wont be till next year, have to wait and see

Speedy recovery. 👍

Hope it all goes well and you're on the bank soon 👍

I am of the make sure you wear decent clothing and have a decent sleeping bag brigade. I can remember a few nights wrapped up wishing I was warmer though, from inadequate bedding and being soaking wet. I've been through the brolly and wrap, EasyDome, Apotheosis and gone back to brolly and wrap, with a decent sleeping bag. I've woken up with condensation frozen inside the brolly, but I was nice and warm in the bag. Come to that, I have had to get up to reel in as the lake froze over or woken up with the lake surface gone solid. At night the jacket, hoody, (not many decent fishing ones around) and overtrousers come off and I sleep in my (Regatta) base layer. The important thing for me is socks, Merino wool socks keep my feet warm in my boots, either combat boots or Tundra boots. Now while I prefer not to be using a heated blanket, if it does keep you fishing go for it. However if it is that cold, I'm not likely to be fishing now.

Not a doubter mate, does make me think when you reach a 'certain' age.... whatever that is but you will know, night fishing in winter probably not a great idea tbh. Completly understand a days pike fishing with heated stuff, also I remember having a Zippo hand warmer when winter day fishing in my younger days.

Sorry mate if it sounded like a dig at you, it deff wasn't intended. Just seems to me that if people feel the need to buy this stuff, shouldn't they question if they should be fishing in colder weather at all? As for a Throwing stick, used to use an origanal Cobra one, long sinced binned, flying rats soon put pay to that, and where I fish now not needed at all. I still use a spomb on occasions to get particles out.... actually made 'spods' out of gardner boilie gun tubes and shampoo bottles back in the day. Bait boats not relevent for me as they are banned on the lakes I fish, if they were allowed, would I spend money on them? I think not. Carp reels, yes Shimano bait runners, rapidly found at the time before 'big pit' reels were 'invented' that a change to sea fishing reels - Ryobi Project - I think were a vast improvement on anything 'carpy' at the time. Not sure about 'specialised' ringing thet we now use? Hutchy horizons didn't seem to have them, oh I obviously don't use them now, long gone. Just use a fairly cheap pair of Korum 2.5 test curve rods, I love them. Anyway, take care in your fishing and stay safe in the cold weather, at my age I just don't do it anymore, not my idea of enjoying my time on the bank anymore 👍

The syndicate im in allows you to name a new Thirty ,

Not the best advice but worked for me , When i use to smoke ,if ever i got bitten by a Mozzy , i would dab the hot end of the cigarette on the bite briefly , worked every time , no itching just a little burn but no different to the mark youll end up leaving after scratching at it for hours.

I must have met you there! That's when I fished it. PigPen was probably my favourite swim, but I caught from most swims. I missed Sam's, Rocky and Digit, but had some of the other 30's. A lot of big fish from such a small water.

I am not a fan of Korda hooks! I found the standard Kranks were blunt compared to a Gardner Mugga. At Brackens Pool I had been using Muggas and an identical shaped Gamakatsu pattern with no problems, landing plenty of fish to over 30lb. One day I ran out of ready tied rigs so pinched one from a mate, identical to mine, but tied with a Krank. I kept on getting bleeps, but no proper runs. I reeled in and put on a freshly tied rig with a Mugga, recast to the same spot and had a proper run within minutes. When I got home I compared the hookpoints, sharpness. I balanced the hookoint on the ball of my thumb, with a 3oz lead I was able to lift the hooklink and lead off the desk. I tried the same with both the Gardner Mugga and the Gamakatsu's and could not even lift the weight of the lead. I did put pics on the site here! It may have been a bad batch, but it was not just one hook in the pack, every one was not as sharp. I have never bought another Korda hook since. Pretty much the only hook brands I trust now are Drennan/ESP, Gardner and my last few Solar 101's and Gamakatsu GP204's which went through a stage of not being available or in case of Gamakatsu no longer made.

I've had this before. Absolute nightmare. I tend to avoid PVA completely as we head towards winter.

Is it the GLM content then more than the fishmeal?

Still £337.50 over at Trent Baits.

No worries mate, I was referring to the syndi on the naturals 👍 Bluebell is just bags of crumb and pellet with halibut pellet wafter hookbaits.

Hi Yonny, Thanks for the info, I own a set of Aviators (12ft Flex). The rods were purchased because it's a proper hike fish to fish some of the best swims. (15 min walk with a barrow) With smaller rods i'm hoping to get my kit there in one trip. I'm walking my rods there first and then returning with the barrow It's a large estate lake that has a dam wall at one end a bottle necks. The top end is a long underhand chuck or a gentle overhead lob at best. I use 2oz leads exclusively for this. I sold my SS2600's a few years back. With the above info would you still purchase some new smaller ones or save some cash and make do with what i've got? Cheers.

I try not to worry too much about mosquito bites. All too often they're the only bites I get. Ian.

After reading this thread I now understand why most venues prohibit wading . Scary stuff ! 😱

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.

A couple from France, double take madness 🇫🇷