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There are still some true leney carp around today. My old syndicate had 5 or 6 different known Leney's still in there from a stocking done in the 60's I believe. I was fortunate enough to catch one on my second trip to the lake, the others eluded me. It was 50 plus yrs old when I caught it and that was over 10yrs ago. It was caught last year along with 2 others. So still definitely 3 in the lake and it makes them 60 plus years old. I'm pretty sure the committee of the lake have the receipt in a picture frame. This is the one i had, probably one of my most memorable captures if I think about it. Weight was irrelevant but it was 28lb 02oz. Sorry about the quality, had to take a picture of my camera screen.

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?)

Nice 1 @ouchthathurt Looks like it's got mouth issues, similar to the little fella I had. It could barely get the pop up in its mouth

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.

I fished in much worse! 🙄

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 😎

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 😅

If its been touched by Donald I'm out.

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 use SHB pretty much exclusively for pop ups nowadays. Caught plenty. Probably would have caught a proportion of those on another brands pop ups. Do I believe they’ve caught me fish that I may not have caught on a different hookbaits? I’d say maybe a few. But I’ll never know. Have I blanked on them? Yes. Down to the baits? Probably not, my decisions on location, rigs, baiting approach, etc at fault. you’ll catch a carp on a lego head in the right place. You’ll blank using an all singing all dancing hookbait in the wrong place. I’d choose SHB above any other pop up though. As Yonny said it’s a confidence thing. Plenty of options priced similarly with much less to them. I’ve looked at making my own, similar but obviously not comparable as I don’t know his process in and out. I’m talking cork chunk pop ups with a curing process of my own. Doable but I don’t have the time. IMO buy with confidence but they aren’t a miracle worker.

I can't say I pay too much attention to branding. The value of branding is down to one's individual perception based on the product and, I hate to say it, marketing. Most of what I would consider to be 'premium brands' offer their fair share of stuff I'd never use but I'd not want to devalue any brand based on that fact (apart from Nash, obviously 😂). A brand is just a name for a company imo. Do I think SHB make decent/premium hookbaits? Yes, absolutely. I only use them for certain applications, but I've done so for probably 10 years + now. They have caught me some very special fish and that breeds confidence. Confidence is as important as anything in carp angling imo.

Many premium brands as @yonny has said are pop-up mix and flavour, that could be any brand, although there are some that have that something. Garlic is one of those additions that can really put fish on the bank, but it is finding the garlic that works; in pop-ups I never found powdered versions work, possibly not enough smell, and I am not scientific enough to work it out, but in a food bait they may work well. Oh those coatings can be fun to make, can be as simple as rolling dried baits in egg, then rolling in powder. Funnily enough I have caught far more on a food bait equivalent than on a yellow pop-up on most waters. The yellow pop-up produced fish on 'small fish' waters, but not on big fish venues, although the past couple of years did produce stocked fish rather than original fish on the syndicate. Thinking back to various 25lb+ commons I have caught, none came on yellow baits, all but one were on snowman baits, food bait with an identical coloured pop-up (not necessarily same flavour), the one that didn't was on a single 15mm food bait. As an add, I did remove the 'disagreement', not going to have it get nasty. Express an opinion, give your point and don't have a go.

Syndi was shut due to flooding?? Estate lake water levels were high on Tuesday, calmed down a bit yesterday. Had a little pasty for my troubles

Mad!! 😂

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 . 😁

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

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

yep, got my account banned on there during the scamdemic time, though i had no interest in shb at that time, i remember him really having a go at peeps big time for not getting jabbed, quite a few got banned for being so called conspirloons ..fast forward today and the truth is finally coming out, even in the msm.....

Yep that does it. Think it was crayfish meal so same thing. Very light ingredient! to be fair they good alternative ingredients to make pop ups with basemix! Take some testing on inclusion levels though.

Heard of 50kg pop ups that went on a trip to France with some mates once 😂😂 can’t remember which ingredient did it though.

Well the Big Common would be the icing yes, but No the remaining target on my syndi is a 50 common 'white tips' so the yellows will be coming out, thinking of maize or corn as feed possibly. On the syndi I've concluded that baited patches are not the one, Kingy and Sandmartin PVA sticks and maybe a few with the stick, cannot see me using much bait this year TBH but you never know

Something else that sticks with me is Elliot Grays description of what he wants his hookbait to achieve and that is to give the fish a choice of whether to take it or not. He makes his hookbaits a blatent pink pop up or wafter and by making it the most clearly visible highest attraction bait in the swim. The fish then has the choice. I can see these pop ups doing the same sort of job.

If you like a garlic bait, Urban baits - absolutely stink and very reliable bouyancy, great baits - was using these with the Premier Aminos Garlic and Tuna. MEGA!

I should talk about my recent failure with pop ups 🤣they looked and smelt nice I wanted to try and make some super buoyant match the hatch type pop ups, so I went with 50/50 mix of base mix and polaris, then added 10% cork granules, my flavour combo was banging btw 5ml scopex, 20 drops each of black pepper and bergamot essential oil. Very happy with that. But they didn't really pop up that well and also after 12 hours in water they went soft like a pellet 🤣 I have since bought some AA Baits super buoyant fishmeal pop up mix and my next batch will use the same flavour combo Do any of you add egg albumen into a pop up mix? I think my last mix needed it but I've gone off cork dust so will just be using the pop up mix next time(although I have read this mix can take up to 30% regular base mix and still pop up so will experiment) Just as an FYI I've now made a couple of mixes of the AA Baits Tropaminamino boilies and now they are dried they are still quite soft and smell like a proper carp catcher, I'm starting to really enjoy the process of baitmaking, need to get set up to upscale it a bit but I'm going to have bait no one else is using and that's exciting to me.

As special as they come that is mate. First class.

having another go

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

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!

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!

Just my thoughts, didn't realise this thread was started so long ago and now has sparked to life again! As for the 'company' involved: 1. Can't deny any of the carp pics posted elsewhereare very impressive. 2. Are those venues actually available to the 'average' angler?... I very much dought it 3. Can you question the blokes comittment in early days? Deff not as I believe he had some great catches from the Thames. 4. He provided some valuable 'insights' into tiger nut, maize and other stuff preparation. However, should a certain company appear to have so much influence, on say, another forum? I don't think so. It appears this company are now planning to ditch the web site in the coming months and sell direct to shops instead, probably an economic consideration? Anyway, just my personal view.... I don't need to say this to the long standing members on here, but no one will convince me a so called wonder bait will ever be replacement for location and hard work on any venue, Sorry, mini rant over 👍

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.

I tried to go last week but it was frozen solid! 🙄 hopefully get another few hours in over the weekend

Nope 😄

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.

meet an angler the other week who was moaning about his £13, 115ml kordaRipOFF goo lol so gave him my recipe ....was gonna write up a new post, did a search and this thread came up... yeah @Pete Springate's Guns ya post is bang on what i use but i add 1 more ingredient which is molasses. Vecon - Fish Sauce - Molasses, all in equal measures, told the said angler ya can buy Squid Brand Fish Sauce 725ml...for £2.50 from sainsburys you simply adjust the consistency using the Fish Sauce, told him ya can make a liter for chump change! AND most of all WORKS MUCH BETTER THAN ANY ripoff BAIT-TackleBARRON c r a p! case in point, a mate that took me babel fishing last year, he raved about his 'sticky' glug! Hmm...he BLANKED all morning next to me, while my CHEAPO secretSauce had the rod bend over every hour with some lovely barbel!

agree 100%! i'll tell ya my experience with the s2, a couple of years ago i was really struggling, and came across s2's and the info on that forum, got suckered into the hype and buying 2 pots, the reason i say this is cos i should of known better as i've been a home roller for over 30 yrs! i continued to struggle, it was just a period we all go through (blanking) at 1 time or another, AND it wasn't until another old-skool angler told me ya gotta just go through it, (blanking) ...anyway i was in Morrisons doing some evening shopping and they had "Bacon Grill" on special offer, i thought this was a devastating bait back in the day, what have i got to lose lol next trip 1 rod with "Bacon Grill" AND early morning the rod screamed off, lovey mid-twenty in the net! went back to my home-made caught a few up until winter (stopped using s2's & haven't used 'em since, as i have 100% confidence in my home-made) - posted similar to this and got banned at that forum! i agree for some it works and gives them confidence,great! but why can't you have a balanced discussion?