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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😉

I can trouble this month's Catch report, with a 26lb mirror this morning on a 12mm Monster Crab pop-up on my reverse combi rig

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.

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.

Looking at the forecast we'll be seeing 15C+ starting tomorrow for the foreseeable. Hovering around 17/18 for the coming weeks. IT'S HERE LADS! In a strange twist of fate, it's fallen perfectly for me. I have a few days planned this week. Fingers crossed I can get on them. Good luck for the season guys.

Good morning all, many thanks to all who have reported the spam appearing recently on the forum, special shout out to @elmoputney and @InteraX who gave me a pleasurable 10min banning them all! please keep reporting them as soon as you see them and the mod team will get them rid. many thanks! ouchthathurt (Matt)

Went to local lake yesterday just for afternoon managed one carp just an 8lb 40z, lovely scaly mirror, jesus i really am looking like an "old codger" these days

This is another session that seemed to start out badly for various reasons. I got to the lake to discover someone in the swim I had been baiting up, no major problems as there is 45acres of lake, so I chose a swim opposite, albeit over 150metres away, so not going to interfere. A pallet had blown in and drifted up the lake into the margins, so I attempted to pull it out. As I did so a rotten piece broke and the pallet fell down my leg, with a nail ripping a brand new pair of combat trousers from thigh to shin, and giving me a couple of cuts on my thigh. I already knew that I had left my coffee and sugar at home, so after changing into clean trousers I took a trip to the shop in Botesdale for some antiseptic and coffee and sugar. Last night I had ducks taking off and flying through the right hand lines twice, on the second occasion for some reason my middle white Ipro indicator body broke in two, so I had to bodge a repair. This morning just drinking coffee and the male swan swan through the right hand line, getting tangled in the process and eventually smashing me up. I re-rigged and was sat with just two rods in the water, thinking I'd recast after walking Sky round. Another coffee and the left hand rod screamed off, this was a better result on the reverse combi-rig and 12mm pop-up when I landed a 26lb mirror. That puts a smile on the face!

Ive just moved onto the shrimp after a conversation with @yonny (dont have the time to amke my own this year), good start as i managed to catch one first time out, has a very distinct smell to it (think possible SSA & Monster Crab combo/Nash Cajun Prawn as the lead smell/flavour.)

I can relate to topic, Think my best carp fishing days were in the mid / late 90's, without boring people to death with nostalgic memories, but my early Horseshoe days were something never to be forgotten. After that, things changed, couldn't do it anymore, a very long drive and work and family stuff meant I gave up and sold my ticket., did a lot of day ticket fishing in and around Sussex, and a few club lakes too, then the noddy carp anglers arrived en mass, all the argos gear with no idea, no manners or respect. Had a great spell with pole fishing on a certain sussex venue that had lots of crucians in their front lake. Then moved on to find a few Dorset and Kernow venues that were relativily undiscoverd back in the day. What I am trying to say is, don't loose the feeling, at my age, can't go as much as I ever used to, but still have a Sussex club water I can think will do me. My one regret is that I have never caught a Barbel! Sorry for a bit of a rant

There was a frost this morning! I got woken up to an occurrence at around 5.30, thick mist across the lake and a frost on the ground. Let's hope that the forecast weather wakes a few fish up. 0

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???

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.

It's lovely to see you smiling in the top 'photo , Nick . You usually seem to be grimacing in pain from the effort of lifting your catch due to your bad back . 😃

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.

It's their own patented shrimp flavour. Stinks doesn't it 🤣

Good luck mate. I'm setting the alarm for 4am so I'll be sneaking round the pond fist thing tomoz!

I'm going after work tonight, buzzing even though it's going to be cold, come on you carps. Let's have a muncher or two.

Well I decided not to rejoin, then the owner, in all his wisdom decided to close the season, a month early??? Im not too keen on day ticket waters. So, without anywhere to fish until the estate opens in mid June, I've signed up to a local angling club for £90 + a small joining fee. There's a few small local lakes with some reasonable size fish to go for. My boys are welcome which is important and no stupid rules, which is refreshing. A new chapter for me, trying out the club scene.

Well the koi are absolutely loving the elevated temps this past few days. Scoffing their heads off. The covers and parasol are doing a good job of prohibiting a sudden increase in water temps so it's warming up slowly which does the fish a favour. As a result the water has remained very clear with temps currently around ~11.5 C. Feeding has increased gradually over the last month or two which has given the bio filter the chance to get going properly. A few more degrees and it's time to start piling the grub in for growing season. It's been awesome feeding them this past few days. I could sit there all day watching them I swear it. The covers will be coming off in the next week or so as most of the blossom has now fallen from the trees. Shouldn't be long before I can get some good shots of the fish to whack on here.

This weekend I tragically lost my vintage JRC Cocoon, must have been 25 years old or more. It had a bent frame, lots of tape,mouse holes and I had replaced the elastic for zip ties and it was light as anything. But sadly the loops started to rip away from the mattress and it could no longer be saved. It's out lasted many other bedchairs, it's now gone to bedchair heaven and will be sadly missed RIP So I have found a new JRC Cocoon 2 arriving tomorrow, it's probably 4 times as heavy but looks mega comfortable and it's a sleep system. I still have the sonik one but that does tend to give me back ache. But it is pretty light and will do for when I need the barrow.

Aren't a lot of us now showing our age , Jules , except Elmo of course who just gets more adonis like 😁 .

I’ve recently started taking a pair of flood lights with me. They are absolutely brilliant as they provide a nice even light that makes tying rigs or cooking a meal dead easy and no more faffing about with head torches. I’ve got a 3kW portable power station with LiFePO4 batteries that will provide enough juice to run them for at least two full winter nights. The picture below is me on the right and my mate is in the next swim. He’s a bit of a wimp and only went for some cheap lower powered lights. The photo was taken by another mate who was fishing the far bank but I think he’s a bit jealous as he said it was like fishing at an airport! It will make landing fish after dark pretty easy but I haven’t actually needed it yet, the fish on my lake seem to have shut up shop since I’ve been trying it out.

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.

What.????? Did you mean, pay us back Boris?

Just my opinion? Use a standard size 8 swivel. Ok, so PTFE has the lowest coefficient of friction known to man but we're asked to believe that this helps with rig alignment when this relatively small device is lying amongst whatever detritus is in the area of the landed rig. The PTFE thing is more a marketing ploy than a mechanical advantage. Once again, just my opinion. Ian.

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.

a mid double common to christen the new rods

@yonny, once again cheers Mate. I did the same, placed an order for 15kg of boilies, mixed fresh and stabilisd, added some pop-ups and hard hookbaits. Trent Baits website is easy to navigate and payment was easy online. Compared to many companies it was no hassle.

Good luck, hopefully they will be sheeting up all over the gaff

Sounds like you have done the right thing, enjoy some nice angling with your lads, it will be quality time spent, i only fish the local club these days, got a few mates on the ponds and usually i really enjoy the sessions, main lake has some good fish but i tend to fish the smaller pond and some lovely fish to about 18lb, good enough for an old codger like me

Now very. You will need to freeze it otherwise it will turn into a stinking mouldy mess.

This first picture is where I had my bivvy to take the picture of the swans. I mentioned bird flu in the original post, it looks like it has hit again. The lake is down to 7 swans, 3 of which look like yearling cygnets from one of the dominant pairs. The lack of numbers has meant that the dominant males are not so aggressive and not such a pain in the rectum. And a couple of pictures from the last two sessions, taken in the same swim on the other side of the lake. Just to the left of the picture on the far side is the copse that Sky and I were using for shade.

@welder puts it very nicely. While PTFE may be very 'slippery', your swivel is landing on silt, clay, gravel, or sand or whatever else is on the lakebed, any of those are enough to 'jam' the swivel and stop it rotating. Add to that, your rig is in a direct line from the mainline, be that straight out on a pendant or inline set-up, or at 90% on a helicopter set-up. The swivel is basically a simple way to attach your rig to the mainline. It doesn't really need to swivel at all, unless on a helicopter or Chod set-up when it may need to spin during the fight.

I've just ordered the small version of the Plumb-Ezzee , Framey . Looking at the video it could solve the problem I sometimes have with Polaris floats when my mono has gone crinkly and the float jams . Or I could just use braid .

Thanks for that info Yonny ,very helpful .I've had my integrated UV bulb light going for nearly a year ,so that's what I'll change first .. I got three marginal plants in suspension cages in the pool ,but they need cutting in half and replanting in new aqua soil as they gone a bit mad ,then I'll have a look at that chemical you saying about .. I bought a Solar ,flashing ,noise making anti rat ,cat deterent,box it seems to work ,Seagulls hate it .. It's only a small water feature ,but I absolutely love it ..especially when the fish swim past a viewing porthole ,...plus lol,they like tiny amounts of ressi specials ,crumbled as a treat occasionally...those fish literally know I'm about ,especially as I feed em same time same spot ,which is interesting especially if crossed over into angling mindset ,they become trained !!!!

thought about that but when he is in his wheelchair or mobility scooter the chest rig would work better as his mobility is none existent nowadays. did think about the hand set up but then the shakes would get to him. a chair rig attachment may be a good option though, cheers

I agree with Yonny the rule of thumb with cork balls used to be use a cork ball 2mm smaller than your intended bait size