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Had a short session trip this afternoon 4hrs on the feeder, you can actually see the feeder I was using in one of the pics

Had no time for carp fishing been rushed off my feet in work always is at this time year which I’m grateful for. So been nipping over the local foreshore no cod showing yet just scrap Conger Me and a mate fished Saturday early evening for the tide up which was to high really almost 13meters

A brace of 10lbers and a few singles.

22lb 21lb a couple from last night, my boy did rather better…

20kg of boilies ordered, I've always wanted a decent yellow banana boilie, turns out the bait company I use had the same idea, will go nicely with my yellow winter spod mix.

Back on the rods, feels like an absolute age since I've been out (July on the syndi), and how I've missed it. The france trip doesn't count obvs 🤣 forgot that already! Was doing a garden re-design through summer after the lakes closed for spawning and that took right up until just before france late Sept. Got tonight to get back in the swing of things, in a swim I know, the spots still there just a bit smaller with more weed growth. The lake is back up to overflowing due to the recent floods, Got 3 rods close together, fed about 1k of boilie and crumb. Heard 2 crash out since I've been here in the swim next door up against the island snags. Here for 3 nights next week and gonna push myself to carry on into winter, targets not been out so fingers crossed 🤞

The 2 rod pod I've cut down to be "Super" Compact and fits in Backpack. Should look like the below. Respooled the reels and setup the rods on it before i cut it down though... Nice little 6ft setup, all compact and only need to bags for EVERYTHING....Rod Bag, Backpack, Chair, Beanie Mat & Bait Bucket with all PVA Bag goodies in 😁.

Well that works pretty well 13mm proper job sits perfectly tbh maybe slightly over weighted, so could use slightly smaller weight maybe but I think I've solved the problem for now.

Tough day on Pitsford 2 pike and one perch, sadly none for Ben this time. Had the perch on a ned worm crawling it along the bottom in prob 40ft drifting away drom the dam, missed another take and lost one the way up, tried lots more passes but lost them. Had a small jack on a 3-4 metre diving crank bait from the causeway and a better pike last knockings in a bay by the big dam on a chatterbait with a 5inch shad attached. Lovely weather for the time of year, great day out!

View from the new Westlake bivvy day shelter, what an awesome but of kit, nice and cosy, goes up in a jiff packs away small and goes back in its bag without a fight

38lb new personal best!

Tues - Fri last week, arrived at dawn and lapped but saw nothing, only one angler on. I settled on the usual swim, so many rafts of surface weed everywhere that in truth theres not many swims you can viably fish at the mo, needs some big winds on there. The spot was still clear but the line lay needed attention so 2 hours of dragging weed beds in with the spod rod which eventually snapped the swivel off the lead, emabled me to get 2 rods out nicely. 3k of chops, wholes and crumb, hemp, maize and tigers went out and I was fishing. I left the 3rd ready hoping for a show on the marginal plateau but ended up leading about and found a clearing at the end of the marginal plateau in about 6ft 40 yards out. Baited that with about 6 spombs, was happy with everything, thought I was fishing well but nothing for 2 nights, none seen or heard. Now despite forgetting the barrow handles and having to make do with the legs for short arms and 3 trips to the swim that I said to my mate I wouldn't be moving, but you know me with 1 night remaining had to at least try to find them to know whats going on. I moved to the oposite end with a good view over the section but after finding no spots whatsoever I thought I might have messed up. Something splashed though to the right of the swim so I waded for line angle to make the cast and the first one banged down with a smooth glide after for maybe 3 feet. After a few more checks I was happy, diary done I got 2 rods on it and 6 spombs. I gave up on the 3rd rod as pointless cramming in another. Despite the graft no joy come dawn and I was back home for midday, none seen or heard, couldnt say the splash was a carp but it lead to me finding a good spot where there are very few so small win, the spot diary is filling up for sure. I heard my target did come out in May so thats after I seen it from up the tree. With me catching the first fish in March and one of his mates to boot I cant help but feel excited for spring next year - hopefully fish through winter if access allows. Got the dog waterproofs and fleece onesie lol so he's ready.

Little bit more stuff today 3 packs of large avid d rig kickers, Avid QC lead clips and tail rubbers 10 off Some ridgemonkey d rig kickers and also some gardner d rig kickers. Turns out I mainly bought kickers 😳

boys rods out my set up on last nights overnighter

Just had a bit of a touch at the fishing outlet spent £23 on atomic bits and bobs. 2 x 15lb weed green atomic jellywyre £7.99 each 1 x chodda bin £1.99 A balls out groundbait delivery sling 99p splodooosh 2 x shrink tube, And Some sinkers.

That's something I've done sort of for years, a few steps forward or back, or even changing up lead size. There is also a difference in casting between mono and braid, and mono being elastic can come back further than you think as it retracts. The number of people I see wondering why they are so far away from their marker, I've always allowed around a third of the depth past it to account for swing back, although I have smashed a few Drennan or ESP markers or pike floats in the past with the lead. Oh boy! One night at Taverham Dave Cobbold and I put in a 10kg base mix bucket full of hemp on one spot with the original Gardner spods. The anglers on the lake were astounded and laughed, until the morning when we'd had around 10 doubles between us. It was Rob Hughes who said if you have an idea of how much bait to Spomb in, double it. I've frequently put in buckets full of bait for fish. On Alton tipping whole buckets in off the bridge... I loved that swim! Funny thing is that if I caught on the bait I didn't catch on the single bait, and if I caught on the single bait I didn't catch on the bed of bait. Every other swim I think it was all over large amounts of bait. I've tried wading and putting bait in on the syndicate and failed, yet Spombing has worked sometimes, not every time. Stringers and throwing stick have worked. It's a case of find the fish or hope they come to you.

Few chunks from the other night. The biggest first n the best last lol

Well it looks like winter has arrived early lads. My kid are at home building a snowman! My monthly overnighter is due this Friday and I can't wait, regardless of conditions. No point in having all this fancy thermal gear if it's not put to good use. Anyone else out this week?

I spoke to a guy on Kingfisher he had the RT4 with winch camera, was finding tiny spots in the weed and dropping, checking the drop and bait left over the next day, sounded mega tbh Then the fact that he'd had no takes in about 50-60 nights doing this! Makes me think that instincts and observation had given way to pure technology and he probably wouldn't improve his results if carrying on like this. I love having my boat for the right situation but only taken it once this year. The thing that stands out to me is how small a trap you can make, accurately fishing over half a handful isn't easily achievable. For every spod that doesn't land bang on I put another 2 in lol 1 becomes 6 or a bucket 🤣

In that case it's the braid that's dodgy. I've used all sorts of combinations in the past and I now just use 40lb braid straight through. Dead easy, no issues.

Surely if a bait boat is good enough for Terry then that makes it ok for everyone to use.

Here is one of my old pins, a 3 1/4 inch Belaco, it was a bit stiff but a quick strip and clean, some light grease and its much better, now a usable reel, might load it up with some 4lb strain mono to use for roach/chub

We could call it the noddy section 😁

This is a small carp on a Marco Cortesi pin its actually a Matt Hayes version but they are all built by the same firm under licence

Marco Cortesi reels are not too bad, however, the quality control is patchy, you can get good or bad... Strikeright pins are solid, don't drop the Bakelite one, they shatter... A good pin for carpingwould be a Speedia wide drum or a Mordex Merlin, possibly if you wanted modern materials, an Okuma or a Westlake Severn or Trent, all are good pins for carping This is a 22lb 10oz mirror on a Speedia wide drum and an 8' sharpe cane spinning rod

Hey, I'm not responsible...😆 I know what you are saying, although I am wary of angling practice even promoted in magazines in the past, where tackle and fish safety were not shall we say, of the highest quality. When tackle manufacturers are advocating unsafe practice... Anyway as I said, I will see if I can add a section, increase the Mods workload and censor every video, (joking, partly) so that media ideas can be passed on.

48 hours in and that proper job is still primed and ready to go.

Was going to put the pics in a view from a bivvy chair 🙄 Had a go at sea fishing with bait last time was in 1986 I remember the date as that was the year I finished fishing with a local club and had enough of the comps and big opens every Sunday I used for the trip my 3 1/2 test rod and 8k reel with a shock leader 4 oz lead good up to a 5oz .. wow was getting great distances

The gear I've got now will just serve me for my days, but waiting for a claim to be paid out from work and will be getting a FULL setup back.

You’d need to register the fishery with the EA if you’re going to run it as a legitimate business. Then you’d be able to get stocking licenses. These allow you to stock fish from reputable fish farms and dealers. and also allows the EA to do spot checks for rod licences.

Back on Pitsford sunday with my son, perch and pike fishing on the boat - buzzing for it seems like an absolute age since we've been. Seems to have been good numbers of perch caught early in the year so hopefully we stand a chance now they're back 🙏 Oh or a mid 40 pike on the perch gear would be interesting 👀

Took Elmo's advice and added some 2mm pellets to my mix and compared it against the powder only and it wasn't conclusive and they still take an age to break apart. I added some 6 and 8mm pellets and that didn't really improve matters. That said, the Baking Powder was doing a really good job and the water in my tub was very murky that was making it difficult to see the bottom. Several years ago I used to barbel fish a brilliant swim. There was a gravel hump about 15 foot from the bank and you could wade it with wellies. Just below the hump, the river shelved off steeply to form a hole. I used to stand on the hump and fish with the rod pointing directly downstream. If things were quiet, I would stub my toe into the gravel so it kicked off a stream of silt. The amount of times I had a bite shortly after couldn't have been a co-incidence and I caught many doubles to over 12lb. Sometimes it's just doing something different to the crowds that brings results.

A local club to me has a rule of no floating baits or zig rigs, so anglers were fishing baits just under the surface with a float. When bailiffs found out what was going on it was amended to baits were not allowed to be fished in the top 18inches of water. I must admit that if I can surface fish I would have more distance between the float and hookbait, so that does look rather freaky.

Yep🫰 & my 9 year old son who has the bug atm. Frost Friday night and rain all day Saturday. Hopefully dry on Sunday for the arduous pack up

Watching Scott Lloyd adjusting his clips through the session to allow for changes to the cross winds, that's something I'll be taking into account more, even with hitting the clip harder or bigger leads you could well still be a little short.

Also we didn't get snow just cold and wet rain.

Been away and read this as a guest so couldn’t post The particle plate is great addition to the grinder the grinder is probably the best bit of kit fudge monkey make. ie its never had a call back on it lol

Try a wolf spod, as they use magnets they open when any side hits the water, awesome bit of kit for baiting.

I got 1 of the "Cheap" camo RC500 Bait Boats of Amazon, £89 yeh was cheap but it out lasted my mates Actor Bait Boat on battery usage....only difference being that his was a Hatch drop, mine was a rear flipper, both did the Same job ? Then came my Actor copy Bait Boat, didn't use the rear flipper a was abit 💩....but the middle Hatch was bang on. Both sub £100 and both lasted 2yrs +

Looked at a few Okumas, looking 1 of the better options so far. Balck widow & Emcast 25A are both £60 at moment....not bad shouts them 👍👍

I very nearly sold up this year all my gear is on ebay and the fact I have people trying to haggle means I don't want to sell up anymore. Some of the nonsense they they ask to get the price down is funny, had the same guy message me about alarm receivers numerous times never replied. Another asked me what my lowest price was, so I put 250 on the asking price, 😆

I think it would be good idea to have a section of the forum where people post links to good you tube videos they have recently watched.

Cheers mate, eyes on the prize 👀

I have tried those and while they are fine if you are using a coated braid and you knot it, I am using boom and have to Krimp it and leave a loop, this leaves a gap between swivel and krimp and that seems to lift further off the deck by the addition of a sinker, I am getting some atomic jellywyre delivered today so will have a play with that also but I do just like the boom as it is less visible and makes a nice neat boom section.

You can get away with a Multi-rig! I've used it for pop-ups, snowman and bottom baits. Longer hair to the rig ring for bottom baits, maybe even snowman, but it works.

Looked at these a few times, people slate Westlake & NGT but I personally thinknits how you take care of them. Before I sold all my Gear, I had the Top Names - Shimano, Daiwa, Sonik, Korda....etc etc. But lately I've started regrouping all my Gear and is Mainly NGT. NGT - 2x 6ft Profiler Rods, 2x Profiler Reels, 2Rod Holdall, Backpack, Banksticks, landing net...shelter is Angling Intelligence, Chair n Matt are Sonik. Only have 1 Alarm at moment, but now I'm now shopping for Alarms n Reciever a 2 Rod Pod & some Line.

Only ever fished pitsFord once during a comittee day out for the fly dressers guild my mate had a 9lb rainbow on one of my damsels I will let you guess what I caught lol 🫣🫣

Yep i had a nice haul today another 3 kg of Crave boilies plus pop ups then some ESP rig tube plus micro ring swivels and some 2.4mm silt colour heat shrink, also got another bulk spool of NGT camo line but in 18lb this will do till i get new reels, got another order for more crave bait coming in a few days.....oh and new leccy kettle for kitchen lol