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Just got permission from the farmer while i was looking round the lake, 80 euros for a year! he said no body has ever asked him before I am buzzing

I split my fishing between day only fishing and then the more hard core 48 hour sessions on bigger waters. The bigger waters haven't really happened this year but it seems that most people were struggling so not too despondent, especially with the 2 heatwaves we have had this year. Yesterday I went to my local days only park lake. It's a 2 rod limit and I started at 10:30 and you have be off by 21:30. I caught 22 fish including a 17, 18, 19 and 21-5. It was so stupid, I struggled to find time to eat my sandwiches! At 21:00 I sent the boat out for the last time. I had just dropped the second one and the first was away which was the 21 so I opened the bail arm on the second and left it on the pod. When I picked it up about 10 minutes later, I knew that a fish would be on! One time I was clipping on the bobbin and the line was ripped from my fingers. The previous trip I had 14 but the biggest was only a 16 and the 2 trips before that I had 8 and 9 including a 20. You could be forgiven for thinking it's massively overstocked but I don't think that's the case. I've been fishing it for about 15 years and 2 or 3 fish is a good result and my previous highest tally was 9. I've blanked more times than I care to remember and it can be a bit moody at times. The water is pretty murky and so it's difficult to gauge what is happening but it can't last forever and so it's a case of making hay while the sun shines.

I was out on Friday evening from about 6 on my local lake (old deep clay quarry) with nothing to show. It was funny listening to and watching the teenage kids in one of the posh houses opposite having a party. Once they started swimming and diving into the lake it was game over, but I kept on for another hour before reeling in. Back out again early doors 6.30am this morning. Previously bites have dried up by 9. I had 2 strange aborted takes where the bobbins pulled tight to the alarms and then stopped around 9. Once it got to 10, I though it was too late, but thought I was planning to go until lunch, so let's give it a while longer. 11AM and my right hand rod screamed off. A nice little 12lb 12oz lightly scaled mirror. That was a nice surprise for the time, but I noticed it was overcast so that may have played into it. 30 mins later and the right hand rod was off again. A 12lb 14oz zip linear this time. As I was bent over returning the fish, my left hand rod screamed into life. After releasing the fish, I went to pick up my other rod, then remembered my net was still broken down, so left it to run for a bit whilst I sorted that out. The run slowed to a stop then sped away again by the time I could get to my rod. I tightened down the clutch and pulled into it and could feel a much stronger pull back. After a 10 minute fight, I managed to get it in the net and could see it was a much bigger fish. I secured the net with a bankstick whilst I refreshed my bucket and prepared everything. A lovely long lean 25lb 4oz fully scaled mirror. It's about the size of the largest fish in the lake. I'm not sure if it's the 'big one' or if that's a common, but I'm more than happy. I returned it as soon as I had finished with everything and then sat down deciding I'd had my fill and the fishing gods had been more than generous. That and the fact I had other things to do this afternoon. Overall, even though it started out quiet, it was a really good session.

i know i will get shot down for this but i am not a fan of dropping the lead every time. yes there is a cost implication here as they are not cheap but most importantly for me it cant be great leaving all these leads behind on the lake beds. Yes i know they are made of safe materials these days but every angler dropping a lead on every take just sounds overkill to me.

One from the weekend after the heatwave.

Result! I'm delighted for you. Ian.

Great combination of products When needed.

Same. The original and best.

Is that not what a forum is for?

Not always like that Ian, A fantastic swim for floater fishing back in the day, before flying rats arrived 👍 Just if anyone is actually interested, back then it was an early fox bed chair, think an Argos sleeping bag and a blanket on top...... did me ok at the time 😟

Went on my syndi Saturday evening to Monday morning, started on one side of the lake but moved Sunday morning to one of the bays opposite after seeing a few show amongst the kelp beds. Had a small common Monday morning with only the rods left to pack up, then whilst dealing with that one the right hander busted off with a better fish that I lost giving it the beans trying to stop it reaching snags. Nice to get a birthday fish 👍

Im still recovering from one of the worst nights fishing ever, last weekend. Getting my companions and the gear to the lake was a separate fiasco, but won't bore you with that. Rods out all quiet until I started falling asleep around 11. Beep. Beep first bin lid🙄 I was then plagued by them until about 4.30am. Despite changing spots, going out as singles. I got a few hours kip. With the odd carp cruising about, I switched to zigs at 2 /12ft, about 2/3 depth. First blip after an hr, as my son reeled in, seemingly with nothing on. As the lead became visible, a fish rolled off in the margins. All I saw was a bronzy/gold flash. Back out, 10 mins later a few beers, my son struck. Again seemed like he lost it, but kept the line tight and felt something on. As the fish broke the surface, I quickly pulled the net in to avoid the bream slime. Ive only ever had perch or carp before on zigs, so this seemed a bit weird. Recast and same again 🙄. I changed them all over to 3 1/2 ft, nothing after that as it went overcast. One to forget 😀

Well the extra air supply looks to be working. All of the fish seem happier and they're all feeding well. One is still heading to the filter return regularly but he's also socialising and eating food. I'll be keeping the extra air going in for now, especially with temps heading back up next week. I now need to get the balance of food right. Digestion uses lots of oxygen so I don't want to pile the grub in for growth until the water temps are down a little.

Sounds like worrying times. Hopefully this intense heat will soon be over and I see that a fair bit of rain is forecast for Saturday and Sunday, hopefully that should help.

Water depth and oxygen levels in relation to stress will be an issue in shallow lakes. The mostly deeper lakes on the main continent are not as likely to cause as much stress. Oxygen is not as big an issue in the depths of lakes as it is in shallow waters. Fish can fight themselves almost to death in warm water, and take ages to recover. In theory, yes. Yet every year adults as well as children die in lakes and rivers. A no swimming lake just outside Norwich, a number of deaths related to swimming in hot weather.

Thank you, baited up late last night, strange atmosphere there at night, its right next to where a young couple got shot riding a motorbike trying to flee the DDR the observation tower still stands today!

I bet you are. What a result.

Lake exclusivity is a great result, good for you We'll look forward to hearing about your campaign.

Just ignore the rules and fish it Anyway .. or is that just in England they get away with that…

Good feedback thanks gents. I get that its not difficult to change batteries but one of my alarms thread had broken and they are a bit rubbish so i could have don't with replacing them anyway. Time will tell i guess.

Oh [censored], thought they looked big

Good'n's for sure.

for me the language, but i remember the first week of the test 11 people failed out of about 50. and they were ofcourse native germans

This is that "mycamoalien" guy on Insta I believe. I think he is, or was, a bailiff on the Wraysbury waters? He's had most of the bigguns over there and did well at Wingham too. His dusted bottom baits look good but I've not tried them. The pop ups seem expensive to me but the attractor combos sound good. You'd be surprised.

And therein lies much of the problem. Big bait companies have had an advantage; if I buy a kilo of semolina it's around £1.80, if a big bait company buys a tonne of semolina it will work out at a lot less per kilo, around £920 per tonne, so £0.90 per kilo. Do the same with every bait ingredient and my homemade bait costs double the price to produce. Billy one man bait company in his garage or shed, won't be buying fishmeal, semolina, liver powder or maize by the tonne! As a result his prices will be more than a big company. The days of Bill Cottam expanding from his (parents) garage to a large industrial unit are long gone. Bait and boilies specifically is a 'busy' market, and it seems anglers don't necessarily understand it, from the bait itself, to using it, and even the difference in cost of buying it from tackle shops or direct. Nutrabaits, Mainline, Nash Baits, CC Moore and others had a recommendation on food baits, and a recommendation on attractor baits (originally shelf lifes). Feed the food bait, continuously, prebait, and the carp will accept it and take it comfortably. Good results will follow. Attractor baits, use as that, don't fire in loads, maybe a few freebies around the hookbait, use the few to attract the carp to try the hookbait. Then along came the published 'Korda' method, (used earlier but Danny Fairbrass did well writing about it), put in plenty of pellets, and spod mix and get the carp feeding on that. At the same time we had the mega high attract hookbait, the single pop-up that got a take, or not. Fishing moves on and backwards, now we are using high attract baits, maybe with added hydrolysates, liquid glugs over spod mix in the hope that the fish pick it up first. The food bait is 'gone' for various reasons, cost of ingredients rising, becoming harder or impossible to get hold of and even big bait companies changing direction or disappearing. Lots of little bait companies pop-up, disappoint or disappear. They are able to charge silly money for baits because fewer anglers have loyalty to a company anymore.

Never heard of them! Not being funny, but 'getting good press'; advertising now is more dissipated as social media takes over. I used to be very up with knowing bait companies, but when even long time companies are falling by the wayside. I keep making this point, if you have a cake of 30centimetres across, with 5 companies taking a piece, each has a decent slice. Now the same cake with 10 companies taking a piece, the slice is smaller. That is what is happening to the tackle and bait trade.

Thanks mate. I already have those Korda sleeves and beads. I'll go with the leadcore. Probably get the ESP bulk spool in silt. Thats the stuff I used back in the day. Cheers. 👍

Fishing is what you make it. I don't like bait boats, despite having owned one long before they were a must have, and then getting rid of it as I felt the ethics of it weren't there. In the UK fishing is very 'mixed'; anglers who do like, do use bait boats and those who don't, fisheries that allow bait boats, fisheries that don't. Some waters allow Deepers, GoPro or WaterWolf cameras, others don't. I know anglers who still reel in at night as they don't believe in fishing while sleeping, others who won't use boilies. The British 'way' is 3 rods on alarms, and that took off. The other adaptations occurred sometimes because mainland European waters are bigger compared to most UK waters. Taking bait out in a boat occurred for years, but on a water that is 10miles long, the use of Sonar and WaterWolf cameras became almost a necessity to find the fish. There is in the UK, a saying or word to describe people who just follow fashion, the media or news without question, without thinking, 'sheep'. Fishing is full of these people, they buy the latest must have item of gear, the best rods, the best reels, fashionable alarms, use the latest published rig and follow slavishly the articles in the magazine, the YouTube or TikTok video. They don't think what they are doing or why. Many get into it, think it is easy, catch to start, want bigger and better, and either learn in a hurry or maybe burnout or quit. There is a lot of secondhand tackle on Ebay! Then there are people who kick back against this fashion chasing, are traditionalists, do things as it was done before the invention of the bite alarm, before the hair rig, only use cane rods, pre-1970 reels or centrepins. Despite not having most modern gear, their watercraft is frequently top notch and they catch or not on their terms. Then there are I suppose a middle ground of people who question their fishing. Who buy gear to suit their fishing, the rods may not be the latest Korda Super Kaisen 3.5lb test curve designed to throw a lead 200metres and some, but instead are around 10years old, well used, possibly from Harrison or Century, maybe ESP, with alarms that are 25years old. The tackle is well used, abused, but still catches fish. They question the articles written by the latest name sponsored by Nash, Korda, Incredible, Fox, Sticky or whichever company gives them the best deal. They watch the water, they try to learn how the fish behave, where the best place to catch what they want. They may also fish a water for years rather than jumping from lake to lake in search of the largest. As with every rule, there are the exceptions to that: Terry Hearn, a lifetime angler, who despite going after some of the hardest carp in the country, catches and continues to catch and fish. Dave Lane who probably 25years ago made his name, or Chris Yates, a traditionalist who despite catching the UK's first 50lb carp, will not use carbon rods, hair rigs as he thinks bait placement on feeding fish is better than the way the bait is attached to the hook. Let me tell you this, people are gullible. They believe adverts, whether the facts are true or not. The advertisers need to sell their product, and when the product life runs out, they need another new product to replace it. Why buy Flash Bathroom and Flash Kitchen when Flash All-purpose will do both? They need you to buy Flash whatever floor wipe on the stick because a mop lasts longer and you don't throw away a mop head for months. A fishing company need you to buy fishing tackle. You buy hooks and swivels, that is two items. You read an article by superstar angler sponsored by tackle company who is telling how his superduper rig is the best thing since the invention of the hair rig, you buy hooks, swivels, rig rings and hook stops that is four items.

Hmm! Your eyes and ears are your biggest advantage. My fishing for years was fishing waters big reservoirs and lakes, for a maximum of 48hours. I'd get home from work, frequently at 11pm at night, load up my gear and go fishing, arriving at the water between midnight and 1am. The picture is just 30acres of a 75acre water I fished for 10years. Even arriving that late I would often sit listening before deciding where to set up. To start with, the only baiting I would do is with PVA stringers or PVA bag of pellets, no other free bait. I don't use a bait boat, everything is by hand, throwing stick or spodding bait in. In fact I put most of my bait in either as I left, or on specific baiting sessions where I was prebaiting for later trips. Getting your lines the right distance is easy with distance sticks or walking it out. I don't worry about water temperature, if it is not iced over it is possible to catch. Fish will be where they want to be, they may follow wind lanes, move from weedbed to weedbed to natural food. As much as you ask, there really is no substitute for being on the water, while carp as a species tend to behave the same, every water is different and they have their own rules. Fish can follow a new wind, especially in summer if it is warm, but not so much in winter. As the wind grows stale they will move back off it. Don't immediately think that long range is the answer, many fish get caught from the margins. It is easier to see them, easier to bait for them, and easier to cast at them (quietly). Does your big baiting attract nuisance species? There is no point in piling bait in if other species eat everything before the carp find it. It is easier to cast in a PVA bag of bait and your hookbait, than stand spodding for 1hour if it is going to get pinched by something else.

Sounds like you @OldBoyare the one who would be more at home on the other forum As yonny said, if you've not got anything constructive to say, then its probably best you dont in future??? Thanks in advance

Sorry, English isn’t my first language, so I try my best to learn your fishing tactics by asking questions, since I can’t express myself freely in English. I often fish at unfamiliar venues hundreds of kilometres away from home, which is why I had to buy a bait boat fitted with sonar. Even so, I frequently draw a blank. Take today’s spot for example: the average depth here is 4 metres, with the deepest points hitting 6–7 metres, while the bank-side water is only 2 metres deep. I chose the transition zone between the 2-metre shallow shelf and the 4-metre channel drop-off.

The guy has given us a paragraph explaining what he's doing and is asking for advice to improve. Give him a break. It's no wonder this place is dead when newbies get jumped on for no reason whatsoever. If you can help him, do so. If you can't, just move on.

Be handy on the pit when the wind is up. You might have to dig them out so I can see what ancient relics look like 😂

Ah , Zombie Sheep Lake ,and now they are coming mob handed 😱 .

Oh poo . Also you impatiently waited all of June ? , to go fishing and then we have a heatwave ! . 😢

Possibly. Since we arrived that fish had always been a little lethargic compared to the others, certainly one of the older ones. In general the younger/smaller koi seem to be dealing with the temps much, much better.

Yeah I've got around 1000 quids worth pumping away in mine. That's the problem with such a big pond.... needs more of everything! Once the balance is right you'll not need chemicals. I bought some blanket weed treatment but not needed to use it. In fact I've not added any chemicals at all. I added a couple of bacteria bombs just to kick-start the filters in spring, but on the whole mine is well established with great water quality. Just need more oxygen to cope with the temps. Stupid thing is I'll spend all this money and by next week the new gear wont be necessary!

I would not risk that in germany, that would be a massive fine and because it would be classed as animal cruelty so maybe short prison sentence?

Just bought a set of Bitekeeper Cube alarms. I am not so bothered about how customisable they are as most is just gimmicks but I honestly think rechargeable alarms should have been done a long time ago. Arriving tomorrow so will see how they get on. I did search the forum but didn't see anything on here about them. BiteKeeper Cube

although i do still have my Street Triple, i did buy a sports tourer last year in the form of the Suzuki GSX S1000GX.

I was very interested in Rod Hutchinson's writings on flavours, and his Ultraspice and Megaspice regularly appeared (along with Chocolate Malt) and someone else mentioned Garlic oil as an attractor so I combined the spice flavours with a Garlic and soya bean oil used in bird feeds as it was supposedly an appetite stimulant. It was not for allicin, but simply because they were good attractors in their own right and work well combined. The additional benefits regarding digestion and health were a beneficial 'side effect'.

Rod Hutchinson and Ken Townley have both made the point, coat a stone in a sweet flavour and it will be picked up, it is down to the rig whether you hook it or not. Carp don't have hands, to inspect an item physically they have to take it into their mouth. An item may taste like food, that can possibly be tested before they eat it, but to physically check hardness, they have to suck it in, or pick it up. A hard food item has to be taken to the back of the mouth to be crushed by the pharyngeal teeth, where smaller or softer items are often passed straight through the mouth, no additional crushing; although how a carp can consume a whole swan mussel and pass it through and out, and the flesh in the shell is eaten I don't know. Constant sucking and blowing, intake and ejection whether the food is attached to hook or not. No end of videos on YouTube or whatever channel you watch on showing that, be it boilies, maggots, sweetcorn or other particles. I have mentioned the 'super' high attract pop-ups, there are some attractors or flavours that almost force the take; N-butyric acid was one, Bromelain, (look up pineapple-n-butyric as a pop-up), but there are other attractors that at higher than standard levels will work in attractor baits, or in low levels in food baits. Incidentally, the high attractor level may cause the low level food bait to fail or blow. The attractor becomes a source of danger, and while carp don't think, continued hooking on the same flavour will get them to avoid it, for a period of time or permanently, or to inspect it carefully, at which point we have to look at the rigs again. Other attractors, may be a mix of enzymes or amino acids, could be flavours, chemical or natural, could even be something as simple as sweeteners like sacharrin. Sacharrin did cause cancers in tests on animals, but in the low levels we use, have not been considered a risk in humans. I have mentioned an attractor blend I love, Garlic Spice. Stinks, but catches.

I’m really surprised to find that European – or rather British – anglers also feel so strongly against this trend. I always assumed this high-tech approach had long been accepted and widespread over there. Over the past few years, I’ve gone through nearly every carp fishing article available online: every online magazine, every tackle brand blog, everything you can dig up through search engines. This style of fishing felt so novel, fascinating and almost magical to me. Whoever invented it must have been an absolute genius; it feels almost inspired. To this day I still don’t think I’ve fully wrapped my head around it. Honestly, I went back and forth for ages about buying and using a bait boat, and had endless discussions about it with my fishing mates here. But for whatever reason, we caved in to the temptation in the end. I don’t know the exact situation across Europe, but I get the impression your fishing regulations and the whole scene are really well established. And for you lot, it’s all about the enjoyment, not the catch itself. It’s different over here – we have a long culture of eating carp and grass carp. So apart from a few influencer streamers who do it for clout and to take the moral high ground, very few people actually release their catch. Another factor is the ripple effect – almost like a butterfly effect – when someone bags loads of fish, and big specimens at that, in no time using a bait boat. It’s incredibly tempting for regular anglers. Especially when you’ve driven hundreds, even thousands of kilometres, fished solid for days on end and come back blank. After a few runs of that kind of frustration, it’s really hard to turn down a shortcut that seems to work. Carp fishing has blown up to become one of the most popular freshwater fishing styles in China right now. On live streaming platforms, people sell tackle while broadcasting from reservoirs. Big catches are a regular sight – especially footage of 100-jin (roughly 110lb) black carp. It’s visually spectacular and drives huge traffic, which in turn boosts bait boat sales. It got to the point where the high price tag seemed like the only reason not to buy one. A few years back, a team of Chinese anglers sponsored by tackle brands entered a world carp fishing championship for the first time. They were among the very first carp anglers in China. They used all kinds of high-end kit: inflatable boats, underwater drones, bait boats, the latest top-of-the-line fish finders, you name it. And since all that gear was permitted in the competition, this approach got spread around here as the “proper, orthodox” way to do carp fishing. The logic goes: if the fish are released anyway, any method is fair game as long as it’s legal. Part of this is driven by tackle sales. On top of that, barely anyone here has actually travelled to Europe or the UK to learn first-hand, or to fish and talk with local anglers. Almost everyone learns everything online. That flood of information, mixed with commercial push, is what’s led to this whole situation. That’s exactly why I came onto this forum to ask. I want to know how real anglers in Britain and Europe actually fish. I want to learn the actual, meaningful skills and knowledge behind carp fishing. Throwing endless money at it lowers the bar for catching big fish, and makes honing your own craft and skill feel pointless. That was never what I got into this for. Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies. I know it’ll take me a while to take it all in and put it into practice properly. But I truly believe this is what fishing is really all about.

I guess pre baiting is out of the question (which is a good edge), judging by the distance you travel? Is there nowhere closer to home to hone your tactics? As others have said before, your eyes are the best tool you have to try and locate the fish before you think of putting a rig out. Although its all guess work, if you can't see any signs of them. What makes you fish at such range and depth? Ive caught nearly as many fish in the margins. Benefits such as, easier to bait up and also determine if the fish are taking your freebie bait. Its all part of learning how to unlock the puzzle of the venue. Its called fishing, not catching😉

I have various weights of the fox captive back leads. i don't use them religiously but when I need them they are in a lead pouch in the bucket ready to go along with the solar flying back leads back from donkeys years ago when Richard walker was a boy lol. don’t strike when using them either just pick up the rod and let the line tighten and mostly they then drop off. if weed has gone around the gate and stops it opening a little flick of the rod usually sets it free.

Like @yonny I do not like using backleads, for the reasons he states. If you add a backlead, you add an extra angle, and angles reduce indication. I will only use them if there are boats on the water I'm fishing, where I need to get the line below the boat hulls or engine. When I do need to use them, it is the Gardner Tackle Captive Back lead for me. The majority of the time I can get the line running along the lakebed by sinking my rod tips below the surface. That is on reservoirs and lakes. Add in any distance above 40metres and the line runs along the lakebed anyway, unless there are features like gravel bars between your rod tips and the end tackle.

I can see why it's called Winter Bay. Ian.

And here you have raised very pertinent additional points. Any ingredient in a boilie is denatured, or liquids evaporate as they are boiled, less so if they are steamed. By denature, the food value is reduced, the protein level is lowered, and enzymes 'killed', even vitamins and minerals are reduced, especially those on the outside skin of the boilie. The inside of the bait may still not be 'cooked' on short boiling times*, as the full temperature takes time to get to the middle. So the only part of the boilie that still contains fully effective or as you nicely describe it, beneficial effects is the middle. The best way to get these liquids to continue working effectively is to soak or glug the baits after boiling. You can add these liquids to your spod mix, your particles, your powdered groundbait, your pellets. I don't know if anyone remembers the days of the CarpWorld/Nutrabaits Lac Fishabil trips, but Bill Cottams favourite mix I think was a bucket of birdfood, boilies crushed and whole with added Nutramino, Multimino PPc and condensed milk. This is where you have different effects in water, the solubility of the liquid, how it mixes in the lake. Some liquids will spread out across the lakebed, others will cloud lakebed to surface. The 'hope' is that the carp will follow the reverse track of the water current if any down to the source, and it creates a spot to investigate. *My aim when making my own bait was to have a solid skin, but a paste middle.

Hey 👋🏼, good luck in starting out with the carping. Over here we use relatively light tackle compared to gar fishing or shark fishing ect. There's no need to use things like steel traces. They have really soft mouths so they have to be played a little more carefully. The teeth they do have (pharyngeal teeth) are back in they're throat and more like human molars for crushing food items so no need to worry about steel traces. The aim is to make your rig look as inconspicuous as possible under the water. Rods are generally around 2.5lb - 3.5lb test curve Size 4 - 12 hooks depending on size of carp we are targeting. Most lakes around the UK don't hold many large fish(fish over 30lbs) Wide gape & curve shank being 2 popular hook types. Usually barbless or micro barbed so the fish has as little damage / stress as possible and can be unhooked / put back swiftly and safely after a pic or 2 if it's a nice one lol Hook lengths are usually around 12lb - 25lb and usually braid or fluorocarbon. Might want to go heavier if your fishing for 40lb+ fish. Hope this helps. Would be cool to see a few mexican carp Tight lines & Wet nets