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Just scraping in the December report with a cheeky little 8lb mirror carp, caught it on a 12mm pink Mulbz pop up from club lake

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.

Literally ,right in,amonst those dying reeds,i had placed my bait..you can see the line cutting down from the peg on the bankstick it was good knowing your freebie and rig were spot on

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've gone a little bit nuts again but completed the production line 😂 Thanks to @greekskii for the tip off though. I am made up tonight. I now have all I need to start really making some boilies.

Merry Christmas to to all of you guys. Hope you all have a great day and year. All the best Elmo

Across the field from our cottage are a couple of small pools ..its where I go in the colder months ,or should I say rain ,..I thought I'd try the washing line method as they seem to spook off the lines very easily...any way this fish was one of two I fluked out ..

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 . 😁

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

I will invent a poopult to deliver it back 😂 Either that or the lake owner wouldn't see it because I would have already trodden in it.

I've trained him to do it behind your bivvy, then we'll get you banned and stick rods in your vacant plot! Edgy! 👍

Right I've had it with this Kev's corner business - back off, I have a dog and not afraid to set him loose! So you better have some snacks or be pestered to death! 🤬

Soon to be know as Yonny's poaching corner..... 😉

Handy for not Kev's corner. 😂

It's for washed out baits only.

Not sure if this is the right section to add this but.... Many over a certain age will remember the original series, it's now on YouTube with a new series and they have their own channel. I have watched the first two episodes and have to say I really enjoyed it, so refreshing to not hear some bloke banging on about big carp captures, which in my opinion has been done to death. I am no way associated with the channel, but if you want a break from the usual stuff, maybe give it a try?

New pb from the syndicate will do😂 but looking forward to next year, onwards and upwards good luck next year. See you for the big one.

Thanks @elmoputney This years been one to forget. New year, new start! New PB on our social🤞 Best wishes to all

Althoigh it's not really cold at the moment, and to continue doing my winter sessions in some sort of comfort I always use base layering .. Anyway I thought to upgrade and have bought Zerofit 'heatrub' made in Japan....all I can say is get some !!!!

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!

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

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!

Old thread i know, but the only one I could find How much longer are we going to put up with the complete ack of reinvestment in our infrastructures. My town (estimated 16,500 homes) is without water, due to a burst mains. This has caused utter chaos all day. These private firms pay out to the shareholders and hope everything else sorts it's self out. Then they have the cheek to say we got to pay more. Oil prices are another, perfect example of us being bent over Reform is needed, just not the party.

Sorry it has taken so long, but after we have managed to get server sorted there is now a section for videos: https://forum.carp.com/forum/51-fishing-videos/

If its not Kev's corner, it will be Jacks poo patch 😂

Seriously though these are a great design, so simple 👌

Just fitted my new rod locks ready for spring - hopefully no more flying rods 😆

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas period 👍

Funny you should say that, on my local park lake it was 3 grains of corn held up by a single piece of fake corn over Vitalin that produced the vast majority of the carp caught. It is a very silty lake and most people tended to fish boilies which sunk into the gunk. The Vitalin and sweetcorn sat on top. I had some very successful sessions, and watched many others fail to catch. Boilies did work, but only in specific places where the bottom is slightly harder. I think there were or are some specials that really work, but I think many have changed as flavours have been regulated. The Solar Squid and Octopus, original Scopex (not later copies), Monster Crab, Green Zing, or Pineapple really did have something about them, there are still others now that work, but is is finding them. Add to that, fishing over bait whether groundbait, particles or beds of boilies may make our 'non smelly' baits effective, or even the single bait that the carp think 'here's one I missed earlier'.

My mrs always moans that she’s cold I bought some of the uniquelo ultrawarm base layers for her as they are rated to about -25 doesn’t moan about cold when she’s wearing them

I've got 2 , and as you say they're very warm , although they don't seem to breath much and you can get a bit of a sweat on if you're not careful 😁 .

I knew I had it somewhere..

The Fortis Tundra salopettes are the best clothing item I've bought recently, waterproof and very warm indeed. I bought the matching coat but in hindsight I'g go for their marine jacket instead as I cannot see me using the Tundra coat as I'm already warm enough in the salopettes. Already got lightweight waterproof trousers and jacket but would look at the Fortis Marine stuff if I didn't 👍 Whilst the Catchdry coat may be good, for me personally it's too long and bulky - cant see that being suitable for days roving the river or carp stalking, but were all different. Fortis looked at the serious competition (Geoff Anderson) and made stuff that probably almost matches but at a much lower pricepoint, serious clothing for serious anglers I'd say so you get what you pay for, but the pricepoint of Fortis is much lower than Grundens and Geoff Anderson. Serious carp clothing was long overdue so well done Fortis I say.

Whilst I should play it down - last 3 trips were successful to a degree and all fish taken on Halibut Pellet wafters that barely smell of anything and very dull. Proves the point really, who are the special specials attractive to? US!

couple of low double Christmas commons

Good luck mate 🤞

This guy got loads of abuse back in the day for apparently fishing in an 'out of bounds; area, not sure that was true, maybe jealousy from others I suspect. I had left fishing it when this was made. From memory he also claimed to be one of the first to use a method feeder on there, I know that is not true. Anyway, a good bit of stalking on a big pit at the time.

They say you have to move the heron regularly for it to work, I felt like it was attracting them lol I'm imagining some sort of line of wire or string around the sides a bit like the electric wire for otters, say 3 layers of it, but then you cant have the heron sitting on the top edge if they can still reach the water from there. Tricky!

I can't imagine they were great boilies selling at 3 quid a kilo.

The only country in the world to privatise it's most natural resource???

I just use a pair of jog bottoms and a hoodie over them and have been nice and warm ..I got the socks too,but not tried them yet.. A good purchase ..

Very, very interesting..Not me but my father was one of the first members of BKKS .. We used to go around various members gardens/ponds and learn from each of them ..My Dad used to go straight up to Heathrow, a long drive to pick up his Koi from Japan,this was in 70s,things different back then.. One story ,he bought two Koi,introduced them to the pond ..we all went to school/work ..When I came home I found one newly stocked Koi had jumped out ..and was not looking at its best ..!! I think it survived ...

I think snail based boilies are a complete waste of time (in terms of trying to compete with natural snail consumption)... but if I was going to use a boiled bait with snail content I'd be using this: https://essentialbaits.co.uk/products/black-snail

there was a company doing snail boilies It looks like they have stopped doing them, could be worth a phone call to double check https://www.carpparticles.co.uk/product-category/boilies-hookbaits/

Don’t forget the carp anglers prayer… “dear lord, when I die, please don’t let the wife sell my carp gear for the price i told her I paid for it”