Leaderboard

Back on it post spawning, great to be back out at long last.

A 31lb 12oz mirror from the weekend. Also managed a 25-4 and 18-10. After a windy start on Friday, it got really hot but managed a bite on all 3 rods by boating out about 20 Creamino boiles and a bit of pellet every 3 hours tight to an Island.

I think the quote to be used here is don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.. typical journos

I got a Korda Spring Bow net delivered last week. I have a thing about real decent nets and have inadvertently amassed a bit of a collection. It drives the Mrs mad. A pal of mine showed me his Spring Bow a while back and I was well impressed so I've had a search set up on fleabay/marketplace for a while. The right deal finally came up so it's now racked up with the various Dymags and Chris Brown nets in the fishing room, much to the Mrs' annoyance. I'll use it on my next session out of principle and then decide if it replaces the Dymag mk2 I tend to use most of the time.

Linda lusardi or Maria Whittaker was my preferred totty.

That's amazing - and the cheeky sods! My mate spends a lot of time looking for stuff on facebook etc got the collecting bug from another friend. I've not got a fishing room, just fishing kit in every room, garage and attic 😀

After a chat on here about mats I treated myself to the Thinking Anglers mat, its very light and actually will be great for stalking 👍

For years there were no problems at Taverham, then more anglers started fishing it when Anglian Water took it on and litter started becoming a problem. Klaus bought a brand new bivvy and rats chewed their way in through the groundsheet and into his bait and food bags. He found a chewed pack of bacon dragged outside the bivvy. We get a few rats on the syndicate now, not many, and as you can see, they don't cause me any problems, thanks to Sky. How she can wait patiently on the lead until they get close enough to her to attack them amazes me, she's normally head down and charge.

I must confess I do keep my bait in buckets, not just for rats but to keep them away from Sky. She does however act as a good rat deterrent:

Just ordered a fireproof charging bag (Amazon) for my fishing batteries, big enough to store them in too. Too many horror stories, should have bought one long ago.

Then back on home territory and ,part of a 7 carp hit ,using single bottom baits over a scoop of dried maize

Then a night float fishing with prawns ,after eels ,not a carp I know !

Across the border, forgot my passport and facial recognition but made it...OK.. lol

View from last weekend, got excited with my bait mix smashed it all in then had duck wars over it all night lol On the plus side I found what feels like a banging area so might well be back on that tonight, less bait lol 🤞

Denise van Outen on Big Breastfast

Dusting off my old shimano aero 11ft 2 1/4lb tc carp rods and 6000 shimano baitrunners on a little pond in the Mole valley. Literally fishing under the rod tips, my baits are each side of the end of the boards. I’ve not used these rods in maybe 15yrs, but this lake didn’t suit either my 12ft 3lb fox torque or my 12 3.5lb fox horizon rods, average carp mid-high singles, with the odd low double, so a lovely through actioned rod like these ones are so much more matched and more fun to play carp on.

The weather forecasters predicted a heatwave this weekend and they weren't wrong! I booked a 48hr session on a pay lake back in November and was in 2 minds whether or not to go. Got there on Friday afternoon and they were all sunbathing, some with their backs out of the water. Chucked out 3 zigs in desperation but wasn't surprised they didn't take them. An hour before dusk I would them in and replaced them with bottom baits and boated them out with the first loose feed. An hour after dark they started spawning and spent virtually all night doing it and I got practically no sleep. I did manage 2 overnight and then another 2 at first light up to 24-5. The day was another grueller but luckily I was sheltered right back amongst the trees and avoided the worst of the sun. I had another 3 during the second night and luckily no more spawning. It died about 2 hours after dawn and I packed up at 10a.m. despite booking on 'til 6p.m. It you would have offered me 7 fish in those conditions I would have had your hand off! I did lie on my camp bed for 10 minutes after dinner and woke up 2 hours later!

I’ve not really had the rods out in anger for a while, but my daughter has been showing me how it’s done with her first carp from a little campsite pond.

I can guarantee you right now that they will sell. They've drummed up loads of interest. It is a complete no-brainer to offer one with a speaker. For every guy that prefers the speakerless version, there's one that prefers a speaker. It's a win-win for them to offer both. Their only other remote alarm is based on a design that's nearly 30 years old (TLB+), and even that needs the ATT receiver.

Been making do with a folding camping chair since i came back to fishing, but fished yesterday and was so tired kept thinking need a recliner to snooze in mentioned to my mate on the lake Smithy and he sold me his JRC recliner chair in mint condition for 40 notes ideal

Believe it or not I can possibly beat that 😅 I have a full size faux taxidermy carving of the ex record carp, Two Tone, fully mounted in mahogany case. The centrepiece of my fishing room. There's a funny story that comes with it too. I came across it on ebay. It was advertised as a carving so clearly not the actual stuffed fish. I bought it, knowing full well it wasn't real, for the fishing room and thought I'd see if I could find some info on it. I posted it on the old Anglers Forum but no-one could tell me anything about it. But, the Anglers Mail got in touch and asked to do an article on it. Me being me, I told them I don't really want to be in a magazine, and turned them down. So rather than just leave it.... they made a story up. They published an article, using the picture I'd posted on the Anglers Forum, that said the buyer had purchased it thinking it was the real thing i.e. the actual stuffed Two-Tone. The cheeky gits. Naturally, I went back to them and called them scum of the earth A) for making the story up, and B) for stealing my photo. Needless to say they never replied. This was maybe 10 years ago but the story was still available online not long ago. I just Googled it and found the image but the link no longer works.

Bivvy fetishism struck again !

So to start the thread I mentioned the steak, so here is the real deal. And that is a Fishing Dinner: Rare rump steak with mushrooms, sliced green beans and sliced fried potato, a dash of mixed herbs and a crushed clove of garlic.

Why not just use a bucket? they've never breached my ridgemonkey yet. I never leave my bait in the bivvy either. And always close my food bag, then I throw boilies in other people's bivvies works a treat 😂

At least they paid £2 for a premium lead though.

Me too. On the water I'm fishing there's no way you'd be able to fish a running rig. If the fish takes lines on the take you're halfway to losing it already such is the severity of the weed.

I've bought some prepared particle as I was too lazy to prep it myself 20kg of carp particles dark mix and some garlic oil.

I use lead clips all the time and will continue quite happily, I can see some danger but happy to live with that as I fish heavy gear and fish sensibly. If we were that concerned we'd use lower bs hooklinks than the line regardless like match anglers. Snapped line springs back into a birdsnest, so even the running rig potentially tangles and tethers.

Visited a couple mates fishing the river yesterday and seen this, how cool 👌🤣

Father’s Day fishing trip 👍🏻

Yeah dropped about a foot and a half to what it looks like is the natural level, it's mega, got 3-4 foot in the edge in most places still. Pressure drop and rain, hopefully I'll guess the right section if none spotted, but wind is swinging mid session. In it to win it 😎👍

Sam Fox, she still looks good for her age now in my opinion.

Give it a go, maybe a bit old school in this modern world but no reason for it not to work

I still use it every now and again rather than using PVA bags or mesh. I don't necessarily resort to a Method feeder, but mould groundbait round a flat lead. I don't think Ardleigh ever qualified as a runs water, and that moulded groundbait round the lead produced a lot of fish, and well into the 20's. My favourite groundbait is not quite the same as it was, Vitalin as a dog food company sold the makeup to Gladwells, who now make it as Vitacarp, although I don't think it is as 'sticky' as it was, with less rolled maize in it. I used to pour boiling water over it the night before use, or add in soaked and boiled birdfood, sweetcorn and hemp and allow to stand for about 30minutes before balling it for groundbait and moulding around the lead. Not forgetting some crushed and crumbled boilies in the mix. I wasn't keen on shop bought Method feeders with the elastic through the middle, but there is now a decent choice.

With a line lay like this you won't be disappointed. Smooth a silk, excellent drag, great retrieve, much better than my aerlex spod reel tbh.

I found August is usually the same until the back end of the month

This time of year drives me mad mate, it feels like it should go off but it doesn't lol. One of my local lakes they just bask on the top all day, massive groups of them, 30 - 40 fish, chuck a floater out and they ain't even interested 🤣 roll on August and September 👌

I found this last night in the Andy Little book 'My Passion For Carp' page 58: "The bait I used was very similar to the one I had used at Darenth during the previous winter........... I had slightly changed the original nix of Casien, Lactalbumin, Calcium Casinate and Gluten etc. In the new mix I substituted some of the lighter milk protiens with Semolina........ ended up with a heavier Casein, Semolina and Gluten" Goes on to say it had a maple flavour, 20ml in a 10oz mix!! also says he used to add granulated sugar in boiling water as a sweetner!

I was talking to someone yesterday and he just came back from a week in France he actually witnessed a delkim melting in the heat lol that one definitely won’t be waterproof

I've seen people moaning about the new ones still, wouldn't touch with a barge pole tbh

Sold my 9 footers a few months back because I had no need for them.. just bought a set of 9ft scopes, picking them up tomorrow 👍🤣

My staffy would probably run away from a rat 🤣

Some of the rigs people throw out are shocking tbh.

I once left a vape on charge and it started burning, luckily it wasn't overnight and I caught it fairly quick but could've burnt the house down.

Used Fox alarms for 25 years. Switched to Delkim for a season but that didn't last long as all of them suffered with water ingress issue in the first winter. Back to the Fox's.... still going strong.

Well as purchases go they don't come much more exciting than a new home and a return to my beloved Nene Valley. Carpy in more ways than one; I'll be 3 miles way from the Valley itself and there's also koi to 30lb+ swimming around in the back garden! Offer was accepted on Friday so now I just pray that nothing goes wrong and we're not waiting too long.

22lb common caught today

How you doing? This session was a rather decent one, despite managing to leave my hookbait bucket at home with my medium Spomb in it. I spent an hour cursing and swearing as I used the small Spomb to put a bucket of maize and birdfood in. The first night produced a tench of around 6lb on a straight out of the bag bottom bait, which somehow managed to go across the middle rod. The 2nd night was quiet. Last night around 11pm I had a strange occurrence on the middle rod, it pulled to the right, with what appeared to be a run, but there was nothing there, so I recast with a fresh stringer. At 3am I had the same thing happen again. I think that it was a goose or swan swimming through the line just in front of my rod tips, or a swan picking the hookbait up. A couple of miscasts with stringers, but 3rd time lucky. I was sat drinking coffee and eating breakfast when the rod went with a 22lb mirror, one of last years stocking, and a 10lb weight gain. Caught on a 360 rig with a meshed 15mm Nutty Bait pop-up with a stringer of 6x 18mm Nutty Bait boilies. This morning I was starting to tidy up ready to pack up when the right hand rod went, which was the rod over the maize, and managed a rather nice 26lb mirror on the 'sliver' of Monster Crab pop-up on a reverse combi rig. This fish was from the 2021 stocking and went in at 11lb.

A simple stir fry ,nothing amazing ,but I live 2 mins from the lake ,and could get my lady to bring me dinner down,but I like to eat on the bank...