Leaderboard

Been at the lake for a couple of hours. Only one here and will be going straight to work in the morning . Had 2 shows a rod length out so that's where I've just moved one rod to. The other one is close to an areator with a couple of kilos of bait . Hopefully won't be plagued by the big bream in here.

That's a bloomin lobster mate ……………... Got the chance for 24hrs Thursday night...… Really low on bait and the bait rolling gear is buried under a shed load of stuff so bought one of these from Aldi for 3 quid to do a quick couple of kg in the kitchen..... I say quick,, it always takes longer than intended, so should encourage me to sort the shed out... "again"...… Been knocking up a little groundbait/stick mix/bag mix..... Just some basic seed mix, with added mung beans, crushed hemp and pellets put through a little seed mill with the addition of some dynamite amino black at about 20% to help it bind and help darken it up a bit more (you could use a bit of bread crumb to help bind it, but I had the amino black knocking about)...….. the pellets giving it some nice fishmeal attraction and some oils to hopefully lift a few small particles up into the water column and I'll mix it up with some BAF fish hydro... Tiny half inch stick with an egg sized ball over the top, is all I'll be using, bite at a time stuff on my local. Burnt my little seed mill/grinder out, so will be looking to get another... My fault for over doing it..... But for around 10 to 15 quid they are well worth having in the cupboard, giving you lots of scope to experiment with different stick and bag mixes, if that's your thing.... Just to add... When using ground bait or small particles ground up like this, there is no need to fill it in, I find less is best as long as you are adding some liquid food in there..... Too much in the water can sometimes lead to fish just sifting on the spot and too pre occupied to find a hook bait. They have an incredible ability to find a mouthful of food as long as there's some nearby attraction.

I think you can tell by the shows if zigs are the one. Proper head and shouldering, with those little fizzing trails as they head back down, I'd be chucking a pop up out, all day. Slightly bigger shows/rolls, with slight flicks of the tail on re-entry, says to me to get on the zigs. I agree you couldn't put a number on it. Imo it's completely relative to lake depth, substrate, conditions etc.....

I'd be more inclined to stick a single out over the rolling fish than the one jumping clear. If however I saw the rolling fish early morning, I'd definitely make sure I was fishing that spot the next morning if there were no major weather changes. As for the jumping fish, Id still keep an eye on that area, to see if anymore jumped out. If more did jump, I'd be on that spot too, but rolling is a definite indicator of feeding to me.

I've had a little play with adjustable zigs lately. Had 2 takes and lost both. Also struggling with tangles at the moment so a bit if fine tuning needed. I'm gonna give the bigger of the 2 lakes our club has got a good go this summer. Been visiting as much as possible after work and have realised the carp really move about in big shoals. Think it might be the ideal place to really commit to the zigs.

Don't think I would ever have a complete cut off point muft , it's more about what I think would be the best chance of catching these showing fish & I lean towards zigs these days . Nige worked for a fish at horseshoe & worked out it was a short zig needed just above the weed , so it's just about finding that perfect depth sometimes .

Some of the lakes round my way change significantly from Spring into Summer with thick weed seemingly sprouting from nowhere. So even if you find a feature with a gismo, and even if you bait it regularly, you will most probably still have to cast a lead out to find the clear spot when you turn up to fish...…. Just couldn't use a fish finder myself, one lad was told in no uncertain terms what everyone thought when he started wazzing out a deeper pro in between swims that were being fished on a club lake I fished..... However, I watched a lad slaughter the same lake, during the Spring after mapping it out with a deeper pro during the Winter when no one was fishing..... Each to their own, but I don't think these kind of shortcuts will improve your fishing, you may even become reliant on them long term. I probably sound like an old fart, but, the spirit of angling for me, is watching, feeling , learning and eventually working it out for yourself with any clues you find along the way..... If you find a water that you love being at, then there's no rush imo.

Lost my first American carp today. Hooked on a worm, all of 1lb or so. On super light tackle it took me round the scaffolding of the jetty we were fishing from. Hook ended up bent out. Fair to say I was gutted! but I did catch a bluegill so I didn’t blank! New species for me too.

I really can't believe what I'm seeing here. Just what did they think they were doing? Hand on heart, from this day forward I'll buy nothing bearing the Sensas logo. End of! Ian