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I agree Vik. There'a not much you can do to put little'n's off. When I was a lad I spent too much time trying to single out bigger fish in waters full of smaller carp. It took me too long to realise that the best way to catch bigguns is to fish water with bigger fish in!

So, I find it sad that after all the work done by echo, we now have more KHV in the UK than at anytime before, something inevitable considering the UK stance on it. It should be a notifiable disease with a total eradication program of any fishery found positive for the virus. KHV has no effective vaccine and any fish surviving the disease is a carrier for life. The method used by Israeli fish farms to produce the so called vaccinated carp is not effective. It produces batches of carp that can be reared to edible sizes without succumbing to the disease, but not 100% wont succumb, given stress factors a small percentage [2-3%]will contract the disease and die, this is acceptable in a rearing pond where one expects to lose a small percentage it better than losing 98% in none inoculated fish. However stock these same fish into a mixed carp water and one is asking for trouble as that small percentage of diseased fish will infect all the naïve fish. We simply should not allow inoculated fish into the UK, we should wait for a real vaccine. We are currently importing these inoculated fish at an alarming rate for the pet trade and given the fact that in the latest government questionnaire about none natives 2% of people openly admitted in releasing fish into the wild, its plain to see where this is going to end.

A few years back a friend of mine turned up at the lake all excited because he'd bought some moonphase charts which pinpointed the best times for a bite. What interested me the most was that he had the charts for the previous ten years as well. I asked him to watch my rods while I hot footed it to the syndicate shed to grab the log book. So, being the sad git that I am, I worked my way back through the whole ten years. Now don't get me wrong fish did get caught around the 'peak days', but most captures just happened at random points on the charts. My mate wasn't quite so chirpy when I showed him my findings. Personally I think there is a whole raft of factors that affect feeding times but that one of, if not the, most important thing is dissolved oxygen levels. Although I doubt that is the case during the depths of winter.

Yes mate, when Capitalism meets Nature, two different worlds collide, square peg round hole... They will never co-exist as by it's very nature, Capitalism destroys the natural world in the name of money......

yep, that's what you have to do @yonny. Or target them individually on the top. Or fish through the small stuff in the hope a bigger fish comes your way.

Blimey I'm going to take that as a compliment, thank you. I'd like to think that your assumption is spot though. I get more enjoyment catching carp how I want to catch them, and from where I want to catch them, rather than their numbers and sizes. Mind you it is forty-six years since I caught my first carp by design and I'm sure that I've learned to appreciate things more with age.

Andy, Please forgive me for making assumptions, but from the posts of yours I have read, you are an angler who watches, looks, understands and comes to sensible conclusions, and are interested in the history. You don't appear to be a 'catch at all costs' angler, but obviously you want to catch, if possible from a normal water. Sadly many modern anglers don't have the same ethics as you show, they don't care for the history or the fish, just treating them as numbers.

Never a truer word said. I feel the exact same. Never their own fault. I’ve been there and blanked out of stubbornness or laziness. locating and finding the fish is the single most important thing when fishing, having confidence in bait, rigs, tackle means there’s less of the jigsaw to worry about. I see anglers set up where is easiest and spend an hour deciding which rigs and hookbaits to use. In reality the fish are on the other side of the lake, which they’d have realised if they spent more time looking and less time faffing!

Some good reading gents 😎 But not one of you has mentioned the moon....... 🎣🌚 This could well account for bite times changing ??? I'm still studying the effects of the moon , it's a shame I haven't been able to fish much the last year or so, as I probably would of had some info / findings on the whole moon debate by now .

Some good points there mate. The man induced, learning by association, is one that had slipped my mind..... Just add, I think the type of bait being put in plays a big part too. An easily digestible food source, would imo, lead to a quicker recovery and perhaps an extra feeding spell on a lake..... Too much stinky winky bait going in, could lead to longer digestion periods and perhaps fewer and less vigorous munch ups. Your post has certainly given me food for thought (oooh dodgy joke in there somewhere)…….🙂

for me, it was the weight, carbon VS glass? no brainer.

They can roll bigger baits than that if you ask nicely 😉

I have a few mates who have had the carp in their ponds breed and produce numbers of small fish, both koi and standard carp. I know darn well 'overstock' has been used to 'seed' rivers and lakes as well. A local koi supplier bought some koi into his business, not knowing they had been imported from Israel, the result in a hot summer, his own koi pond was found to contain KHV. Israel farms carp for one purpose only, kosher fish as they cannot according to their religion eat fish with no scales or fins, for food. Europe is alive with various viruses, diseases and parasites, yet illegally and legally, we continue to get fish from mainland Europe.

I know, I pointed this out on every forum I could find years ago and if you go back and look, you will find my heated discussions with the owners of a farm.

I think that you'll find that there is at least one 'fish farm'/dealer that is openly importing these Israeli fish for stocking into established fisheries. I certainly didn't have to think for a split second before deciding that they weren't for me. Cheap way to get some big fish for a certain type of water ££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

Premier Baits do baits up to 24 mm fella.

So tricky at the mo with this heat - bite times are short, very short. First morning is spent spotting where they're prepared to feed. Second morning you have an hour or two window to catch them. If they've moved there's no second chances - that's it for the day unless you can get something going on the top.

not anymore I dont!

"HE CATCHES WHEN HE WANTS" lol

There's an app called Fishing Calendar that tracks moon phases and calculates bite time for you. It is very interesting that bites often come during periods that the app says they should. I stopped using it as I can't plan my fishing round moon phases and found it would just do my head in when the app told me the weekend ahead was no good for bites lol. Amen.

I much prefer 11' rods to the more "usual" 12 footers. That's fine, until you start looking around to buy some! Not many manufacturers offer this length so you're limited on choice. My current everyday rods are Shimano Tribal Velocities in 2.75 flavour. Not a bad rod for the money. I had to buy mine from abroad as no UK store had the 11 footers in stock at the time. Ended up costing me about £85.00 each I think. As I say, they are an "ok" rod, although slightly heavier than my previous Chub Outkast "Smallwater" rods. The only reason I stepped up to the Velocities is because the lake I now fish has a few more snags to contend with and I guess I wanted the extra backbone the higher test curve gives me just in case of difficulties. The best rods I have ever owned, without question, were a set of FreeSpirit TS 2.75's. These were absolutely fantastic, almost as light as my Chubs and had a lovely fish playing action. I stupidly sold them when I ran into a few financial difficulties a few years ago and have regretted it ever since. If I could afford it I would buy another set of these in a heartbeat but I just cannot justify spending nearly £800.00 on rods. If a set of three came up second hand though, I would seriously consider splashing out.

Think we all have at some point...

I thought I had found the recipe for success on my old lake regarding moon phase. I had the majority of my fish especially from September onwards on or around ( 3-4 days) either side of a new moon. I recall one autumn/winter on there when 9 out of 10 bites came on a new moon and always in the hours of darkness. I found out another angler was also getting a few bites so asked him whether they had been on the new moon. He said all his had come on or around a full moon and yet I couldn't buy a bite on that moon phase. Whether that was due to me fishing shallowish water and he the deeper water. At the end of the day I've found that being on the fish is the biggest influence on getting a bite, what time that bite comes is anyone's guess but you certainly won't get one if you're not on them. That is stating the obvious but it's shocking how many anglers blame everything other than themselves for blanking. Another thing that helps with getting bites is confidence. You go fishing lacking confidence and chances are you've blanked before you've even got to the lake. I know I've been there in the past.

For years I have a specific Marker rod, albeit my original Marker rod was a North Western 2.5lb carp rod, one of a pair that wasn't nicked. When we were allowed to use 3 rods at Taverham I put this rod into carp fishing alongside my Armalites (mk.l's). My Century M1 2.75lb Test curve marker rod, I have kept specifically as a marker rod, mainly because it is the only rod I have that is equipped with braid on the reel. Saying that, after what must be 10years it is getting soft, and I am now struggling to hit 100metres with it. It is probably not helped by the Korda Marker floats needing such a big lead to feel the bottom; 3.5-4oz compared to 3oz maximum with an ESP Mini marker. The Korda float is so big, and buoyant it lifts any lighter lead than that. I have noticed my marker casting distances decrease over the past few years. I reckon the M1 will get pressed into service as another fishing rod for floaters on the lake for carp with a controller. Guess that means I'll have to buy a new marker rod😖😱😳😉

welcome to the forum Ryder i use a set of 3 fox warriors of which one was sold as a dedicated marker rod, two main at 2.75 Tc and the marker is 3.25 Tc, believe me when i say that marker rod is always used as my distance rod, i can chuck between 75-100 yds with the 2.75s without trying and that is usually about my range for fishing accurately but then when i have set my traps the marker rod gets pub chucked at a distant feature (just for luck ;)) and 150+ is nowt,, saying that it shed an eye ring last weekend as the braid frapped round the eye and i had a loaded spomb on at the time, nearly wrenched the damn rod out of my hands when it locked up