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I'm a relative newcomer to "carping", having started around 2010. I'd been fishing for years, (mainly for Tench), and hadn't come across boilies prior to then. I didn't know the 1st thing about them, but had to "get on board" as they were what you caught carp on, weren't they??? I can remember the first ones I ever bought. They were shelflife, (fresh/freezer baits confused me), and were like bullets. Chalkie things, crumbly and horrible. I don't remember what flavour or brand they were, but do recall that they were a "name" as I wanted to give myself the best chance of catching a fish. I do remember wondering to myself how fish were ever attracted to these things when they could have a lovely lump of luncheon meat, breadflake or worm??? Fast forward 8 years. I now use fresh/frozen baits whenever possible, but still use the odd shelfie now and again. They bear no resemblance to those first ones I used. There is absolutely no comparison, I cannot tell the difference between a fresh/frozen bait or it's shelf life equivalent. I think massive strides have been made in the manufacturing of boilies over the years and have no hesitation in using a brand I trust.

i bet if you worked out the replacement price of that lot it would come to more than double the £1500 he's asking. poor little rich boi

Not necessarily. I don't mind an element of imbalance in my rigs, imo it can make them hard to eject. Therefore I'll often fish 11 mm and 13 mm on size 4's. I've been know to use size 2's (in other patterns) for 16 mm which is as big as I go with hookbaits. The smallest hooks I use are 6's.

as a follow on to a recent thread by BC 'beginning of a decline' i spotted this on a media platform that i frequent (mods please note that i am not advertising this for sale). NOT SELLING AS A JOB LOT !!! NASH ABBREVIATED 6FT 3LBS X2 £150 NASH BLACK OPS NET £100 NASH SAWN OFF TIP TOPS X2 £10 NASH BLACK OPS SLEEP SYSTEM £180 NASH BLACK OPS BROLLY £80 NASH BLACK OPS CHAIR £65 NASH BLACK OPS RUCKSACK £50 NASH BLACK OPS FLAT MAT £30 NASH BLACK OPS 6FT DOUBLE BAG £30 NASH BLACK OPS RETAINER SYSTEM £15 NASH BLACK OPS WATER BUCKET £5 KORDA SAFES FULL TACKLE /RIGS £110 KORDA STOW BOBBINS ISOTOPES CASE £45 KORDA REUBEN SCALES AND BAR £50 KORDA COMPAC X4 £40 NASH R3 X2 GREEN £100 FOX BLACK LABLE COMPACT POD £100 SHIMANO ULTEGRA 5500 XTD X2 £140 END TACKLE JOB LOT £45 BAIT JOB LOT £65 KORDA TOWEL KORDA CATAPULT £15 NASH CYBER SHOT THWOINGSTICK £25 I will add more to the list once I've sorted through it. comment or pm me for any info Most items have only been used once 😱 😱 😱 looks like someone fell for the hype then realized his xbox was more appealing

The black ops stuff has just been discontinued for the new range on sale soon. Cleverly just before Christmas of course! All the big names ‘re-design’ their kit and improve it. But sold the first version on the basis it was the best ever!!

chuck the receiver in the lake and turn the alarms up to the max

all this new fangled gear 😁 what you need is a pair of super xl's a set of leads and a bitech viper sounder box 😏

a lake i used to fish had a group of grass carp that would always be seen together, two fairly large and two or sometimes three smaller/younger fish. the two larger carp would herd the others toward the floaters and as soon as one got hooked they would hoover up what was left. this was witnessed by me and others for at least two seasons and there was no record of the two biggies ever being on the bank? strange that.

That give you 3.5 fish per acre which is not easy. On my water I'm looking at closer to 5.5 fish per acre so still pretty tricky. It's easy enough to go on long blank runs, believe me I've been there. If you're confident in the rig you caught on, use that imo mate. I would never choose a second rig for the sake of it. I would only ever choose a 2nd rig to suit a specific substrate, spot, or situation. Adapt to the angling situation, and what you can see with your own eyes. First thing I would do in your situation is adapt to the weed - long chods or variations thereof smashed straight into it on one rod. Still very effective if done right!

From what I've seen you do very well and I'm guessing you have a good head of fish to go for on your water. My decent syndi is 9 acre with only 32 known fish. My targets are the 4-5 Redmire strain commons, all 30+. I'm intending to use Scopex Squid next time out, + kamakura's😉. I only get the odd 48 sesh. I want to maximize my chances anyway possible. I've only had a small stocky so far, better than some but the weekly lads do 6-10 a season. I'm confident in the rig I caught on, but would like to try something new on the other rod(2 rod only) which I always try something different with. Which rig would you suggest, known spots in each swim & 3-4ft canadian everywhere else!!!

Oh ok awesome cheers fella, that should make it easier then I had visions of having to jump over fences and all sorts.

I think it is bud. Not aware of any club running it. Strictly no fishing still as far as I'm aware. You can go and walk round it any time, it's a reserve so birders are there frequently.

Jewellers Eye Fine diamond file Vice That's what I use on the cheap. always one for a bargain.

This one could spin in ever decreasing circles for ever. People making bait expands to a massive circle not just big companies any more, the problem from smaller start ups will be pressure from there buyers to have a shelf life option the required finance to get it right will out way the quick fix fill it full of potassium sorbate option, bigger companies have invested a little bit of time and money to get this right (some will still cut corners to hit price though) looking at alternative methods of making it work. Some one mentioned dates on some shelf life's and im guessing these are using a process that just prolongs the life of the bait to a point where the buyer will have used it. There are companies that alter there mixes by reducing the amount of the volatile ingredients that cause it go off (are shelf life's different to freezer baits if your doing this they are), improving there system for removing the moisture and like Nick suggests a good dip in sugar would probably get long enough out of them. For every company doing it right there is probably 2 doing it wrong, there are some baits I have seen pictures of that shouldn't be allowed to be put in the water, stories of lake owners netting there lakes and scoping up kilos and kilos of none broken down bait is not a good place to be in, if the lake water can't break them down what are the doing to the fishes digestive tract. I have also seen lab analysis on company X bait, which is aimed at colder water and is said to contain a high lipid content than there fishmeal offerings but the lab report on the shelf life version showed percentages nowhere near what they had published in a mag. So the mag values must have been for the freezer bait option.

Any bait company I won't use is based on personal reasons, ethics etc. I can honestly recommend bait companies I have used, Nutrabaits, Solar, Crafty Catcher, Rod Hutchinson etc. In fact I have been round the factory that rolled boilies for Rod Hutchinson, Nash Baits, various tackle shop specials. That factory is that of Crafty Catcher, they make or made bait for various companies. I have been round the factory of Starmer Baits. We are getting to the stage of ingredients being printed on packaging, Mainline do it, Crafty Catcher, Nutrabaits, Solar. Nutrabaits were the first, in fact Bill Cottam used it as a selling point. I think some of the animosity Gaz mentions is down to cost, yet many anglers don't understand retail, and the difference between going direct to a bait company, a one man band or a bait company selling retail only. You have a bait company that in the tackle shop sells boilies at £11 a kilo. A retail trade. From bait company to tackle shop is rarely direct, there is often a middleman, wholesaler or agent. All of them need to make money, the bait company sells to agent at £5 a kilo, the agent sells to tackle shop at £8 a kilo, the tackle shop sells to angler at £11. The bait company needs to pay its staff for rolling, needs to buy ingredients, to pay for electricity. The wholesale agent needs to pay for transport, staff etc. The tackle shop staff, carriage. The theory is that the bait should only be sold at £6 CAN NOT equate, it can't be done, not while having retail stores. A bait company that sells direct can sell a bait at £6 a kilo. Your one man band that sells you bait may do it for £4.50 or less. He is probably not including his labour, just covering the cost of ingredients. Big companies can buy ingredients in larger amounts, therefore sometimes getting better prices on ingredients, not in all cases. Some ingredients due to shelf life, you do not want to buy in large quantities. Fishmeal has quite a short shelf life, yet due to the fishing 'seasons' quality changes over the year. Some bait companies buy ingredients from animal feed suppliers; fishmeals, birdfoods, and other animal feeds. Some bait companies like Dynamite are selling a kilo of 'budget' shelf lifes for £6.99, yet their genuine food range premium boilies are £10. What does that say to you? A few years ago Nash Bait made the claim about one of its baits being stabilised for a shelf life version, compared to the freezer version. This is quite simply in my view down to being dipped in glycerol sugar syrup. Here is something else to consider, any bait you put a flavour in, the chances are that flavour is a preservative in its own right.

true, very little small stuff in there either. My point was exactly that. It isn't a method to stop catching smaller sized fish, its a method to associated a spot with a free food source over a long period. Weeding out the bigger fish is only possible on the surface or selectively stalking, and even then a smaller one may nip in first, or be sent in by the bigger fish.

My Lo Pro, home for 4 days over the weekend. Minute and a half to put up, 50 seconds to pack down, 3.3 kg. Great coverage as you can see, it was smashing it down. Really impressed with it.

Yep. And the worst thing was I booked Monday off work to do a day down the local for probably the last time this year and I came down with a bug Sunday night so couldn't even go.