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Thanks nick I have been pre baiting with a glugged spod mix including boilies, my thinking being they are getting rehydrated before they hit the water by the munga juice and liquids I am adding, I will have a play with a few hookbaits tonight and see what happens

It took me around 3months to get my pop-ups to sink, constantly replacing/refilling the bait soak. Using Glycerine as much as 50% of the soak they also became rock hard. You could possibly speed it up by the Expander pellet method? Might be worth a try... I do also long term soak bottom baits if I am fishing silty areas, or for quick pick-ups. Even gravel often has a layer of silt on top of it. Thinking back, my pb river carp came on long term soaked bottom baits, and that was only in the water for around 30minutes. I could have been lucky that they were around, but I think that the current took some of the 'flavour' downstream as my mate had seen them swim upstream past him, avoiding a gravel bar that was a usual feeding spot. Something else I do, with both bottom baits and pop-ups is glug and dry, glug and dry baits, but again unless you do it for a long time continuously (*continually(?), they will in case of pop-ups still float.

I've had things going through my head today, and I mentioned 'lifesaver' in my facebook capture post, but that doesn't really cover all. I had just netted a double figure carp for my mate. As he got up to come round for pictures, he slipped or fell like poleaxed straight into the lake. The lake owner and I jumped in to get him out as he surfaced. My mate is a man mountain, 22stone, so we dragged Dave to the bank. At some point he must have breathed in some water, so while trying to get him into recovery, still in the water up to our thighs, I had to give him cpr, which the position we were in, the only option was to thump him in the chest, once, as hard as I could. He then started fitting and snorting while breathing. Somehow while this was going on I managed call emergency services, who stayed on the line until help arrived. It took 5 of us to get Dave onto the bank. Thank you to the paramedics, especially Zoe, first there who jumped in herself to help, to the fire brigade, and the other two anglers. The last I saw of Dave was being taken away in an ambulance. Please get well soon Mate, I hope you recover fully. As an add, somewhere in that lot, I did also manage to tip the fish back alive, quite possibly as I was getting out of the water after getting Dave out. As an addition to this, please don't think I am angling for praise. I did what anyone else would have done. I didn't think, I did it, my Mate. The important parts of my post were how easy it is for an accident to happen, a slip or trip, and it could be curtains. The second part is Thank you to all of the emergency services personnel who helped when needed. I have no idea how long it took for them to arrive, but it was quick, at an out of the way address. Thank you to the ambulance operator on the end of the phone line, who could hear everything going on, and gave advice and help when needed.

Cheers Yonny I will try and boost some of the wafters as well 16mm and see what happens, I did order some baitworks wafters and pop ups scent from hell range as well last night to give me some other options, I've found as long as I use a mesh bag or rig foam they tend to come in ok so far but I just want the hookbaits to stand out more in the silt, The other thing that clicked last night was I got a lot of liners on my far bank rods I think fishing closer and slacker may be the answer will certainly help as the fish seem spooky, I'm getting closer just need to keep learning

You need to decide what your looking to power and for how long , I take a phone with internet switched off so lasts ages , my mate takes tv phone etc and needs his own power station lol.

yea I got an anker after yonny recommended them on a similar thread and I wasn't disappointed charges my phone and tablet multiple times and at a decent speed

It'll work but you'll need some pretty poor pop ups for it to work in the next 12 months bud. You're better off getting some big wafters (20 mm or so), glugging them up and cutting them down to suit imo. Wafters are so variable I don't think you can plan for the correct buoyancy without adjusting to suit the specific rig/hook etc.

I use the ANKER jobbies, really good kit.

I’m a 10,went for an 11 for wearing thick socks........ size is sound,mate.