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Imo if you need to wash out your baits to get a bite there is something very wrong with your bait. We pay all that money for the most attractive bait we can get then wash all the attractors out. Makes no sense to me. If you want a soft bait try washing in; saturating in a water/glug/hydro mix. This adds to the attractors rather than washing them out and softens them up nicely. As they're saturated they don't take on silt either.

That is what I did 👍

Bait turned up yesterday all okay. "Decanted" into session bags and half of them popped in the freezer to help keep the rest cool on the way down. Look and feel, superb, (as always with ABS stuff). Nice light colour, they look like they'll wash out well. Unique smell. Chocolatey, with a fruity twist, and something else I can't quite put my finger on. This new bait has been hammering it everywhere, let's just hope the Frenchies like it too!! Yesterday was spent charging everything up. Kitchen looked like Close Encounters of the 3rd kind with all the lights flashing lol!!

Washed out baits are something I will use only on very tricky waters where they've seen it all before, and it has worked well for me. To me there are 2 clear advantages, it looks like its been in the swim for much longer than it has, therefore safer than fresh looking bait, and its softer and easier to eat. My baits are always fast breakdown anyway so I don't usually worry about this, after an hour they look like they've been in for a full day or more, but if I was using a harder bait I would really consider soaking/glugging before the session. Again depends on the venue and perceived difficulty. If it's silty I would always pre-glug the baits so they cannot suck in foul smells.

Spot on

not read all the messages but im not sold on the whole washed out bait thing, How does a fish know a bait has been in the water longer? Most baits washed out or not are slightly different shades of colour. I also think it would be niave of us on most venues to think we were fishing where there is no other bait around. If a fish is leaving fresh bait and eating the washed out bait....is it because the fish thinks its been in the water longer so safe? or that the food signals are maybe less and now more attractive to that particular fish? or is it the flavour you have added when washing out a bait that has made it more favourable.....We will probably never know. Every angler will have a different opinion, The question is, are you confident in what you are doing? If you washing out your bait and its catching fish...continue, If your not catching, Give it a try and if it doesnt work youve lost nothing. Fishing well if all about confidence.

Stanwick mallard or Grendon lakes. As yonny said. Wherever you end up going find the fish and fish for them. Be as quiet and stealthy as possible. Day ticket fish tend to move away from noise and obvious lines a lot of the time.

👍👍👍

That's me sold on it 4 runs in 2 hours 3 landed one fell off at the net, all after epic battles though, and in far from ideal conditions,biggest a scraper double but it's nice to have some runs and get to test my ideas out, a much welcomed confidence boost

Ha! 😂 an old member off here, one of the really good mates I’ve made through this forum, showed me his zig trick around 10 years ago. Gluing a live maggot to the top of his zig bait. I put my own spin on it and glued one to the bottom of my 10mm foam ball. Theory behind doing it upside down was that it may disguise the hook a little.

Never be in too much of a hurry to catch bigger fish. Learn to enjoy what you have, and learn your waters and fishing. Learn how to handle fish, learn different methods, how to use PVA Mesh, bags and stringers. Experiment with baits, particles, boilies, until no matter what you can catch on any method more than those around you. Learn how to bait up with spod, PVA, catapult or throwing stick. Learn the features that carp like, the snags, weeds, rushes, gravel, or troughs. Learn how to find features, a marker rod and float, or just counting the depth down, so when you do go somewhere harder you can do it quickly with least disturbance. I started carp fishing in 1986, it took until 1992 to catch my first 20. Those years, and the lake I had that 20 from was the only carp of the year. I went back to my 'easier' waters to regularly catch, and strangely enough, I had a 20lb carp out of there in the end. I really don't want to pee on your fireworks, but with bigger fish, be prepared for blanks, it is not as easy as 'just catching'. I have a mate who fishes as much as me, who probably catches more than I do, but his largest fish is only 17lb, he just doesn't want to sit blanking, and wants to catch.

Personally dont buy in to the washed out bait theory because unless there no bird life, nuisance fish or crayfish and the carp stock is vey low the bait would rarely be in the water 48 hours in fact majority of lakes i doubt the bait makes it more than ten hours out in the lake majority of the time. Even when we not catching the fish are clearing the bait and just leaving the hook bait. Would a carp no the difference between a bait thats been in water 8 hours or 48 hours and then link this to safety i dont think so personally. imo its anouther example of looking into things to much.

Washing out isn't just colour though. Baits that are soft, and swelled up aren't something that can be replicated out the bag.

if they were that colour to start with, they wouldn't be washed out! Ever fished a big bed of boilies, and had a big hit around 24/48hs after baiting? Washing them out is only replicating that situation, but on day one. TBH if you are going to wash out baits, you want it to be baits that the fish see regularly, either because its something terrible, like the cell, or because you pre-bait it regularly. You need something that the fish will recognise as having been in the water for considerable time, and be much safer. IMO its a tactic only for low stocked places, on a well stocked place with a lot of smaller fish, its just a waste of time and money.

Around the chub shoals the biggest I have seen is maybe 12ozs, but I reckon in some of the deeper weirpools and bridge flows there are some better fish. I was watching some of the winter match weights last season, the perch weights from the Bramford and Sproughton areas didn't show many big fish.