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Just because others sacrifice their sense of achievement doesn't mean you should forgo your own mate! It is not all about the end result. It is about the journey there. Do it the hard way, it's MUCH more satisfying.

Just a few things; 1. Totally agree with Yonny, carp require salt, it's a key part of osmosis so if they can access it much easier they will. My dissertation concluded that a salinity of 2ppt actually provided better feed conversion and growth rates in juvenile carp at least. My conclusion was that there was less energy being utilised processing small levels of sodium for osmosis and other regulatory processes. The chemical balance of the carp was much easier for them to maintain, hence more energy for other processes. 2. 1000kgs of salt is A LOT. A tonne. and it would all have to be put in at the same time, distributed evenly across the waterbody to kill off the entire lake bed. It's unrealistic. What happens is small spots get a bit of salt, they are fed on by whatever fish or bird species and then re-colonised if not having another dose of salty bait regularly. Food for thought - a 5 acre lake with an average depth of 1.5m would require over 12,000kg of salt to take it above a 2ppt salinity level. 6000m3 is roughly 6million litres. That level is based on my findings, which I do not say are gospel but its the best I have to my knowledge. 3. Again, I dont think anyone puts a 2kg salt lick on a spot. It's crushed up and introduced in smaller quantities over a spaced out time. Water movement and topography will distribute it. Example, I fished an 880m long pit which had a SW or NE wind blow the length of it. In strong winds a 350-400m undertow was common, normal winds 100-150m. Salt granules wont stay in situ for long when you take in to account water movement, fish and bird activity and also topography. I feel like you are investigating extremes, not real angling situations but as you said you will be doing it and it'll be interesting to see what you find, as long as you introduce the salt how anglers do, not in a big block of salt! Interesting stuff though and good on you for doing some experiments and things. Personally I dont not think that it makes much difference at all to the environment of a lake in the ways that it is used. I don't agree in block input of it like you said as I agree that it will just kill everything off. Just to touch on the groundwater thing as you say you dont quite understand it. Basically every piece of land has it's level on the water table, hence why lakes are normally in river valleys as the water table level is low so they naturally fill up. As groundwater level (aquifers) diminish during drier periods the water in the lakes will be drawn down through the ground as the water level drops. Gravity. As groundwater levels rise in wetter periods the lakes recharge.

Amen 🙏

I always angle the pegs aswell more force required to pull them out then imo

Hello Elmo I use a Deeper Pro+ , but with the Fish Finder turned off ( yes I'm that disciplined 😁) . However , having obtained a quicker map of the lake bed with the " Big Cone " , if I see something interesting I'll get out my marker rod outfit as I'm not totally convinced / understand the Deeper Pro . 😃

🤦‍♂️Don't do it elmo!

Huge respect to you for your chosen career Greekski. So are you saying there is zero ppt salt in an average carp lake or are you referring to pure water? If there is no salt in the water where do the carp get their salt from for their natural osmoregulation? Your point that anglers are hypocritical professing care for the fish then hooking it out of its environment on a metal hook is very well made. Because of my over thinking nature, I have struggled with this dilemma a lot. I still go fishing. A lot of anglers care a great deal about their environment but far too many do not.

Freshwater is 0ppt. Sea water is around 32/34ppt. Anything over 2ppt I found had significant negative impact. I agree, the danger is not to carp. It’s to the invertebrates and plants and the rest. I don’t think the consensus has been that salt will damage carp, I thinks it’s always been that it’s the smaller organisms which will be affected. I look at it this way. If someone is hung up on if a bit of salt kills off a 30cm square bit of the lakebed then don’t try and put a bit of metal in a fish’s face and drag it out of the water so it can’t breathe just for your own enjoyment. There’s a fine line in there somewhere I guess. In my opinion, and my career is river ecology and restoration, anglers look after the environment more than any other user leisure or commercial user of the rivers.

basically there around midway there was a plateau which pretty much eradicated any significant undertow as it was a few feet raised. Amazing debris trap and prolific fishing on the base of either side after a strong wind in the respective direction. You are right about opposite sides, I just assumed it as common knowledge. A SW wind would blow toward the 'bottom' end of the pit, undertow travelling toward the 'top end' before hitting the plateau and losing steam and vice versa for a NE wind.

Surely the same could be said about the hair rig bite alarms bed chairs proper bivvy come on guys it’s the 21st century lol however drones are taking the proverbial...

Yes totally agree. I have just the spot in mind. It is an enclosed and gated lake with hardly any fishing activity. It holds a huge head of carp at around the 10 lb mark. There is a shallow area dropping off into deep water. I have already tested the use of raw maize there and the carp hoovered it all up. Watch this space.

Mark Holmes apparently watched carp dig a hole around some sticks of rock salt and came to the conclusion that carp were attracted to salt. It is a reasonable conclusion to come to. However my interpretation of that observation is that the salt kills all the small organisms within a small area and the carp move in to eat them. I believe Mark Holmes suggestion is they do not eat the salt but rub against it to absorb salt into their bodies to replace that lost over winter. If that is the case why dig a hole? If, on the other hand, the salt had penetrated a small distance into the silt, the carp would dig to find even more dead organisms to eat ths supporting my suggestion. I can't find any scientific evidence that carp actively seek out high salt concentrations of salt for their osmoregulatory process. The process takes place naturally from salts already in the system. If, has been suggested, that they are attracted to an area baited with salt, how much do they need and how often? I would guess that one block of salt would serve the entire fish population for many months. It seems self evident that the actual amount of salt they actually need is incredibly small compared to the amounts being spodded in by anglers. Yonny, I see you have a theory that salt does not sit on the bottom and kill everything. Other than wishful thinking how do you know? Sure there is disturbance by water currents and fish activity but my simple experiment suggests a fair amount of salt at toxic levels will rest on the bottom causing damage to aquatic life. I have access to an unvisited lake and next spring I am going to make some PVA salt water bombs and see what happens in a real environment. Meanwhile I think the best approach is - if in doubt leave it out.

Yeah that theory came from Mark Holmes I believe. Yeah I've known of this too which may add weight to my theory that salt generally does not sit on the bottom and kill everything.

Agree, the only brand in fishing I will avoid, high price for very low grade quality. The few items I've brought didn't last very long and were soon binned. Poor response from customer service too.

My MK2 failed mid session, the forks somehow bent out of shape, nightmare. It had lasted a good few years though in fairness. I had to nip to the tackle shop and buy the only barrow they had (Trakker X0-Trail Galaxy). The Trakker is awful, I hate it. The Fox Explorer is supposed to be brilliant. Don't skimp on the barrow, it takes some abuse so you need a decent one.

Looks decent...I always start at the back and do it 1 peg at a time like in a zig zag...back point 1st...then left then right then left then right...then finish on the 2 door pegs....usually you can tell when groundsheet goes in were needs pullinng/loosening.

I was always of the thinking if you are to use salt then early spring is the time ?, as Yonny mentions they seem to need it after losing condition a bit through winter . Was chatting to someone years ago who watched carp dig out a huge hole after he primed it a few time with sticks of rock salt . So they defiantly search it out if on offer at the right time of year .

I bought a cheap one and once you have used it a few times you know why it was cheap mine bends a bit and I don't really like it I think it may be the same as the go outdoors one , personally I would look for a 2nd hand carp porter or similar as it will probably last a lot longer if it's in good nick I had a mk2 before and it was much better

Bring a whippet party ? 😀

Hi guys Was thinking about using a fishspy this year to check any spots I find with a lead just to make sure they look how I think they should look, however the reviews on the fishspy are a little mixed, so I thought I could get a 4k cheap go pro off ebay and with the use of a sliding pike float or something I could suspend it over the spot to have a look at what lies beneath has anyone else tried this before,? I guess my casting distance will be severely impeded casting a plastic box out but it should go a fair way still I wouldn't be using it all the time more when I find the spots for the first time, and probably, more on the days I am not fishing tbh as I am really interested to see if spots are like I imagine them to be, if nothing else it may give me more confidence in my feature finding ability, but I just think it could be an Interesting experiment and I quite fancy trying it 😂 Has anyone else used anything similar ?