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I used my spod rod at my last daughters birthday, I sat on the stage like a knome with a pinata tied to it while the kids whacked the hell out of it 😁

I tie the line to the dogs collar then throw a stick

Can you go through your gear in a week...☹

So when I used to do my old catch reports I couldn't add any pics due to publicity bans. Now it's been a few years since I fished the venues I can re-post a few with pics to go with them. To alleviate some of this boredom I thought I could start with this one from Sept '16. The original post is here. Below I'll re-post with kipper shots. If you like it I might do some more over the coming weeks. Two month blank run ended this weekend. The first big northerly of the year hit us on Friday, I'd been looking forward to it for weeks. Headed straight to the end of it when I arrived at the syndi and the swim I'd been hoping to get all week was free. Get in! Rolled a ciggy and watched the water, the wind smashing into my face. Within 10 minutes I'd seen 2 huge black heads break the surface. Bucket goes down, off I go to get the gear from the car. Arrived back in the swim in record time. I'm out of breath but roll another ciggy out of habit and watch the water. Bosh! They're still here. Three singles in the zone, time to get the brolly up, it's starting to rain. Sit back for a couple of hours and the number of shows i see suggests the best part of the stock is in front of me. Need to get some bait out. Ten spombs on the main spot and the carp disappear, as usual. They're still showing but they've pushed way, way out behind my spot and to my left. I sit there for another couple of hours, trying to invent a silent spomb in my head, and see they're moving back in on this big wind. Waves rolling into my swim, rain blowing right into my brolly and soaking me, love it! Closer and closer they come, I'm getting excited. Finally, 3 shows in quick succession right on the spot. Off it goes, the bobbin whacks the Delkim, I'm in. I played it so carefully, it's my first bite since forever it seems. The first run is immense, it strips maybe 40 yards of line, but then it's well behaved and comes in steadily. My mates in the swim now and he does the honours with the net. We recognise the fish straight away, one of the bog originals, and I realise I might have a PB in the net. It's a real biggie, and I'm smiling from ear to ear. Weighing and photo's done, I sit back for the night. As it hits dusk I see one or two shows but it's looking like the bulk of the fish may have moved. I get some kip but I'm up by 03:00 looking for signs. I see nothing, they've gone elsewhere. By 09:30 the rods are in and I'm off searching for them, or rather I've found them, in the swim probably the furthest away from the one I'm fishing. Down goes the bucket, off to get my gear. An hour later I'm back with the barrow. Swim booked, I'm off home to feed the cats. Get back and the carp are still there, now I need to make a decision, do I spomb? I know it'll push them out of the swim but I believe, like yesterday, they'll move back in tonight. So, I fill it in. I see the carp push out but they've not moved too far, same as before. That night I go to bed feeling confident. 03:00 and I'm woken by a single bleep. I turn on my side and stare out at my spot, the surface is illuminated by the reflection of street lights in the distance. Within 2 minutes I've seen 1, 2, 3, 4 carp roll right on the spot. Big carp as well, causing huge rings to roll all the way back to the bank with each show. I'm out of bed now. I get a savage liner on the middle rod, I nearly hit it, but don't. Roll a ciggy, make a cuppa, sit on my hands, this could not look better. Three more liners in the next hour, lots of tea and smoking, rolling and fizzing over the spot. Whack! The bobbin hits the Delk again. Get in! Now this swim is a little trickier to fish then the last one, shallow margins with overhanging trees, so I'm straight into the waders and out into the pond. This one fights like a beast and if I hadn't seen it quite early in the fight I'd be convinced it was another monster. Still, it was by no means small, far from it, and it had the biggest tail I've ever seen on a carp. Mental looking thing, another original, two tone colouration with small scattered scales. That tail is literally ridiculous! Called a mate who's in the next swim round for the photos. I want them done quickly as I'm watching the fish rolling and fizzing on the spot, I know the other rod is going to go off very shortly. Too shortly in fact, because as soon as I get the fish on the Matt I get the take. Off into the pond again while my mate gets the big tailed mirror back in the water. Another decent fight sees a smaller carp in the net. It's the prettiest of the session, a beautiful little fully scaled mirror, and I'm happy as Larry. We get the photos and weighing of both fish done and I have one rod left in the water. I don't want to recast the others as the fish are clearly still on it and I don't want to push them out again. I sit watching the fizzing/rolling etc for an hour before I decide there has to be something wrong with the rig, it should have gone by now. I bring it in, it looks OK, but put a fresh one on just to be sure. Two rods on the spot, one just off it. The fizzing stops, but half an hour later they're back, and I'm getting excited again. Rolling, bubbling, epic stuff. It's getting light now and I can see the bobbin twitch by maybe half a centimeter as I get another bleep. I'm hovering over the rod now and again it twitches. I watch the line, where it hits the water it's twitching, or rather it was, as it's now lifting up through the surface as the Delkim let's me know that it's time to get wet again. Another good fight and I can tell this one is a lump straight away, it hugs the deck, not doing much, a proper big fish fight, like playing a breeze block. As it rolls over the net I recognise it, a solid fish, one of the big stockies, short and wide, a nice, clean, chunky carp (if a little pale looking lol). Two months with nothing then 4 fish in 2 nights. I'm over the moon, All the blank nights are forgotten about. We suffer the lows and enjoy the highs, and enjoying it I am. After the photos the fish have move out, they've cleared the spot, I'm out of bait. It's game over, so I pack up a happy man and go home smiling. The pics came out great. Still smiling now, it's my best session so far of what's been a very difficult, frustrating year, and of course it's not every day you get a new PB. The weights were 20.10 lb, 29.12 lb, 31.10 lb, and 45.12 lb. I also had some nice tench, but since the forum aint called tench.com I omitted them from the report. Roll on the next session!

When we were kids we had a sort of competition going with the nx estate in the summer hols. Kite flying we would make our own kites and the best 2 would go against our arch enemies. They would win only because they had lots of line then I had the light bulb moment .... borrow dads boat reel a multiplayer with 450 yds of line. You should have seen there faces when we turned up over the park with the kite 6ft rod and reel. We won easily. Happy days.

Did mine over the wk end found these two dying at the bottom of my bait bin so gave em some tlc........... will get some 60lb braid on em for my pike fishing down the local canal 😬😎🎣🐊

I still have this pic of me from that 2nd night as the rod ripped off with a carp already on the bank. Panic stations 😂😂

I think people should just stay at home and stop trying to beat the system, it's the others who suffer, my dad is going in for a an op as he has bowel cancer tomorrow, I'm scared that even though he is isolated at present he can't isolate himself against idiots who take it upon themselves to break the rules for whatever petty reason they can find, these people then go around infecting others who then infect others and others and others, it's just a few weeks off, just do what you can to stop the spread it will save lives

An Ex girlfriend thought that my Bob Church 3 piece stickfloat rod with a lovely splice tip would be useful to unblock the downstairs loo... In her defence it did unblock it and she was most helpful by finding the tape

And in perfect working order. The browning one was my 1st bait runner type reel bought 2nd hand for £20 i think probably mid 90,s maybe 🤔😬😎🎣

And i thought my rods were dirty

The Beauty of my system is some goody-goody takes pity on the dog and untangle and disposes of the line... Everyone is happy I got rid of the line the goody goody is happy they’ve done a a good turn and the dog has had a run

I tie a leader on 1st got to protect the old thing had to do it he’s down to his last 2 legs

I still haven't found the time to go through it once yet 😭 I need to respool all my lines and everything, I have just bought a spooler and d spool drill attachment, the thought of another manual despool was too much, I think that may be why I have been putting it off 😂

April Fool.... SORRY 😂😂

Nah. Tried that one, ended up with an earache.

Well that " action shot " is a bit different from some of those moody 'photos . 😁

I hope whatever you have / had is passing / passed . I'll give Asda a miss then , not that there are any Asdas' near me . Hope your antibiotics start to kick in soon , Mufty . 😃

They did come up nice.

IF we get the Blackout they are talking about could we hook you up to The National Grid , Highy ? ; maybe a giant hamster wheel ? . 😁

I gave EVERYTHING a clean, even the eyes, but also swapped the Cork Sonik XTR rods for Sonik Vader X Rods, just took a pic of em up for the fella.

Went through all mine about 2 week ago... Think I may re-spool at weekend, the line I have on now isn't that old so I'll put on a spare spool and put the top line to the bottom of spool so bottom becomes fresh line 😁 I keep thinking of things for my gear, but there's only so many rigs to make, so many PVA sticks/bags. I'm in the process of hopefully swapping/selling my 2 Man bivvy for a Brolly System. Hopefully soon, when the lockdown finished 🤞🤞

Great read yonny and some great fish too excellent stuff, hope there are more installments to come 👍

Don't you have then reel the dog in though to get it to come back 😂

Yeah it's a class fish mate and got some history to it too. It does 50 lb now, a genuine Nene Valley brute.

Quality fish mate and what a session. That 45 is a proper barrel of a fish, Perfect proportions.

Fox are selling a bunk bed chair for their new bivvy

This is the government advice – copied and pasted from their own web site. "You should only leave the house for very limited purposes: · shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible. · one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household. · any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid or escape risk of injury or harm, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person. · travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home. These reasons are exceptions - even when doing these activities, you should be minimising time spent outside of the home and ensuring you are 2 metres apart from anyone outside of your household." Now which part of “stop at the lake and fish for 2/3 weeks” fits that advice? This is not a game. People ARE dying. Be responsible.

Loving these mate

Well said 👍. Fingers crossed for your dad mate.

My mate has an allotment and recieved a letter from the local council encouraging all holders to carry on tending their plots. To tend his plot he would have to drive there and open locked gates, the exact reasons I have been given why we cannot fish. I have to drive by my local lake to get to the supermarket, so why can't i visit the supermarket, buy enough provisions for 2/3 weeks and stop at the lake and fish for 2/3 weeks? Surley no better place to isolate?

Seems like I shall have an extensive range of rigs over the next few weeks , well 3 or 4 types but lots of them . I assume many will be doing the same , Photos to come later👍

Not that I am aware of sadly 😁