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So looking back at my catch reports it reminds me that it doesn't always go to plan. Over the course of that July I have an unforgivable 4 losses on the trot as the weed goes mental. I've not bothered pasting those reports here so we skip to the session where it starts to come good again. Only a small fish here but a very cool looking one imo. The report is short and reading it back, I should probs have had more this weekend. Fished the syndi this weekend. Found a few carp in a particularly weedy swim. Spent a while scaring them away with about a million casts trying to hit these tiny, tiny spots but some of them stayed as I had a couple of bites on Saturday morning. The first @ 06:00 I lost to a hook pull (4th loss on the trot 😣) but 09:30 saw a 24.08 lb mirror grace the net . Not the biggest but it was a proper minter, classically shaped with burnt auburn flanks, a black head and loads of tiny pin head scales dotted all over the place. Saturday night saw another 2 million casts getting the rods on these tiny spots but it was looking fantastic coming into bite time; liners galore from 03:00 onwards. Unfortunately with no cloud in the sky and the brightest of sunshine 06:00 saw all activity stop (where I was expecting the bites to start) and by 08:00 they were drifting about on the top in the shallow bays. So a tricky weekend tbh but I'm just happy to get a fish on the bank after a truly disastrous run of losses. I'm back next weekend so hopefully my new found luck will continue.

Just say NO

It's no wonder I went my own way listening to this again 🙄😁😁

A " normal " person would have just given up , that Yonny is a persistent devil isn't he . This would be why he catches the big fish , doesn't know when he's beaten , and none of that " that's more or less in the right place , and / or probably presented o.k. " . 😁

I've got a Sonik vader spod reel and it's a bit noisy and doesn't feel that great tbh, I would also go with diawa simply as i a always find them good quality products, I have 3 old emcast evos and if they died tomorrow they would've still given me many happy years of service

On our syndicate I weigh everything ,then photograph it mostly on the mat , that is for tracking our fishes progress . We had one go in ,in 1994 at around 6 I believe its around 25 now . Other than that its mainly fish over 20.

With wiley fish, the least disturbance the better. Try freelining a lump of luncheonmeat in a likely spot and sit on your hands. No alarms, just watch where the line enters the water. One of the most exciting ways of fishing.

You and me both mate I had to Google it, I didn't have a clue what the joke was. 🤣😂🤣

I only know because I saw zammo do it on Grange Hill 🙄🤔

I wondered what Elmo and Yonny were laughing at , guess I've led a sheltered life . 😳

We all like to read stories about fish of monstrous sizes. It seems every lake contains a whopper that a few people have seen but has never been caught. Some stories are told by respected anglers which gives them some credence, others by younger and more inexperienced anglers and the size gets higher by every pint downed! Twice in my angling experience I have "witnessed" fish that would make the record books but on both occasions I realised that all was not what it seemed. The first was whilst fishing a water in the Cotswold Water Park fishing on Hills Pit. At the time it was crystal clear and I would stalk tench by watching them pick up my sweetcorn baits fished on a float and well over depth for a bit of casting weigh. One day whilst fishing I caught sight of a fish coming along the marginal shelf. My jaw dropped, it looked absolutely huge, far bigger than anything I had caught previously. I watched it for a good 10 seconds and couldn't believe how big it looked. As it got closer, something didn't look quite right and then I realised it was actually two tench swimming in perfect unison but about a foot apart and they had overlapped giving the impression of one big fish. They literally swam under my rod and continued on their journey, oblivious to the near heart attack they had given me. The second was on the Throop Fishery on the Dorset Stour. Again the river was crystal clear and I saw so many big chub that day that 5lb'ers seemed to be the norm. I fished an area called the Highbank later in the day and it gave me a superb view of the swim, I could see every bit of gravel on the bottom. I put out a couple of droppers of hemp and corn and the chub downstream seemed to notice straight away. I cast out another dropper and a chub of record breaking size appeared from the streamer and made a beeline for it and ate the hemp out of the dropper before the current could take it away. My knees knocked and my mouth went dry at what I had just witnessed. Then as I looked closer, I realised that is was a silvery common carp probably just into double figures and I managed to calm down. There must be countless tales of similar events or unexplained mysteries that turned out to something more explainable, anyone else got any?

Here is enough gear , food and Bait for 4 Days . Anyone else care to share.

I just think on his 1,999,999th cast he got the poor blood y fish on the head and it came in for some TLC 😂😂😬😎🎣

Not many of the cast went on to much else Michelle in eastenders stu pot went in adverts Mark in eastenders mrs mcklusky in morse and a couple of other bits mr bronson did a few bits as well bout the only ones I remember i had the hots for miss booth

Do you pay road tax for it .... oops it’s electric lol

1; Food- 2; tackle - 3; Supa Brolly- 4; Rod bag- 5; Bait- 6; Particle- 7; Sleep system 8;- Unhooking mat 9; Water ,Milk ,Clothes, Pillow ect- 10; Bed chair seat- 12; Buzzers and pod- 13;- Table So pretty all the essentials items you'll need , but the barrow means their are no weight restrictions .

Did I spot you in that video , Elmo ? . 😁

Exactly how I approached a small low stocked water about 10 years ago even tho all the advice was they don't respond to particle or spodding. Used sweetcorn hemp and wild bird seed (the 1 with aniseed in) and stodged it up with some betane green gound bait, also like to blend a little up really fine to add a bit of a scent trail. Used a KD rig with 1 piece of maize and a piece of pop up maize and did really well.

That's the thing, the bale arm is knackered on one of the wychwoods and not worth repairing in my opinion. I've booked a french trip to abbey in 2021 and need to completely overhaul my gear as I haven't done for years so money is tight, hence the limited budget. I'm also buying new rods, extra bedchair for my son plus a ton of other stuff, all of which wont be cheap so, although I say 'upgrade' I mean it loosely. I would love a set of daiwa basis hahaha but the wife may have a thing or two to say about that! Are either of these reels worth the money?

Trouble is I thought zammo was so cool it sent me on my own unique journey 😎😁😁😁😁

2 million casts 😂😂😂😬😎 Top draw mate ! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😬😎🎣

Spend as much time as I can walking round it locating fish and spots they like, even if possible the features underwater, using a marker float and leading around or god forbid a Deeper😖😆 If possible prebait and watch the fishes reaction to bait. To be honest, as the carp only go to doubles figures, unless silver fish are a problem, forget the boilies, go to cheaper 'natural' baits; sweetcorn, chick peas, maggots and particles, dosed with Vitalin or rolled maize. I know particles, sweetcorn and chickpeas etc are not natural, but can create a feeding reaction before boilies. Also find out from other anglers who do fish it what works best, then decide if you need to use boilies

If I could, I'd be spending a while down there to see if you can figure out their patrol routes..... They'll have them. 😉

Pretty much same here. I'll not bother with doubles but I think it's nice to track growth of the future bigguns.

Yep. It meant more than the mirror I had the night before which I didn't photograph.