Leaderboard

Bits getting a tidy up and stock take

So now we're into October and after horrible, windy, wet, blank overnighter (to make up for the brilliant overnighter last time) I got a weekend back on the proper lake. I have a trip planned to the States this month so fishing time is running out as we head slowly towards winter. Sitting here waiting for a taxi to the airport so thought I'd pop this up quickly. Good sesh this week. Turned up Friday and spent eons looking for them. About 4 hours it took but it turned out they were stacked up in a little swim I had a bite or 2 from earlier in the year. I knew that spodding would push them out so I did so from left to right, Hoping it would push them into shallower water rather than out into the main body of water to my left. It worked, and they drifted off to the right. I knew they'd be back. 04:30 I had a brutal take, a real violent one. It took my 5 seconds to get to the rod, too late, solid in weed. I tried everything to extract it, everything, but nothing worked. It was solid. Five hours later (!) we took to the boat. Lost it, GUTTED! So I'm sulking, dreaming of what could have been, when the other rod rips off. Hit it, feels like a good'n. Play it out for 5 mins and it surfaces some way out, i recognise it straight away, one on my list, a very special one, a torpedo shaped male with a pointy head, the colour of coal, and I'm buzzing when it goes in the net. 31 lb 6 oz and I forget about the lost fish. I get some kip after my busy morning and redo the rods early afternoon. Looks good and by darkness I'm seeing loads of carp. They're all over my right hand rod and I'm thinking I'll not have to wait for the normal early morning bite time. I'm right and at 9pm I get a screamer and land an awesome chunky common of 29 lb 6 oz. Very nice. Next morning I swear I'm at a loss to explain why I didn't have another. They were smashing out over the right hand rod and then later there was fizzing over my left hand spot for 4 hours. No more bites, weird. Packed up and home, happy with the sesh. Sorted. Now as you guys have seen I've had pretty good year by this point, blanks have been rare, I've caught the big common, and a bunch of the low to mid 30's including many of the real lookers and rare ones. The one I really want is especially unfriendly, a massive fully scaled mirror (one of the biggest fully's in the country), and it's still not been out. My confidence is sky high, everything is working, and I'm starting to think the fully has my name on it. At this point I'm off to the States with work for a week or 2 leaving me just one more session at the end of the month to make the impossible happen. Couldn't possibly happen though, could it?

Totally agree that fishing is all about opinions and these opinions will come from firstly and most importantly , your own fishing and what you've seen and secondly, what you have witnessed in other people's fishing. Now for me no one is right and no one is wrong, unless its something glaringly obvious to everyone. But as you say " Leonard " came across as , "that's rubbish so don't ever use it and if you do you'll never catch and are stupid If you do". Like you say, he wants to be listened to and most be people would listen if he could accept that his opinion isn't always the same as someone else's and just because he said something it was right. It was right for him obviously. He just needed to write/ come across differently and it would be just fine. Instead of saying something like " that's rubbish , don't use it etc" which has some for aggression in it, that's how I read aitvanyway. All that needs to be said is, " I've tried them and for me they weren't that good etc " . You'd be like, fair enough thanks for your help. And spot on when you say you fish for yourself. Those that are more worried about what tom, Dickie and harry are doing are the ones that get left behind. All I want to do is enjoy it, make some good friends and hopefully beat my PB, but the last one is just a bonus.

Fishing is all about opinions and using what you are confident using, its the only way to go really, I don't really get too jealous of other anglers tbh, I have no desire to be on the front of carp world every month or be the best angler, I just want to be better than myself, which is why I enjoy coming on here so I can learn more, I don't understand Lenard for this reason he seems a knowledgeable angler but he seems to want to be seen as the best and brightest but without giving anything away. It's almost like he wants to be taken seriously but people never have, and now he is angry about it, either that or he has an axe to grind with a growing number of people on here and can't see past that,

There are lots of great ones to try, I found I liked most of those ones, there are some good carp cast ones too if you find an angler you like the podcasts are usually OK, Frank Warwick has some great stories

Lets see your rigs and bits , Heres mine ,enough for 20 years at least 😀

Just finished the one with dean, thought it was really good. Absolutely top man is dean and an absolute blast. I'm guessing most of the funny bits in there were toned down knowing dean. I'll definitely listen to some more, cheers for opening my eyes or ears in this case elmo 👍

A very apt name and insane indeed.

It's known as Blacky. That's its normal colour. Insane isn't it mate.

Top angling as always mate. That mirror is full on black. Is it a deep silt/ silt feeder? Or is that its normal colours?

My mate was on a lake that introduced the use of bait boats. The first year or 2 the fish go hammered, but after that they went back to normal. So my mate would tow his rig out with no freebies but bait with a stick and he hammered them again. When something is new then yes go with it but they soon learn that a small pile of bait equals danger, that's my feeling anyway.

Another excellent catch report and wow what a cliffhanger ending can't wait to find out 👍

Exactly set your own targets, make your own goals, find what works for you, if that isn't working or you think you can improve it then learn how to do that, naturally we all find things we can do better and make tweaks and improvements, and that is the greatest thing about angling, the only person you need to worry about is yourself, and that is why I like coming on here we can all learn and share freely and make improvements and suggestions without it being black and white or right and wrong, and someone else might have faced a similar part of a puzzle before and help you to see the wood for the trees 👍 take my new lake for example I noticed on my first trip they all seemed to have a thing for using bait boats, I could look at that and think aaagh they are only going to get caught from right under bushes or hard to reach areas, but I don't I think I will have to do the polar opposite and fish over a wide scattering of bait, which is also handy because my throwing stick doesn't seem that accurate 😂

Well I did hear matey mention in the podcast that they had done one with dean fletcher (current carp record holder, or at least was with " the parrot). He was on dinton when I was on there, a top bloke and a hell of angler. He only ever fished 1 night a week, if he was lucky. But not seen him for a couple of years so I'll try and find that one and listen to what he's been upto. 👍

There are lots of other good ones out there, Korda one isn't bad, I do like the bait works ones generally, the carp cast is OK apart from all the adverts and sponsored bits, if you like Lee mozza Morris the dna ones are quite good and funny, and the Nash ones are OK, if you like comedy there are loads of good ones, basically podcasts are great I now rarely listen to music when I drive just podcasts these days 👍

Well I've never listened to a single podcast in my life until now. Simon certainly knows his stuff and top bloke to boot. Some of what I mentions I was witness too, the floods being one of them. There was about 10- 15 of us down there on the sunday morning. It would have burst its banks sometime during the saturday night. Fish were indeed everywhere. I enjoyed it, cheers for pointing it out 👍

I will be very interested to read about what glasses the pair of you end up with . I wear varifocals with 2 different colour clip ons for sunny days , and they're from Specsavers ; I'll go and sit on The Naughty Step , or Reflection Step ? , now . 😔

Havnt had my bivvy buddy since jan. I miss him everyday. 100%, my best freind

After working in a bar for nearly 40 years I have a lifetime supply of sunglasses of varying value and quality. Last year, however, I used part of the company health and wellness benefit to get prescription bifocal shades, and I just love them.

He's seen me cast......................................🙄

its no more dangerous than any other set up in the wrong hands in the RIGHT hands this is dangerous. leadcore is far worse than anything else out there and imho there is no place for it in carp fishing