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Another almost forgotten trick is to fill the air-space beneath your bedchair to prevent a cold aura from the ground. Anything not immediately required will do. Bivvy bag, luggage, holdall etc. It works, trust me. Ian.

The easiest and the best thing to do is buy the correct clothing and sleeping bag, no heater required then. Put a layer on if too cold or take a layer off if too hot, simple and safe.

Life jackets , this is just a personal opinion , but I dont really like the Auto inflate lifejackets , but prefer the conventional ones , You always know if you fall in , using a conventional life jacket you will always float , Auto inflate , theirs always an element of " will it inflate when I need it " Just my opinion One other thing if you buy an Auto inflate , Always wear it on the outside of your cloths , Never under a coat

I had a guy come up to me on Tuesday and said he was gutted to see me in a swim as he spent Monday afternoon when they opened piling it in. i said ‘I wish you hadn’t told me that” I got deflated not knowing if he had put too much in and scared the fish off as they haven’t had food in months and I left probably 2 hours later. I will be going back on Monday though lol this lake even doesn’t get many people on it even first full day of opening only had 4 others on it lol

All part of baiting up I'm afraid. It makes your heart sink sometimes. As for it sounding like a lot of bait, I'd say that's a snack for a hungry carp. They can eat loads when on it.

Well you think you know a lake, well I've been awake since 3-45 in anticipation and I've not seen a single fish and I can see 90% of the lake. I did see half a dozen fish just before dark in my vicinity so was quite confident. 2 blokes fishing into the wind at the other end of the lake both have their doors down, they said its freezing Haha. Got one other mate right at the back of the wind, he hasn't seen anything either. The carp and their great disappearing act Haha

Not really most people do up the door fully so carbon monoxide cannot escape 2 why would you put a naked flame in a tent that is extremely flammable you would be better with a decent sleeping bag or a cover put the unhooking mat on top of the bivvy a hot water bottle its not really that cold at this time of the year so you shouldn’t really need a heater anyway If you do Decide to use the heater please be careful and don’t become One of the statisticS

I'm not going to say what happened to my prebaited spot, but someone is fishing over it 😢he didn't know so its just one of those things and I didn't tell him I've started to like the ridge monkey choppa today, you can chop 30 18mm baits at once, I've been making a small bucket for each spot so I know I've just airbombed 180 chops over my 2 rod area + the 240 earlier just feels a bit more scientific 😁 Although when I added it up makes it seem like a lot of bait that could be out there I couldn't find a way to count all the micro pellets easily 😳

Yep, it all adds to the intrigue of the place. Apparently a few 30's came out last night! Good signs. I just hope they are still feeding in a fortnight 🙏🤞🙏🤞

I never use a bivvy heater, I would much rather have the clothes and sleeping equipment to keep warm, even in winter. I have seen too many accidents, from a sleeping bag falling on a lit stove, burning a hole in it while my mate sorted a fish, to a complete bivvy burnout and an angler needing hospital treatment for serious burns. I even use my stove outside the bivvy rather than risk fire inside. Even doing that I have melted holes in a groundsheet by taking a pan off the stove when I went to strike a run and putting it just inside the door.

Thank you all, i don't think i'll be using it and if i do i'll make sure the front of the bivvy is wide open and has airflow thank you all

This^^^^^ The human body constantly yields heat, you just need to harness it by wearing decent togs. This time of year you barely need a sleeping bag, let alone a heater imo.

I like to find out as much information on a venue as I can . Its handy to find out rough depths , bottom ,ect But I am not interested in other peoples Bait ,rigs and where they think the fish are or I should be fishing , I can do that myself .

Nice one dayvid, being delivered 10th June 👍👍👍

Yeah I know one of the risks, the thing that annoyed me the most was how ill prepared I was with a back up plan, still lesson learnt don't put all your eggs in one basket, and I don't think now is probably the right time to pre bait still too many other anglers fishing, another thing I learnt don't listen to what other people tell you when on the bank, the way one guy was talking last week was that swim never got fished and I pretty much had exclusive use of it, there have been at least 2 others since I was in there last week 😁 I did catch a slimey fat little tench though and lost one I was gutted 🎉🎉🎂😁 When I said a lot of bait I meant a lot of individual items for them to get through especially with the hundreds of micropellets too, 😁 I didn't tell him, as I didn't want to be one of those guys that thinks because they pre bait it they can claim it, I've seen a lot of people sticking to the same swims so far, and I don't want to tell people where they should and shouldn't go, we all pay the same fish where you like as far as I am concerned, I am also trying not to listen to that kind of thing I also don't want to know about what others are doing, because I don't want to feel like I can't fish a swim because nobby has been pre-baiting, if you are going to do it keep it to yourself it's the only fair way

Here you go .£16 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100N-ORANGE-TBF-ADULT-BUOYANCY-AID-life-Jacket-ski-sailing-Two-Bare-Feet-Foam/271249311244?hash=item3f27b8060c:m:mQbS_L-JvsAOrMuqUqE_jYw

Shard end lake and babbs mill lake have some big old girls in there but I'd only do a overnighter if I had a mate from the sas with me there,

Its understanding , not to have it in an enclosed space ,

A bait boat with GPS and echo sounder ,would suite this venue perfectly , costly I know , but im sure would pay dividends in time getting to know the lake .

I disagree but agree with you! The worst thing you can possibly do is go to sleep with one on as you could possibly never wake up. I remember a while back Pete Reagan wrote in Carpology that he went to sleep with one burning during a cold spell and awoke a few hours later and was violently sick and had the mother of all headaches. He survives to tell the tale but hasn't used one since. Even if you use one just to warm up the bivvy, Carbon Monoxide poisoning causes drowsiness which is likely to make you sleepy. Don't do it!

Of course they are safe , but in the wrong hands are lethal , To ask this question is good ,but you need to decide if you can use it safely , I fish with an open fronted Bivvy ,so not a problem, but would never use it in a bivvy with the front on , let alone zipped up . This time of year ,you should never need one anyway , take an extra jumper and joggers

There was a discussion on them a while back. My advice, don't!

Great thanks for the feedback, I must admit I used to add hemp to my old mix too and stopped that to make it cheaper. Seems like I've cut out all the good stuff and kept the filler! Think I'll start getting the vitalin again as it's not particularly expensive anyway!

Thanks nick. I'm looking for features. I have joined with a good mate, so fishing the bays is possible but not covering a lot of water. The bays look good, there's a few overhangs by the car park bay, which doesn't look like many anglers bother with, but I may try to get a few baits in. As you suggested, I always believe fish will patrol the inlet areas at some point. So that is an easy acces, starting point in a couple of weeks if I don't manage to do the boat safety induction. I popped in today, fired out some bait. There is a lot of water to learn about!!

Well I've managed to pull a crafty one. I recently brought a sack of crushed hemp so prepared that yesterday afternoon with a few tins of sweetcorn and chickpeas. Spodded 2 buckets onto 2 spots that were weeded up in a particular swim I feel the fish will end up in with coming weather conditions. My mate told me they were slicking up all morning. I had to wait in for a fresh batch of boilies so would have been down first thing. Only Just got in here though and rods out and the 2 spots that I could hardly feel the lead down on the other day are both going down clean and with a definitive thump. Just hope I'm not a day late. 🤞