Leaderboard

He's home. 😁😁😁

I still miss my spaniel Tina from 40 odd years ago. Thought this pic would put a smile on your face

Our flint loves a postie it gives him a good excuse to run wild and bark his little head off.🤣😂🤣

As a Postie I'm lucky to meet many different breeds of dog , but a bouncy Spaniel is one of my favourites - I'm also quite partial to a blue Staffie . 😄

The vets and love finchey believe me you can see it in his face hes as happy as a pig in the proverbial😁

Definitely and he is eating normally so tube coming tomorrow or day after. Running around playing with his toys. Me and the wife didn't think we would ever is that again. The vets have done an amazing job. 😁😁😁

Look how happy he is to be back with the ones that love him

He's coming home this afternoon, complete with feeding tube, he has started to eat food by himself now so hopefully once home he will be eating normal and then he can have the tube removed. 😁👍

I tried to buy this guy but it wasn’t going to happen

Well the mobile approach didn't really end up happening, I spent a long while walking round and chatting, then found a few in the weed bed, it did need raking though may have spooked them but, there have been tench, bream rudd by the tonne rolling like they got the cream so I'm hopeful the big ones will return, so many rudd, I think they may be eating all the particles, but as they are new spots I am having to tolerate gatecrashers and riff raff for now 😂 Its going to be savage if I do get a take in this one, I'm sleeping in my shoes tonight, no time for footwear fluffs

God I'm missing this fella so much, you don't realise till there not their. 😔 what a difference a hair cut makes. 🙂

Don’t forget the seasick tablets.... and flares 😉

It will either give you ideas or absolutely fry your brain.

This is the tadpole bag insert, I just use a std size 8 bank tackle ring swivel with it, 9/10 the lead discharges before the swivel, I did try a few but this one was the best I found, it just works everytime

Love a staffie lol

Glad hes back with you both an doing well butty

Thanks for the link Highy. That set up in the video is just what I have been looking for. I have started fishing a lake with too many small tench which are a nuisance. They are big enough to get hooked but not big enough to move the weight of a traditional, semi fixed, inline, bolt lead. I am not a big fan of a straightforward running lead (which would detect small fish movement,) because you lose the bolt effect. The video shows a technique which seems to have the best of both worlds. I would go one step further and use a fox impact lead which acts as COG lead. to give a more efficient bolt effect.

Nice to hear little fellas is coming home that's a weight lifted for you I bet

Totally slack line, or as slack as you can get it. I cast out, and tighten to the lead, which sounds wrong, then I put the rod tip under water, pull line off the spool as I get the rod on the buzzer, keeping the tip under water until the last second of lifting onto rest, with as much slack as possible. I put indicator on, knowing it will pull slack out of the water, so pull more line off reel, until indicator goes straight down. The line after I have finished will be running over every rod ring, and should be dropping straight down from the rod tip. It may take a while for the line to sink, and settle, so you may need to pull a little more line off the reel a couple of times. If your indicator starts lifting you will see you need to give a bit more slack.

The 3.25 is my marker and spod rod the other 3 are my carp rods. I also take a feeder rod and a small 6 ft spinner rod. .... you just don’t know when your going to need a particular rod

I wouldn’t tie a loop knot to then tie another knot to that. I would join the 2 materials together using a leader knot. Either a back to back grinner or Mahin knot for Fluoro to mono.

Cheers guys, good luck commonly, 👍 I'm like man at mountain warehouse today, tactical t shirt, Camo shorts and hat all from MW, hopefully I will get to be a model 😁

Good luck boys hope you get a pull on your line.😁👍🎣

Happy hunting mate. My babysitters (daughters) stayed last night, the grandson was singing away until midnight and started again at 5🙄 Hopefully get set up by 4-5, might have a wander about with my stalking kit, can't beat crusty loaf off the top.

Not quite the early start I had planned, was way too hot last night, slept so badly, just couldn't settle and I was knackered, had a couple of teas and fed the kids, got my kit out, just got to load it and get sorted, then wake the misses up and go aiming for a 9am arrival now, she will be happier with a small lie in though, 👍😁 I've got my Barrow and I'm ready to roam for a bit, probably until the handle finally snaps at least 😁

Steve renyard did dvd rigs or on line he had a few new ones .one was perfect knot kept shape didn't tilt to one side.

Yesterday I caught my first carp on the lake (14lb). 😁 Thanks so much for all of the advice and hopefully the below will inspire others. So first of all I tried to take very little with me as I knew having a lot of gear would limit me on being mobile. I had two rods (1x chod rig + 1x standard hair rig), a bucket of bait (whole + chopped + crushed boilies, pellet and sweet corn), and my tackle bag. I checked the weather and decided to leave the brolly behind. I left my chair in the car which didn't do my back or comfort any favours but with only a bucket to sit on, it meant that I remained sufficiently alert and once again, not weighed down. I began with a walk round the lake which was cut very short. As soon as I arrived I came to a very weedy and very shallow section which must have had at least 15 carp sitting there. I couldn't help myself and rushed back to the car to get my rods. I baited and dropped the chod rig in the weed - I could see it was presented fine which takes away a stress that I would usually have but noticed any bait I put in around it quickly disappeared below the weed. Very quickly I learned just how easy it is to spook fish. They just wasn't coming near my rig so I decided to try and drop it somewhere a little closer to where they kept visiting. I was impatient; I should've waited until they moved further away but I didn't. Threw it in and they all swam away... I then found another quiet spot at the other end of the lake. The swim was not much of a swim (most people would ignore it) and was the last fishable swim on that side of the lake before you get to the heavy weed. There were 3-4 fish there very close to the margin on a polished gravel spot. I waited for them to move away and then baited and dropped my rig in. This time I used the hair rig as I knew the spot was clear. They kept coming over, taking some of the bait and moving off again, over and over again. It was great to see what was actually happening and how the fish behave. Once again, I learned how easy it was to spook them, but this time, not so badly that they wouldn't come back. I decided to get back from the edge and sit on my bucket. Suddenly around midday, a family of 8 came over and started feeding. There was huge amounts of fizzing and then finally I got one! 🙂 Unfortunately I think catching that fish probably ruined the swim. As it was all pretty close quarters all his mates heard it and swam off. I tried looking for other areas along the lake and baited 4 other clear spots but nothing really came of them. I kept going for walks to check on them but every time the bait was still there and no signs of fish (one time I did find some ducks having a go though...). With no reason to go elsewhere, I stayed put which remained quiet for the next few hours. I was a good spot because the way the weed was sitting on that part of the lake meant that they would have to pass the bait if they wanted to get across the swim to the other side of the lake. Around 17:00 I started getting the odd fish appear again and they would come feed on the spot but they never took the rig. By about 18:30 it was starting to get a little grey and dark so decided to pack up. I think if i stayed a couple of hours longer I may have just caught another one. Not sure if this actually counts as stalking as I ultimately pretty much stayed in the same place for the day. But I learned so much and am really glad that I didn't just setup wherever and throw out 2 rods on bite alarms and wait.

I am fishing a small 1 1/2 acre estate lake average depth of around 5ft with silt everywhere couple of ft deep in the middle of the pond. I find this time of the year especially they hold up in areas of sanctuary behind lilly pads, back of island & inbetween swims where there is less pressure I have noticed this by spending plenty of times walking the lake early morning & just before dark. Fish location is no 1 priority and getting to know there patrol routes I lead about when I am not fishing get my wraps sorted all around the lake to give me options to move onto showing fish with as least disturbance as possible I would say 90% of the anglers who fish the lake have long blanking sessions they just turn up bait up and wait I have had 4 out since lockdown and I am very happy with that but I do put the time in even without a rig in the water. My advice would to be keeping your eyes on the water and do your leading around find those areas and watch there movements even know I am fishing a small lake my binoculars are around my neak 24/7. Keep rigs simple & bait up regularly in the areas you find preferably the lest obvious parts of the lake. Tightlines 🎣

Took me a year And almost a relationship to catch a carp🤷🏼‍♂️ Not an easy fish to catch, especially if you don’t know the water and it’s hidden Jems ...just recently got the bug again, 3 times in the last 2 weeks and no fish😬 but that only make me more determined. the water I fish is a small fishery near me, cracking wee spot and very handy to hit and quit.....holds a few 20+ and a few 12 to 18. Few year back I had the place sussed (probably why I loosened of ) but it’s all changed now with less fish and an island in the middle with a handful of 2 foot patches dotted over that’s not thick with weed..... but that’s the appeal for me.

Hook sharpening and bait glugging is something I've been doing. Vodka and rum is a new one to me! 😳

Why just boilies...? There is tinned meat (spam/luncheon meat) prawns, shrimps, butter beans, chick peas, sunflower seeds, blacke eyed beans, haricot beans, bread, bread paste, cheese, cheese paste, sultanas, raisins, there are any number of spices flavours that can be used to flavour these possible baits.. some can be used in their raw state... the world is your oyster ( yup even oysters)... get stuck in man...👍