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Good angling. The thing is if it takes 2hrs or 10hrs, as anglers we shouldn't set up until we find them. On my old lake a very well known angler turned up for a session, he arrived at just gone 9am but didn't set up until gone 2am the next morning. He walked that lake all day until he saw enough to go on. He was there for 48hrs just like me, but no doubt he put a lot more effort in to find them. By 5am he had one. I've been guilty of it in the past, too keen to just set up and crack a beer after a week at work. Then blank and say to myself fish weren't having it. Easy to blame something or someone else. As for preconceived ideas, they are sometimes the kiss of death. The carp will tell us where to go not where we think we should go..

Couldn't get a mesh bag 21 wraps so fished a single for a couple of hours, nothing unsurprisingly, 😁 The family kept me busy though, we. Bagged up on rudd,a few roach and the mrs had the biggest of the day a perch about 10-12oz, we had a bacon sandwich on the bank, and are now home as it is way to hot out there, nice morning though, I might start using the kids rods to pass away the hours those little okuma vibe rods are perfect for kids and daddies 😂

This was using my phone, no flash and 2 Rhino lights on bank sticks

This was a dusk shot, This was an early morning shot, used the video light on both, just to brighten the scene up

Maybe slightly left field but as someone who has always been interested in what makes people successful I’ve read and listened to few books on the subject. My interest is personal and professional. As a teacher I’m concerned with academic progress and examination success. In the past as a younger man I’ve had sporting aspirations. Obviously, as an angler I’ve tried to analyse what creates success in terms of fish on the bank. If you’re interested, I can heartily recommend ‘Bounce’ by Matthew Syed.

I think it's almost time to start with a cunning plan for Sept , find a spot or two this week start baiting them regularly for when I am off in sept, smash it, how's that for confidence 😁

From the limited amount of info I've seen you want 2 lights pointing across the subject, one each side. 👍

I've been telling myself for more than 20 years not to go with any preconceived ideas and I still sometimes make that mistake. It doesn't matter how confident you are in an area, it always pays to have a good look round before committing.

My ridgemonkey is slightly adjustable it has a few brightness settings, admittedly it would help but it's not as bright as my video light, so I would always use that first, it does brighten up the area a bit though better than nowt

The problem is not the set-up or the flash/light buddy. It is the phone. Phone cameras have very tiny sensors which means they cannot harness enough light to get a decent image at night. Instead the phone will increase ISO (sensitivity to light) in an attempt to obtain a decent image. The byproduct of this is a grainy, messy image. You could spend 2 grand on professional quality flash/lighting and you'd still not get the shot you are after. You really need a camera to get good night shots. Some of these modern phone cameras are great in the day (they use multiple cameras and clever trickery to replicate the image characteristics produced by a proper camera) but at night they are just nowhere near capable unfortunately.

Did spend a good 2 hrs looking round, my 1st thoughts on arriving was the shallow snaggy Bay but was no signs, they were mainly all in the middle of the lake, swirling, topping even dolphin diving. Zigs went out, the bait I used were a few floating & sinking puppy dog biscuits, not many, but I think the si king started to attract them, so by about tea time that's when the fizzing started, so a few pouches of 12 & 16mm Sticky Manilla and a mesh bag on every cast.

That something you were doing right was you were on the fish and they were feeding fish. Much easier to get kn them if they're giving you signs. Good result. 👍

I think now, I've got what tackle I want, bait I want, feel g good about where/when I'm fishing. My Confidence has now gone up as I'm sticking with what I've got, what I'm using, knowing it will/i will catch and the weekend proved that. Found the fish fizzing, used the sticks to wrap the rods upto them, fed them, caught them. Now just a case of repeating the process on every visit. My Confidence went even higher as by lunch time yesterday I walked round the lake with the dog, the same question to all "Had out?" most same reply, "Nothing mate", so I was doing some thing right as it looked like I was the only 1 at the weekend who caught on the lake?

I go into every session confident I'll catch. I go onto every new lake confident that I will catch, Be that a syndicate lake, club water or day ticket. Of course you don't catch everytime and the reason for that 99% of the time is down to the fact you're not on fish. Be that because the lake is rammed and you can't move, the fish are too far out etc or you can't be bothered to move onto them. I know my bait works, I know my rigs work and most importantly I know my watercraft and if on a syndicate lake the knowledge I have of it will put me on fish. If they want to feed I will catch. I know we are all in varying stages of carp angling but when I see threads like " I'm trying this or trying that this week " I just roll my eyes. Ive got news, There is no wonder rig, there is no wonder bait. Keep things simple, spend more time finding fish and less time chopping and changing rigs and bait and your catch rate will go up. Rigs - multi rig, ronnie rig, chod rig and a wafter/bottom bait rig. That's it on rigs, I use 4. Bait - anything premier baits for me, 100% confident. My spod mix, hemp, corn , *********, and ********* ****. 🤣 Put the rigs with the bait and if I give 100% to a lake I'm going to rip apart. Big headed no, confident, you bet.

I can get reasonable night pictures on my phone, but definitely prefer the camera flash. The mirror was taken on the camera, good flash, no extra lighting, the common on my phone. I don't think the common picture is as good, you have a 'merge' between my t-shirt and the background, whereas with the mirror, same colour hoodie (and they are even now) you can see the difference. I can definitely see the benefit of video lights, heck my dad used them years ago when filming television programmes at night (he was a vision mixer, cameraman and studio designer for London Weekend Television, and used them on outside broadcasts), but I do find I already take so much gear that extra lighting is too, too much. My current camera is a Canon Eos, no bells or whistles, just flash and self timer, which to be honest I have gotten used to. I was on Fuji Finepix, but water killed two, so picked up the Eos for £5 on the bay.

Too small a lake for that and it gets a good amount of bait going in most days this time of year, it's more of a fishing on the patrol routes they take and trying to get one or two to have a quick belly full swim.

Would it be possible to sneakily bait it for a little while? and still fish a favoured peg for a bit, might just help tip the balance right in your favour when the time came to have a go on it 👍 I'm not going to fish my baited spots for a while just keep them topped up with freebies, so they can always find something there then wait till the time is right (hopefully)

Yeah they are a copy of the Rhino light by the look of it - ideal for the job 👍

Not so easy to throw a single daphne at a carp though is it if that's what they are munching on. Yes you can fill a boilie with daphne meal if you can get it but it's a round ball not a tiny plankton so nothing like what they are eating if it is daphne. Get a boilie that attracts the lakes naturals to it and you can certainly get yourself more bites.

Mine has 3 white brightness and 3 red brightness, High medium low. Will give it a whirl 1st 👍

I know there is at least 4 20's in here... There's 4 fishing lakes, The Specimen lake, The Course Lake, The Match Ring, Silvers Lake... There actually is a sturgeon "Percy" last weight was 33lb, but is in the recovery pond as it was caught/hooked in the eye, so the angler reported it and the owners moved it to the recovery pond, they said at least till winter.

Just had a little play, it works, so gonna fully charge it and see from there... May have a Fishing Camera now 😁😁

I bought a set of waders last year...never been used still in Original bag. May take em next trip out goi g to a place that has 4 gravel spots in each corner of Lake so may go n feel for em? Distance sticks, 1st time I've used em at weekend, think they are a good tool to be honest, on the spot every time. (think that why I did well) gradually little pile building with the golf ball sized mesh bag on every cast.

Got me thinking now.... Off to the loft I go 🤞🤞

That what was thinkng, about the quality of the phone. Used to have a Fuji Pix (I think called that) when little en was younger for holidays n stuff... That be well gone now... was good enough to make decent photos for the house.

You have just highlighted the opposite of confidence. How many times have you heard people talking about fishing a “hard water”? I do not think there is such a thing. Different waters require different tactics. By describing a water as “hard” you are preparing yourself for failure.

Taking the kids for a spot of rudd fishing tomorrow, they have never used a rod and reel before so it may be fun, the misses is also coming to spectate, can't wait, I might sneak a pva bag snide rod out just incase, but really looking forward to it, can't wait to have a bash at all those rudds, bought them a couple more drennan crystals today and another disgorger, and I got them 1/2 pint of finest white maggots so we're all set, going to try and go early as its going to be a scorcher 😎😁

I've dabbled with using hypnotherapy before you can get loads of apps now, that you can just listen to, I went through a phase of using them to send me to sleep, funny though I do believe they helped, I was trying to become a better gambler(outcome investor) at the time and not make so many mistakes, if anyone is ever trying to get rich from gambling btw, stop thinking of it as gambling,just the word gambling has negative connotations as we are all programmed to believe this from an early age, so you may self sabotage yourself, I read loads of things abiut it also, one of the most interesting was Dr Howard Sartin, where he made some prisoners who were gambling addicts become less addicted and more successful, he did this by sharing a more successful method to follow, which helped them win more but also changed there mindset and reprogrammed there thoughts, rather than just making them stop, which is usually quite unsuccessful, I went through all this myself, I had to ask anyone that I cared about who was concerned, and people were concerned about it, but I asked them for permission to become a winner, sounds mad I know but for a while it really worked, and before you all say we'll why aren't you rich now 🤔I got sent off track trying to chase easy money by becoming a tipster, then I got into trading and other grey areas, and in the end I decided my family and work took up too much time to really focus on this and it became too much and had to go 👍 Bit this doesn't mean you can't apply things to your fishing, I've read about Terry Hearn staring at pictures of the fish he wants to catch so he can visualise them and get them in his head Sports people use methods to visualise things, like the rugby kicker that goes into a trance when he gets a penalty, he is visualising the ball going between the posts, So confidence in fishing is probably the only edge you need to be successful at it or you know as good as you can be with your skill set 🤔 (I never found a hypnotherapist that wanted to help me become a successful outcome investor only plenty that wanted to try and stop me gambling ) 😁

Spot on mate. Like you, I have don't get to pick and choose when I go so I'll go regardless of what the weather is doing. It'll be hard going mate, but not impossible.👍