Leaderboard

I think this is a great starting point for discussion (if a little off topic!). We read so much about finding the hardest/cleanest/smoothest ‘spots within spots’ but I tend to agree with Yonny. Certainly this last year on St Ives’ Shallow Pit, the very cleanest areas never produced one bite for me. All my bites came from firm/hard spots that I could still feel the odd bit of weed or silt on. It got to the point that I would avoid really clear spots and actively seek out what I imagined to be ‘new’ spots being created.

The real eye opener of course is using a boat to look at spots and features. I had a session a few years back which proved to be very interesting. I’d arrived late one Friday evening in early Summer after a particularly gruelling motorway journey. My chosen swim certainly contained fish but also lots of weed. Boats were allowed for dropping markers and baiting up but rigs had to be cast. Out in the boat with the H blocks I set about finding some spots near where the fish had been showing, around 110 yds. It was a jungle with only the tiniest (dinner plate sized) true clear spots. I dropped the blocks in those areas where the weed was shortest and scattered bait widely around each one. I’d been intending to fish my preferred lead clip set-up with a simple coated braid pop up but had to quickly re-tackle and use long running chods to sit over the weed. In truth I was not particularly happy doing so but it was by now nearly dark and it had taken the best part of 2 hours to get sorted. After casting each rod to their respective block, I quickly paddled out to check the presentation. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t find the right hand or middle rod for love nor money. But, purely by chance the left hand chod was sitting pretty on a hand sized sandy patch-you couldn’t have placed it better by hand! I paddled back secure in the knowledge that at least 1 rod was fishing for the night and in with a chance. In the next 24hrs I had 3 low 20’s from the right hand and middle rods. The ‘banker’ left hand rod didn’t produce a bite and when I paddled out at the end of the session to check, it was still in ‘perfect’ position and all the surrounding bait (pellets, chops, corn) had gone! Had I been able to present a bottom bait or wafter on that spot it just might have stood a chance, the chod was too blatant but the chances of hitting the spot again at that range was minimal.

This👆 The way I see it rock hard clean spots have already been harvested, there's no grub there other than what you put out. In the softer areas around the clean stuff, or spots that are just beginning to be harvested, there's natural food so they'll be more inclined to feed there. Supplement that with bait and whallop, party time. Of course, thousand and thousands of carp have been caught off clean gravel and some of the best anglers I know of still target rock hard clean stuff, but for me I find dirtier areas are more productive.

Very true Elmo. Keep us posted on how you get on bash.

PB pink BP + with wonder Berry and almond specials, 😍

I know what we have all said about prebaiting in winter, but if you do know the location of the fish, it might be worthwhile trickling a few baits in. I have written about this session before: Years ago I used to fish a lake called Thwaite, which in winter often produced the occasional fish to bright pop-ups, but you did need to mix and match, until you found what they were after any week. For some reason I couldn't get to Nazeing and had time off between Christmas and New Year, so I spent a week on Thwaite. For the first couple of days, once I had found the fish, every take came on hi-attract pop-ups, but I was feeding my usual food bait, probably around 50 boilies every day. From day 3 onwards I started catching on the food bait, I seem to recall it was a 15mm hookbait with around 5 freebies on a PVA stringer. I ended up with a good number of decent winter fish. It was a proper winter session, freezing temperatures at night, and a cold rain almost every day, just warm enough to stop it freezing over. On the occasional day trip to the end of the season it switched back to finding the right bait on the day, pop-up or even sweetcorn as I wasn't still baiting regularly.

Al/Ti require machining which when compared to moulding is a completely different ball game when it comes to mass production. A cheap Al/Ti reel is just never going to happen mate. Magnesium can be cast which is why they use it for the top dollar shimmys. They are mate. If you look at the flagship models the Shimmy Tech Mags have a Ci4+ rotor and the Daiwa Basiar rotor is made from Zaion (both Ci4+ and Zaion are carbon composites). On the next models down (Ultegra Ci4 and Basia 45 SCW) they have Ci4/Zaion bodies too. I'm not a fan of these composites. They're sold as weight saving but they just feel cheap. They don't make them like they used to.

I've decided to wait for a month or so then I'm going to start getting things going for spring,if we are ever allowed out again that is, I've also decided I'm going to be more covert this year 😁 Secret squirrel is going to be my middle names 🤓🤠🙈🙉🙊

Well I’ve rolled the bait... may get the rods out on Friday...

Pine pool at KWP is a funny one you can see clear spots out in the middle on a sunny day as well as plenty of other spots close in, i will stick my neck out and say if you fish them there is a good chance you will shut the lake down the more bait you put out the more likly it will happen, they like it in or on the weed or the odd clearish spot around the margins , what works best on a real hot day is wafters fished on 3-4 foot of mono and an inline lead the lead goes through the silk weed and the wafter sits on top get right on the right day and pine pool can become a runs water.

I think I have become obsessed with being presented correctly, needing to find a suitable spot for it, I used to fish just under the rod tips quite often lol same water, years later I nearly always aim for the far margins 😂 the swim I fished a lot this year Infact I caught a decent fish from years ago literally just under the tips didn't even consider it this time 😳 I watched the new carp angle programme with Joe Morgan last night, my jaw literally hit the floor when he said he was just going to chuck 2 rods out 😁 but it made perfect sense as he knew there were fish present and he didn't want to ruin his chances, I can't think of a time when I didn't know a spot inside out or hadn't found one and just chucked one out, I can certainly see me wanging more chods out this year at showing fish though, I ignored far too many signs last year of feeding fish that could've been catchable with the right set up, its a tough one cos knowledge is power as they say, but it certainly pays to buck the trend I think

And these are some old DNA s7 half tones that are getting wonder berried 😂

These were some white scopex cream dumbells about an out ago, quite interesting to see how they finish up

Does anyone remember a time when you just walked into a swim and thought “I’ll cast one over there, one to the far margin and one under that bush” (or similar) and “fish the swim” as opposed to finding “the spot” as such? on my local water, I can stand in a swim and the other anglers will say “9 wraps casting toward the left hand side of the dam” or “18 wraps toward the water tower” or “cast on the bank and place the rig 12” from the 3rd set of rushes from the dam wall” and everyone drops into the swim and casts to exactly those spots. A procession of anglers all placing their rigs in the same place. I’ve always thought that if you fish the same spots you can only catch the same as everyone else. when I stand in a given swim, i know that at “9 wraps (or whatever) cast at the dam is “the” spot, yet I can’t ignore the snaggy margins either side of me, plus there’s a lot of unfished water that’s being ignored by 90% of other anglers. on my second water, it’s a small intimate place with (admittedly very inviting) far margins that are an easy cast, nice overhanging trees and bushes. Everyone casts tight to the far bank, yet I get more takes fishing right under my rod tips. One night I had 13 carp under my rod tips, yet the one rod fished to the far margin (just in case) only produced one carp at dawn - which was a repeat capture - I had caught it 8hrs before... under the left hand rod tip! whilst fishing the known spots can and obviously do produce fish, I think that doing things differently suits me better.

I think it would be a good discussion, I tend to find softer spots can be more productive, I am keen to seek out some clay spots this year I found one or two last year but that was in a popular swim so I probably wouldn't try to work it myself , my most productive spots were clear or light of weed but in need of regular grooming tbh, I am cheating this year, I found I could easily find known or obvious spots but I never found those productive, this year I am gonna use my deeper 😳 to find some delicate spots that can be developed in less fancied areas, or holes in the weed to develop a bit I still feel dirty admitting I got a deeper but I've used it once and I did find out some useful info 😳

I have had the wide stuff turn up.. it seems like good kit, I reckon you could thread 0.40 through it with your eyes shut and in minus 10 degrees whilst wearing gloves.. it sinks like a brick ( although I have yet to use it in anger.. hopefully we will be allowed out again soon ) I have ordered some of the micro free fall tube as well just to see what it’s like .. cheers.

I'll happily use a stiff D if the substrate requires it. It'd have to be pretty clean though and I tend not to fish the cleanest spots.

Probably gonna use the mesh with crushed boilie with a pop up but I’m probably gonna wait for a good weekend to fish it temperature dropping this weekend so don’t know weather to fish it

I use Mainline Milky Toffee pop ups, half in with the Korda Almond (was told by a mate about this combination) and Half in the Krill Supreme (1 Goo is more washed out than these others)

Agreed👍

You don’t need to add a screw, ring or anything just use floss.

I use a multi rig for pop ups now, quite happy with that, just think a nice simple d rig would work well enough as a bottom bait rig They do work as bottom bait rigs, I used to catch a lot of fish from Taverham on them, although for some reason I started using pop-ups more often, and found as a pop-up rig the presentation was perfect, especially with 20lb Amnesia. I don't like the extra metalwork either. You are almost committed to a pop-up whereas a standard D does work as both.

Pretty much mate, this time of year I used to use PVA bags in the areas already described. It’s a tricky lake, but the rewards are in there.

Echo the lads already, getting them going this time of year is almost pointless. Only time I know of it being done to any effect is a mate that absolutely filled in a fairly high stocked water with about 20/30kg a week of boilie and managed to get them going big time. Not exactly the best use of your time or money though unless you can really commit to it or the lake has a good stock of big fish. spend your time trying to nick a bite as said above, have a lead about and get to know your features for the year ahead. Personally I start baiting in mid feb in preparation for March/April time of year. Start with smaller amounts and increase weekly as the water temps warm up. You can put out half a kilo of small particles and crushed boilie and a few handfuls of whole boilies in order to keep them rooting and active on the spots once the bulky food items are eaten. if you can find a spot that you can keep quiet and isn’t an obvious one that everyone fishes then bait it without fishing for as long as possible and get on it when the conditions are right. You can reap serious rewards this way as the fish will be very confident feeding without danger from the moment they start waking up!

I’ve just come back from baiting up even tho I can’t fish the lake as it’s closed but I know I’m the only one baiting and I know it’s being eaten but I’ve been trickling my boilies in for the yr so far anyway I just don’t tell no one same as I’d not say if I’d caught unless it was my first 40 or pb common

Just because there are no reports about a lake, doesn't mean nothing is happening. I know if I was fishing and definitely in the past myself and the few that carried on fishing kept everything to ourselves. A mate of mine had an excellent winter 4 yrs ago and to this day only 5 people know about it. This is simply for the fact that if people know or knew about his winter catches then the lake would be busy, potentially messing up your own fishing.

I'd hold fire, January and February are the burn out months and can end carp fishing hobbies for any angler that is not well aware of what they are getting into, sometimes you see videos or read reports on what others are doing and try the luck, The forum member Spa? seems to have stopped posting he was getting out in the winter and not having much luck. hope he stuck with it or at least dropped the winter sessions. Myself I would go out this time of year but it really would depend on air temps and a change in wind direction.

That isn't strictly true, I got my sky bet account closed for being too successful 🤔 Over the course of 1 year I was up about a grand so they stopped me using that account, not massive money but they didn't like it that I had beat them, that Is how they beat the successful gamblers, don't get me wrong I'm not saying I was a successful gambler, it really isn't a get rich quick scheme, but I had learnt when I had an advantage, bookies paid for family holidays and some nice little treats, I never lost what I couldn't afford but having a family meant something had to give, I was betting sloppy and making mistakes, so I stopped because it was too much working, betting and having a family, I basically never switched off it was like having 2 full time jobs and I hadn't earnt enough/wasn't disciplined enough to go full time 😳

Your choices are decent ones mate. I've used all 3 of them. The pink almond is the best imo. The tuna one is decent too if you're after a fishy one. Pretty much mate. I do use Goo now and again. Reason being an experience I had several years ago now. I was fishing a water in the Valley and doing OK but I was getting out-fished by a close mate of mine. I was wracking my brains as to why and I ended up asking him straight out what he was doing. His answer was Goo (I'd never used it at this point and tbh thought it was a load of rubbish). He was Goo-ing his pop ups in the pink almond. I ended up Goo-ing a pot up and carrying on as I had been but with the pink almond pop ups. Long story short I had it right off, catching all but one of the fish I was after in a matter of weeks including my main target kipper, a very special one (see below). Now it could have been coincidence that it all came together after I started with the Goo, but with each capture came confidence and with more confidence came more captures. I don't use the stuff all the time (I believe it's more effective on certain waters than others) but I can say that using it appeared to make a difference on some of the waters I've fished. If that's what Goo does then I like it lol👆

Your too late unless others are baiting up too you should of been baiting from autumn butty

I’m guessing you’re thinking of baiting hamworthy lake? Unless there has been regular angling pressure throughout the winter (which from my experience is doubtful) I would probably hang fire (with the cold wind/rain/snow forecast) for a month or so mate, it was always a slow water to wake up after a cold winter, due to the depths and its location right on the coast. Regardless of the lake (prebaiting rivers can produce the goods all year round in my experience) unless I’ve been feeding baits on a regular basis all year round and the carp are still getting on it and feeding well at this time of year, then I wouldn’t start prebaiting during the winter. I find that you can keep feeding them throughout the winter if you started prebaiting during the warmer months and the carp are still actively searching for it and remain active, but trying to get something going in freezing temperatures when the carp have slowed right down can be very difficult. The carp in hamworthy lake overwinter in the deeper main section 2/3rds of the way across from the point or 1/3rd of the way across from the beach swim. I’d concentrate on using proven winter tactics and nick a few bites until it starts to warm up, then start trickling in the chosen prebait and go from there pal.

As has been said, it may be too late to get something going. Although if you intend on fishing this water throughout the spring then in my opinion getting bait in now won't do any harm what so ever, especially if you know your water and the fish habits. I was fishing one particular water throughout a season but in January I decided to start on a neighbouring water. Started pre-baiting in January and although I failed to catch in January or February, in March when the fish started waking up properly I caught a good number of fish. If tufties or coots are numerous then any boilies I would crumb and chop them so it hopefully leaves some for the carp if the ducks dive on it.

Like @yonny I think it's too late if they have closed down for winter, unless it's still fishing and producing fish, or you know where they are holding up. On my syndicate the fish appear to be in an out of bounds area, so there is no point in baiting until they come out. It may also be too early for prebaiting for next season. It might be valid if your are fishing a small water and they are constantly moving.

Imho at this time of year you've already missed the boat. If you can bait through autumn into winter you can keep them moving all winter. But if you start baiting after they've shut up shop you'll just not get there metabolism going again. Of course, if you're fishing somewhere that's being baited by others it might still be possible to get something going.