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After working another early morning breakfast shift at Honington I managed to get to the lake again for 9. Todays result was just the 2 Jack's, reckon 5lb tops The outflow is very high, so I fished the sheep fence swim. It is still weedy, and the wind is blowing it around.

There’s nothing a mod can do to help Elmo... that ship has sailed! Lol! 😛

Mods ! Mods !! Elmos at it again

I came off social media years ago because I couldn’t be doing with the hassle, after we returned from Afghanistan, my colleague posted some “helmet cam” footage filmed during one of our firefights with the insurgents. (In it you get to see my rear end in glorious detail as I’m heroically sheltering in a ditch!!) it wasn’t a long video, we are patrolling, we get ambushed, we fight back and then extract. Well the abuse we got as a result was laughable, we were called baby killers, (difficult to eat a live one I always found) we were government stooges, murderers, we were criticised by faceless sofa warriors saying how we were “fighting all wrong” etc - by people who had never served in the military and never been ambushed in a mulberry grove by a village, we were called cowards for extracting rather than fighting it out (hey, who cares about the civvies that have to live in the village) it was endless. I don’t understand why people feel the need, they wouldn’t say it to my face after all!

Never too early to start doing the groundwork mate, knowledge is power! Good recon is never wasted. Do you know of any catches from this stretch in the past? If you get down there and can find carp that are active and moving, then it won’t harm to trickle in a bit of bait, just don’t kick the ring piece out of it, a handful here, a few handfuls there, other canal species will clear it up if the carp don’t. In your case, I’d start with the Polaroids and start fish spotting and learning the stock of the stretch. Then I’d lead and rake about to build up a picture of the canal bed and any features. Canal carp love cover over their heads and any occupied canal boats are worth a look, they provide heat and warmth. Just try not to drill a 3oz lead into the side of them, it tends to displease the owners somewhat... baiting spoons are always useful. It’s homework time mate, are there carp there? Can you find them/see them? Has the stretch got form or a history of producing carp in the past? Then swim mapping and baiting spots you see carp on, especially if they are spots you can observe from the bank, if you see a carp in one spot, you can bait one spot, move on and investigate another spot, and another etc then go back and recheck any spots you’ve baited to see if the carp have got on them.

Agreed its too late for me, save yourselves 😜

Had a cast with a Prologic rod today lovely blank had funky eyes don’t know if there a gimmick tho. Think it’s the rod for me.

I've deactivated again, feels good 😁

No what I said was difficult to explain so I probably didn't explain myself properly 😂 I have gone off them being directly on the hook like a Ronnie or German rig, I don't mind them if there is separation like a d rig or multi rig hope that explains it better 👍

PVA bags used to be made from Poly Vinyl Acetate (hence the acronym) but as the smell was believed to deter fish, they are now more commonly made from Poly Vinyl Alcohol (technically known as PVOH) but the old PVA name has stuck. I used to fish the Somerset Drains around Bridgwater for pike and there used to be a British Cellophane plant that used an acetate and it was more commonly known as British Smellophane! There are so many good proven flavours out there that I wouldn't waste my time on something that could repel the carp, it certainly makes me want to puke up!

Yep they make life so much easier why wouldn't you 😁

Well in for serving ouch and I know exactly what your saying about the ambushing and yes it’s laughable because when you do meet these people they say nothing cowards mucka you all be safe guys be a good crack to have a social when all this is over

Looks good mate, (nice socks! Lol!)

Elmo keyboard warriors are two a penny I had my phone hacked and taken over from fb messenger an it caused a lot of trouble for me they contacted me with my own personal videos etc and tried to blackmail me lol glad I’m not a victim sort of guy could of been a lot worse I don’t use none of it anymore mucka

Dont respond to negative posts and if you do just send a smile , youll find that is so annoying to trolls

The thing is you can get bait so cheap these days if you know someone in the know. I can honestly say that most of the anglers I know are paying between £5 or £6 per kg, some a lot less as they are sponsored by their bait suppliers. Unless of course you buy from the tackle shops and then you'll pay top dollar. Most companies will cut you a deal on 30kg plus etc, offer them cash and you'll probably get it even cheaper. Though it's no reason to give you a load of abuse etc. That's carp fishing nowadays for you. It's full of w######. Take up sea fishing like me, it's the future 😂.

Also forgot to say, I saw a Sonik Spod Rod n Reel for sale on a sight last night, I messaged about about it as the price was too good... £60 with a Rod case and fox spods too...i asked was it still available, the reply I got back was unreel, if I screen shot it and put it on here I WOULD get banned there that bad.

I've seen it all on there, makes me quite sad tbh,I got called a scammer and all sorts , was mental I was just trying to sell some bait, it's a shame there is so little faith left in people like that, I guess I've always been lucky and been on here where there is a decent community, still the guy seemed happy and I gave him some pigeon conditioner and pellets as I wanted to empty the bait bins a bit, But I'm happier I decided I wanted to stick with retrobaits this year and having 20kg of CC Moore bait wasn't sitting well with me, I could feel some of you guys telling me to just stick with one bait everytime I saw it 😁

locking the swivel of the lead helps to creates the twist as the swivel can’t spin

As @yonnysays, any big pit reel will cast the distance as long as the reel is big enough. When I had my Century SP's twinned with Shimano DL10000's, the maximum distance I could cast with 15lb 0.35mm line was 90metres. Put on the Beastmaster reels, a big pit baitrunner on the spool, the distance went up to over 130m. There are ways to reduce line twist, and one simple one is DON'T play fish off the clutch or drag, use the back wind. Not sure whether it is just me, but I also think lead clips can cause twist, a reason why I prefer run rings, which are not fixed to the hook link swivel.

Facebook seems to have taken on all the keyboard warriors. On any post on a topic like HuffPost insults get thrown. I've actually had my account restricted in the past when someone insulted me and I responded by calling the person's post stupid and meaningless. Even fishing posts in some fb groups get 'queries' on fish weights, not the "are you sure that weight is right?" but real digs. There are some very good Facebook groups I am a member of like the PAC, Chub fishing, roach fishing, but most others run personally are not worth the effort.

Might want to get to now peak boat traffic times that area in the canal is a boat turning point it's where narrow boats can do a three point turn might not get used much but when it does the bottom really does churn up lots of high revving in shallow water, should be a good channel in the centre though.