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Thought I’d give the canal ago. Since child free. Since I’ve seen a few feeding bubbles here and there so let’s see what the night brings 🙏

I’m sure this pic is already on here somewhere but seeing as I just found this thread I thought I’d post it here anyway , to this day my biggest and probably best looking fish . 28lb dead .

We all have captures that we will always remember, for whatever reason. What’s yours? It may be a PB, or it may stick in your mind for another reason. Which ones are your favourite captures and why? The first carp was a mirror I caught on my first trip in 5yrs after afghan, I’d hung up the rods and was undergoing treatment, my counsellor told me to get back fishing so I replaced all my gear, rolled some bait and hit the bank. First rod out, 5mins in the water and it was away, it weighed mid 30s and I was instantly obsessed again. second carp was a 31lb common I caught on a session at a local pond, the wind switched unexpectedly in the night and picked up in force and it totally destroyed my brolly! The bailiff was telling me that this carp had been stolen the night before … I was able to send this pic to him the next morning the 3rd common was my personal target for years, I’d been baiting with my own boilies and he hadn’t succumbed… one winter session I’d forgotten the bait in the rush to the lake, so picked up a few pints of maggots. Fishing pva bags with a Medusa rig baited with maggots produced him at 37lb+ a week before Christmas. That left only one fish on my “hit list” which was no 4 in the pics! The mid 20 linear was also an elusive target. He also fell to the mighty maggots! My last two targets and I braced them. I walked off the lake a happy man that day.

It might seem daft, but I used to mould my groundbait around small stones, give them added weight to help them sink quicker in deep or moving water.

Frozen groundbait due to ice particles within being lighter than water often floats😉 The annoyance when I have watched floating groundbait drift out of position!

I think you will be pleasantly surprised how nice the okuma reels are to use, I honestly can't praise them enough 🙏🙌

I think if you're taking time off work to roll bait then you should factor in £ p/hr. If you're doing it in the spare time, it's clearly better than sitting watching the TV doing nothing productive. I think if you frame your life in terms of your time equalling your work pay then it's not cost effective. In fact, everything you do in your spare time besides more paid work isn't cost effective in that sense. Personally, I would say to try it but not because you want to save money. Do it because you want to explore the bait making experience. Do it because it's unknown to you and it's unnerving. Do it because learning about bait construction may give you key information which will help with many other things in life. Do it because it adds a further sense of adventure to your fishing. Do it because you clearly are intrigued by it and you'll be able to definitively answer the question of "What if?". Surely that's more important than saving a few quid? I certainly think it is! Imagine the laughs you're going to have, the elation the first time your bait catches a fish, the misery that comes from failures, and the joy of learning. Marvellous!

You should try a bailicks now that's a winter winner, baileys and horlicks it's literally "the bailicks"

17lb with a rare view, still holding the smelt 23lb

A full moon on my local river in France , i just had that feeling that i was going to catch , shame it was spawned out but still a cracker , untouched mouth , everyone should buy a permit for fishing in France once in their lifetimes and experience these amazing rivers !

Lovely to read all your favourites guys well done 👍 I think I've got 3 or 4 main favourites lol, This was the one and only fish I ever put in carp talk early 00's I think 🙄, I had been really struggling to catch anything from this lake, but then I think probably on the advice of someone on here, I prebaited a swim for 2 weeks almost daily tbh after night shifts and all sorts, this one was the first of 5, my first 20lber at 26lb, I had another scraper 20 but I had learnt prebaiting works, I got 5kg of free pellets for that too 😂 Then from more recent times it was these 2 first trip back on Virginia after losing my dad, I had already had the confidence boosting 10 fish hit on the other lake pretty soon before and I felt in the zone, I had done a little baiting but then in evening I had this one New PB 27lb3oz, that alone would have been enough I was buzzing but in the morning I recast a bag into the hole in the weed and it ripped off And this one was the result proper buzzing and I remember the lucky moorhen, not sure it was coincidence or not but it always seems to appear at significant times was here for this one too, my favourite from this year so far 😉

Not my pb, but a real good looking fish from long ago. I wheeled him in 100 yds, and he took 1 look at me and went straight back out about 90, so I got to do it all over again. I suppose this one was memorable too, because it was just nasty out, cold and windy and we only got 1 bite, but I got the fish.