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2 nights, no need for a bivvy. Not the tidiest I must admit, but everything is in order and reach

Few to tempt you with nick 😉

The magical day is here once again, June 16th, two of my tickets kick off today, a small lake and the rivers are open, anyone out hitting the rivers? I’ve got one in mind with a good head of carp, but the tides look good for bass this weekend and the lake is newly open, but is likely to be rather busy so what to do…

May was a write off for me angling wise the dreaded 60hr wks kicked in at work and while it may be good for fishing tokens it’s not good for bank time. The 4 day break seen me do a Thursday overnight on a local club water that’s a very small snaggy mixed fishery that also has a handful of cats. Picked up matey boy and a quick trip to the local tackle shop and a leisurely drive to the lake we was up and fishing for dinner time. I had to be home to pick the daughter up from Uni Friday dinner so the plan was to catch whatever swam throughout the day and target the bigger girls through the nite. It was a pleasant day t-shirt weather and silvers,bream and a small carp graced our nets but i lost a decent tench to one of the many snags in this tight little pool. The forecast rain started a bit earlier than hoped so 2 swims was baited heavily with pellet maize hemp and some old salmon trimmings frozen from a few months ago and the lot had a good glug of fish oil and a couple handfuls of krill active hook bait was a 26mm moggy muncher bottom bait and 20mm squid and scopex flouro pop up to a simple size 4 strong hook 35lb coated braid running rig,traps set game on as we retreated to our beds as the rain intensified. The rain carried on but it was a warm still night and the odd beep kept us both awake for the first hour into dark before drifting off to sleep. BEEEEEEEPPPPPPPP a one toner at 1am as line flew off the open spool and I was up in a flash and hanging on as the rod bent double as an angry cat sought sanctuary in a fallen tree. Mate woke up and put his waterproofs on and then proceeded to take the mick for the next 15 mins as I did battle in my t shirt and boxer shorts 🙄 Given how tight and snaggy the pool is id like to say what an epic heart in the mouth battle it was but barring a 10 second drama where everything went solid as it found the fallen tree steady pressure soon got it out and most of the fight was done in open water thankfully as it gave me a great battle and fought every inch to the net 😎 A quick smoke and dry off while the fish rested and it was weighed and pics time 27,7 it went and the third biggest in the pool I’ve been told so I was more than happy with that. Sadly nothing else the rest of the night but after a dry off and fresh clothes i lay on my bed with a big smile on my face still buzzing off the battle and didn’t drop off till 1st light which made me have a very rushed pack up to go and get the daughter 🙄🙄 but thankfully she understands my addiction to fishing and didn’t mind me turning up stinking of fish and the car full of sodden fishing kit 🤣🤣 Think that’s me now till the rivers open as the dreaded work kicks in again so hopefully can get amongst the barbel and chub on The Severn. Thanks for reading. 🙄😎🎣

For my margin stalking I mostly use halibut pellets, tiny one's for the fizz and fast breakdown attraction and a few bigger ones and samples of the hookbait. Lots of attraction - very little visible food with it mostly being dark, works for me 👍

I agree with your sentiment and most often fish over small amounts of bait, fishing for a bite if you like, however I've also fished over big beds of mixed stuff: tigers, boilies, mixed pellets, maize, particle mix, hemp etc and had some good hits, the fishing improved day on day and they demolished the lot in a few morning hours. They can demolish huge amounts of bait when they want to. I'll be doing that again this summer if conditions seem right, depends on the time of year and many variables. When I go on a busy venue it's common to see people putting far too much bait in seemingly without any reasoning, just because they see others doing it, all year round too - it's frustrating!

here you go mate, for Felixstowe

I'm sat by the lake at the moment, but have to pack up today, work tomorrow. I might grab the chub floater rod for a bash this afternoon, although I think any caught might be a little tatty after they spawned a few days ago. I also have a bass rod made up, although I didn't check the Holbrook or Felixstowe tide times.

I spend months at a time there and I moved my carp collection to Poland a few years past. People get the wrong impression about Poland thinking that the lakes and rivers are empty, nothing could be further from the truth. Where does your aunty live?

My run of bad luck continues… The Chum mixers I ordered online arrived today, next day delivery, very impressed. They are TINY and I mean the size of 3mm pellets … Thatll teach me to read the advert description properly 🙁

Here are a couple I found in Poland, unfished.

Still learning mine. For 2 sessions I have found fish in the margins, and lowered a bait onto them. I think though that the brightness of Vitalin etc in the bag is too bright. They don't necessarily spook, but do leave it alone. I did wake up to one patch cleared, but the coots were present and I had moved the bait out slightly when I saw them feeding on my bait to avoid hooking them.

Iv clacked it. Iv solved the old age conundrum of how to dunk your digestive biscuit in a empty pva tube filled with coffee because you forget your mug …

So years ago I did actually behave socially 😁and in reality I occasionally still do. This first photo is the first time a group of four of us approached a very special lake, we carried all the gear in for a weeks stay, some 2 miles. Sadly the lake now has a road virtually to it. The next photo is of how I prefer my socials now. Incidentally the hat upon the head some 55 years old and still keeps the rain out, it was worn by a well known angler back in the day, he was the photographer in the first photo, RIP my friend.