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Welcome back to more pointless waffle ie a detailed account of my session weekend just gone on my new water , hope it doesn’t bore the pants off you all 😊 I was a lot more organised this time out , all packed and ready to go for when my chauffeur (the Mrs) got home from work. Where we live , tucked away down an alleyway , can be an advantage . No junk mail received or trick or treaters at Halloween cos nobody knows we are here . unfortunatley neither do parcel couriers but that’s another thread 😡. The biggest disadvantage of all though is having a 50-100 metre walk to the car . So the plan is to load up my recently acquired , as yet unused , barrow to get my gear to the car . Well anyway there’s obviously a knack to it as the damned thing kept toppling to the left as I lifted it …. 3 times , despite loading it in various different ways . Therefore I’m sure there’s a method ? Anyway on with the waffle 😉. The lakes like Fort Knox , 2 keyed gates and 2 Combi locks to get not only onto the lake itself but into the actual road/dirt track that leads to it . Good for security obviously though I’d imagine not so good for access after a few Autumn days of heavy rain … we’ll see . Arriving at about 6.30pm I was delighted to discover NO other anglers at all so after a leisurely walk round TWICE I chose a swim and set up . Im going to be posting up a few pics at the end here lads , none in any particular order , mostly of the lake itself . Nick I’m sure you can tidy most of those up for me at some point as I know I can only post a couple at a time . I set up in a swim that not only had plenty of room ( I like to be comfortable if poss) but had plenty of features to fish to , a couple of Islands one large one very small , reeds and lots of pads . There was also plenty of fishy activity but no more than the rest of the lake . It was just beginning to cool down after a scorcher so things looked promising for the evening and nights to follow. As usual I set my rods up first , something I do to maximise my actual fishing time , and something on this occasion I was to live to regret . Using just the two rods initially , if it proved more difficult I could always add a 3rd option later , I tested the water . A couple of Combi rigs , 16mm Black Snail with a pva stocking containing more of the same , barbless hooks as is the rules unfortunately. Action pretty much from the word go . Nothing big , I was warned about the little commons , and so it proved . At first I was just getting the odd beep then 3 or 4 second shrills from my Fox’s and was always lifting into nothing . I was reeling in rigs with half eaten boilies still attached . By now one more fella had arrived , having asked if I minded if he fished 2 swims along from me despite the lake being empty … I didn’t mind as he’d had the courtesy to ask and it wouldn’t have disturbed me anyway . Turns out he knew a lot of the same group of Canning Townies that I grew up with so we shared a few natters and cuppas over the next two days. He suggested that especially whilst using running rigs to sit on my hands until the rod pretty much comes off the bank stick . He said when they go they GO . So I took his advice and waited till these short alarm bursts turned into fully blown screamers and I connected with the very first one . And it set the tone ( pardon the pun) for the whole weekend really . Little common (5-8lb at a guess) after little common with the odd low double thrown in , quite often both rods off at the same time . To be honest after a while I didn’t even bother with the pva attachments , I don’t think they were assisting. I’d switched to 24mm hookbaits a little earlier to try to hopefully single out the bigger fish but these little carp didn’t care they just jumped on them . Any freebies I felt would just be a waste of bait , I didn’t need em neither did the Carp. I was so busy it must have been almost dark before I’d managed to get my brolly up , next time it’s the first thing getting done , going against everything I’ve ever done before . And totally dark by the time I’d had a brew up . Unheard of 😂 Action was steady after dark then got busier and busier. At 3am I thought enoughs enough and pulled my rods in . I’d got up at 03.45 the previous morning for work and I was knackered , time to get my head down for a couple of hours . And a couple of hours it was . Awake just after 5 I went for a mooch about and saw a few interesting things . Can I post videos on here Nick , as I have a couple of Carpy activity I took first thing that morning ? Anyway I got both my rods out again , a bit slower that morning , still quite warm and bright though nothing like the previous day . A few more fish arrived , again nothing big , though I have to say some of them , most of them in fact gave a very good account of themselves and a few of said Carp never gave their size away till right before the net , fighting strongly and staying deep in the water as long as they could . I very rarely knew what I’d hooked until the death . It went quiet mid morning as the sun got higher in the sky and I dabbled with a few surface baits for a couple of hours . I got them feeding competitively quite quickly but they knew which one had my bait in every single time , from the Bakers complete to the fake doggie biscuits , they just knew . Floater presentation is definitely something I need to work on. So I needed a slightly different approach to bottom fishing . This time a spread of B5 and Black snail boilies over the general area of both spots and rested the swim for about 90 minutes during which time I managed to cook both late late breakfast and lunch and chatted Carp fishing and West Ham Utd with my good friend of about ten , er , hours 🤣. This tactic appeared to work as things got hectic again despite the weather deteriorating . So hectic in fact that I never noticed that big storm closing in and just as it got dark … BANG !!!! Thunder Lightening very very frightening ! I doubt I’ve ever moved so fast . Rods in , dived into my Cabrio and there I stayed . I dunno how long the storm lasted as I must have been exhausted and fell asleep . This time inside my sleeping bag which hadn’t even been unpacked it being so warm the night before. The following morning went the same way as previously though after breakfast I even went down to fishing just the one rod . I knew Tracey was coming to pick me up at about 2.30 and needed the time to get packed away for when she arrived . I was happy with my first attempt on my new venue . I know I’ll eventually get the hump with the smaller Carp and will have to find a way of finding out where the upper 20’s and 30’s hang out . My first thought was finding the deeper parts of the lake . The owner has told me that’s it’s pretty uniform 3-4ft deep all over but I’ll be finding out for myself for sure . If it really is that shallow everywhere then it makes it even more of a challenge. In a way , I think , just as much a challenge as fishing a lake with far fewer yet bigger Carp ? These bigger fish are in there , I’ve seen the stocking photos of a couple of 30’s , but to me it’ll just be a natural progression . Size has never been important to me ( just ask my Mrs) , I’m equally happy catching fish of any description all day long or just sitting by the lake waiting for a bite for hours on end . It’s not just about the fishing is it ? It’s just as much to do with the peace and tranquility of a little lake that few people even know exists . No more day ticket circus for me . Hallelujah ! 🤣 there will be a couple of cradle pics added later to give you all an idea of the stamp of fish I was catching ( I lost count after about 30 or so) and one of a fish not all that big but pretty enough to warrant a pic I thought .

I hadn’t thought of that Elmo . At least I’d could find time to eat 😂

I've still got Solar Lockey Stainless rests. Refoamed a few times! Think I could sell them and my Quiverlocs for more than I paid for them! My Century NG's actually had a 'ball' on the butt section behind the reel seat, to stop the rod being pulled forward off the rest. I discovered it meant that I didn't actually need to use a rear rest.

Baitworks mentioned the huge increase in raw material cost on their podcast last month so it must be all around, I've been looking for some deals for my holiday but they don't seem to be there at the moment so I think it will be affecting them all and I guess you have to wonder if some companies will be forced to leave Ingredients out or at lower levels to combat this? I blame Bozo for everything 👍

I use AA baits for my ingredients. I haven't noticed a silly increase in price. Mind you I order rarely, since I bait lightly...

I’m not moaning though , just bringing up a topic for discussion. Until now the prices at Essential ( and I’m only using them as an example because I actually know about it) have been the same on bulk deals as they were in 2016 when my final purchase was made pre-sabbatical. I understand from the forum that the price of everything else has been slowly creeping up since then but this appears to be quite a hike , citing not only overheads but Brexit and the massive energy price increases affecting the cost of raw materials… the EA being such an example. And I wondered if it was just Essential or whether other bait companies have followed /are following suit ? Personally I blame that donkey Bojo and his toy soldiers 🤣

john baker's latest vid covers rigs and still catching despite their use, long distance rigs that you know will land right and reset might not be the best for hooking a fish, he swears by using a simple hair rig with a long hair if the fish are above 30, i do recall that's how chris b used to fish his big lake when using bottom baits, he did a FB post of a few days he did as the big lake was fishing hard for bottom baits, he pulled a couple of forties out using a braid rig and double boilie on a long hair, no hook jewelry just pushed the point of the hook through the hair to give it the blow back action.

Years ago we had a thread going called 'Complicated rigs', it covered a session I had on Ardleigh, then broke into a long discussion on lead set-ups, various rigs, and whether we made things more complicated than they need to be. While I do play around with rigs, I do catch more on a bog standard line aligner usually knotless knotted rig. I may have a sliding ring on the hookshank and tie the hook on with a line aligner, this is more often so I can change the hair length to suit the feeding and hooking of the fish, but this also means I can use a pop-up or bottom bait on exactly the same rig without much faffing. Too many carp anglers forget that getting the carp to feed is more important than the rig is. If the carp are feeding comfortably what is an 'ineffective' rig according to experts, fails the palm or thumb test, can actually be effective hooking the fish. Equally if a super effective rig is in the wrong place and the carp aren't feeding then it will not work. My personal view is that 'effective' rigs are needed when we aren't feeding properly to get the fish comfortable on our spot, or aren't baiting (maybe prebaiting) enough of our bait.

This is more my no bivvy style

Did a 24 hour on Wednesday and it was hot. I prefer my brolly system to a bivvy as it fits in the rod quiver and is less to take and set up. Didn't bother with the overwrap as it was so mild. Plastered on the sun cream. legionnaires cap to protect my neck and spent most of the day sat in the shade in the trees that surround the swim and drank cups and cups of orange squash. Still got a touch of sunstroke and had a headache yesterday!