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Just found out of a 40lber in the Park Lake near me... A lad I know is on now as I type... So....Thinking of having a dabble after New Year, or should I have a go before winter ? Got about 20kg Aller Aqua Pellet left, 10kg Frozen Particle too....

I’m probably going against the grain here, but each to their own! I am not a fan of delks, I had a set for a good while, and I brought 4 of them, 1 of which needed replacing under warranty very quickly as it packed up in the rain, so I ended up with 5, as the original was also returned (nice touch) of those 5, the replacement plus two others packed up in the rain, I fixed it in the end myself by spraying them all with WD40 and wiping off the excess then leaving them to dry, which did stop the problem for a while, also I’m a simple soul, all the sensitivity, tone, volume etc was just too much adjustment for me, I could never get the tone “just right” very silly complaint I know, but that’s just me. The delks went to my son, who loved them, and fair enough, they are good alarms, he’s moved onto fox mini microns, I still carry the delks as a back up set of alarms just in case… but I’ve always been a huge Steve neville fan, so I would always go back to them… mind you, of the 8 I’ve owned, one packed up after the battery would drain within 10mins of being switched on - it needs to get repaired, two of the “original” alarms cracked at the base - so it’s horses for courses really, the others are all going strong - yes battery replacement is a pain, and they have 3 settings, quiet, loud and off! But I love them and the sound of a screaming neville is awesome. their not without their issues, I’ve missed a run when the line dropped behind the roller, and I’ve had lightweight bobbins jam against the roller and stop it spinning which effectively silences the alarm - changing to mini swingers solved this issue. the only fox alarms I’ve liked are the mini microns, I’m not a fan of the other fox alarms - I don’t like the shape, simple as that, I had micron m and mx alarms in the past and they did the job just fine. I’m a fox fan though, my rods, reels, and most of my terminal tackle are all fox gear. I’ve used nash siren alarms, and still do in my travelling kit, but they have a fiddly on off switch, I’m picky like that. quite simply, we all have our favourites, gear we use and trust to do the job, if you like it and it works for you, that’s all that matters in the end

Ideally start putting bait in now & just trickle a bit of bait in to try and get a winter spot going. I'm only just starting myself mate. I don't get the time to get any spots going. I just listen to what and where other anglers have done and apply it to how I like to fish. Going to the social last week on a day ticket, really showed how my approach has changed a lot to how I fish at the reservoir. At the end of the day the fish still feed the same, its just a case of finding them😄

Carp, Pike, Bream Tench.....Apparently all run into Double Figures. I've got 2 Byometric Maps and 2 Deeper Mappings what a lad has done, but I'm not allowed to show anyone 🙄. But I'm getting more and more fixated/fixated by this place.

Almost most of the stock are all handpicked apart from a couple of originals, in early 2018 the water had 4 stockings of Dinton strain Carp, Commons, fully scaled and linears.

Well I thought I might as well have another night as I’m here got a early pack up tho apparently there’s a storm a coming A guy opposite has had a great session which included my target fish that went 40.4oz 😞 he’s fished well had 5 fish all above 25lb he travelled up from Devon nice guy and well deserved result 👍

I think it's fair to say none of us would be very good influencers/bloggers. Not sure why, but I think this maybe my longest write up. Sorry if I'm waffling on. Hopefully one of the others can fill in some of the gaps?? So, we arrived Friday morning to glorious weather, carp showing all around the horseshoe shaped lake. A bit disappointed to discover we would need our own boat to get to the island swim. Walked the lake a few times, and did a draw. Surprisingly, we drew 1-5 numerically.?? It seemed a good omen. In 2nd place I was lucky enough to pick one of the favoured swims. It had a bit of everything, overhanging trees in the margins, 2 channels opening into the rear of the lake, off the back of the island with a long chuck of around 20 wraps. Rods set up, time for the marker to find some spots. Oh! Every chuck for the first 20 minutes plugged in thick blanket & Canadian weed. When I say plugged, I had to line the rod up with the lead and walk backwards?? This wasn't going to be as easy as I'd first thought. Luckily it was clear in the channel to my left around the lillies, so put a bit of bait out & a rod on each side of the channel. I flicked around a light lead with 1 ft zig on the 3rd rod to try and pick off the fish that had been fizzing in the swim. @kevtaylor went in next to me on the gate swim, with the road bank to himself. Fish showing at range, but not safe to fish for them due to the channel & island. Rods out, set up camp, sun was out. Just messaged the others how nice it was to do a bit of sunbathing & it poured down for half hour😄 We ordered the kebabs that Elmo kindly went to collect, had quick munch, beer and a chat. Then back to matter in hand. Elmo had a mid double that night, fishing in the garden swim on the opposite side of the lake to me. Well done mate. Next morning, no shows in front of me so I went for a wander. @chillfactor had a small tench & similar issues with the weed, that we were told was upto 8 ft deep!!!! @dalej2014 was having a nap, so went round to see Elmo. Interesting to watch his approach with the boat and Deeper. As far as I could tell, the baitboat was a very effective way to fish this venue. I could just see @chillfactorwith a nice bend in his rod, so made my way back to see his capture. Which turned out to be another little tench with 10 times its weight in weed. Headed back to my swim with Elmo to find @kevtaylor bent into a lovely looking mid double mirror. Nice one. We ordered fish n chips, delivered to the gate. Chewed over a few stories between us and thoughts for the night ahead. I had a lead around at the long chuck and found a clear spot. Put 2 rods out there and about a kilo of chops. Woke up Sunday about 6.30, looked around. Beep, pause then a screamer, the bobbin hit the rod hard and I soon had the 19lber on the long chuck. It was an unusual scrap as the fish tried to bury itself in the weed. But I had a good hook hold and soon had it in the net. It was a big relief having been in the favoured swim and not caught yet. Everyone had had a carp (or tench) by then. Elmo & @dalej2014 were heading home that day and everything went really quiet. The wind had picked up & changed direction. That was enough to make @kevtaylor & @chillfactor make the move to the middle of the lake. @kevtaylor had quick payback with his mid 20 cracker. Well done sir👍& thanks for getting out of bed to take a few pics of my fish. I didn't have much activity in front of me and considered moving, but felt it was silly to move having caught this morning. So I continued to keep the chops going in every few hours on the long chuck, occasionally a sprinkling on my margin rod. The lads had spotted an otter causing havoc at their part of the lake at dusk. I was woken around midnight to a screamer on my margin rod. Without my head torch I proceeded to trip over my other 2 rods and grab the screamer. I had a lovely bend in the rod, but something felt strange. Rubbing almost. I played the fish until I saw the surrender of his mouth out of the water. I couldn't quite net it??? I jumped in and scooped the net under the fish. I could then see that during the fight my line had wrapped around an overhanging branch. Fish secure I cut the line. Quick weigh up without my glasses looked around 14lb. Quick mat shot, didn't seem fair to wake anyone up for this little fella. All quiet for therest of the night and morning. I had small fish showing on the long chuck, but no bites. Slow pack up and home for dinner time. It was the first time on this type of social for me. It was kind of like meeting up with old mates after so many years on the forum. I'd definitely go again, take care gents and be lucky!

Thanks to Elmo for arranging this one, a great venue and everyone was sound, Jack and I cant wait for the next one. Sorry for the noise they were provoking me. 🤣