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Tues - Fri last week, arrived at dawn and lapped but saw nothing, only one angler on. I settled on the usual swim, so many rafts of surface weed everywhere that in truth theres not many swims you can viably fish at the mo, needs some big winds on there. The spot was still clear but the line lay needed attention so 2 hours of dragging weed beds in with the spod rod which eventually snapped the swivel off the lead, emabled me to get 2 rods out nicely. 3k of chops, wholes and crumb, hemp, maize and tigers went out and I was fishing. I left the 3rd ready hoping for a show on the marginal plateau but ended up leading about and found a clearing at the end of the marginal plateau in about 6ft 40 yards out. Baited that with about 6 spombs, was happy with everything, thought I was fishing well but nothing for 2 nights, none seen or heard. Now despite forgetting the barrow handles and having to make do with the legs for short arms and 3 trips to the swim that I said to my mate I wouldn't be moving, but you know me with 1 night remaining had to at least try to find them to know whats going on. I moved to the oposite end with a good view over the section but after finding no spots whatsoever I thought I might have messed up. Something splashed though to the right of the swim so I waded for line angle to make the cast and the first one banged down with a smooth glide after for maybe 3 feet. After a few more checks I was happy, diary done I got 2 rods on it and 6 spombs. I gave up on the 3rd rod as pointless cramming in another. Despite the graft no joy come dawn and I was back home for midday, none seen or heard, couldnt say the splash was a carp but it lead to me finding a good spot where there are very few so small win, the spot diary is filling up for sure. I heard my target did come out in May so thats after I seen it from up the tree. With me catching the first fish in March and one of his mates to boot I cant help but feel excited for spring next year - hopefully fish through winter if access allows. Got the dog waterproofs and fleece onesie lol so he's ready.

That's something I've done sort of for years, a few steps forward or back, or even changing up lead size. There is also a difference in casting between mono and braid, and mono being elastic can come back further than you think as it retracts. The number of people I see wondering why they are so far away from their marker, I've always allowed around a third of the depth past it to account for swing back, although I have smashed a few Drennan or ESP markers or pike floats in the past with the lead. Oh boy! One night at Taverham Dave Cobbold and I put in a 10kg base mix bucket full of hemp on one spot with the original Gardner spods. The anglers on the lake were astounded and laughed, until the morning when we'd had around 10 doubles between us. It was Rob Hughes who said if you have an idea of how much bait to Spomb in, double it. I've frequently put in buckets full of bait for fish. On Alton tipping whole buckets in off the bridge... I loved that swim! Funny thing is that if I caught on the bait I didn't catch on the single bait, and if I caught on the single bait I didn't catch on the bed of bait. Every other swim I think it was all over large amounts of bait. I've tried wading and putting bait in on the syndicate and failed, yet Spombing has worked sometimes, not every time. Stringers and throwing stick have worked. It's a case of find the fish or hope they come to you.

Well it looks like winter has arrived early lads. My kid are at home building a snowman! My monthly overnighter is due this Friday and I can't wait, regardless of conditions. No point in having all this fancy thermal gear if it's not put to good use. Anyone else out this week?

I spoke to a guy on Kingfisher he had the RT4 with winch camera, was finding tiny spots in the weed and dropping, checking the drop and bait left over the next day, sounded mega tbh Then the fact that he'd had no takes in about 50-60 nights doing this! Makes me think that instincts and observation had given way to pure technology and he probably wouldn't improve his results if carrying on like this. I love having my boat for the right situation but only taken it once this year. The thing that stands out to me is how small a trap you can make, accurately fishing over half a handful isn't easily achievable. For every spod that doesn't land bang on I put another 2 in lol 1 becomes 6 or a bucket 🤣

Had no time for carp fishing been rushed off my feet in work always is at this time year which I’m grateful for. So been nipping over the local foreshore no cod showing yet just scrap Conger Me and a mate fished Saturday early evening for the tide up which was to high really almost 13meters

Yep🫰 & my 9 year old son who has the bug atm. Frost Friday night and rain all day Saturday. Hopefully dry on Sunday for the arduous pack up

No snow with me neither, just cold n wet. I went last sat n TBF had a good night so I have to settle with the win for a few weeks. Setup just before darkness fell n had 5 fish but after 5am the wind n rain came n it went dead all the next day.

I can’t fish a single either lol

Watching Scott Lloyd adjusting his clips through the session to allow for changes to the cross winds, that's something I'll be taking into account more, even with hitting the clip harder or bigger leads you could well still be a little short.

Also we didn't get snow just cold and wet rain.

Good luck, I went last weekend so I'm not even going to ask lol. I am also picking my new British record bait up Saturday 😂

Few chunks from the other night. The biggest first n the best last lol

You got a good wife then & the ladders are definitely worth getting rid of before the fishing kit. The older I get the less I like being up ladders n on roofs especially in the winter months. Hope your health picks up

Baiting up is weird I took to dumping 3 to 5 kilo of hemp on one spot did alright as well that was at Ecton means a bit of dodgy wadding so I would sooner get a boat for that.

You never know though. You got to be in it to win it.

I definately have done that lol, even last weekend I did 😂 I'm just not confident without bait around them, fishing singles seems alien to me, I just don't see how it could work lol, I know it does but it's a real leap of faith that I just can't make, I should probably work on that this winter. I've certainly got enough different pop ups to try 😂

I remember watching an underwater film with Rob Hughes, that was interesting really showed how it could look bang on with a marker but still be way off depending on rod angle, depth and stuff, I will try and find it and put it in the new section for you tube videos

I think we all have if we are honest a buddy of mine chucked in half a 17l bucket of particle caught nothing I ground 7 boilies shared between 2 rods in pva sticks (i always use 7 never thought about that before.) And I had 6. everyone calls me tight, I just say I’m trying to catch ‘em not feed em lol.

The old adage comes in here you can always put more in but you can’t take it out 👍👍

Tbf I would have preferred this.... would have got some oxygen in the water. With such little rain and wind round these parts, a few places have suffered with low dissolved oxygen. Add to that sub zero air temps and a load of snow to get the water temps down...... I can't say I'm expecting it to kick off 😂

I can't ever just do one spomb imagine being confident that it was perfectly placed when you have factors like braid vs mono, stretch, tow, depth and judging that it landed exactly right where you put your rig. My starting point is usually at least 6. Even pulting boilies a handful nearly always turns into a couple of handfuls.

I'm thinking back to one of my first trips with a boat down to Bluebell in mid Dec, I knew the right area and spotted a small patch of tiny bubbles, took the boat out and what at first looked like a branch turned into a pile of carp. I fished half a handful of low oil pellet a few grains of corn and about 5 squashed washed out boilies and had quite a few out, repeated it the following week. If I'd have spombed on their heads prob too much bait and disturbance for the time of year. I kept to the exact same amount of bait every drop.

Too much bait is underrated tbh, misplaced spods lead to creating a bigger spot which more carp can visit 😂 I do get what you are saying though these spots still need to develop if you don't regularly bait them, then the fish probably won't find them and keep returning. I guess that is probably where the advantage lies. It would be a lot more discreet prebaiting with a boat also, spombing in loads of bait seems hard to do without being spied on. In the defence of the guy that showed me he is a decent angler who would have caught them despite the boat,and he also puts more effort in than most, walks it a lot and always seems to know what's going on and he has caught a lot of the decent ones.

20kg of boilies ordered, I've always wanted a decent yellow banana boilie, turns out the bait company I use had the same idea, will go nicely with my yellow winter spod mix.

Surely if a bait boat is good enough for Terry then that makes it ok for everyone to use.

Having seen what I saw yesterday a decent angler with a bait boat can certainly do things you can't with a rod and line, I watched someone drop a good handful of bait and rig on an actual bin lid sized gravel spot at about 28 wraps in open water, you wouldn't even find that spot with a lead I don't think, if you did you would probably give up before you found it again. certainly made me regret selling mine a bit. He had a winch camera on it, was pretty amazing to see what lies beneath tbh.

I don't think so. Only 1 fish came from any sort of marginal or 'surface' feature, a marginal lily bed in a bay, the rest came from wide open water. I did get through plenty of calories walking and Spombing. My Spombing and casting was normally to a marker float. I also didn't have to worry about a sailor or windsurfer hitting a bait boat as happened to someone up near the dam where the sailing club are. When I was Spombing there, I used mono, the marker rod was used with braid. As @kevtaylor says, no problems with it not hitting nose first at the distances I was fishing, which was up to 100 metres I guess, hit the clip and it drops. When I use the Spomb with braid I do get the occasional not opening problem, but it's a whole lot more aerodynamic in any cross wind than the Nash Dot Spod, and that seems cheap and tacky, I really dislike it.

Dunno if I'm missing some secret rig here but anyone seen this before. I always pick up stinky winky that people have left behind and even pull floats n rigs out of trees ect. Whilst taking a stroll around a small carp only lake I noticed a float so I removed it to find the setup in the image.

Well... last week I had the unenviable task of clearing my late buddy's tackle room for his widow... now my house is full of his gear... the overriding message I took from the experience, was not to spend too much time accumulating material things.... if you go earlier than your wife, lover, partner, whatever... they'll need to deal with it all and they'll never realise the cost of those things... With this in mind, once I have cleared his gear, I shall be having a good clear out of gear... cutting back to bare minimums, I don't want my lass to go through that which my mates widow has endured... Tight lines

Been eating, well drinking, boilie mix super milk... had a real bad cold a few weeks back that was causing all sorts of breathing problems meaning I didn't eat right losing over a stone in weight. Got some of the mass gainer from optimum nutrition worked really well think I'm going to buy them regular and they taste nice, be just right for a fast meal when out angling. Got to have more tests for COPD xrays showed signs for it... Brightside I have a 64% chance of getting a PIP payment which should increase somewhat when I include my groin hernia which looks massive and needs strapping before I do anything.