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Finally took the plunge and ordered a Trakker Tempest RS 150 bivvy and the skull cap to go with it. I've got an older trakker with the pram hood style and it's such a faff to get it up and down. I have preferred to use a brolly system for years but it was a bit cramped and it did suffer from condensation if I had to have it zipped up.

50 belachan pop ups and 50 maple pop ups rolled onto 10mm cork balls. the belachan is evil smelling… the wife wouldn’t let me air dry them in the house!

The area I cleaned out and created and started prebaiting 2 weeks ago and now fishable.

Moved 4 times today, first spot on the 9 acre lake got done by the birds so moved further down, so I've set up found a clear spot, some guy has set up opposite me so had to move as I was fishing into his water. The 3rd swim I got to didn't last long as I was getting the rods out and started moving my kit I started to find ticks on my rod sleeves and quiver? No idea where they came from but it spun me out so moved down to the 4 acre lake, I'm quite happy with the spot I'm in as it's the one I've been recently fishing. There's a lot of fizzing going on over the spot I baited previously and there's a few fish showing in this bay so I've stuck 3 singles out over the spot, if it doesn't produce tonight I'll put some more bait out but for now I just want to keep the disturbance to a minimum lol. What a day, feels good to have a beer 🤣

Ha ha, the kids call it a victory flag I believe 😎😱😅

Hi mate I use Gardner intensive care for hookholds, it's just a spray, just be mindful it sorta dyes your fingers blue 👍🤣 I use prolopis for damage/wounds, it creates like a scab over the wound. I think prolopis if sealed properly has a shelf life of around 10 years 👍

Thanks for that. It was a toss up between the 100 and 150 but decided to go large! The 200 is definitely a 2 man and just too big for one angler.

Very nice mate, I think the 150 has a lot of room in it, I seen one a while back and even with the bedchair tucked to the back there was a lot of room in the front 👍 Years ago me and my dad bought the fox royale bivvies with the pram hoods, they were an absolute nightmare to put up and even worse to take down. Safe to say we sold them after a couple sessions 🤣

I will check them out for the summer mate, something like that would come in handy on the ressies 👍 For now I've opted for the korda compac dark camo xl cool bag, just to match the rest of my kit 👍🤣 seems like I can get all my cooking stuff in it, brew kit stuff and some food for the day 👍 When I ordered the 45l rucksack I imagined it to be big, safe to say its not as big as I thought and keeping the ridgemonkey armoury tackle box in there is gonna take up a lot of room, so I've ordered the korda basix tackle box just to store the essentials which also has a little rig board, will keep the armoury under the car seat so if I run short on the water I can restock from there 👍

My Carp Porter front bag is silver padded lined but like you say they don't keep anything cold for long, I've tried a few of those, in summer this is a prob if you want to eat fresh meats etc. The OGLOO brand are good and not too expensive, I've actually got 3 lol - one being giant for foreign trips, used once. We cant be popping to and from the lake to shops coz our track is notoriously bad, once in - you're in for the duration if you value your car

Yeah I got you mate, the cool bag I've got at the moment will keep a frozen meal frozen for about half a day and by night time it has pretty much thawed out but don't trust anything after that lol. I mainly want it for storage, just so I can keep all my cookware stuff in it, and some grub for the day. I don't need it to keep meals frozen for days as I have a tescos that's a 5 minute walk from the bank, so normally do a shop in there each day while doing a lap of the lake 👍🤣

You can get various devices. I got some pest plug in things from Amazon for this winter. I still left the poison traps out but only had one dead. Previous years it has been 6+! I do back on to fields though so have a steady population nearby. the plug in pest thing seems to have worked for all manner of creepy crawlies and mice. Worth a look

And toads!

Owdo mate...👍😎

I was looking at the pic thinking what’s the lad up to now 🤔 is he bored and hoping to catch a bird ? Orrr is it a cunning clue that’s he had a fish and drying out the net ? …I must confess I thought you were after a bird but just seen the carp catch 😂

Hey kop, welcome 👍

Yeah mate they don't seem to be as bad on this lake, I've had a few coots pick up the odd boilie but ain't being done by them yet. I've just had a tench about 3 - 4lb so atleast there's something grubbing around there, hopefully the carp ain't far behind 👍

Not gonna catch them at home lol, done a lap of the lake and haven't seen anything so jumped in the swim I know the layout of, I'm fishing into an open spot of 6ft -7ft of water, a little bit of silt with weed surrounding it👍 I'm getting a nice donk with the leads so baits should be presented nicely 👍

Just remember to not use a full bottle in the freezer or it will split when you freeze it 😏🙄😳 I did that with one of those metal water bottles it really tore it a new one. 😱