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Caught my first carp of the year this weekend after a winter in which I did next to no angling for one reason or another. The weekend started well with 3 carp and a tench. Another bite resulted in a loss on Saturday morning but it was enough to have me blagging another night. Unfortunately, despite that warm sunshine, that cold easterly had them backing off and without a move on the cards I was stuck camping for the night. Still, a lovely weekend and I just hope I can get back out at some point soon. Here's the best of them. The linear is I think an original, typified by the little melted heart-shaped tail that most of the OG's in this water have. The common is I think a stock fish but no less welcome for it. Clearly one on it's way to being a real biggun.

Went on a quest for my first catfish this weekend, I lost one the other night as it was steaming towards a bridge, I was felt a bit defeated lol. Anyway I carried on and managed this beauty this morning at 29lb 8oz 👍buzzing 👍👍 Anyway I feel like I got the bug for these things so getting some catfish rods ordered, I now want a bigger one but have learnt I need stronger gear lol. I'm wet and covered in slime, so packing up and going home 🤣 mission complete 👌

Also if you are spombing within catapult range, I would always just use a pult, I've noticed carp on my water seem drawn to the sound of catapults they probably associate with freebies as people mainly use them for prebaiting with.

Great result lads, well done 👍🏻

As for recent purchases, after going back and forth over deciding on a new bank side home i have final settled on a Trakker RS Brolly, Skull Cap and Infil, will be out on a couple of weeks time but have had it up in the yard looks the business

Braid is savage for spodding. I've had to change to the Wolf spod. Was doing 3 times the amount of casts to get the baiting done 👎 Spod always opened with mono, hit clip, line stretches, spod opens every time 💥

Finally broke my record long blank and hooked and landed a lovely 12lb common today, while playing it i kept it up in the top layers and it looked a right belter, thought it may go 16lb plus but seems not, good to get a fish, no pic as no one to do the honours

I'm looking at the speed flex pop up bivvy/shelter for overnight sessions ,instead of using my MHR brollies.. Or a fox or quest version ...see how it goes ..

I got a job lot at the Essex show, but yeah a trimmed down pop up would work just as well

If you don't want to use plastic you could use a tails up baits cornz hookbait on the rig. If you can find a local feed store you might be able to look at it before buying

You could buy a jar of prepared maize just for hook baits as you can see how big it is through the jar or use a plastic version 👍

I see someone else mentioned the name on the other forum. i was thinking it was a Wayne rather than a Lloyd. but Lloyd it is

Ordered a pair of the ngt xpr catfish rods, 2 for 65 lol, I've read a few reviews and people are saying they do the job 👍

Always wanted to try the Airbomb. Il give it a go this summer 👍

I got the Carper speedflex pop up cradle ,it's extremely light ,which is what I wanted ,and folds up really easily .. Not used it ,til I fish next, but initially, think it'll be spot on

Anyone who is interested in the background of Marcus Watts he has done some stuff with the carp cast recently

You can adjust the spread depending how big you want it, my starting point was to set it 3 rod lengths short but if you want a closer spread use 2 rod lengths etc. Takes a bit of getting used too but if you want to be different to everyone else use an airbomb. I haven't seen anyone use one ever other than me 🤣

I was using a Sonik Spod Marker Hybrid, but after rod rings losing liners I switched back to Century Big Bertha for the same job of leading around and the Spombing. I'm more confident in the Big Bertha for the weight of a full medium Spomb than the Sonik which didn't like big casts. I normally cast out and pull the rod tip to vertical or slightly backwards and as it hits the clip the rod pulls forward. That's almost exactly the distance I was fishing this week in a 20mph easterly, which was a 'cross tail' wind, coming at around 45⁰ over my left shoulder. That reminds me, I must give the Aerlex a dose of Rocket fuel, it developed a squeak this week on winding in. Means I will be cleaning up the 7HT's as well.

I was doing it for years, 15lb mono with 50lb Greased Weasel. Never had any problems, less wind knots. It does stop the occasional non opening of Spomb as the line stretches and the Spomb hits nose first rather than skidding. Only reason I went to braid is using one rod spodding and marker float/leading around. Braid is Angry fish 0.37mm 4x PE line with leader. I rarely get wind knots, but do occasionally, usually at the most inopportune time.

1, you can hair rig or not, it works either way... its just a different approach 🤷‍♂️ 2, never said the hair rig has blown, just offering an alternative, doesn't have to be a prawn either... Cockle, Mussell, Meat, anything 3, just said do summat different... do what you want...🤷‍♂️ 4, all the "Frippery" is pretty much variations on a common theme... there's been very little meaningful innovation since the invention of the hair rig 5, never said its an all in one solution, you can try different things and find what works for yourself All I'm saying is that a lot of fish and venues see the same thing day in, day out, a different approach often pays dividends and the old methods are working because fish don't see them that often and trip up... The thing that I see a lot is folks sticking to doing the same thing day in day out and moaning that the fish are off the feed, the water's moody, or there's a Y in the day My message is.... if summat ain't working change summat... do summat outta the ordinary... who knows... if it doesn't work try summat else... 🤷‍♂️😎👍

Well... considering that Richard Walker's 44lber from Redmire kicked off the carping craze in the UK, I think its only fair we take note of the fact that he landed a 44lb Common on a 10 foot cane rod of approx 1.5lbs Test Curve... and not a spod rod Us vintage lads have seen everything in the carp world more or less, and we're still pulling 20's out on our bits o' cane...😉😛😎👍 That said, Walker was an innovator and I'm sure he would have embraced the modern methods had he been alive today