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In a bid to be taking less overnight kit ,bought this Speedflex bivvy it's got a nice bit of room in it sets up really fast ,got the wrap for it as well.

Went with the kids this weekend. Blanked the first 24hours. Then we got focused. Decided I wasn't happy with my main spot, so I put my big boy pants on and went for it 18.5 wraps, 2 rods or the horizon and one on the edge of some reeds where I had seen some bubbles, I had prebaited my daughters spot the night before with some boilies and left it, naturally that one was the first to go at 10pm, she cast it and felt for the drop herself and we baited it with 5 x spods and a few extra boilies she pulted into the zone, it ripped off when we were tucked in and listening to a book on audible. The summer I robbed a bank by David O'Doherty, if you have kids it's a great book. And naturally it decided to wipe out all my other rods, but we got it in and I cleared up the mess it made. (yes I was done in and a bit sun rouged) We lost her rod in the carnage and she wanted to sleep so one of mine went onto her spot, one to the long spot and one to the left. We were awoken to a savage take from the long rod. This came in like a ball of weed until it got in range of my other lines. Took the right one out. During the photos I had an out of body experience. Then I ditched the right hand rod spot and went long, so with 2 on the spot I whacked out another 10 X spods and had breakfast. Then the right hand long rod was away,we had spotted them all showing in the middle the evening before and this spot gave me the best shout not being able to move, this one came in well and we moved the other rods out of harms way, fought hard close in but without hassle, and although the smallest of the trio of commons but finished off the trip nicely. Lovely weekend with the kids, had lots of fun and caught 3 and lost none, we did some bird spotting, saw some fish on the other lake spawning and caught some fish Happy days.

Wide n snide baby 😎 Not really the 4th was my daughters.

One of the clubs I'm in have known 40's and a poss 50 in the water so pegs are at a premium on those waters, there are rules regarding stays, 48 on 24 off etc, but it still doesn't stop idiots taking the pee... and if there are swims available, better make sure you are a 100mt runner to get one, I've seen buckets chucked up the bank and fights break out. Hence my secession from the big carp hunt... I'll be on a tiny water tomorrow where the fish don't get much over 10lb so nobody's interested, and I'll be fishing with cane and glass rods with small pins, and I won't get the bum ache if I blank and blame a moody water or the price of elephants for my own ineptitude... tight lines

Rooblinos update. It wasn't as good as the aerlex. Pretty quickly started sounding like a bag of spanners, And it broke my spod rod when I got a wind knot on the braid when giving it the biggun. I actually used the same braid on the aerlex and it didn't cause any issues and I was hitting 18.5 wraps like a boss, straight through with the trusty x spod and a whiny spod rod with no insert in the tip ring.

went on little lake today here is a rod shot pic with Diawa Proteus rod on my single rod pod, this pod is ideal for this lake as all the pegs are platforms and the ground either side of each platform is dam near impossible to get a bank stick in and one rod rule on little lake

That's the super low profile specimen rod on a tiny run rig with a size 12 barbless pellet band got size 10 hair rigs for chopped wafter. Do the float rod on Tuesday night be out Wednesday afternoon that will have a short four triple A float and a size 14 barbless pellet band.

Easy enough to replace a tip ring. Gently melt the glue under the tip ring with a very hot hairdryer or a continually moving lighter flame and remove. You can hot melt or superglue a new ring on.

Sounds like a don’t bother lol

first time out with the latest set of new rods, the 10ft 3lb Sonik Hero X paired up with my DAM darkside 6000 mini pit reels, a great set up for me

Sorry but 6 for £2.37, looks like an essential tackle purchase to me:

I just bought some of the latest small Abu cardinals to see what they are like loaded up with braid for chucking lures after the bass of the back of the boat. for 20£ each can’t complain if they are plastic then at least they can’t rust lol Dam rod the kids are currently chucking the older version of this around the rod is fully orange that were bought from AD and they get sling in the bilge when we leave the boat. the only problem so far on one reel the handle rusted so didn’t spin properly wd40 sorted that out

My latest rooblinos arrived today it's a 2000 sized reel that I bought to go on my old browning match rod, cos t me a small fortune £7 smooth as anything though lovely little reel.

I have really used and abused my Aerlex's, for fishing, spodding and marker float work. I know that the gearing is lower, reel handle turns compared to bail arm rotation, but I actually feel that may be better in terms of the work they do. I think I got them around 2005, so to be still going with minimal care is some going, just the occasional drop of oil. They get covered in groundbait, occasionally soaked and still do Big Boy work. Not bad for an £89 reel. I preferred them over the £105 Biomaster I think it was then, although it might have been I didn't want to spend the extra £20 each on 5 reels... I've said since that Shimano quality has dropped, reels were built to last, now they are built to be upgraded or fail... I'm still using my 7000 Beastmaster XTA's for fishing, and still getting positive comments from other people on the syndicate. The DL10000's I have just don't feel as robust. Give me the original Seaspin Baitrunners, or the 4000/6010 Aero GTE Baitrunners and I would be happy with them on lighter rods.

Yeah I dont doubt it won't be perfect, just really an experiment to see whether a £20 reel will be up to the job, if its OK I will use it, if it annoys me I haven't really lost much and will swap back to the aerlex or buy an okuma or something.