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I'd say my first 3 or 4 years on there were my best, it then became a circus and at times unpleasant. Sad really , as Yonny rightly says, " it's just fishing".

I've done that one, and required a hospital visit for a grass splinter in the eye. As for other stupid mistakes, leaving the tackle box at home a few times, requiring journeys home to pick it up from Weybread No.1, Suffolk Water Park and Earith. I've left my rucksack at home, and this trip my hookbait bucket which also contained my medium Spomb. Not checked a combi-rig knot after landing a fish, I just recast and on the next take the hooklink parted at the knot. I've forgotten how many times I've fallen in from leaning over too far, a couple of times from a tree, and the numbers of pairs of sunglasses I have watched go 'plop' from the top of a tree, although at Yew Tree I did manage to recover a pair that fell off. Oh yes, the wading one, I even had a wading stick in hand, but as I waded back to land a large pike decided I was invading it's territory and went for the stick and me. I fell backwards and over the top of my chesties in water up to my chest. Oh yes, and I think possibly the worst, leaving my insect repellant at home and getting a bite that caused the blood poisoning which despite not being a disease, caused the life threatening illness I had last year.

For me it's the things I forget like: mug, frying pan, leads although I have all except frying pan spare in the car now and gotta remember to put the spare mug back in the car from last trip. Also forgot my sling and mat at Bluebell but luckily borrowed one off Trev the bailiff 👍 Have I lost a fish due to not checking the line - maybe I imagine, must have happened at some point. Stupid things: stepping into 2inch of water just past the reeds, ended up sinking upto my shoulders in silt - very very scary, never go in without a prodding stick, falling in several times - head first once whilst reaching to clip backleads on, climbing a tree in waders - never do this the grip isn't there and never climb a tree whilst on a lake alone and over the water - I literally could have fallen and hit my head and noone would have known until the next day at the earliest.

They were savage. They were in fact brother's and had fished dinton for years . They hated the fact that it had become "known" about and that several "names" were joining the syndicate etc. Bearing in mind this was early 2000's and the likes of terry hearn, bernie Loftus and others had dabbled with the days in previous years. I'd heard about these two brother's prior to my arrival and I met one on my second trip there. He introduced himself in the car park and we pushed our barrows out of the car park to the lake and I thought to myself what a sound bloke for him then to say in no uncertain terms that a particular swim was his and God help me if I jumped in it 🤣. The brother's ultimately fell out and ended up weedkilling and soaping each other's swims. Proper nut jobs/green eyed monsters.

Proper savage that mate. It's just fishing!

Fish the swim , cast to the spot, catch the fish you want and then "soap" the spot when you're done 🤫 🤣. I'm joking about the soaping obviously. I'd have had words if it was me and also told the bloke I'd see fish showing elsewhere before he turned up to see if I could get him to move. I'd find it very hard to move or not cast to a fish holding spot. Regarding the soaping, I'd never heard of it until I got on dinton. There were a couple of anglers who I found out were right nasty towards other anglers. I got told by one of their good "friends" that they would often soap swims that were fished week in , week out by particular anglers. If the certain swims held fish because of a weed bed then they would "napalm " the swim (drop aquatic weed killer bombs) into the swims. When I look back there were certain anglers that would fish the same swims week in , week out and catch fish for it to suddenly die a death.

Finally finished the van build, reckon a few laps of a big lake Is due

There is a lake on one of my club tickets where a certain point is only a foot away from someone else’s water (close to an island.) plenty of times there has been arguements on whose it actually is.

When I was fishing Nazeing Meads and Bromeswell I landed a 10lb carp from Bromeswell, and was chuffed to bits so photographed it. The same week I landed a 10lb mirror from Nazeing and slipped it back unphotographed, disappointed. I did lose a fish 2weeks ago myself, the week my phone crashed, but got it right last week. I hope this week goes smoothly and the fish are over the bait I keep putting in.

I don't know families are over rated 🤣

Put your shades on if pushing through undergrowth or climbing trees, you don't want to have something go in your eye during a trip 👍 Can you tell I'm accident prone yet? 🤣

Aqua do 3 nice mats, one rolls up small, one has a recess that prob acts like sides and ones a mat/sling. Cotswold do a nice one too but with prices in the 90 - 150 bracket might give it a miss as what I've got is in decent condition still, I'd be buying for the sake of buying which is not like me 🤣

That's brilliant - bro's ended up attacking each others swims 🤣 It's one thing moaning about others and getting on with it, plotting their downfall all week is likely to lead to mental health probs! You should write a book, I bet you've got some great memories 👍

I got a really nice beanie mat then a week later the club announced we had to have walled mats i went for the NGT XL walled job, but have to say i dont like the size it packs down to, very bulky, but i guess its good for the carp i never catch

I think it's a case of I've made the effort to get here, it's going in regardless, they wont hear anyway. I let them know I'm here with the head torch etc.

Big no no! Can’t be baiting next to someone. but depending on someone’s situation they may just do it anyway. Imagine driving an hour to bait up and someone’s in the area but not on the spot, 2hr round trip and no bait, can see why some may just wing it out anyway. other scenario is, did they even know you were there with it being dark? Seen this happen multiple times in the dead of night, someone creeps round trying to be sneaky and ends up baiting on top of someone in the next swim about 10yards away. Then someone rocks ups 2hrs later and does the same thing, still under the cover of darkness. Club water antics at their finest!

couple of rods out on a little pond I found ten mins from the hotel I’m staying at. On a week residential course for work.

You can actually fish behind the snag, I wanted to do it but didn't know how people would react if caught. But now Joe Morgan's done it on video - game on. 💪

Have it! 🤣

I would have spodded both times and annoyed them out the zone 😂 Might have blown the secret but it would probably put them off a bit. Either that or get the marker rod out find another spot and spomb the granny out of that 😂

Managed to get over to the syndi this week. Tough going but I managed to get on them eventually. Spotted 3 of the bigguns so was pretty excited. Had to wait until an hour before home to get the bite..... a little fully about 10 lb 🤣. Chucked it back without a pic. Just on pack up I got another take.... lost it in the weed🤦‍♂️. Such is life. Roll on next month for more punishment.

I'd like a mat that's also a sling and can carry rods and net inside for stalking, trouble is this then doesn't have sides like a cradle. I don't want yet another mat, but one doesn't seem to do everything 🤷‍♂️

Found this one from 2023. With the tips up, it looks like I was fishing over a bank of weed. The water tower in the background is the last remains from a WW2 prisoner of war camp.

Went to my local days only park lake and started at 4:30 and had 5 doubles to 18-8 by 10 O' Clock and packed up in time for tea at home. I boated out a fair bit of spod mix to the far bank trees to keep the bites coming.

Not walking enough to locate fish, not moving on to fish & convincing myself I’m close enough!