Leaderboard

One from Saturday evening

On a day session with my dad today, I'm on the fish, well they are topping over my bait so it's a good sign 👌 On the other hand I forgot the brew kit and dad isn't impressed at all. I offered him a tin of Dr Pepper and all I got was the eye 😂😂😂

Sunday morning 6am

Savage. The best/worst boat battle I ever had was on a syndi in Northants. Got the take and it weeded me up real bad. Did my best to free it but it just wasn't happening. Got the boat out and it took me through 2 anglers lines so had to get them both involved. Weed-bed to weed-bed, a right merry dance. Half hour later up popped...... an 8 lb common 🙈🤣

My JRC stainless steel bank sticks are still going strong after 15 years of abuse 😆👍

Well it's the 3rd time I've broken my PB in this swim 29lb 4oz, still can't get a 30 but getting closer and it was a nice one 😍

Goalposts and buzz bars will much more sturdy than a pod, a properly inserted bank stick won't move on the most extreme takes, pods will, I also think buzz bars just look smart, and as we all know, if your rods ain't level you might as well go home

Less to carry, quicker to deal with. More stable (if you use the right ones). Just less faff all round imo.

17lb linear stalked on freelined dog biscuit. Only had about 3hrs so headed to this lil town pond. First time I’ve ever fished it.

I got one Savage bite, looks a nice one want it to stop raining now though 😁

Tonight I will mainly be drinking thatchers gold and having my rod tips higher than usual, just seen some fizzing over me solid bag in the light rough rod, my old mate the lucky morrhen is about so now all we need is the carps,

Where do I start, arrived at a relatively quiet lake, bucketed the usual swim as it was free went for a walk round, decided I had a decent chance, got my rods set up LH Ronnie, middle rod multi rig and rh rod solid bag,after pulting quite a lot of boilies out I chucked them out, LH rod is my banker rod and it went out sweet, middle rod was another story about 15 before I was happy, bag rod 1st cast bad, got a birds nest and had to set it up again after handlining the rig back in, redid it happy enough with it, so I was fairly surprised to get a bite within a couple of hours, even more surprising was it was a belter and a new PB, Happy days and there is still time for another, come on the carps

So my O/T is as good as over so it was time for the drive south for a session on the river. Went to a club stretch that did me well last year and it was good to be back bank side. It was a lovely day and the weather behaved itself and the only other people me and matey boy seen was a couple in a canoe. All fish came in a 5 hr feeding spell through the night and ended up with 5 barbel with 2 of them going 9+ and a PB chub at 5,7 as you can imagine I was over the moon. The wildlife and solitude really is good for the soul……… but not the horse fly bites have 😫😫🤣🤣 A couple of mat shots as was a bit unfair asking me auld mate to battle the vegetation for every fish. 😬 Its a 3 hr round journey for me so you can imagine I was glad to get home after a long day/night. Cup of tea,cheese and ham toastie,shower and I was whacked 💤💤💤 All in all a great session with a good mate and got a roast on the go listening to Floyd and celebrating the PB with a few Guiness, thanks for reading 😬😎😫

I can remember using a board back in the day when the wind got up out came the Shakespeare wand…happy days

Brilliant, I have often find it's those smaller ones that cause the most trouble, that one yesterday wasn't a big one, I estimated mid double but it didn't half cause me some grief😁 Biggest regret I didn't take the time to really check out my spot as I hadn't put my Polaroids on, maybe next time I'll chuck a rig over there and need to retrieve it 😏

when feeder fishing it will be either single sticks with a rod rest or old school taget board, but since i started with the carp malarky i must admit a pod is helpful, i go with what ever the venue presents. if hard board or solid base a pod is fine and adaptable but if nice grass/mud then its single sticks for each rod as only use 1 alarm anyway. still new to all this but some old school stuff still works fine for me such as the bank sticks and quiver tip rests..........

Problem is that if they wore colours that blended into the road then people in cars may hit them I knew a girl who went skiing in an all white outfit because she didn’t want to stand out …. I said there’s a reason they are bright coloured if you think about it lol horses for courses I say

That’s how I see the goal posts , buzz bars etc , might as well use a pod … I like the rod tip pointing at the bait if possible too for indication purposes. Always try to be practical rather than tarty .

As above, and for me is the weight saving I’m trying to use the bike more often ..

Hey you lot , I have a question . What possible practical advantage can you get (and I say you cos I won’t be doing it) by using sticks & buzzbars as opposed to a pod ?

Just lost one in a far from epic boat battle, it had just got too far in the weed and didn't want to budge so out I had too go😳 2 boats in my swim I went for the small one,never again lol, got out to the fish and it came free but the boat just kept spinning round if I hadn't snapped my net spreader block on the way out I may have got it in the net but on one of my rotations it managed to free it self and leave my hook in the pads, it wasn't a monster luckily, but I think captain pugwash is safe for now 😳😁

I hope that’s not a big Rudd in the net Elmo

Caught this one on a 16mm boilie this morning 😆

Turning up with a preconceived idea of location/tactics is one of the biggest mistakes an angler can make imo. Clear your mind of expectation and fish where you see feeding activity. If you do find them in the margins then a pva bag is as good a tactic as any. Tiny qty's of bait, particularly pellets, are defo the one in the margins for me. I'd personally go for a bottom bait over a pop up though. You need that hook-bait/rig to be as inconspicuous as possible. Carp are naturally far more cautious in the margin in my experience and a pop up will often be ignored.

A fair bit of rubbish spoken in the last few posts imho. Let's face it, no-one wants to sit on the bank looking at red, yellow and blue tents. It's bad enough with all the khaki/olive and camo shelters lined up along the bank. It's supposed to be a fishery, not a campsite. These places are so busy now we can at least do our tiny little bit to blend in to the countryside by purchasing a green shelter. You can pick them up for the same price as standard tent if you look around. They're not imo. In fact I'd say you'll find plenty of anglers that snigger at this camo revolution that seems to be happening this past few years. I am more than happy with my olive brolly but, if we talk logically, if anything should be camouflaged it should be the biggest/most obtrusive thing...... which is the shelter. Each to their own at the end of the day but I can think of nothing worse than sitting staring at brightly coloured tents all day.

have only managed to get out once this month but it was the solstice so a nice relaxing recharge on a day ticket, still new to carp fishing but sticking with it and used a few different rigs during the day to test them out. got this beauty early on but did lose one in the afternoon which was a bummer but taught me to not faff about too much when playing a big fish. have worked out my feeder game is still on point but need to adapt it a bit better for targetting carp and also have realised i am useless with rigging pop-ups but finding this forum a great inspiration so cheers all. no idea of the weight as never weigh my fish just do it for the challenge and the fun but this one has stood out as thie first time i have caught one off my own rigs so really pleased with my little self. to those who have been on this forum for a good few years i thank you all as this place has becopme a virtual library for me