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Even if we did save the cash and became millionaires, what would the first thing we would buy?? a carp lake… you know it makes sense!

Don’t forget the carp anglers prayer… “dear lord, when I die, please don’t let the wife sell my carp gear for the price i told her I paid for it”

Ages ago I decided to calculate my annual spend on carp fishing. I took into account tickets (of which I had a few back then), bait, tackle, petrol, France trip etc etc.... I had to stop counting the figure got so high. It was eye watering. I decided I didn't want to know! 100%😅

If it wasn't for fishing we would all be millionaires

XXX Wafters, hard hookers, 2ltr Hemp Oil, 2ltr Bait booster and 25k hallibut pellets mixed sizes. Think the pellets were cheaper than going to the big boys as free delivery and the bulk suppliers are not. Was gonna buy 50k earlier in the year but the price with delivery put me right off tbh but can't be avoided forever as only got about 5k pellet left. 🤷‍♂️ This fishing lark doesn't half cost some money it seems never ending tbh

They'll go for the easiest target for maximum reward so the birdlife may well be doing you a favour mate. Interestingly, at Denton you'd tend to only get a couple of carp taken in winter as they're all sat in the middle 250 yards from the nearest bank - difficult for Mr Otter to take. Then, in spring when carp start to gather for spawning in the shallows the otters would be back and you'd see a flurry of kills. Easy pickings innit. The issue where you are is the island on the big lake..... the bailiffs used to go over there and find corpse after corpse after corpse 😔. Not sure if they still check?

Indeed mate lots of prep time and fairly costly granted - final tally 340k including liquids, but this is Parco and as he's been about 10 times prob knows it better than anyone tbh I'd love a 2 week trip somewhere - proper chilled with the security of a 2nd week should the first be rubbish.

I know mate obviously good and bad trips and area specific but when it's on it's on! Can see me doing another trip or two at some point. He was freelining from up a tree pulling the bait away from what he thought were 40s and 50s because there was one giant lurking at the back. 4 days later he finally allowed the biggest fish on the spot at the time to take it and it went 66lb and he thought that was a 50 at the most at the time, so what he'd been pulling the bait away from all week who knows, but the lure of that possible 80 at the back kind of forced him to refuse the others. Was up a tree all day like 10 hours in the rain, wasn't pretty but exciting he wouldn't come down, I did find the spot as well it was mega! Over a day a fairly small group would get through a full bucket 1ft from the edge, wish we had a go-pro.

When I was 19 a v large water near me came up for sale at 40k. I pleaded with the bank to lend me the money and of course they just laughed at me. Ten years later it was sold again for more than a million. I still haven't forgiven the bank 🤣

Still can’t decide if that saying is the correct way around or not location bait and presentation ?? there’s a future topic lol

No boats allowed lol and yes it's 2 buckets a day, we found that if you weren't spodding you weren't catching. He will probably come back ill from it all again, missing meals, missing rest, up all night if it's night bites. We were lucky first trip it was day bites and we reeled in at 7pm for dinner and didn't put them back out till morning, think I only had the rods out on 2 nights. Some trips he's had it rocking to the point he's flipping 30s, 40s and mistakenly some 50s without doing pics simply because you can't keep up.

Probably not checking mate but again I've not seen otters on it yet and they are blatant as anything - cannot be missed IMO, when they were on the medium lake I saw them straight away. I did see it stated that my lake has 250 fish in it when they were selling tickets in spring, that figure's gone straight back down to the 80-100 usually stated lol Prob lower than those figures too in actual fact

No it's a big van and that's a lot of weight, the guy who's van it is will take a 10th of that amount and catch barely anything but he's not serious at all whereas my mate will spod night and day and smash it if conditions are good, he's a machine when need is must. Travelling to Belgium this year in my car and taking 20k of boilies each that's it anything more is banned by me - buy pellets etc there if needed. The only place I would want to take 150k plus a week is for Parco, very few places are like that, although it's not what it was a few years ago.

Dunno mate. The Denton biggun finally got eaten last winter after years managing to deal with their annual onslaught. It was a tricky carp and I honestly thought it had learned to deal with them. Alas, no carp is safe.

No tigers - whole, chopped and powdered, 10 x crates of corn, maples and boilies.

Mates going Parco again this week, taking 330k of bait for 2 weeks, something like that might last someone years, there it's nothing special.

Same as me ,simplicity is key .. Location Presentation and bait .. Got taught that by Gerry Savage many,many years ago I've got LP.B engraved on my landing net ,stainless butt. Can't add anymore ,what you wrote is spot on...( I used to blog,test for Haiths )..was good fun ...interesting..

I do need to look at the ABS baits range once Tony stops the base mixes, my local tackle shop really rates his gear, back in the day he used to stock premier gear (I brought my first base mix from him in the 90s - premier aminos with some GLM to chuck in) he started stocking ABS when Geoff started doing that. Can’t say I’ve looked at the CC Moore bases, I haven’t needed to as of yet. I buy the robin red HB (Hook Bait) direct from Haiths, it’s a lovely deep red, it smells the business and i wouldn’t be without it, whether it’s the true original or not, I couldn’t say, but it works! Im pretty stuck in my ways when it comes to bait, I had sleepless nights when I couldn’t get any more boiled ham flavour from richworth, I did get a bottle of nutrabaits UTCS smoked ham, but it wasn’t “the one” for me (that’s not a reflection on the flavour, more my own views) so I just omitted the boiled/smoked ham flavour and just stuck to the hutchie shellfish sense appeals only, results didn’t change, but I found the new hutchie appeals didn't match the original ones, so I substituted it for the premier shellfish sense appeals, which was bob on. Caught a 42lb common on it first time out, so I was well happy with that one. The CC Moore belachan flavour I stumbled across when looking for a flavour I could pop in a 3 egg mix that my son could use on day sessions at a local runs water, rather then him emptying my freezer of my lovingly crafted boilies every weekend! I got him a maple flavour and popped the belachan flavour in the online basket as it caught my eye. When I opened it, the smell knocked me on my backside, eyes watering, gagging, the works! The wife was furious, so I knew then it might be a winner, which it’s proved to be. Only needs 1-2ml per 6 large eggs. of course, seeing as the bait has remained consistent despite the different flavourings over the years, this would suggest the base itself is the reason and the flavourings matter not a jot! Still, confidence is key isn’t it? I like to split my carping into 3rds, (I’m a simple soul) what (to me) are the important aspects?? 1: have I got my location right? 2: do my rigs work? 3: will my bait work? well, I know no3 is nipped, the bait has produced wherever I’ve taken it, so no concerns there. no2 - I have been using the slip D rig on size 6 ESP claw hammers tied with fox cortex coated braid or ESP coated braid for several seasons, the hook holds I’ve had have been to my satisfaction, and over the last 2 seasons, I’ve only had a few hook pulls - usually as a result of my sleep deprived stupidity! If im fishing a pop up, then for a high pop up I’ll use the good old hinged stiff rig, or a low lying pop up calls for a spinner, but as im fishing over particle and pellet this time of year, it’s bottom baits. that leaves no1 for me to have to concentrate on, arguably for me the most important, location!

Otters.

If Tony proper Jack's it all in then the only person that will know the superaminos mix would be Geoff bowers ( Abs baits). My mates now get him to roll their bait as they don't roll their own and our bait was on the superaminos base mix. They catch well on it .

Flaked maize itself is sticky when wet and works well in Method Mix, no major need to blitz it up.

To do our 2 acre lake ,12 yrs ago ,I reckon was 900 quid ,we only had one solar panal at that time . also the pics dont show it ,but the mesh is double ,and in one stretch triple meshed .. battery i showed earlier ,will niw be used as a spare,i have another already on the system in my insulted box ,and on thurs ill buy a brand new one for this winter I did all the work ,and continually maintain it ...

Not a believer personally, but good luck. Nature can be a real beach.!! Seeing you're power requirements had me asking a question? Has anyone had any experience with solar power gor fisheries? Thankfully we dont need an electric fence, but do need to run aerators & or a fountain. I would be interested in anyone's thoughts or expertise. Thanks

Total fishing tackle and Johnson Ross both have Complex T in stock. There were quite a few others if you Google it. Johnson ross even do a bulk discount offer. https://johnsonrosstackle.co.uk/dynamite-frozen-boilies/18538-dynamite-baits-complex-t-bulk-frozen-boilie-deal-5kg.html

I'm sure that I have done that for dumbell shapes, or a too large a sausage, say 14mm for ovaloids. In fact on a 'compatible' nozzle and rolling table, say 12mm, if the gun compresses the base mix, as they are extruded they will expand slightly and be slightly off shape as well. I used to air dry unboiled base mix balls totally, mixed with water and the other liquids, to get a fast breakdown, basically like the ball pellets that were available at the time.

I must have miss read it easy mistake to make lol but it’s all cool however you want to do it. Another alternative is you could always just air dry them without boiling at all to get a harder skin on them and once that has dissolved you would have a paste so even quicker as no boiling involved it would keep the Rudd away for a little while…

I know one venue that's up for sale for less than £300,000

To be honest, if I want a different hookbait, I just make the pillows the way nick described, put the sausage on the rolling table and cut it like that. Also using a (I think, im sure someone will point me right) using say, a 10mm sausage on a 12mm rolling table will make more dumbbell shaped baits? Im sure I’ve seen/heard that somewhere. Never tried it though

Yeah best to not venture down that rabbit hole 🐰🕳️😂 Capitalism would have taken it in other ways. Like now if you want to get popcorn at the cinema it will cost you nearly £100 for a family movie. At least you can still look at your fishing stuff even if you don't have time to go.

That sounds insane!!!

I had to work it out it was frying my brain lol, it's just over 20kgs a day of baiting, doesn't seem so excessive that way, but that's a lot of spodding. He must have arms like popeye,i would have to use a bait boat I think.

Oh yeah it would be a dream to have that sort of time for a trip, maybe one day Kev. I guess you get out what you put into it, In my head that amount of bait doesn't even fit in a van 😂

That seems a lot still and a lot of preperation. Must have cost a small fortune.

Our lake has had them on, and in winter coots were the main diet. We rarely lost swans, but did find occasional pike were on the diet. There were a couple of carp with damaged tails. Again the lake is open access, and unable to be fenced.

A granddaughter who pinched and ate a couple of chunks of luncheon meat dusted in turmeric and garam masala... Bromeswell is on a few estate agents and as much as I would love it...

Is that just boilies?

Forgot to add my flavours so just eggs, basemix (Aminos) and Salmon oil - worked so well, probably better than with flavours TBH

There was also a well used push through ,hollow leading drekkly to the lake ... Just be vigilant one and all,it starts now,when first frosts come and rivers spate ,that's the time

No,makes no difference if they want the fish they'll take them ,found my first female spraint of the yr ,they smell a bit like Jasmine ,seriously .. This is on a pool I recently discovered

knew I'd heard the word, damn Mr O Do think the fish and birds are getting used to their threat and are managing to avoid to a degree, low stock and much weed seems to put them on the back foot a bit?

Great bait, was on a custom Aminos mix for many years then rang him for suggestions and he put me on the Aminos garlic and tuna as it was a very weedy pit, was also gutted when he stopped rolling baits. Their stuff is absolutely consistent you know what you're getting and top quality, cannot say the same for other companies where the quality dips once the demand is there - naming no names. CCMoore Odyssey XXX got lots of confidence in this IMO it's a bit special - big GLM content and not overly pungent - just different. Tried pro Stim Liver but had zero confidence in that and went straight back to the XXX - caught everywhere on it just like the Aminos - confidence in bait is so important. If I hadn't found XXX I'd have been worrying and probably rolling my own Aminos still.

We had 70 Ash trees removed due to die back ,then the Oak fell over and that was a load of Gabion cages to reinforce the bank .. There's always something needing doing on a lake/fishery ,it's about now the sprainting starts ,so I'll be checking that fence everyday That Ego saw is blooming brilliant ,cuts like nothing I've ever used ..

New purchases, Korda extra small clips, ESP claw hammer hooks size 6 barbless, fox cortex soft coated braid. 35lb Korda boom, Korda crimps (krimps??) another Korda crimp pliers (my first set disappeared into my sea fishing kit)

Yes mate, roll all my own bottom baits and cork ball pop ups, I was gutted when I saw his post on the website saying that he was retiring! Got my own boilie mix down pat, I’m so confident using it, I can take it anywhere and not have to worry if the bait will work, one less thing to worry about! premier superaminos base, premier cream palatant, haiths robin red (gotta be haiths original!) egg albumin, premier shellfish sense appeals, hutchie regular sense appeals (new one not a patch on the original) and CC Moore belachan flavour. Been doing the business for me, I used to use the richworth boiled ham flavouring or hutchie mixed herbs, but I’ve long ran out and can’t find any anywhere! So went for the sense appeals and they’ve proved just as effective. god knows what I’ll do when premier pack up and retire for good, what basemix will come close to this proper classic?

I ordered some stuff from them earlier this year, Creamy Nut Method mix, as a base for 'extras' I add in. Also some of their Tiger nut liquid and CSL and some Cream flavour. First class service and actually caught on the first two times on the bank! As others have said, I would give them them a try 👍

I can remember when Taverham Mills was sold, a 25acre lake, stretch of river, a house and I think another 20acres of land. The Carp Society put in a bid, but were outbid by Anglian Water with a bid for £1,000,000. Anglian Water managed to fence the lake trapping otters inside the fence. What irritated me is I had built the fence around the roadside and the woods at the back when I ran it and had no problems. Anglian Water ripped the fence down to rebuild it leaving it down for weeks, allowing otters to get in. Those same otters were getting the barbel and carp in the river before they got into the lake, so AW would have known otters were in the area.