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Just got permission from the farmer while i was looking round the lake, 80 euros for a year! he said no body has ever asked him before I am buzzing

i know i will get shot down for this but i am not a fan of dropping the lead every time. yes there is a cost implication here as they are not cheap but most importantly for me it cant be great leaving all these leads behind on the lake beds. Yes i know they are made of safe materials these days but every angler dropping a lead on every take just sounds overkill to me.

Result! I'm delighted for you. Ian.

Sounds like worrying times. Hopefully this intense heat will soon be over and I see that a fair bit of rain is forecast for Saturday and Sunday, hopefully that should help.

Water depth and oxygen levels in relation to stress will be an issue in shallow lakes. The mostly deeper lakes on the main continent are not as likely to cause as much stress. Oxygen is not as big an issue in the depths of lakes as it is in shallow waters. Fish can fight themselves almost to death in warm water, and take ages to recover. In theory, yes. Yet every year adults as well as children die in lakes and rivers. A no swimming lake just outside Norwich, a number of deaths related to swimming in hot weather.

I bet you are. What a result.

Lake exclusivity is a great result, good for you We'll look forward to hearing about your campaign.

Just ignore the rules and fish it Anyway .. or is that just in England they get away with that…

Good feedback thanks gents. I get that its not difficult to change batteries but one of my alarms thread had broken and they are a bit rubbish so i could have don't with replacing them anyway. Time will tell i guess.

Oh [censored], thought they looked big

Good'n's for sure.

for me the language, but i remember the first week of the test 11 people failed out of about 50. and they were ofcourse native germans

This is that "mycamoalien" guy on Insta I believe. I think he is, or was, a bailiff on the Wraysbury waters? He's had most of the bigguns over there and did well at Wingham too. His dusted bottom baits look good but I've not tried them. The pop ups seem expensive to me but the attractor combos sound good. You'd be surprised.

Hello Yonny . I was sad to read about your favourite Koi . I seem to remember in hot countries they errect " sails " to provide shade from the sun , and spray water ( in mist form ? ) over the area they want to cool down . Would this be a practicable / too expensive possible solution ?.

Really sad to hear that mate. Sound like you did everything you could have Could it just be old age, with a fish that size?

Well it was a difficult weekend to say the least. I got the new/additional airlines in on Thursday night before going fishing on Friday night. Both of the fish that were struggling (a 68cm yamabuki (bright yellow/gold common) and a 60cm doitsu kohaku (white/orange mirror)) seemed to improve initially. The fishing was just savage in that heat on Friday so by 9am Saturday morning I was back home to check on the koi. The smaller of the two, the kohaku, was feeding and swimming around like nothing ever happened - a full recovery it seemed, but I couldn't spot the big yamabuki. At 10am, having still not spotted the yamabuki, I started work cleaning the filters. I still had my polarised sunnies on after fishing and I was taking a closer look at the fish from the filter house when I spotted one on its side on the bottom. I knew straight away which one it was and so it proved when I fished it out with the net. One of the best in there and certainly one of the most valuable... the yamabuki.... dead. Digging the grave in 35 degrees was not fun as you can imagine but that paled into insignificance compared to the pain of losing one of my favourite and most valuable koi. I'm a member of several koi pages on social media and it seems all over the country people are losing fish despite following all the right procedures. My water parameters are fine and I have tonnes of oxygen going in. There's not much more I can do. I'm hoping this drop in temps does us all a big favour but I know that we're heading back up to 30 degrees after next weekend. I've increased the frequency of my water changes in an attempt to bring water temps down so that should help a little. So basically it turns out winter is a doddle compared to summer when it comes to keeping koi. I knew that high temps introduce risk for koi but I genuinely thought I was prepared for it. Let's just hope that that's the end of the serious problems.

What size do you think these mirrors are? I got close to them and they look blooming fat and deep. if you look close i am on the hill to the left for size comparison,

Oz ponds is very useful. He says to base the bog filter on about 20% of pond volume He was bang on 2 weeks for clear water. Very low maintenance, although im forever tweaking my makeshift skimmer, as the liner isn't big enough to go under my tub

Yeah I've got around 1000 quids worth pumping away in mine. That's the problem with such a big pond.... needs more of everything! Once the balance is right you'll not need chemicals. I bought some blanket weed treatment but not needed to use it. In fact I've not added any chemicals at all. I added a couple of bacteria bombs just to kick-start the filters in spring, but on the whole mine is well established with great water quality. Just need more oxygen to cope with the temps. Stupid thing is I'll spend all this money and by next week the new gear wont be necessary!

Ive made a start digging out the new one

Action stations at home. The last few days 2 of the koi have started sitting high up in the water in the flow of the filter return. No probs I thought, it's just because they like the flow of the water over their gills. Then a couple of days ago those 2 fish stopped eating. I've checked pH, nitrites, ammonia, phosphates..... all fine. Then last night a few of the others started sitting in the flow of the return. They're still eating ok but I'm obviously getting worried. I already have two air pumps feeding several air supply systems but they're all in the filter. This means the freshly oxygenated water is all coming out of that filter return and it's looking like the koi are desperate for it. None of the fish are gasping at the surface but they're opening/closing their mouths quicker than they normally do. Not yet gulping, but it looks like it could be on the way. Obviously the heatwave has elevated water temps considerably so it's becoming clear I need more oxygen as soon as possible. I'm picking up a new air pump later with a new air stone... both the biggest I can get. On paper there's loads of oxygen going in already but it's a big old pond with big old fish. Hopefully the new air line will sort it.

Thank you, baited up late last night, strange atmosphere there at night, its right next to where a young couple got shot riding a motorbike trying to flee the DDR the observation tower still stands today!

I absolutely hate dropping the lead. Despite the theories of reducing the risk of picking up weed, and empty lead clips catches up weed. An zipp or distance inline lead will actually travel through picking up less weed than a lead clip. Again, littering is an issue, just because you can't see it does not mean it is acceptable. I know, stand on the bank of his lake, just throwing leads in. That is exactly what you are doing dropping the lead on every take.

excellent hope you get a few out

Interesting as the volume on the cube goes up to 120db, it certainly isn't quiet. I have it set to about 10db, I am a light sleeper anyway.

I would not risk that in germany, that would be a massive fine and because it would be classed as animal cruelty so maybe short prison sentence?

That's me as well, it is easier to change batteries than recharge them on the bank. I already carry 3 powerbanks as low phone signal kills battery life faster. At the worst I can pop to the local shops and buy a set of square batteries to get me through. Rechargeable batteries have a limited life, heat destroys them, cold they don't work so well, and don't charge either. Hot weather can literally cook them off.

30 day battery life isn’t bad tbh. Assuming you did 4 full 24hrs a month you’d only recharge a few times a year. For me though carrying a spare battery or two is easier than having to recharge an alarm on the bank if you forget to recharge at home. Or it drains quicker than expected or something.

I know mate, the AFD is the only party that will allow catch and release, even my german friend who was always a super lefty is now voting AFD When I did my exam, the trainer — who’s in his late 60s — said, “If any of you catch a big carp, please put it back. You can’t eat one that size anyway.”

Just bought a set of Bitekeeper Cube alarms. I am not so bothered about how customisable they are as most is just gimmicks but I honestly think rechargeable alarms should have been done a long time ago. Arriving tomorrow so will see how they get on. I did search the forum but didn't see anything on here about them. BiteKeeper Cube

although i do still have my Street Triple, i did buy a sports tourer last year in the form of the Suzuki GSX S1000GX.

Sorry about the typo, its actually about 3000 ltrs. Water quality is improved since using a stone/media bio filter for a few days. I dont need to clean sludge off any more, so feel im on the right track Planning on just under 11000 ltrs for the new pond. Im hoping to use the existing pond as a kind of bog pond with a small stream feeding into the new one, with catch pool to a skimmer run off. Might take a while, but it's captured my attention from the rat race grind

Therein are many problems within business and fishing, the need to make money. I've had run-ins in the past with Simon Pomeroy over someone using a huge single hook for pike fishing. He doesn't like people disagreeing with him! I have tried Stonze, in various sizes and they cast like a bag of spanners, more wobble than Jessica Rabbit. For short range fishing, fine. For the potential camouflage aspect, fine. For any distance, yuck. Pushing Dropping the lead was another business invention, the more leads you drop, the more you sell... The original reason for the invention of the Lead Clip was the ease of removing the lead at the end of the session, or changing lead size during the session! It provided a way of being able to fish semi-fixed without attaching tubing over the hooklink swivel, to hold a lead bead in place. Instead of buying 2 items you bought 1. I hate dropping the lead; in most cases there is no need, even in weedy waters. I have fished very weedy waters, and never found the need to drop the lead. Personally I used to use Zipp (Distance) shaped 1oz to 3oz inline leads in weed, and had few problems. As long as the lead has no shoulder, no weed catching. Your hook catches more on the retrieve. Gawd, imagine trying to play a fish through weed with a Stonze inline or not! That's not to say I don't lose leads; a snap-off thanks to pike or swan swimming through the line, an occasional quick clip and the lead pinging off the clip during the fight. However, there is an environmental issue, both as @greekskii says from microplastics, and the amount of lead in various waters, lost or 'dumped' tackle. Dumping the lead is really decriminalised littering, pollution, I do recall something about fishing weights being lead was raised in the EU Parliament. We are not just thinking freshwater fishing here, we have to include sea fishing, both beach, boat and commercial as all use lead weights. There is potential for a ban, and even though we are no longer part of the European Union.

Correct 👆 The guy is trying to get lead banned for one reason only $$$$$$$$$$$$ I disagree with the unnecessary dumping of leads. However, I believe the safest rig is the one that lands the fish safely and efficiently, and on many waters I've fished dumping the lead plays a part in that.

I had a 3 x 3m parasol installed in Feb for this. I have various air supply systems working. Still not enough it seems😩

I mentioned on another thread that over the weekend I did an unsucessful 48 hour session and saw the bailiffs going out in the boat to net dead fish. Unfortunately the lake in question (commercial) had a policy of chucking in a sack of pellets 3 times a week, mainly because another fishery down the road has some larger fish and they were trying to boost the size of their fish.They didn't do it when I was there this time, probably due to the heat but I do wonder if it contributed to them dying.

Just got back from a 48 hour session that was booked months ago and it was pretty grim with sweltering temperatures and little sign of feeding fish. Both mornings the bailiffs were out in the boat scooping up dead fish. I saw one fish swimming upside down and it tried to right itself but an hour later it washed into my margins dead. The one's I saw with my binoculars seemed to be around the 5lb mark and so hopefully the big girls will be OK.

I think that you have to thank the Green Party for that! German politics have run on collisions almost as a default and subsequently the smaller parties like the Greens can wield an influence above their station. They hate fishing and try to ban it but rather than going for an outright ban , they try to do it by the back door like making the licence near impossible to achieve. They also tried to ban match fishing by insisting that all fish weighed in must be killed - very Green. The Green Party seem to be on a bit of a roll with the traditional big two of Labour and Conservatives being in free fall as the public kick back over their failures over the years. The Green Party should be a natural place for anglers or those who place place the environment high in their priorities but I would be very wary of them. The next time Jack Polanski says "look into my eyes", be very dubious.