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Good morning to you all, so as I defrost in front of the fire i shall regale you with a tale of carp, rain and mud! (I’m like a cut price Terry Hearn!) This tale has its foundation in last week, when I found myself once again ensconced in a stuffy hotel room for a “preparation course” ahead of my final exams next week. Chatting to wifey on the phone, she asked why I didn’t take any fishing gear with me, I explained how there wasn’t any time to disappear to a lake for a few hours, so wifey suggested that I get an overnight trip in as she is working and daughter is at nursery and I probably won’t be missed! Still, as the wifey and I have another baby on the way, due in the summer, opportunities to get the rods out are going to become few and far between, so I prepped the gear, my daughter and I rolled some bait and on yesterdays dawn I was gone, heading for zombie sheep lake. In arriving, I found the lake looking grey, sullen and foreboding. The water level was up by a good 2ft, meaning one of the islands had disappeared completely, and the other, only a few sorry looking branches poked above the water! As I was alone, and the wind was piling in, with this being a rather barren landscape, with little to stop the howling wind between the Russian Steppes and my bivvy, I chose to set up on the back of the wind, tucked in behind a sorry line of bushes that did at least act as a wind break. It wasn’t raining, so I took the time to have a lead about to find my usual spot albeit from a different angle. Happy with my spots, HMS Jenny (my bait boat) was launched into the chop, where she gamely battled the waves to deposit two pva bags of boilie crumb, pellet and maggots onto the spots. With that, I was fishing. Both rods being Fox Horizon X3S’s to Fox EOS 12000 reels, to lead core leaders, 3 1/2 oz leads fished as helicopter rigs to fox cortex braid, ESP Clawhammer hooks barbless size 6 fished slip D style. Bait was my usual Premier Superaminos with belachan, shellfish and salmon oil with added robin red, I tend to just keep feeding the same bait all year through here and still keep having bites, plus it helps keep it established for next year. A good quality bait gets better with application in my eyes. With the rods out, it was time to set up house and have a cup of tea. As I was crouching down by the rods, watching the water for any subtle show that there may be fish about, my right hand rod tightened up, so the tea was flung to one side and I snatched up the offending rod, on hitting it, the rod took on its battle curve as the battle was joined. After a spirited 20min scrap, where it bored remorselessly around the flooded margins, it finally rolled over and hit the net. I checked all the fins were flat, popped the hook out and rolled it up in the mesh for the short walk up the bank. As it is rather steep on this side, with all the rain, it was like an ice rink, and I managed to slip over, landing on my bum with a carp in my lap! Still, the fish was undamaged so I laid it on the unhooking mat and unfurled the net. I was faced with another rig in its mouth! Hanging from the scissors was a pink boilie, attached to a rig, safezone leader and a 4oz lead that had no chance of discharging from the lead clip as the tail rubber was jammed on tight! So I unhooked it for the second time and held it up for the happy snaps at 28lb exactly, he was in rude health, I don’t think the other rig had been there long as the mouth was not torn, but I treated both hook holds and let him go, a 4oz lead lighter! I felt that he could be the start of a few, to get a bite so quickly, but alas, it wasn’t to be. HMS Jenny continued to battle the waves to deposit my baits back out there, the rain closed in and started hammering it down, I discovered a few leaks in my bivvy that will now need attention, the bank became a quagmire and it soon became a challenge to stand upright without slipping, let alone walk anywhere! So diving into the stand of trees, I picked up a carrier bag full of pine needles, pine cones and twigs, which I made a path from my brolly to my rods, now I had a grippy surface again, I got my head down and had a peaceful nights rest! This morning, I awoke and redid the rods, or at least tried to! HMS Jenny, my indefatigable little Amazon special bait boat, finally gave in. Her props still spin, she splashed bravely through the waves, but when it came to drop the baits, the hoppers refused to release, the motor working the release mechanism had given up the ghost. HMS Jenny was like a WW2 Escort Corvette who’s used its last depth charge, it can sail gamely on, but not a lot else! I chose to stick on a stringer on each rod and cast them out for the last hour or two, whilst I slowly packed up. Sat on my bedchair, looking at the bags that needed packing away, whilst trying to drum up the enthusiasm to make a start, my left hand rod registered a rapid drop back! I leapt off my backside and promptly landed back on it again as my feet shot out from under me in the slimy muddy bank, and I landed flat on my back, picking my self up I watched the embryonic take fizzle out, I’d missed it! This proved to be the motivation I needed to pack away and go home. With the barrow loaded, I slip and slide my way back to the car park, load the car and head for home. This proved to be a more mentally challenging session due to the conditions, and it did cross my mind to pack up and go home, but I gave my head a wobble and stuck it out. Besides, a 28lb common in February isn’t a bad reward! Now time for a hot bath, get HMS Jenny in dry dock and see if I can get her back to her little bobbing best!

It makes a change for me to start one! Started well yesterday morning, got here around 7, saw a few shows, small bag with a few 10mms and pop up combi rigs put out in that direction. Literally within 5 minutes (whilst I was down the margins putting out a few freebies), my left hand rod had ripped off. I felt it on, felt a good weight, then the dreaded snag. I just kept tension & bump, it came off. Dejected I redid the rod and put the kettle on. Just about to pour & the middle ones off. Good little scrap and lovely little scaled 16lb mirror. Went a bit quiet, sun was up so tried zigs in a few different spots , moving them about every hour or so. Not even a liner! As the sun dropped , I thought I'd switch back to bottom baits as I'd already caught and felt more confident for the night. Nothing through the night and just as I was stirring the left rod was off, happy days. This one felt a bit heavier, then the line went slack, I wound in faster and found the tension to the fish, it tussled a little bit, but was easily netted. As I pulled her out I thought this is a good 30 odd, could be a new pb? Scales topped out at 43 exactly, it is a new pb! Sent a pic to my mate (who's also on here), turns out to be the big girl of the lake. I'm absolutely made up

Woke up at 7 on the dot to a lovely 27lb linear. One of my best trips for a long, long time. Not sure the moon phase had any effect as they were all caught at first light

out for 4hrs today, just to enjoy the sunshine! Had this 15lb common on a single NS orange pop up

out for a few hours enjoying the sunshine 😎

It's been a long hard 6 months of Autmn & Winter. I haven't been able to get out since last August. Glad to finally be back at it again. Its a rock hard water, but today's not about catching. It's about being out and enjoying life for a few hours. Tight lines anyone else out there today. I hope this isn't a false spring......

This bad boy! Does nearly 60 lb now this one!

And my biggest common came on a white shrimp cork ball...... ....... so it's settled..... yellow, pink, orange, white, and match the hatch are good for big commons. And mirrors. 🤣

I'm in the mud tonight.

a mid double common to christen the new rods

If it's bright I'd be starting at ~ 25% depth (from the surface). If it's dull I'd be trying mid-water i.e. 50% depth. Colours for bites or black for the biggun.

Often times the women and children are in an”safe country” and then men make the journey to Britain as the risk is high in the channel. Then once here they bring the family. Your statements show you need to do some internet research as you don’t fully understand any of what you’ve said. Women and children in Ukraine were FLOWN out at the expense of other countries taxpayer money to those countries. The men were forced to stay, those that left cant go back. One that did flee got a visa here and lived across the road from my parents. I’ve spoken to him first hand. Avoided duty because of a bad back, was here working as a labourer the following week. They have a choice on where to go. They might prefer British food to Italian. Simple as that. They have freedom of choice. also, it just sounds like you don’t care about women and children sexually assaulted by British men. So much focus on these migrants and what they’ve done when a majority of SAs in Britain are carried out by white men, same with child SAs. Get a grip on reality please. Villainising a small % of the perpetrators and ignoring the majority is utter stupidity. Are you as vocal about British rapists? If all of these migrants disappeared will you still be vocal about rape and sexual assault? Were you before they were here? they are a recent phenom after all.

Another 3kg of 15mm done on the table, I think I've got my mix about right now 6 egg mix makes 1.5kg and mixes pretty well. Guns and rolls pretty well. Big common food. ✅☑️✔️✅

I just had one, no big surprise! I thought it might be nice to share some valuable, heart warming experiences. I just went with my son to get his first razor. Explaing the do's & dont's was very humbling for me.

So, I went to the big one show today and left with… 3x fox horizon X4S rods, 3x Sonik gravity rods, a pot of sticky banana limited edition pop ups.

blooming disgusting the cover ups by the environment agency letting the water companies spill as much as they did. shocking docufilm. i do appreciate its tv and will have a lot to capture the audience but even it a 10th is true it’s immoral what they did. every angler should watch it scrub that everyone should watch it

Hopefully this topic won't turn as 'sour' as a certain bait thread seemed too? Let me just state I am old enough to remember: 3 day week 1974. Thatcher the milk snatcher Hillsbourgh cover up Tony Blair - 'Things can only get better' New Labour - oh weapons of mass distruction lie brought him down Soo many more, one thing I have learnt is DON'T worry, just do what you do and don't trust any politicians now, there were a few in the past but can't be bothered anymore with all stuff appearing on media. As for greens, they will never be in power so don't sweat about them. On a lighter note, are any 'older' anglers getting on the bank yet?

I support small scale nuclear, it's good enough for our submarines and net zero is suicide. Thus, Conservative or Restore. Restore also address the idiocy of hosepipe bans and shortages in an island with 6 months rain annually. Build more reservoirs on flood plains, not houses.

You need a Korda Krash Helmet , in camo. of course ! .

Twice! 🙄

Hi Yonny, Thanks for the positive comments regarding Trent Shrimp. I've decided to go for it. I only hear praise for Trent and they've got those white cork balls back in stock at last Cheers for also sharing your common capture, what a creature!! Luke

Yup! Been using it for 10 years+. I don't use a lot of boiled bait but when I do it's always the Shrimp. I had just dropped a bait deal back in ~2015 and was looking for something new. I'd bought 20kg of Essential B5 and was really struggling. Literally couldn't catch a cold. Given the track-record of the B5 I was reluctant to believe the bait was the problem but a pal of mine put me onto the Shrimp. On my first session with the Shrimp, 4 hours after casting out, I caught the big common I was after. It was like flicking a switch.... just started getting loads of bites. Just yesterday afternoon, with the temps in my koi pond rocketing, I decided to see if the fish would eat boilies. I chopped up a handful of Shrimp and plonked it in each corner of the pond. Given my koi have never seen a boilie I expected they'd take a while clear it up. Wrong. It was gone in about 1 minute! They absolutely love the stuff. I can't help here I'm afraid mate. The Shrimp is that good I'll not try anything else. I have 100% confidence in the stuff.

Yes , they do come big sizes. I told my mate about them and he uses the 6's. He absolutely loves them. And the bonus being, no carp tax.

Dark moody and damp February session

Made a couple of 1 egg mixes with the AA Baits super buoyant fishmeal pop up mix, my sausage gun was perfect the last couple of times but I think this mix just expanded a bit more, so the sausages came out a bit big and I ended up with some pillows and odd shapes, but never mind flavour wise they are pretty banging one is scopex, black pepper and bergamot and the orange ones are banana scopex, black pepper and bergamot. They are very buoyant though, and one is holding up my rig nicely next time I will make some matching wafters and I'll have made enough hookbaits to last a life time.

" On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors. " Well that's blown that theory then , emmcee , Just don't tell Kev. as he's after a big Common ! . 😁

When i first started out carp fishing i met a bloke on a lake i fished in the Colne valley. If I recall, it was before the hi viz hookbaits were all the rage was about but they were starting to appear more and more in the shops. Anyway, this bloke was a margin fisher, made his own bait but all in pellet shape. His hookbait though was always a hi viz pellet so he could see it better in the margin. He'd catch a few fish but he saw that the hi viz hookbait would be ignored mostly when one or two carp were on his spot but readily taken when 3 or more were feeding. I think most would agree that carp are easier to catch when they are competing with each other. He wanted to catch though when they weren't competing. One day i watched him bait a spot with his homemade pellet and slip in a hi viz one as well, the difference being the hi viz one was a freebie and his hookbait was a match the hatch (clever angling I thought to myself). His catch rate more or less trebled by making that change. When he couldn't get a margin swim he'd fish pva bags in open water and fill the bag with his pellet and one "decoy " hi viz pellet and he caught plenty. On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors.

New wands 😁

I noticed my name got mentioned in one of those links for some reason lol. close the thread and let’s get back to being an SHB free zone hey Elmo have you rolled any today ?

I fished a rather secretive place that the members referred to as Toe-to-the-Brow Lagoon.... because that's how many guys set their zigs 🤣🤣

Nah you didn’t the thread just came to a conclusion and fizzled out

I used the blue or great variety of anatomy rather than nipple but like you it censored it lol but high was the closest it would let me go as well lol

Off on a 48 tomorrow, what with the sun out today, im thinking I might have to give them a try. Another minefield of depths and colours etc I'd appreciate anyone's suggestions on what's worked, as im pants at it

I went to the tackle shop Saturday. And I only bought two things. Sticky pineapple pop ups and a Gardner baiting spoon Quite proud of myself tbh. But then I bought 10kg of pellets and wafter mix off AA baits. 10 hookbait pots and 5 bait spray bottles.

We argue a bit and move on. Hence why the long term members remain. Rather argue about something that matters than if a hookbait worth the price 😂

It’s the same with all these people harping on about Iran, that regime is/was only there because they overthrew a brutal and sadistic dictatorship installed by the British under proxy for the Americans, because the leader at the time who everyone in Iran loved, wanted to nationalise oil and cancel the contracts with BP. A history well documented and factual, but that they bury whenever they can. History repeating itself again. What do they say, if you keep on doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, they call you crazy. Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran…

I can't see the delivery options on the website???

There is a problem in that. Green energy is brilliant, but relying on North Sea wind farms is damaging the seafloor environment. It is 'out of sight, out of mind'. Solar farms, using arable or livestock land to put up solar panels is not Green. The cleaning of those panels put earth damaging chemicals in the soil. Your Fairy liquid is one of the most damaging products, despite being biodegradable, imagine industrial strength Fairy cleaning products. Wind power technology relies on wind; too little no electricity, too strong wind, and the turbines have to be switched off. Solar panels are only about 15% effective. 85% of the sunlight is wasted, and the waste increases the ambient temperature around the panels, potentially reducing important natural wildlife. Crops and livestock can't be grown effectively around solar panels. Importing goods from abroad, brilliant, let's keep our emissions at 0.4% while China goes to 25% of global emissions and we can ignore the emissions created by transporting goods halfway the world. Yet manufacturing, as yet, electricity is not suitable to power smelting, metalwork, glass making. You need gas, coal or coke. You can't have an economy without manufacturing, and you can't have 'legalise drugs' as the manifesto.

That worked wonders for council housing stock and affordable housing. What happened to the cash they raised?? I struggle to see much in the way of reinvestment. As I heard the other day, it's not a cost of living crisis, it's a cost of profits crisis

I bought a second hand 12ft daiwa super spod rod the other week. I used it for the first time this weekend. Was nice to go back to an anti frap tip again. That was really bugging me on my old chub spod rod. Seems a nice sturdy beast too 17 wraps seemed like a flick. Very happy with that purchase for £45.

Maybe try using a stringer, no problem

Since before Jesus was resurrected I heard.

Pretty sure he’s gone in to some level of detail about the process and how long it takes. Also in to how the cure works on the baits and why. I thought I recognised your style and tone from the other forum. end of the day, you don’t think they are worth £22 a pot, plenty do. Personal choice eh. As I’ve said, can’t deny the baits catch plenty of fish and they are used by plenty of sponsored anglers on the sly, or more recently publicised that they use them. This speak volumes on its own when people that get free hookbaits chose to buy something different. plenty more expensive air balls out there that are nowhere near as effective based on catch reports. Massively publicised in mags and things, SHB is irregular social media and a paid for thread on a forum and has an incredible customer base. Again, that says a lot. Enjoy your fishing as you say, probably don’t focus on continually trying to discredit SHB. Especially when you obviously have no idea about what goes in to creating the baits 🤷🏻‍♂️

I've been buying some bits for the upcoming year. 12 cans of ngt bargain gas 28lb katran wild carp camo line And I have had to remodel the spinner rig as some key parts have become less easily sourced. So I've been on JPrecision and ordered some gape x hooks and some different kickers and bait screws and bits to play with. I have used kranks before and seem to remember them giving decent hook holds. I looked at alternative rigs even made a nice soft hinge rig , but it all seems too much faff 😱

Hinders pop-ups are 7 quid and a bottle of their pop-up glug is a tenner so you're actually not far off after inflation.

Thanks for the input chaps.

Over thinking imo. Crack on. Personally prefer bigger baits but I have used PJPU 13mm with size 4s in the past and caught, on a fairly tricky water too.

Just my thoughts, didn't realise this thread was started so long ago and now has sparked to life again! As for the 'company' involved: 1. Can't deny any of the carp pics posted elsewhereare very impressive. 2. Are those venues actually available to the 'average' angler?... I very much dought it 3. Can you question the blokes comittment in early days? Deff not as I believe he had some great catches from the Thames. 4. He provided some valuable 'insights' into tiger nut, maize and other stuff preparation. However, should a certain company appear to have so much influence, on say, another forum? I don't think so. It appears this company are now planning to ditch the web site in the coming months and sell direct to shops instead, probably an economic consideration? Anyway, just my personal view.... I don't need to say this to the long standing members on here, but no one will convince me a so called wonder bait will ever be replacement for location and hard work on any venue, Sorry, mini rant over 👍

Yep that does it. Think it was crayfish meal so same thing. Very light ingredient! to be fair they good alternative ingredients to make pop ups with basemix! Take some testing on inclusion levels though.

I use SHB pretty much exclusively for pop ups nowadays. Caught plenty. Probably would have caught a proportion of those on another brands pop ups. Do I believe they’ve caught me fish that I may not have caught on a different hookbaits? I’d say maybe a few. But I’ll never know. Have I blanked on them? Yes. Down to the baits? Probably not, my decisions on location, rigs, baiting approach, etc at fault. you’ll catch a carp on a lego head in the right place. You’ll blank using an all singing all dancing hookbait in the wrong place. I’d choose SHB above any other pop up though. As Yonny said it’s a confidence thing. Plenty of options priced similarly with much less to them. I’ve looked at making my own, similar but obviously not comparable as I don’t know his process in and out. I’m talking cork chunk pop ups with a curing process of my own. Doable but I don’t have the time. IMO buy with confidence but they aren’t a miracle worker.