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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

17lb. Despite the grimace, it made me smile, and laugh. I'd only just cast the rod in after getting back with Sky after a walk round the lake when it went off, I was sorting out the next rod, mid PVA bag making. Bait was in the water 2minutes, not sure the PVA on the first rod had even dissolved. First fish on the Shrimp!

One from the weekend after the heatwave.

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.

Great combination of products When needed.

Same. The original and best.

Is that not what a forum is for?

Not always like that Ian, A fantastic swim for floater fishing back in the day, before flying rats arrived 👍 Just if anyone is actually interested, back then it was an early fox bed chair, think an Argos sleeping bag and a blanket on top...... did me ok at the time 😟

Just watch any video with terry Hearn in it Most of the time the fish are not on the bottom anyway so most of that can be discounted at times of the day watch for strange movements in weeds look for bubbles. look for bow waves. find one and you will usually find more once you know HOW to look. use the wind and follow it down or across the lake.

A successful angler will always be on the fish and if that means spending more time looking/searching than fishing then so be it. If you're not on the fish then none of the other stuff (dissolved oxygen, rigs, tackle etc) matters.

Your eyes....... they're the most important piece of tackle you have. Pressure, depths, temps etc etc are all good starting points but I'll not fish until I see a carp to fish for. You cannot catch what is not in front of you.

Stop reading articles and watching videos lol makes it worse as most of the time they are made by tackle companies who are trying to sell you a product.

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.

And therein lies much of the problem. Big bait companies have had an advantage; if I buy a kilo of semolina it's around £1.80, if a big bait company buys a tonne of semolina it will work out at a lot less per kilo, around £920 per tonne, so £0.90 per kilo. Do the same with every bait ingredient and my homemade bait costs double the price to produce. Billy one man bait company in his garage or shed, won't be buying fishmeal, semolina, liver powder or maize by the tonne! As a result his prices will be more than a big company. The days of Bill Cottam expanding from his (parents) garage to a large industrial unit are long gone. Bait and boilies specifically is a 'busy' market, and it seems anglers don't necessarily understand it, from the bait itself, to using it, and even the difference in cost of buying it from tackle shops or direct. Nutrabaits, Mainline, Nash Baits, CC Moore and others had a recommendation on food baits, and a recommendation on attractor baits (originally shelf lifes). Feed the food bait, continuously, prebait, and the carp will accept it and take it comfortably. Good results will follow. Attractor baits, use as that, don't fire in loads, maybe a few freebies around the hookbait, use the few to attract the carp to try the hookbait. Then along came the published 'Korda' method, (used earlier but Danny Fairbrass did well writing about it), put in plenty of pellets, and spod mix and get the carp feeding on that. At the same time we had the mega high attract hookbait, the single pop-up that got a take, or not. Fishing moves on and backwards, now we are using high attract baits, maybe with added hydrolysates, liquid glugs over spod mix in the hope that the fish pick it up first. The food bait is 'gone' for various reasons, cost of ingredients rising, becoming harder or impossible to get hold of and even big bait companies changing direction or disappearing. Lots of little bait companies pop-up, disappoint or disappear. They are able to charge silly money for baits because fewer anglers have loyalty to a company anymore.

Never heard of them! Not being funny, but 'getting good press'; advertising now is more dissipated as social media takes over. I used to be very up with knowing bait companies, but when even long time companies are falling by the wayside. I keep making this point, if you have a cake of 30centimetres across, with 5 companies taking a piece, each has a decent slice. Now the same cake with 10 companies taking a piece, the slice is smaller. That is what is happening to the tackle and bait trade.

Thanks mate. I already have those Korda sleeves and beads. I'll go with the leadcore. Probably get the ESP bulk spool in silt. Thats the stuff I used back in the day. Cheers. 👍

Fishing is what you make it. I don't like bait boats, despite having owned one long before they were a must have, and then getting rid of it as I felt the ethics of it weren't there. In the UK fishing is very 'mixed'; anglers who do like, do use bait boats and those who don't, fisheries that allow bait boats, fisheries that don't. Some waters allow Deepers, GoPro or WaterWolf cameras, others don't. I know anglers who still reel in at night as they don't believe in fishing while sleeping, others who won't use boilies. The British 'way' is 3 rods on alarms, and that took off. The other adaptations occurred sometimes because mainland European waters are bigger compared to most UK waters. Taking bait out in a boat occurred for years, but on a water that is 10miles long, the use of Sonar and WaterWolf cameras became almost a necessity to find the fish. There is in the UK, a saying or word to describe people who just follow fashion, the media or news without question, without thinking, 'sheep'. Fishing is full of these people, they buy the latest must have item of gear, the best rods, the best reels, fashionable alarms, use the latest published rig and follow slavishly the articles in the magazine, the YouTube or TikTok video. They don't think what they are doing or why. Many get into it, think it is easy, catch to start, want bigger and better, and either learn in a hurry or maybe burnout or quit. There is a lot of secondhand tackle on Ebay! Then there are people who kick back against this fashion chasing, are traditionalists, do things as it was done before the invention of the bite alarm, before the hair rig, only use cane rods, pre-1970 reels or centrepins. Despite not having most modern gear, their watercraft is frequently top notch and they catch or not on their terms. Then there are I suppose a middle ground of people who question their fishing. Who buy gear to suit their fishing, the rods may not be the latest Korda Super Kaisen 3.5lb test curve designed to throw a lead 200metres and some, but instead are around 10years old, well used, possibly from Harrison or Century, maybe ESP, with alarms that are 25years old. The tackle is well used, abused, but still catches fish. They question the articles written by the latest name sponsored by Nash, Korda, Incredible, Fox, Sticky or whichever company gives them the best deal. They watch the water, they try to learn how the fish behave, where the best place to catch what they want. They may also fish a water for years rather than jumping from lake to lake in search of the largest. As with every rule, there are the exceptions to that: Terry Hearn, a lifetime angler, who despite going after some of the hardest carp in the country, catches and continues to catch and fish. Dave Lane who probably 25years ago made his name, or Chris Yates, a traditionalist who despite catching the UK's first 50lb carp, will not use carbon rods, hair rigs as he thinks bait placement on feeding fish is better than the way the bait is attached to the hook. Let me tell you this, people are gullible. They believe adverts, whether the facts are true or not. The advertisers need to sell their product, and when the product life runs out, they need another new product to replace it. Why buy Flash Bathroom and Flash Kitchen when Flash All-purpose will do both? They need you to buy Flash whatever floor wipe on the stick because a mop lasts longer and you don't throw away a mop head for months. A fishing company need you to buy fishing tackle. You buy hooks and swivels, that is two items. You read an article by superstar angler sponsored by tackle company who is telling how his superduper rig is the best thing since the invention of the hair rig, you buy hooks, swivels, rig rings and hook stops that is four items.

Hmm! Your eyes and ears are your biggest advantage. My fishing for years was fishing waters big reservoirs and lakes, for a maximum of 48hours. I'd get home from work, frequently at 11pm at night, load up my gear and go fishing, arriving at the water between midnight and 1am. The picture is just 30acres of a 75acre water I fished for 10years. Even arriving that late I would often sit listening before deciding where to set up. To start with, the only baiting I would do is with PVA stringers or PVA bag of pellets, no other free bait. I don't use a bait boat, everything is by hand, throwing stick or spodding bait in. In fact I put most of my bait in either as I left, or on specific baiting sessions where I was prebaiting for later trips. Getting your lines the right distance is easy with distance sticks or walking it out. I don't worry about water temperature, if it is not iced over it is possible to catch. Fish will be where they want to be, they may follow wind lanes, move from weedbed to weedbed to natural food. As much as you ask, there really is no substitute for being on the water, while carp as a species tend to behave the same, every water is different and they have their own rules. Fish can follow a new wind, especially in summer if it is warm, but not so much in winter. As the wind grows stale they will move back off it. Don't immediately think that long range is the answer, many fish get caught from the margins. It is easier to see them, easier to bait for them, and easier to cast at them (quietly). Does your big baiting attract nuisance species? There is no point in piling bait in if other species eat everything before the carp find it. It is easier to cast in a PVA bag of bait and your hookbait, than stand spodding for 1hour if it is going to get pinched by something else.

Sounds like you @OldBoyare the one who would be more at home on the other forum As yonny said, if you've not got anything constructive to say, then its probably best you dont in future??? Thanks in advance

Sorry, English isn’t my first language, so I try my best to learn your fishing tactics by asking questions, since I can’t express myself freely in English. I often fish at unfamiliar venues hundreds of kilometres away from home, which is why I had to buy a bait boat fitted with sonar. Even so, I frequently draw a blank. Take today’s spot for example: the average depth here is 4 metres, with the deepest points hitting 6–7 metres, while the bank-side water is only 2 metres deep. I chose the transition zone between the 2-metre shallow shelf and the 4-metre channel drop-off.

The guy has given us a paragraph explaining what he's doing and is asking for advice to improve. Give him a break. It's no wonder this place is dead when newbies get jumped on for no reason whatsoever. If you can help him, do so. If you can't, just move on.

Be handy on the pit when the wind is up. You might have to dig them out so I can see what ancient relics look like 😂

I have polarized sunglasses and binoculars. I’ve never tried observing from a tree, but thanks for bringing that up; it’s helped me see just how important this is.

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

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.

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.

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.

I have various weights of the fox captive back leads. i don't use them religiously but when I need them they are in a lead pouch in the bucket ready to go along with the solar flying back leads back from donkeys years ago when Richard walker was a boy lol. don’t strike when using them either just pick up the rod and let the line tighten and mostly they then drop off. if weed has gone around the gate and stops it opening a little flick of the rod usually sets it free.

I can see why it's called Winter Bay. Ian.

As @yonny says, your eyes are the most important tackle item you have, although I do sometimes set up without seeing fish, on a 'hunch', in a swim I have been baiting or down to what I expect from the weather forecast. Although I do sometimes get it wrong that hunch often pays off. It may be that without realising it I have noticed some sort of indication that there are fish in the area. You may walk around and see obvious signs, coloured water, bubbles, fins breaking the surface, even rolling and jumping, they are obvious reasons to set up in an area. When I am in my swim, my binoculars are always close to hand, but I also put store on hearing fish. At night I spend plenty of time just listening to the lake while I read a book, you can hear fish crashing, which can give you the need to move or recast towards them. I don't own any of the technical equipment you mention. My bottom substrate composition finder is a marker float and lead. The lead on the marker rod, cast out and retrieved slowly tells me the lake bed, if it is weedy, silty, gravel, sand or clay. Each feels different. Cast the marker float and lead out. If the lead goes into silt it will plug, and need a fair pull to move, it then glides back but feeling 'sticky'. Hit a gravel patch it's like wheels going over a cobbled road, sand and clay is like a smooth road. Cast into clay, the lead may stick, but then pull and glide easily. Look at the lead when you have reeled in, clay and silt will often stick to the lead, weed will be caught up around it. Hit weed with a cast and it can stick, reel in, it feels like it is pulling back. Any of those spots you can normally find the depth by letting the float up to the surface, although weed is difficult. Do I think about bait? Yes and no! Sounds silly, but! If I am fishing over particles I don't normally want a big boilie, I want a bait the same sort of size as the particles, so maybe a 8-12mm boilie. If I'm fishing boilies I use the same boilie as my free baits. I know my boilies are acceptable, I know that the fish eat them. What works on one lake will normally work on another. To be honest, the main reason I change what boilies I use is down to baits becoming unavailable or occasionally just because it doesn't seem to be working. Originally when I joined Brackens Pool I was using Smokey Mackeral, and it worked. The company I was testing for gave me a new bait, I just could not get it to catch, so I I had to change. That new bait did work on other waters and was released, it just didn't work on Brackens. I was using KMG on Nazeing Meads and Alton Water and I loved it, it was catching me fish from both, and on Nazeing, possibly the garlic element was reducing crayfish interest (not sure, don't know, but I had less problems than with other fishmeal boilies), I took it to Botesdale, and started catching on it, then the bait company stopped making it. Again, I could not get confident in the new bait, hence a change to Shrimp, which I have caught on within 3 trips on a very temperamental water.

For years, around 1995 to 2008 ish I used Daiwa Sensor in brown, on various lakes and reservoirs. From 2008 or 2009 I started using Gardner Pro, normally light as the waters I fish are normally clear. I mentioned above about leaders if I was casting long distances, Drennan Greased Weasel in grey, Amnesia in clear or black has never been an issue. I've watched carp spooking around lines, and it's usually tight lines. I've also seen them spook off fluorocarbon mainlines, whether it was the shadow on the lakebed or possibly the vibration (?) I don't know. Unless your rod tips are mega high, and fishing super tight line, at anything above 40metres the line near the end tackle is likely to be on the lakebed, unless you have 'raised' features like gravel bars to hold it up. I've not been one for 'fish protection' * as with monofilament or copolymer lines, I think the line rarely damages the fish. Braided mainline/leaders and leadcore however I do think can cause cuts, grazes and scarring if they rub. I occasionally fish with tubing, but it is a rarity, and it is for the real name, anti-tangle tubing, to prevent braided hooklinks tangling around the mainline. I normally fish with my rod tips as low as possible, often underwater, to keep the line down, and if I can with running leads and slack lines. *Fish protection, that doesn't mean I don't think they deserve protection, but just that the line is not at fault. We normally fish rig rigs or floater fishing with naked mainline, and hook carp on tench gear, or accidentally while float fishing or ledgering for other species. Camouflaging weights, (sinkers), is it necessary? On my current water the lead in many swims is in the silt. Just dropping a lead in the margins, it is a job to find it. I have lost a few that I have seen fall off the link clip, the run ring fell after a pike bite-off, or where I dropped the blooming thing. I do paint and coat my leads, with a hard varnish, but I think its more a confidence thing camouflaging than a requirement. The fish I had this week and subsequent casts, I had to pull the lead free from the silt!

Yes. The thicker it is the easier it is to see. I've watched carp spooking off lines numerous times. That said, as others have pointed out there's no point fishing with line that's not up to the job. I will always go too strong/thick rather than than too fine for the given angling situation. Just make sure the last few feet are pinned onto the deck.

I'm just back from a few days away and mine's looking murky. I gave it a real good clean last night but I'll need to do it every night this week to get it back to what it was. They still haven't spawned.......! Any plant life will be smashed to bits unless protected. Might be worth removing the silt altogether then you should just get a thin layer of blanket weed that's easy to keep on top of.

So are you from " Up North " , then Yonny ? . No wonder you look " well ard " . 😁

Exactly..... I'm a hero really 😁

Another afternoon on my local park lake and 8 fish up to 18-4 chalked up. It's not the most difficult lake in the world but it's nice to have a confidence boost to compensate for a run of blanks on other waters. I was sending the boat out to the far bank tree line with a combination of boilies, pellets and crumb and topping up every hour and the fish certainly responded to the bait. I did chuck a little bit of crumb in the margins to see how it descended through the water column as I was worried it might be spreading out too far. A few hours later I saw a fish over the bait and it dropped down on it with it's tail waggling clear of the water as it mopped it up. Needless to say, my confidence on adding it to my baiting up has gone through the roof!

Quick night on the local day ticket on Friday. Managed to get on them easily enough but a bit disappointed to just catch the one. I put a bucket of bait out about 30 yards in front of me and got continuous liners on it from about 9pm until 3am. Bizarrely, the only rod to go was the one chucked under the bush in the near margin. I can only assume my hinges were not the one..... should have put bottom baits out. Still, better than a blank and a very pretty little patchy common. I'll not get out again until the end of June which is a killer.

Did an afternoon on my local park. After a slow start and by baiting little and often, managed to build up 2 spots and finished with 9 fish with two 18's and a 20-8 Common.

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.

A few hours with my youngest boy this afternoon, resulted in a little common and few grass carp to 15lb. Happy days