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Just had this one at 24lb 4oz 👍

26lb 8oz at first light this morning 👌

Never any pressure, just go to enjoy, if you catch you catch, if not so what - you've had a nice time with good people and learnt something. If blanking mattered I'd never choose the venues I do. Catching is for noddies 😂

Sat 22nd Feb - First night on the syndi, nothing seen or heard except the thousands of birds roosting - what a place, love it, fingers crossed for a good year! 🤞

Embarrassed confession time buddy… it was on mute… 🫣

Just ordered this for Jack, hopefully keep him comfortable at night when it's freezing cold in the bivvy.

Been working away decorating a barn conversion, staying on the job for six days then home for the Sunday. I had a modern static caravan for digs it had all the mod cons but no tv which after 3 days I didn’t miss the Gogglebox at all, I had a radio and kindle. 👍 Just my own company and the wildlife which there was a lot of, the barn was set in 6 acres and two of them was wooded. Took me a couple of days to get used to the hustle and bustle of being back in the city, never realised how noisy and dirty it was. 🤔

Just sent my Torrix TE's to be re-built by the Tackle Box, not decided which handles to go with yet but think they'll come back looking stunning when finished ❤️

The last cast @ Bury Hill (Temple Lake). I'm supposed to be out of here in 5 minutes, but I think as today is the last days fishing here no one will mind. I never caught here, but it's one of the nicest and safest fisheries I've ever come across.

2 on the zigs and one in the stink. Currently probing 4ft and 6ft after 7ft and 8ft proved fruitless. Depth is about 10ft, come on the carps.

Good luck all attending

Jack was soon back in the bivvy Sunday morning, heavy frost and ice in the edge, who can blame him.

Start or you'll never find those spots 🤣

To be fair, my water fishes so damn slowly through the winter that it could have been muted for months and I wouldn’t have noticed 🙄

Lovely fresh spring morning. Nothing else to report, so far.....

Another night, oposite end - seen a dorsal waving around close in my water, then it lazily shuffled out 3 times. Whilst packing up it came past again to say goodbye or haha you blanked you nod. Freezing cold overnight. Good frost and ice in the edge.

The boys swim

I probably wouldn't bother, I have a deeper pro+ and I hardly use it. I find it annoying tbh it connects for a bit and then disconnects itself, I then had to get a WiFi extender to make it work over 50yds and I just found it a complete faff. I prefer my eyes and a lead these days.

Exactly this. I often find the younger ones just have more drive and freetime on their hands so they fish harder and better than I do,good on them, most of the time they are respectful and will have a chat and pass the time of day,and when they catch I am always the first to congratulate them because they've earned it.

I don't suppose you have a copy of Carp Fishing By JR Hartley do you? 😂😂

Also depends on how hard you hit the clip with stretch in mono you can end up feet off the spot. I had a similar thing with using 4oz leads on a session and caught a few fish and only had 3oz leads left. Could I find the spot again, could I heck.

Little tip that always works for me: After a load of casting about trying to find spots - STOP, have a break - food and drink, a smoke, then start again. I can almost guarantee you will find spots/drops quickly after the break and re-energise, no idea why - it just works for me every time. 👍

I've managed to scale it back to point where I can move without issue, I've gone from 5 rods to 3, dropped the pod for bank sticks, camera bag, two bait buckets, hold all and cooler bag to just the holdall, cooler bag and 1 bucket, ditched the chair, just gone back to sitting on the bed lol. I got to the lake earlier and there was someone in the swim I wanted so setup somewhere else, they ended pulling off so quickly packed down and moved lol 👍all fits on one load and feels much lighter lol.

Tel uses hand rolled cork ball pop ups (he rolls them himsel). You can buy hand rolled pop ups.... they cost a fortune. I use different hookbaits for different applications. Some are expensive (e.g. cork ball pop ups). Some cost pennies (tigers). Use what you have confidence in.

It's no good being daft if you don't show it. 😄 Ian.

No sadly not, just looking back to better times 😏

Seemed the perfect swim to choose

Yeah mate buzzing with that, glad I stayed another night 👍

Traps set for another night 🤞 Might have to try a zig soon, they seem to be up on the surface cruising around at first light 🤔

No mate everything is frosted over 🤣 got ice on the inside of my bivvy, it's all starting to thaw out now, lovely 🤣

Overnighter on the river last night, I had a screaming take… …from a badger!! 🙄

Back for a night or two 👌

I don't they work with well with modern phones let alone one of these 😂

We have a fence on Bromeswell, including the stock ponds and a branch fell across it one night. Within 24hours we found a carp that had evaded the nets in the stock pond dead on the bank with the tell tale gut damage. The otter had worked its way up the feeder stream to the River Deben. We removed it by the simple measure of letting Sky off lead into the stock pond enclosure and opening the gate. She chased it out and off. It was actually the only place I would let her off lead on the fishery anyway when I was there so she could get a run around. I've seen a few 'run over' on the roads in my area. I'm not sure all were actual traffic hits.

I agree. I've been carp fishing for more than 30 years now (which probs sounds like nothing compared to some on here). Yes, of course it's changed in that time. The biggest change I've seen is the disconnect between young and old. Back in the day, it was the love of carp fishing (which included all the blanks, rubbish bivvies/bedchairs etc) that bought everyone together - a common love/obsession of this fantastic sport we all live for. You'd have youngsters, old boys, cops, criminals, brickies, students, lawyers and god knows what else on the bank - all getting on like a house on fire because we shared this bizarre infatuation with a fish. That togetherness is still there for those that seek it and most of the youngsters I meet on "proper" carp lakes are as driven by this love of fishing as anyone was back in the day. I see very few with a "catch at any costs" attitude tbh - they're just keen as mustard, as we all are or have been at some point. In fact, the guys I see ruining this comradery are generally the old boys, rejecting the youth (as is unfortunately so common for any generation), because they talk funny and push boundaries in their pursuit of carp. Tolerance is a virtue. Younger generations owe nothing to older generations. They are a product of a society that WE have all influenced in some way. They cannot choose when they were born. Next time you're out, have a chat with that spotty teenager who's up and down trees and moving swims 3 times a day before settling down to smoke a joint in the evening. Once you get past that ridiculous way they talk (😂) you might find he's an ok guy.

This post really doesn't read well in my opinion.Sounds elitist and seems to stereotype and potentially alienate a whole generation of younger anglers,we should be encouraging young anglers not writing them off.

If it works, I'll have to nick a bit of that😉

Got my bait prepped for the social next week. Big fish crumb mix 😱😬😍

You can use an alternative centrepin cast with a fixed spool reel pull line of the eyes and hold in one hand swing rod out let line go good for under trees

Not telling 😂

I think I will have to try if I go any shorter mate, I've sort of found the sweet spot for it now, if not on the first cast I'm getting it on the second attempt 👌 No carp on this trip, did a 6lb tench this morning that ripped off like a carp 🤣 I'm off there now until Sunday, so baited the spot with half a bucket of particle which will hopefully keep it clean lol. Got so much to learn on this complex, I'm currently on a lake of 4 acres with 150 carp and only fished one swim so far lol. The next lake I wanna get on is just under 9 with about 150 - 180 carp they reckon. But it has more weedbeds, lilies and snags lol.

could you use one of these fox leads to have a lead about? It’s not a weed rake after all… might help clear a few spots

I used to spray them with WD40 and wipe off the excess prior to a wet and windy session which improved this somewhat, yet my boys “budget” fox mini microns at £20 a pop have got completely soaked, dropped, stored in a damp garage covered in mud and all he’s ever had to do is change the batteries once in the last 2 years. They’ve never missed a beat Well a night in front of the log burner has dried them right out and solved the issue, so I guess it was moisture in the alarm as suspected

The other problem with taking too much gear is the length of time it takes to move if the fish show at the other end of the lake then you just can’t be bothered to move. theres a fine line between not taking enough and enough to cover everything. i also carried a bucket of spare bits in the van for that very reason. Mini weed rake, spomb, bank saw, gravel eater, even the gardener multi rake silly bits that could stuff you up if you didn’t have them

I’m gonna pop it in there tonight and see how we get on. I’ve had lots of water ingress issues with delks in the past so it probably has something to do with it

It's got to that point again where its starting to take me two barrow trips to get all my gear to the swim, to many "just in case" items that never get used 🤣 I've managed to thin my gear out a bit hopefully only one trip next time lol. Also took a laptop with me for the last 10 sessions or so to watch films on but haven't once took it out the holdall 🤷‍♂️🤣 Back to the bare essentials for me 👌

the boys rods out on the spots

day trip on the park lake I lost a bream 🙄