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How you doing? This session was a rather decent one, despite managing to leave my hookbait bucket at home with my medium Spomb in it. I spent an hour cursing and swearing as I used the small Spomb to put a bucket of maize and birdfood in. The first night produced a tench of around 6lb on a straight out of the bag bottom bait, which somehow managed to go across the middle rod. The 2nd night was quiet. Last night around 11pm I had a strange occurrence on the middle rod, it pulled to the right, with what appeared to be a run, but there was nothing there, so I recast with a fresh stringer. At 3am I had the same thing happen again. I think that it was a goose or swan swimming through the line just in front of my rod tips, or a swan picking the hookbait up. A couple of miscasts with stringers, but 3rd time lucky. I was sat drinking coffee and eating breakfast when the rod went with a 22lb mirror, one of last years stocking, and a 10lb weight gain. Caught on a 360 rig with a meshed 15mm Nutty Bait pop-up with a stringer of 6x 18mm Nutty Bait boilies. This morning I was starting to tidy up ready to pack up when the right hand rod went, which was the rod over the maize, and managed a rather nice 26lb mirror on the 'sliver' of Monster Crab pop-up on a reverse combi rig. This fish was from the 2021 stocking and went in at 11lb.

Managed to get over to the syndi this week. Tough going but I managed to get on them eventually. Spotted 3 of the bigguns so was pretty excited. Had to wait until an hour before home to get the bite..... a little fully about 10 lb 🤣. Chucked it back without a pic. Just on pack up I got another take.... lost it in the weed🤦‍♂️. Such is life. Roll on next month for more punishment.

I'd say my first 3 or 4 years on there were my best, it then became a circus and at times unpleasant. Sad really , as Yonny rightly says, " it's just fishing".

They were savage. They were in fact brother's and had fished dinton for years . They hated the fact that it had become "known" about and that several "names" were joining the syndicate etc. Bearing in mind this was early 2000's and the likes of terry hearn, bernie Loftus and others had dabbled with the days in previous years. I'd heard about these two brother's prior to my arrival and I met one on my second trip there. He introduced himself in the car park and we pushed our barrows out of the car park to the lake and I thought to myself what a sound bloke for him then to say in no uncertain terms that a particular swim was his and God help me if I jumped in it 🤣. The brother's ultimately fell out and ended up weedkilling and soaping each other's swims. Proper nut jobs/green eyed monsters.

couple of rods out on a little pond I found ten mins from the hotel I’m staying at. On a week residential course for work.

He's certainly not my cup of tea either. As you say, to loud for me and in your face. Missing a parents birthday isn't good either. That said, when I was on on a mission, in total I've missed 3 of my mates weddings, the odd Christmas and new year celebrations and my niece's birthday most years as it's at the end of September when I always have the week off. She understands 🤣, though my sister doesn't.

£45 Jakes Rakes

I've done that one, and required a hospital visit for a grass splinter in the eye. As for other stupid mistakes, leaving the tackle box at home a few times, requiring journeys home to pick it up from Weybread No.1, Suffolk Water Park and Earith. I've left my rucksack at home, and this trip my hookbait bucket which also contained my medium Spomb. Not checked a combi-rig knot after landing a fish, I just recast and on the next take the hooklink parted at the knot. I've forgotten how many times I've fallen in from leaning over too far, a couple of times from a tree, and the numbers of pairs of sunglasses I have watched go 'plop' from the top of a tree, although at Yew Tree I did manage to recover a pair that fell off. Oh yes, the wading one, I even had a wading stick in hand, but as I waded back to land a large pike decided I was invading it's territory and went for the stick and me. I fell backwards and over the top of my chesties in water up to my chest. Oh yes, and I think possibly the worst, leaving my insect repellant at home and getting a bite that caused the blood poisoning which despite not being a disease, caused the life threatening illness I had last year.

I don't know families are over rated 🤣

For me it's the things I forget like: mug, frying pan, leads although I have all except frying pan spare in the car now and gotta remember to put the spare mug back in the car from last trip. Also forgot my sling and mat at Bluebell but luckily borrowed one off Trev the bailiff 👍 Have I lost a fish due to not checking the line - maybe I imagine, must have happened at some point. Stupid things: stepping into 2inch of water just past the reeds, ended up sinking upto my shoulders in silt - very very scary, never go in without a prodding stick, falling in several times - head first once whilst reaching to clip backleads on, climbing a tree in waders - never do this the grip isn't there and never climb a tree whilst on a lake alone and over the water - I literally could have fallen and hit my head and noone would have known until the next day at the earliest.

That's brilliant - bro's ended up attacking each others swims 🤣 It's one thing moaning about others and getting on with it, plotting their downfall all week is likely to lead to mental health probs! You should write a book, I bet you've got some great memories 👍

Proper savage that mate. It's just fishing!

Fish the swim , cast to the spot, catch the fish you want and then "soap" the spot when you're done 🤫 🤣. I'm joking about the soaping obviously. I'd have had words if it was me and also told the bloke I'd see fish showing elsewhere before he turned up to see if I could get him to move. I'd find it very hard to move or not cast to a fish holding spot. Regarding the soaping, I'd never heard of it until I got on dinton. There were a couple of anglers who I found out were right nasty towards other anglers. I got told by one of their good "friends" that they would often soap swims that were fished week in , week out by particular anglers. If the certain swims held fish because of a weed bed then they would "napalm " the swim (drop aquatic weed killer bombs) into the swims. When I look back there were certain anglers that would fish the same swims week in , week out and catch fish for it to suddenly die a death.

Finally finished the van build, reckon a few laps of a big lake Is due

There is a lake on one of my club tickets where a certain point is only a foot away from someone else’s water (close to an island.) plenty of times there has been arguements on whose it actually is.

Big no no! Can’t be baiting next to someone. but depending on someone’s situation they may just do it anyway. Imagine driving an hour to bait up and someone’s in the area but not on the spot, 2hr round trip and no bait, can see why some may just wing it out anyway. other scenario is, did they even know you were there with it being dark? Seen this happen multiple times in the dead of night, someone creeps round trying to be sneaky and ends up baiting on top of someone in the next swim about 10yards away. Then someone rocks ups 2hrs later and does the same thing, still under the cover of darkness. Club water antics at their finest!

You can actually fish behind the snag, I wanted to do it but didn't know how people would react if caught. But now Joe Morgan's done it on video - game on. 💪

Have it! 🤣

I would have spodded both times and annoyed them out the zone 😂 Might have blown the secret but it would probably put them off a bit. Either that or get the marker rod out find another spot and spomb the granny out of that 😂

Tricky one that mate. I think if the choice was fish the spot or walk away, I'd have just fished it in front of the guy. I don't think it's fair to ask him to move, but maybe when he saw your lines were cutting the bay off, he may have decided to move himself anyway. Sure it gives the spot away, but it's better than having to walk away imo. Very frustrating. I'd fully expect him to pop round and ask where your lines were in that situation. Poor show.

I'd like a mat that's also a sling and can carry rods and net inside for stalking, trouble is this then doesn't have sides like a cradle. I don't want yet another mat, but one doesn't seem to do everything 🤷‍♂️

Yeah I’m thinking my Avid Compact cradle mat is better

A lot of places are now banning these type of cradles due to fish being damaged by them. Just a heads up as in all honestly there’s some great packaway mats out there now, sonik just released a zip up one.

Went to my local days only park lake and started at 4:30 and had 5 doubles to 18-8 by 10 O' Clock and packed up in time for tea at home. I boated out a fair bit of spod mix to the far bank trees to keep the bites coming.

Bought myself a weed rake from Jakes Rakes online, arrived in 2 days and looks the nuts - cost around £45 👍

another evening, another few hours spent by the lake side

Thinking anglers new one looks pretty good maybe the walls could do with being slightly higher but still 100mm https://fb.watch/A9qijnzvSU/?

I would then fill it in with spombs,marker floats, deeper etc when I was leaving let them know exactly what it’s like… that’ll learn em

Cant say i really make mistakes other than fishing this ruddy club lake that i used to fish and thought i new how to get a few out, but not really got a lot of choice so have to stick with endless blanks and dont help doing days only rather than sessions but night tickets are a long wait and i dont have bivvy and stuff no more

Put your shades on if pushing through undergrowth or climbing trees, you don't want to have something go in your eye during a trip 👍 Can you tell I'm accident prone yet? 🤣

Aqua do 3 nice mats, one rolls up small, one has a recess that prob acts like sides and ones a mat/sling. Cotswold do a nice one too but with prices in the 90 - 150 bracket might give it a miss as what I've got is in decent condition still, I'd be buying for the sake of buying which is not like me 🤣

I got a really nice beanie mat then a week later the club announced we had to have walled mats i went for the NGT XL walled job, but have to say i dont like the size it packs down to, very bulky, but i guess its good for the carp i never catch

I think it's a case of I've made the effort to get here, it's going in regardless, they wont hear anyway. I let them know I'm here with the head torch etc.

I wouldn't do it if anyone was fishing 😂

Keep taking the bait boat out for a spin you could pretend to fish spots all over the place then that would confuse them.

Yeah of course I could have gone round, didn't know at that stage how busy it would get or which were fished swims, both opposite were overgrown before the path mowing started 🤷‍♂️ When you're on a point it seems like you've got it all, in fact you've only got half way across and that doesn't feel like the one. I guess all this shows is how great late winter/early spring is coz you can do what you want and how that freedom goes come May and that barely anyone asks where you're fishing before plotting up.

Even more tricky. Was fishing from that swim an option?

I have been seen up to my chest in the lake raking a swim to make it fishable, plain ordinary garden rake. I think we all go through 'the struggles' at times. I had a bad year on Nazeing on the Lagoons; I couldn't get onto fish with people in the swims as I was arriving late after work and there were full-time anglers on there as well. It made me more determined to catch. If I had not gotten a job locally I might well have stayed on there rather than fish Alton Water, but travel time put it into touch. Not nice finishing work at 11pm and then having a 2hour drive before setting up. I even struggled on this syndicate first year, not really getting a feel for the water, but I think that was the numbers of fish, or lack of, in 45acres. A 45minute drive is bearable, but it does mean that I can't spend time or a day watching and looking for fish. I even struggle doing a day's pike fishing as really hurt getting up at 6am and taking Sky for a walk before fishing. At least now I can spend a few days at the lake, and watch and walk Sky. I do tend to fish one rod over a bed of particles, one just off them and the third at another feature. Saying that, last year I did fish one on hemp around 10metres out, and the other two were on the edge of the weed where I was convinced that I had seen fish. All 3 rods produced! I've also caught fish within an hour of Spombing in a bucket of bird food, or a day later when they move in. We can be trying to compete with a lot of natural food, yet boilie only or over particles both produce at times.

Can you Rake it to make a clear spot nice little sea lead can make a dent in the weed enough to present 👍

I must admit I really don't like metal framed cradles, fish thrash and damage themselves, or thrash and get dropped onto metal. I have 2 unhooking mats, a big Rod Hutchinson Cabrio Unhooking Mat, and a Chub Xtra Protection Mat. I do struggle with a mat with deep sides due to a screwed back, lifting a fish can be painful, and having to bend over a walled cradle is a killer, so the majority of the time I use the Chub Mat. If I need to use the barrow to transport my gear I take the Cabrio mat as it makes a really handy barrow bag. The Chub mat folds in half and stores my pod bag and centre bar, my weigh sling and sack, and a spare pair of storm poles which double as distance sticks and camera phone mount.

I do frequently even in shallow margins. I've seen fish in the margins on my syndicate with their backs out of the water feeding. Bruce lowered a bait on a fishes nose in around 60centimetres. Two hours later he caught his first syndicate fish, followed by another that night.

Sorry but I've disliked these raised-frame ones from the beginning, seem dangerous, stuff stabbing through from underneath or just the fish flipping out your hands and missing the thing or bashing itself on the frame. I ordered an Avid mat with sides but was out of stock so they sent me a Tracker one instead, it is bulky packed down to be honest but great for the fish. Might look for something smaller packed down - suggestions anyone?

One good thing about these jake rakes is that if you get snagged badly, the prongs are made to 'give ' a little ,so it's easier to get back ,and the prongs can be bent back into position easily .. It's part of the design..I use mine fair bit

I have taken on board all the helpful comments on here, i will say last session there was a peg i really wanted to fish, i knew i could place both baits on clear spots, but wife said it would be cold as its in shade! I will knock up some Ronnie rigs and see how i get on next time out, might take the boat and put a bit of bait over each rod also take more time to try and find some clear spots

Got the same one, a mate recommended it thankfully, can see it being well used come summer 👍

Watched this, really good he's top notch. Was interesting having the otters on the pond, even that didn't stop him. Didn't he have The Croc and about 15 of his mates in his first 3 nights! Levels above. 🙌

First thing this morning on a Nutty Bait pop-up: 29lb @crusian 40metres, towards Scotty dog I've just been through my pics and our Facebook group. I have caught it before at the same weight last year. It was one of the 2020 stocking

The bag probably costs more than the boilies do.

It has been a while since our bankside cuisine has been on show so as Google does not like old threads, I'll start afresh. Last night I had rump steak, so tonight's dinner was the steak trimmings turned into a curry with a diced potato, baby corn, chopped mangetout, fine green beans and half a tin of chopped tomatoes and Garam Masala and a dash of chilli powder.

A simple stir fry ,nothing amazing ,but I live 2 mins from the lake ,and could get my lady to bring me dinner down,but I like to eat on the bank...