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Good morning all, many thanks to all who have reported the spam appearing recently on the forum, special shout out to @elmoputney and @InteraX who gave me a pleasurable 10min banning them all! please keep reporting them as soon as you see them and the mod team will get them rid. many thanks! ouchthathurt (Matt)

This weekend I tragically lost my vintage JRC Cocoon, must have been 25 years old or more. It had a bent frame, lots of tape,mouse holes and I had replaced the elastic for zip ties and it was light as anything. But sadly the loops started to rip away from the mattress and it could no longer be saved. It's out lasted many other bedchairs, it's now gone to bedchair heaven and will be sadly missed RIP So I have found a new JRC Cocoon 2 arriving tomorrow, it's probably 4 times as heavy but looks mega comfortable and it's a sleep system. I still have the sonik one but that does tend to give me back ache. But it is pretty light and will do for when I need the barrow.

Went to a little pond with my youngest boy yesterday and he caught his first ever carp. Lovely little 7lb common. He's got the carp bug now😉

a mid double common to christen the new rods

Went to local lake yesterday just for afternoon managed one carp just an 8lb 40z, lovely scaly mirror, jesus i really am looking like an "old codger" these days

Just check it before your next trip, shelf life particles usually stay OK for a while.

Now very. You will need to freeze it otherwise it will turn into a stinking mouldy mess.

Hi Framey . I've recently used the small Plumb-Ezee ( with a dumpy pear ! ) and it certainly pops up to the surface locked to the depth it has found . However , it seems that it will still come to the surface even if it lands in the middle of a weedbed . What I did notice though was that sometimes when it surfaced bubbles erupted around it , so maybe that's where the weed is ? . I'll have a twiddle , then it should be just the job . 😃

rods out on the park lake for the first night of the new season, shed load of bream, but no carp

This first picture is where I had my bivvy to take the picture of the swans. I mentioned bird flu in the original post, it looks like it has hit again. The lake is down to 7 swans, 3 of which look like yearling cygnets from one of the dominant pairs. The lack of numbers has meant that the dominant males are not so aggressive and not such a pain in the rectum. And a couple of pictures from the last two sessions, taken in the same swim on the other side of the lake. Just to the left of the picture on the far side is the copse that Sky and I were using for shade.

I’ve recently started taking a pair of flood lights with me. They are absolutely brilliant as they provide a nice even light that makes tying rigs or cooking a meal dead easy and no more faffing about with head torches. I’ve got a 3kW portable power station with LiFePO4 batteries that will provide enough juice to run them for at least two full winter nights. The picture below is me on the right and my mate is in the next swim. He’s a bit of a wimp and only went for some cheap lower powered lights. The photo was taken by another mate who was fishing the far bank but I think he’s a bit jealous as he said it was like fishing at an airport! It will make landing fish after dark pretty easy but I haven’t actually needed it yet, the fish on my lake seem to have shut up shop since I’ve been trying it out.

The first image is a wind up, unfortunately the second isn't! I would just like to thank the pair of clowns on Big Hayes last year for the inspiration!

What's the day???

Just my opinion? Use a standard size 8 swivel. Ok, so PTFE has the lowest coefficient of friction known to man but we're asked to believe that this helps with rig alignment when this relatively small device is lying amongst whatever detritus is in the area of the landed rig. The PTFE thing is more a marketing ploy than a mechanical advantage. Once again, just my opinion. Ian.