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Got out for a night over the bank holiday. The syndi is closed for spawning so I visited a day ticket down in the Nene Valley. It was absolutely rammed as one might expect given the timing, but I managed to find a few carp in a quiet corner. It was dead hot, so I flicked a couple of zigs out just under the surface. It was clear the carp were just sunbathing, so I was expecting to have to wait for the sun to drop behind the trees for any action. So it proved with a take around 19:30 which resulted in a lovely grey linear. Onto the deck for the night and I realised I had a problem – I’d forgotten the spod rod! I found one of those Wolf X-Spod jobbies in my bag (bought it ages ago and never used it) and bodged it onto one of my carp rods. It worked a treat…. those X-Spod thingys are great! I put 2 on the deck and left one up in the water. At 02:30 I was away off the baited spot and a nice little cricket bat common was landed. Re-did the rod and 04:30 saw an awesome chestnut linear landed - worth a pic this one. Photo’s done, I was half expecting that to be it but at 09:00 the zig rod went. It kited to my right past several other anglers and the hook pulled when I over-gunned it trying to stop it. Still, a good sign. In come the rods on the bottom, zigs on all of them, and back out they go. About 10:30 I get another take and another cricket bat common is in the net. I planned to stay a bit longer after that but as the heat increased, I decided I was happy with what I’d had so called it a day. A great little session in the end.

One caught on Friday after putting a rod on some fish bubbling.

One of last years stocking, I think went in at 11.12, now 19lb.

Thought i'd fill in the blanks from a couple of recent syndi trips. Back out tonight for another go, buzzing 🙏💪

Had a lot of bad luck on little pond today started out with a light carp rod set up and lost a small common to a hook pull, later swapped over to the old cane float rod with mitchell 410a lost 3 carp in a row on stick float fist to a hook pull second lost to knot letting go 3rd the 3lb hooklink parted, re rigged and a blank saver 10lb common, it put up a very lively fight and i was well aware of the 3lb weak link but some skillful playing on a very light clutch and in the net, awful pic of me

The missing link, no not me - apple pie, forgot how much I like these on the bank - gotta catch now! 💪

Hi mate I found a set of nash dwarfs 9ft 2.75lb were ideal for most of my pond fishing, stiff enough to send a 2.5oz lead as far as needed and they felt really nice playing carp, done more 20s than I can remember on them, and they would certainly be enough for bigger fish. For a cheap bait boat, me and my dad share a actor baitboat by boatman. Its nothing fancy but will get your rig and some bait to them island's and over hanging trees 👍

I must admit to going back to the 360 rig this week on 1 rod, the middle one, and that was the rod that went off with a fish. It may have been how I was fishing, over maize and the lead and rig in a bag with a few whole boilies and pellets. I do like the Multi-rig and my bog standard pop-up rig with the olivette as the counter or balance weight, and catch fish on them, but at the moment I am fishing mostly pop-ups. Notes with the 360 rig, make sure before you lift the net up that the fish is right at the bottom of the net. I have a micro mesh base in my landing net, so the eye doesn't catch but in a larger mesh the eye of the hook may need covering. My version in the picture is with a size 4 Gardner Incizor, a small sinker on the braid hooklink. The dental floss is where I had attached a 15mm Nutty Bait pop-up. I also use a run ring for the lead, which was a 2½oz dumpy, although the wind meant I had to fish a tight line. I got a couple of bleeps and a couple of minutes later it just went off. The fish was hooked just to the left of centre in the bottom lip.

Been doing quite well on tigers nuts recently and this one is the best so far at 33lb 5oz.

In my head you need a really curved hook this is a BCR Rigga and they come much more curved than that.

When I'm fishing the complex it's like a morning ritual I will walk to lidls and get fresh chocolate croissants, they go perfect with a coffee, sometimes they are still warm 👌👌🤣🤣

Just enough to redecorate the house plus new soft furnishings and a few bob left over to go towards a bit of summer pocket money, was thinking a holiday but she is still having ops so not much point, plus the prices for UK holidays are shocking.

That's what happens now on dinton pastures i think, they close for 4 weeks or so once the spawning starts. The other lakes I had tickets for had a similar policy. In fact I have kept one ticket for a lake in colne valley. Took me years to get the ticket after being proposed and seconded by a couple of mates who were members, so I may return to it one day.

Absolutely right the Pike go first then Perch so their offspring can predate on the later arrivals - very clever isn't it. 😎 Fished a few waters through the Nene valley and they all seem to spawn Late June maybe into early July, not sure if it's a depth/temp thing, the small stockies may well go for it early but the better fish seem to wait longer. On these particular fisheries closing for a few weeks once they actually start spawning works OK but not if they choose to start when the tiddlers go first. If it were my choice I'd ignore the tiddlers and close for 3-4 weeks once the proper fish start. Tough to get it spot on every time, I saw one of the big girls spawning early Aug, just that spawn bound fish and a few males - mad sight.

I think the March 15th til June 16th was because you have different species spawning at different times. Correct me if I'm wrong but the pike and probably perch spawn first early spring so that their young then predate on the fry of the fish that spawn later so the time scale was to hopefully cover all the spawning of all the species. Always certain lakes that buck this trend . My old lake dinton pastures white Swan lake nearly always spawned a week or 2 after the season opened on June 16th and the anticipation was something I looked forward to. Used to spend the close season pre-baiting, sorting gear out, rigs etc. Maybe the odd day ticket session but everything geared towards the opening night. You had to do a work party if you wanted to fish opening night and the draw for your peg was a buzz. I obviously don't fish Freshwater now but if I did i certainly wouldn't bother me if the close season was to return. When dinton scrapped the close season the fishing that first spring was insane to the point that a fair few members literally only fished it for the 3 months of what was the close season each season after that because it was so hard the rest of the season.

12 weeks garden leave and then I got made redundant 2 weeks before covid hit and lockdown happened. You would have thought after 23 years they could have furloughed me and then Made me redundant. 25k redundancy later and a new job in July on more money I think I won. 👍👍 the MD who made me and the others redundant was made to resign or get sacked 18 months later. just checked he has done 4 more jobs since “leaving”

There was always an air of anticipation on June 16th (usually followed by disappointment ) I think it should be re introduced but as a floating shut down once any of the species starts spawning then close for the 3 months not just carp. Nature would also appreciate it. think back to covid everyone was gagging to get back to it thats how it felt way back when. and from memory it was March to June

I was taken aback by how good it was tbh. Never really liked the look of it but needs must. It cast well (although I was only baiting ~30 yards out) and opened every time. Seemed quieter than a spomb. Really impressed.

Good food happy angler! Love my new front barrow bag, fits in so many more treats than the old one 🤣👍

Yeah I know but it just looks like the hook pattern wouldn't sit right, I'm sure you wouldn't use it if it didn't but in your hand it looks odd lol. I could see something like a longshank nailor/trig hammer or mugga, would probably work well as it's curved and bent the right way but your pic makes it look like it will lean backwards. As for the spinner and hook ups the D rig kicker makes a world of difference to the hook to land ratio, it's not the same as a spinner, the separation makes for a much better hookhold in my opinion.

This is my alternative spinner rig 👍

Well done on catching this week, can't help but think that rig looks like it is going to sit weirdly with the point pointing up in the air, might just be the photo but everytime I look at it I can't see how it is going to sit nicely with a bait on.

Nice set up B B 😎

Penn Tidal 13.7 feet £110, paired it up with my Okuma 8k reel but with a different spool of line

Brilliant tbh, within a few clicks it can be locked up and then each click back allows it to move a little easier.

Someone on the VE day flyover managed to get this picture, proper aerial view:

Are you packing custard?

Enforcement of a court order without the correct warrant not as drastic as it sounds, forced a payment out of me by threating me with bailiff action then tried to recover legal costs, it was at that point I took them to court for execution of a court order without warrant as they removed my property without my agreement to cover an outstanding debt, which I did owe and offered to pay they were asking for unrealistic instalments I couldn't agree to, so I let them do their worst knowing they would step over the line, the court order they had agreed I was liable for the debt and they could recover their money the way they went about it was a problem, for them. Couldn't get a solicitor to touch it on a no win no fee, Tort law which is complicated and they only do cases that are above 25k for the kind of lawyers that do this kind of a case it includes loads of consumer goods laws and protections, got my money back with a little bit on top.

Looks nice there Kev, enjoy!

How you getting on with it? My Trakker bucket is a perfect fit, the Ridgemonkey bucket has little tabs in the corners that prevent it going upto the rim. Planning on putting my front bag on top - first trip using this starts Thursday night 😎👍

New bucket holding front barrow bar (left) to replace existing (right). Not only is this a great idea they've fixed the 2 things my mate and I were discussing previously, too high and shelf not as low as it could be. Might help me to get round without tipping over (live in hope) 🤣

Having just got back from a blank night on the park lake, the boy and I were unloading the car when a neighbour came up and asked me if I was interested in rehoming some “old” reels and bits that she was about to chuck in the bin. I said I’d have a look, after all, I could clean them up and find a home for them (or bin them myself!) so she soon returned with 3 diawa windcasts z5000 reels, spare spools still in their boxes! One has a bent handle, but they are otherwise pristine! she also gave me half a dozen fox single sticks and a pair of what appear to be fox micron M shaped (they’re copies) alarms! She wouldn’t accept a penny for them either. the alarms will be checked that they work and I’ll gift them on to a youngster in need of a first set, the single sticks have been snaffled by the boy and the reels already have a home on my spare carp rods… just need to repair the 3rd. anyone know much about the windcasts? They seem lovely reels from what I can see.

Terry Edmonds used them when he broke his casting record if that means anything lol I like them and had them years

I remember Rod Hutchinson giving a taped interview on I think his Woldview fishery. He said that the smaller carp go for it first, and the big girl would not be among them and actually avoided the warmer water until she was ready which was mid to late June. I've seen on our lake it is the younger stock fish that start the spawning motions long before the original fish, and don't necessarily use the same 'year in-year out' spots of the original fish. This year so far the dam wall was the spot, last year it was halfway along by the rushes, yet the original fish use the shallows by the island. Going back to Hutchy, he caught the big girl in the last chapter of The Carp Strikes Back (reprint) in August from memory and she was shedding spawn in the landing net, so what should have been his first 40 was 39 something. I used to think that it was temperature only, but the number of times I have seen carp start to spawn around a specific date (late May), even if it is cold, and then go again once it is warmer is pretty regular, so I am sure daylight hours has something to do with it. Even pike will go at a specific daylight hours if the water temperature is low and go again when it reaches optimum. I was on my syndicate this year watching them go first week of March, then mid April they were in a mates swim winding him up bumping lines and spawning. Totally, predators before the silvers, and no fish spawn or small silver fish are safe when the predators are eating them. Big pike bursting into a pack of roach or perch to grab a fish, or even grabbing a mouthful of fry. I do and don't on the closed season. I used to hate the Easter holidays as I couldn't fish, but it gave everything time to recover, birds to nest, banks to regrow and fish to spawn, yet proper spring fishing after the cold and wet of winter...

Well done mate - great stuff 😎👍

I personally think the closed season is an outdated concept and shouldn't be reinstated. What I would like to see is fishery owners being more responsible and closing once they spawn and remain closed for a month or so to give the fish some recovery time. I think media is better in many ways, you can learn what you want, find out about products you might want and ignore the rest.

Since the locking of the car parks that sort of trouble has stopped. The local kids could be a pain down at Lemons Hill big car park, sitting on the nitrous canisters. I was getting out of the car, putting gear into the swim (which about 2 weeks ago was under water), although there is another quite sloped swim in the car park cut since. I also used to park down the lane by the White Horse and go 2 swims to the left, about 200 metres. The first swim was a snag pit, the remains of the old road from Tattingstone to Stutton, I've put up a pic so you can see. You now have another car park, entrance by the layby and houses on Lemons Hill, so that keeps walks short. The longest walk I had was The Wonder Car park and going left to the end of the bay on the far side. Birchwood can be a pain, but although I fished it a few times, never caught carp in the area. I never found it busy on any day of the week, although there might be a few people fishing, you never felt like they were close. The only thing I would say is try to reduce background on any pics you put up, or don't let everyone know you are catching. There were a few problems with lure anglers casting over lines (Eastern European) which put me off, and got me in trouble when I spoke out about it.

Got a set of dwarfs, for the money they are amazing. Tbh I actually love fishing with them on the smaller waters. Couldn't recommend them higher

Ohh the waggler is looking positive, no action as such yet, but I did think it would be a fine morning to go have a looksie at a few spots on the Grand Union canal, I already know where I'm heading nice and local. looking at a 10 foot beefed up waggler rod that can handle 8lb line the Drennam red rage is looking good the ten foot float version with a dawia 25 rz 2500 reel. Size 16 hooks might even need a 4lb hook length for a size 18 hook, going big perch fishing stepped up enough should one of the canal carp take a liking

Yeah use this company for my liquids, very happy with the liver and did buy the 2.5ltr.. great price for it. Mainly use it in my groundbait mixes, done me well

Bit of bait for the summer. Gave £100 for this lot! 20kg of boilies (12/15mm) plus liquids and hookbaits (popups, wafters, hard hookers). Chuffed.

Just get. Bit of tape cover over the Sea and write carpdra, nobody would notice mate 👍 My temu one hasn't arrived yet

Just got back from a 24 with my dad, we had a wicked session 👌 he had a 21 and two doubles 👍I did 25lb 8oz, 21lb 4oz and a mid double 👍 I think they are getting ready to spawn, they were all really plump and as we were leaving there were a few crashing around the back of one of the islands so that's gonna probably be it for a couple weeks now. Maybe have a dabble at some sea fishing 👍

Change of hook baits over the same spot has done the trick & I'm off the mark .certainly not a big fish but very a welcome one 👍

Bits and bobs

My new Rod Hutchinson Sceptre 10ft 3.5lb rods arrived today lovely looking bit of kit but maybe a bit to stiff for my fishing needs, would of been better if they did them in 10ft 3lb option, will just have to see how i get on with them, google image as i have put them away

A original version two ,Solar Sod pod ,the exterior leg version so I can fish two plus one on mega slate quarries ,( can't get banksticks in,, ever )... Bit of autosol, elbow grease ,proper job ...totally against my minimalist principles, but ....needs must ... Should be good ..

Check out temu, I just picked up this bad boy for £22.96 I've been waiting for the right deal on this for ages and they knocked off £11 for me. And it's got lid ice packs.

Threw £20 at a little temu haul, pair of croc type shoes for any night time dashes (more to the tiolet than the rods these days 😆), water bucket to replace my leaky old one, bait spoons, tackle pouch and some bait pots for my pop ups, plus some tiny pots ideal for soaking zig foam in, all in all pretty happy

Really happy with this, keeps it all organised 👍 also got rid of the stuff I didn't use 🤣