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Just joined, more a browser than anything else, interested in bait, less in tackle or methods so will watch and listen. Hello everyone.

Perfect timing..... my first sesh of the year on Friday!

Good try mate, but you're facing milder temps, winds from the South and by Friday it will be 988 pressure, DEFFO should give it a go if you can, seems bang on TBH I should be on a work party Saturday, may do the night after.

This mornings 5am to 10am session

Nothing exciting, but the boy and I managed a few commons this morning to start this years captures. now have to find a tip eye for a fox warrior 2.75lb rod (any ideas?)

Will say having used a couple of pop up mixes in the past, the best I found was BAF before they stopped selling it. AA would be my choice if I ever make any more though.

Just fork out £20 for a tub of magic beans mate..... all your worries will be over! 😂

Hi Kev. A tackle shop on their facebook post has pointed out that Weds. - Friday the air pressure is dropping , but not a super low ?, so I'll probably stay home in the warm safe from the rain , and the mud . 😁

I decided to start making bait for myself recently, now I've got a lot of the bits I needed I thought I would start with some hookbaits. Not perfectly round but good enough 😂 1egg, liquid preserve, 5ml creamy scopex, Betaine, milk B and butterscotch sweetener. Pop ups are mainline polaris dyed yellow and wafters are AA Baits pink wafter mix + a bit of tropamino basemix as I run out of wafter mix whilst mixing. I think the wafters turned out better and actually came out fairly round, both do what are they meant too when attached to a rig so that's good, now air drying and will give them a splash of extra flavour once they are dried,then all I've got to do another time is match the hatch hookbaits and start rolling kilos and kilos of boilies. Don't think I'll buy polaris again though will get some AA Baits pop up mix next time. I've also been using Copilot to make up loads of recipes, I've got 20kg of tropamino basemix to use up first though. But I've started down the rabbit hole.

Welcome. Its a bit quiet lately, but there's a few good gents that have helped me out over the years. @elmoputney is all about bait atm

Agree that investment has lacked but can’t say they don’t invest at all. I’m part of a £5billion portfolio…which does need an extra 2b to deliver fully. that’s over 5yrs. Most of that is to just keep up with either tightening regulations or demand from development. The underinvestment in the 80s/90s isn’t rectifiable now. Not quickly anyway. Even if the money was there, the workforce isn’t. It’s catch up and plasters to the tune of enormous sums of money. whatever’s happening with your water company is shocking. Be interesting to know exactly what the issue is. Must be major to be offline for so long!

Would hanging cds like the farmers do help especially if at different heights?

All part of the adventure mate! Satisfaction will be crazy when you start catching on it!

You’d be 2/3 way to my pop up combo then! I use banana, scopex and BP Oil. Think it’s a great combo. Also added fructose as a sweetener. I did think maybe adding fine ground black pepper powder to gives some flecks in the finished mix. Black pepper is great, I used to get mine from mother natures goodies but I don’t think it exists anymore. There’s a good place for EOs called oils4life which do 100% pures (also great bulk beard oils). I think the more you make, you’ll end up like me and move away from just the pop up mix, dye and flavours, you start to tinker with extra additives and things. Some nice toffee and vanilla powders out there which would compliment the scopex nicely.

LP.B location ,presentation and bait .. Bait is a tiny part of the equation, if you have no fish in front of you or your rigs are tangled ,hooks blunt etc your not going to do so well.. Since Xmas, in between ,storms and awful weather ,I've caught very well ,just using two fake corns and a little mesh bag ...just a thought 💭

Water temps shot up to 7.1C last week after the really cold weather disappeared. Yesterday I popped a handful of food in and the "stockies" i.e. smaller koi ate it all. The temps were so good I went fishing on Friday night. Blanked, obviously(😅), but on Saturday morning the sun came out and I saw carp with their backs out! Chucked zigs at them for an hour but was already late for home. Always next time.

There is a fb group called Leney Enthusiasts, according to that I've caught shed loads of them 😂

It wasn't a deliberate choice to add the fishmeal, more a happy accident tbh, I thought I would have enough for a 1 egg mix but it was still like angel delight when the bag run out. So to make something other than a mess I added a handful of basemix😂. I am going to do match the hatch ones, I want the option for once I've got them on the bait. I've got some cork dust for those wafters and will probably use the AA Baits fishmeal pop up mix for the pop ups as people have added 30% basemix to those successfully, I might try 50/50 and add cork dust if required. I don't want to make cork balls What essentially will probably happen is that I will make a load of hookbaits to add to the collection of hookbaits I will probably never use 😂

I believe there are a handful left according to Yates/Walsingham, but we will never know where they are!

I use a lot of AA products to be fair. Hydros or liquids mainly. Decent value on pellet too. I do rate them as a brand, been around for years and trusted by a lot of bait makers for ingredients. youd probably be better splitting some basemix with a pop up mix to get a better wafter tbh. you’ve still got the matching waters and pop ups to make too!!

Nah they are current models 🤪

I just went out to smell them, I mean move them about so they continue dry well. The scopex is strong in the garage. I think they should work well. I'm not selling them though, I barely have time to make my own.

Hi Elmo . I would offer to be a field tester for you , but that would mean I have to get off my bum and actually go fishing 😁 . Your pink boilies look very tempting . 😃

I always used the richworth pop up mix when I rolled bait. Not sure if its still available but it was good in my opinion.

Bait…. the most argued part of fishing apart from “what’s the best alarm” welcome in

We are an island surrounded by water global water means water levels rising why are we not investing in and building desalination plants we can drink water back to correct levels.publicly owned so the criminal water boards can’t make obscene profits. would also look good on the green agenda 👍

Good luck mate 🤞

Well the end of the year has gone well. The koi are doing great and still feeding most days due to the elevated temps. The nets/covers are now off since the leaves are gone. The water clarity is insane.... you can see every little detail on the deck in 2m. The temporary floating skimmer has worked a treat. I picked up a pond vacuum a month ago and gave the bottom a good clean at the weekend which means there's no detritus for any nasties to hide in ready for the spring. It's a real shame I can't post vids on here as I have some great footage of the koi milling about. So now I need to plan for spring which apparently is the most tricky and dangerous time of year. Parasites wake up before the koi so it's essential I do everything I can to keep their immune systems working as well as possible. If you lose your water parameters early on, you're chasing your tail all year, so I have to be bang on it to stay a step ahead of any issues with algae, weed, DO, and ammonia, nitrite, pH etc. Really enjoyed the last few months and looking forward to my first full year with the pond. Looking to feed heavily next year to get some good growth, while maintaining the water quality. I'll keep this thread updated from time to time for anyone that's interested.

It's a wierd thing, but as you can guess I am harping back to old times, yes I used to buy the Nutrabaits catalogues, but in the day was a Premier Baits man, now sadly gone in all but name. Just makes me smile when I read (on another forum, sorry), about so called wonder hookbaits, and the domination on certain topics this person now seems to have on it, so glad this forum is a lot more chilled and sensible. Anyway, now getting back into method feeder for fishing for carp on a Sussex lake, seems to be working, well when the lake is open again after spawning again. Remember the big method feeders on Horseshoe so many years ago and did very well on them, sometimes I wish things were a lot more simple for carp fishing, but unfortunatly the floodgates have been opened and I just chill on the bank when I can..... sorry to go a bit off post

No one trusts the water company around here ,having been poisoned by aluminium Sulphate many years ago ,and the water company hid the facts from customers in my area for 16 days ..the Sulphate also went into a local famous cheese making plant ...

Anglian water have a huge one in the pipeline. But it’s not started yet so funding may disappear. Similar to the Cambridge relocation. can imagine whatever has happened is very major and something they won’t want to admit publicly. The storm excuse is a cop out imo. It happened around our way ages ago at Pitsford, dead rabbit in one of the chambers, had to shut off and drain, sterilise and refill the entire system. The intermittent water supply will be because they are pumping potable water from tankers in to the system, hence a bit of stop start as pressure fluctuates. The entire situation will cost them tens, in not hundreds of millions at least. One thing I will note, developers only pay for direct infrastructure. Bill money is meant to pay for the rest which is wildly unfeasible. Wouldn’t be surprised if they start getting charged for the site upgrades soon too. House prices might rocket or development slows though! btw I work in part of the industry so see the costs of things and whilst I can’t reveal much, a housing development of 3000 homes paying £1,200 a year won’t touch the sides on the upgrades or new works to deal with the flows.

Condition are looking really good for Friday down here, shame the cars off the road 😂