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Decided to try and fish one of the new lakes on the complex this year, first time out had a walk round and found the motherload of the fish all tucked away and chilling had to barrow through a swamp and lots of flooded pathways but when my rod ripped off this morning I knew it was worth it, what I realised pretty quickly though was it felt pretty heavy, when I saw it I knew it was quite heavy, I chucked my other rod in the reeds and made sure I wasn't going to lose it by playing it as delicately as I could, I needn't have worried it was nailed on the ever faithful spinner rig, as I sit here contemplating what just happened I've realised I still haven't had a proper cuppa yet today so kettle on and chill time. 31lb not bad for a first night on a new lake 😊

Managed to get out for an overnighter on Friday. A little syndi water I joined last year. I managed a night in September and lost one in the weed which was a bit rubbish. Not had the chance to fish it again until Friday so I was buzzing to be back. Anyway..... it was quite busy when I turned up. Managed to find the carp pretty quickly, shoaled up in front of a swim that was taken 👎. Closest I could get was a swim down the way which was v tricky to get to. Loads of mud and puddles 6 inches deep meant that not many were prepared to fish it. On go the waders and I manage to get my barrow there eventually. The swim itself was underwater so it wasn't the most comfortable session. Found a spot for the brolly back behind some trees which was muddy but doable. The swim was weedy as anything but managed to find a couple of little spots. Choddy but clear enough for a pop-up. The rods went out nicely and I put 2 spods over each rod. Not much happened in the day but I saw enough signs to think the night would give me a chance. Popped a couple more spods over each spot ready for the evening ahead and settled down for the night. Sometime in the night I started to get liners on the right hand spot so was pretty confident of a bite. Couple of hours later off it went and a nice little mirror ended up in the net just before first light. A lovely little fully scaled thing. Thirty mins later the liners started on the left hand rod so I was expecting another but it just didn't materialise. Disappointing but hey, I'd just caught my first from the water so can't complain. Showed the kipper pic to the syndi group and no-one recognised it. One chap said he might have had it on opening night in the 2015 season (!) so it looks like it's a rare'n. Not a biggun but a very, very pretty fish. Not sure when I can get back now which is a shame as I really like the place despite all the mud!

Caught a new club water, 2lb even... delighted🥰😍

My son joined me, he had 4. 20lb on the nose 18lb

last session of the season on the estate lake off to pastures new come June 16th

Same swim, 2 weeks later. I've been putting bait in when I leave, and although I had a walk around didn't see anything to make me want to go anywhere else. Last week I did have 2 tench over the bait, biggest an estimated 5lb

Back down for another 3-4 nights potentially, picked back of the wind based on what I saw last trip and after setting up I saw several shows to my surprise, showing me where to put the rods, fingers crossed might get lucky - think I've dropped right on them unless they're passing through, some chunks to - fingers crossed 🤞

Finally had a fish, Long winter on low stocked day ticket water. Boom Boom

First night of the season last night. It was a lot colder than I expected. There was ice on my unhooking mat and bivvy this morning. No bites so far. Still a few hours left though....

Did the last night on the estate lake until next winter, had 6 out, biggest 21lb. low double 21lb

Landed my 1st ever Tench coming in just over 2lbs. Need to work on those photo skills haha

1st bass of the spring

took a random picture of ducks to send the family while i was out and just look at the cheeky fish showing off

so first time out since september and managed a cheeky day session on local water, great start to the day as not only did my landing net snap on the first fish but also my bite alarm decided it would snap at the bracket so maybe some glue later might work but not convinced. new bite alarm turned up in the shape of this beautiful Robin just sitting on the rod for what seemed like ages despite all of that it was a wonderful feeling being bakside again and had a lovely time with a few very nice carp reckon all under 5lb, will also post up the awesome pic i got of a a carp photobombing my picture of ducks....

Got a cracking 30 common first morning then the crowds arrived and pressured the area and they did the off. Kept it secret squirrel so no pics till I report it to the syndi, sorry 🐳😎👍 Get in 🙂

Thanks Kev still buzzing from it, bit rude not to share the other side when it looks like this 😍

Another weekend blank, racking them up. Left what feels like my peg alone (West end, back of the wind) as there were others either side and only one down the windward end but out the way (East end taking a westerly). Did Friday night in one swim and had a couple show over the rods at dawn but far more were showing in a vacant swim round the corner, so I planned to move midday get the rods in place early afternoon once it'd gone quiet. I knew the swim a little and placed rigs all around the edges of the plateau with as little disturbance as possible. Was absolutely gutted to wake up and nothing showing, just one tiny liner, area seemed dead and noticeably colder than the day before. That's carp fishing in spring, never kind to me, onto next time. Oh and pushing that barrow through floods and sticky clay holes full of random brick ends is not the one and will finish me off pretty damn soon, where's that power wheel 🙏🤣

Had quite a few dogfish too 🙄

For all the members that have difficulty owning up to tackle purchases to their better half’s here’s a trick I came across …but be warned tho if you get greedy and abuse the said trick you could end up permanently damaged …

The only reason I can think of to justify having a heater in a bivvy is if I was going to claim on mrs B B life insurance 🤔

My first order from aa baits 👍 loving the size of the xxl tigers 🤣

French stuff has garlic Chinese stuff has sweet and sour best stuff is the Jamaican 😂 😜

How much do you pay the guy from Trakker to carry your water ? ….. as you can tell from my posts I’m bored got rained off in work today 😏

Sat here this morning debating whether I should leave or stay on, at that moment the rod ripped off catching this little beauty 👌 8lb 12oz 👍

My mrs says we really need to sort your shed out and get rid of some of the fishing gear… ME.. ok we’ll do your boots and shoes first..

Managed to get hold of a set of original Daiwa GS3000 Whisker's. Convinced myself I'd sell the SS3000's to fund the purchase but obviously that's just not going to happen😅

Just so people know, I do often do 2 and 1 on single sticks. I do like the stability of a goalpost setup, but if one rod is better placed in another direction. The one on single sticks is over a mix of mashed bread, particles, crushed boilies, worms and molehill soil, while the two are being fished with stringers over boilies.

When I first fished a big pit I set my stall out and fished at 40yds or less for 90% of my fishing, especially when seeing most anglers casting as far as they could. I also concentrated on the bays on this particular lake as the fishing was comfortable for me and more into my style. Im not someone who likes to fish as far they can so I only ever launched baits to the horizon if that's where the fish were. Don't get sucked into what you see everyone else doing. And the obvious one is location, location, location. Also Write down where you see them , the wind direction, weather, the atmospheric pressure (in my opinion and my findings were these factors play a bigger part on larger pits than smaller ones)all these will help you get a picture of the fish are up to.

So the rods are put I'm fishing off the bottom of a slope, roughly 15ft in depth 14 wraps out. 20 spombs of tigers/hemp/flaked maize. So the traps are set, rods been out for about 6 hours. The fish have just started showing in front of me but like 5 or so wraps off where my hookbaits are. Now deciding whether to wait it out and hope they move out towards my baits or put a rod on them 🤦‍♂️anyway its good to be back on the bank🤣

My mate had his first one this morning, just over 11lb. Wicked looking fish, would love to know what strains are in here, there deffo seems to be some difference in the shapes etc. I'd like to think it could be a decent fish when it's older lol.

job done 👍

Renewal of res ticket. Gone up £40??? For what?? I'm not too sure I'm getting my moneys worth. However, after visiting a commercial day ticket recently, I feel very lucky to fish there and have all the space I could ever want😊 Now, I just need the time to put in a bit of effort and find the fish

Most apps and services use the same weather stations so for the most part they're all the same in terms of accuracy. I believe Met Office invite civilians to submit data from their personal weather stations to add to the data set. No idea if it makes a difference or not. I've used all sorts over the years but now just go by the BBC. Let's face it, the weather here can change at the drop of a hat so no-one can really have massive confidence in the longer range data.

I'm a delivery driver, love meeting the customers dogs, even bring treats with me 🤣🤣

How many times have I said updates and upgrades are not always better? Nor me. That's not a mark 2, it's a mark 2.5 or 3. I hope you get it sorted, you can always use the return of item as not suitable for use described. It is one you could win especially if you got Trading Standards or CAB involved as the description is not clear.

I'm not that fussed about going now, if I go I go, but complains for it... It's unreal the amount of shelters I've had.... Chub Smax 1 man Bivvy, Chub Brolly System, Fox Supa Brolly System, Carp Zone 2 man n Wrap, Sonik AXS 1 & 2 man Bivvys, Sonik AXS Brolly n Wrap, Tempest 100T n Social Shelter, Tempest 200....

Thanks mate yeah I reckon the same, they fight so hard!! And I've managed to christen one of the daiwa reels as well 🤣 This rig done the business, the bait is sitting like a wafter would. Just spoke to the bailiff and it's been fishing really slow at the moment with only 3 fish coming out in the last 2 weeks so hopefully its just the fish not feeling it and not my angling 🤣🤣 I've been watching the water and early morning and late evening they are coming right into the weed in the margins. I have very little experience fishing in weed, but wondering if I should try a chod rig on a heli setup 🤔 That being said rain is coming in tomorrow from early morning so might just do the day and go home this evening, hate packing up wet gear 🤣

Back on the res helping with the carp removal 👍it's full at the moment so will be cool to check the depths etc. I believe it goes down to 130ft and some old building out there. But yeah just set everything up only to realise I've left the spomb in the car 🤣🤣

Just doused this on my boilies, splash of brut and I'll be right on the dance floor later.

As somebody who used to change his line at least once or twice a year, I only just changed my line last week after 3 years of regular use. That is heavy fishing with Gardner Pro, in weed, playing fish, casting etc.

As Nick rightly says, there is no rig that is bream proof. That said, I can honestly say that I've never caught a bream on a chod rig, tench yes but not bream. Obviously not saying you won't catch bream on them but for some reason I never did and I used them a lot and on waters that held large shoals of big bream . Also as has been said above, what you feed and how will determine if bream become a pain. I know a few angler's that only use 22mm / 24mm baits and hardly if ever get bream problems.

Current multi version, 25lb stiff end section to semi stiff braid.

All of my fish at Ardleigh Reservoir were caught at around 40-50metres maximum. One was caught at about 20metres when I saw fish moving around an inlet so cast a bait where I saw them. Even on Alton I don't think I cast more than 70metres.

Great advice that 👆 do your own thing

Here's a picture including all the items above in their respective pouch and my other tackle pouch which has all my tackle for river fishing (chub, barbel, and perch). The bottle of scotch is for scale purposes obviously.

4 night blank to get me into the swing of things, lots to learn and a new playing field as the water is up 4ft on last year's drought level. Great trip loved it - spring is in the air, the birds are at it, frogs in the margins being hunted by pike and masses of bugs crawling out the lake especially during rain - so many caddis or whatever they were that it freaked me out - all coming under my door by the dozen. Can't wait to get back down asap.