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I found August is usually the same until the back end of the month

This time of year drives me mad mate, it feels like it should go off but it doesn't lol. One of my local lakes they just bask on the top all day, massive groups of them, 30 - 40 fish, chuck a floater out and they ain't even interested 🤣 roll on August and September 👌

I found this last night in the Andy Little book 'My Passion For Carp' page 58: "The bait I used was very similar to the one I had used at Darenth during the previous winter........... I had slightly changed the original nix of Casien, Lactalbumin, Calcium Casinate and Gluten etc. In the new mix I substituted some of the lighter milk protiens with Semolina........ ended up with a heavier Casein, Semolina and Gluten" Goes on to say it had a maple flavour, 20ml in a 10oz mix!! also says he used to add granulated sugar in boiling water as a sweetner!

So to start the thread I mentioned the steak, so here is the real deal. And that is a Fishing Dinner: Rare rump steak with mushrooms, sliced green beans and sliced fried potato, a dash of mixed herbs and a crushed clove of garlic.

I had the IW versions with green wheels and deluxe receiver Found in bright daylight very hard to see if LED on alarm was lit having to look at the receiver to check As I only day fish I decided they were not for me and sold them for basic Fox Micron alarms with double LED which are easier to see from any position

Yonny beat me to it. Great natural liquid and preservative. Jammed with salt and salty fish extract and some sugar. Can’t go wrong. I have used it loads in the past, not so much anymore because I’m using liver hydro at the moment to complement the bait. You can use this stuff to create dips and glugs yourself due to its preservative properties. Add some powders of choice and give it a good shake, cut with a bit of water if necessary. Only annoying thing is the lid, I’d advise cutting the spout bit off. All this talk, I may have to add it back in to the mix!

I must admit one of the things I miss since is wind ups. After 40 years in total in the Army and Prison service where wind ups were a daily incurrence.

Welcome in

I packed up today after a 3 day blank. I felt that last night or this morning I should have had a fish or two, but it was not to be. Monday was boiling and I had to set up in the deepest shade possible, opposite my usual pre-baited swim. It was not until the weather cooled yesterday and we had some cloud and rain I even felt I was near the fish. Oh well, let's hope that everyone manages to get on the carp this month.

I would just coat them in a bucket so they have a good glaze, then let them soak it all in and repeat as necessary. I think I overdid it in my spod mix this weekend. I probably put half a bottle in and it made it honk. And smell a bit sour.

It doesn’t matter as it’s a natural product and can’t be overdone I would just put a slug of it in

Interesting mate, I'm gonna have a look and see what I can find on it 👍 Just bought a bottle of this Any suggestions on how much to put with a kilo of boilie?

Night view Morning view complete with still glowing green light. You gotta love day ticket fishing.

Yeah that's the ones mate, I was thinking of the wychwood reels while writing this 🤦‍♂️🤣 Sadly my only had the one reel in stock so ended up getting a set of fox eos 10000fd reels. Cheap and cheerful tbh, they will do for the river 👍

I sometimes look on this web site, normally a bit banal about how to.... etc But found this small insight into possibly one of the best angling series ever broadcast: https://www.carpology.net/article/features/an-interview-with-hugh-miles/

Do you mean Okuma Inc 6000 reels ? ,if so they have a great reputation ,except some of the first version ones which had a stretchy spring in the anti reverse ,switch / thingy ,not all but some ,this has now been resolved with latest incantation..

Got of my backside and went in loft got the mint Diawa 12 foot twin tip Pro Barbel rod out and as a nice bonus found my long lost Leeda Zoo creature carp feeder rod

i cant comment on the wychwood reels, only ones i ever owned were not great, early rogue big pits i have a pair of these small pit reels and so far very happy with them, i use them on my 10ft rods https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/405453475110?_skw=dam+darkside&itmmeta=01JZD1PA4F0B6F0Q9BP3583BCT&hash=item5e66e90d26:g:yx0AAOSwZU9ndsGR&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1dzYSzeRr28Lc5ULn2X0VYSN8b8oitw0K1rCgaWw4liokTyLRFYwX6XaIPIyCh2H5AKuYEs8liWVEPqcSmHT7S32tL%2BIpDXUAoB1PHfNZ6sTOROZ1ub%2BFFBY30LcxYrguX1jPYyOey7eIWsewwCkc7ASU8GjDUPbx0qYcay4UQzLHROUG8xwpf49qLJ1CqNRxFxGoMDiSG0ceS5VSQBsHdHZPo%2BIUqW%2BMMAxyMb1Ps5irKwm6MoGKDH2JjO5PczVy8%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7ai2aH7ZQ

I used to love my Browning 9ft spinning rod for floater fishing and stalking. When it was stolen I was really upset. I honestly don't know how many fish I caught on it, including my first ever 20lb carp floater fishing. As for breaking rods, I went through a stage of doing it. 2 Century NG's trapped in the car door, my Daiwa Pro-specialist 1.5lb caught in the seat belt latch. I really have no idea of the best rod for stalking and floater fishing now, I seem to have different preferences to the media. I was digging around, is this your kind of thing:

The joys of media... I worry about how much salt I put into my bait. This spodding neat salt into the water really worries me, as salt does not 'go away'. Putting it in neat when we don't know the full effects. Salt will kill micro-organisms and various water life. I cannot remember which university, but from research, 1 teaspoon of salt can pollute 5 gallons of water permanently, which can ruin freshwater ecosystems. Even more amusing is that table salt is possibly a repellant. The best level in carp diet of salt is 1.5%. The shelf life versus freezer baits, no matter what I do when I make bait, I nearly always dry it for 24hours and then freeze it. I've tried totally airdrying them until all moisture is evaporated. No matter how good the preservatives, sometimes mould gets in. I've had foods and baits all go mouldy, despite being supposedly dried or preserved. The airdried bait is a strange one that confuses people. It is rock hard, but draws water in faster than baits with moisture as in either frozen and thawed or shelf life. As a result, they go softer quicker. They do not go as far with a throwing stick or catapult, they are lighter. I am sure it was Shaun Harrison who came up with or wrote about 'washing' attraction back into dried boilies, using hemp or particles juice. This is almost the predecessor of our fishing on the posts of this thread.

Could always try eBay!

It's how a lot of boilies are being made shelf life now, a mix of glycerine, sugar and boiling water before drying. The glycerine stops the boilies from drying totally and with the sugar is I think an attractor.

Me too, depending on what I'm trying to achieve. A decent bait shouldn't need boosting as such imo. If the carp find a decent bait, they should eat it. If they don't, it's the wrong bait or the wrong time of year. For me, the purpose of glugging in hydros is simply to pull the carp in i.e. help them find your bait. To optimise this you want them as stacked full of those free aminos as possible - so they pump them out stronger, for longer. Mixing with water will just alleviate those food signals, and reduce the amount of time those signals are pumped out. There is a place for water for certain applications (such as washing-in with glugs/saturating to prevent or slow down the taking on of silt for example), but for attraction you want it neat imo.

As said already I'd use it neat on my boilies. In fact I used to use the tuna goo from Bacarel as a soak. 500ml in a 10kg bag and I'd turn the bag regularly. Ive also used the crab and the squid in the same way. The crab is a very thin liquid. I found the tuna to be the best one by far.

Just looked in the Big Carp book, couldn't find it. but tbh it seemed the bloke was one of the first on Savay to use the hair rig and to fish with massive amount of bollies - at that time - at long range. Sure I remember reading that he did simplfy the baits, and at that time the carp had probably not seen anything like his way of fishing it?

Personally I’d use it neat to soak in to them but I don’t do washed out type baits. I use enough for the boilies to soak in, but stay firm. Basically they just get heavier. This way you can still stick them out. elmo was right on ratios. Use the leftover water, frozen for next time or to add to pellet/spod mixes. I see so many anglers just tip it away. Crazy.

I usually just chuck some in with the water tbh, I quite like the liquid to be thinner as it soaks through the bait more. I would use more than a capful, maybe like 25% hydro 25% squid brand and 50% water something like that anyway. Might be less that seems OK , you can add whatever you like though

When I set up on Monday it was absolutely scorching, but was able to get positioned in as much shade as possible. Well back from the water, and positioned so we only get the full sun from 4 until 8pm. I say well back from the water, when the lake is full, this spot is actually underwater.

I've got 2 carp landing nets: a Fox Warrior net which has had the mesh replaced a few times and a Rod Hutchinson Sceptre net, both in 42inch. I've spent more replacing the meshes over the years than the landing net originally cost. For years I lived with just one, but a few years ago came up with the idea of one on each side of the swim, so I could always reach one without, in theory of stepping around the rods to grab it. The 2 faults, they don't match, not that I really worry, and the second is many runs now seem to come on the middle rod... I can't remember who it was by, but the original Springlock mechanism landing net I do miss. I borrowed one for a while back in the early 2000's when I had a load of gear stolen.

£45 Jakes Rakes

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...

Shock horror i managed to winkle out a little carp from the smaller pond, i was fishing mainly a bunch of maggots on size 10 hook with 10ft Diawa spinning rod and small freespool reel caught an Ide about 1.75lb, then a snotty (the Ide was a new species for me) i was just packing up and went to switch of bite alarm when it sounded a full on run, landed this nice little mirror just under 10lb but sadly the rod snapped for an unknown reason, might just be its age