Golden Paws

That is the problem of buying in bulk. I used to work in the chemical industry for most of my working life and we used to use 25kg plastic tubs of Potassium Permanganate in one process which were very sturdy and seals well. Needless to say, every time I used one it was washed out and brought home - I was doing my bit for the environment! I'm also fortunate that I have quite a large garage and they are labelled and stacked up around the edge and I can still get the car in. Interesting to get an insight from someone who has seen what goes on from the other side of the fence. Unfortunately my local shop didn't want to meet me half way as they prefer to sell the £5+ 1kg bags of pellets.

I buy 20kg sacks of pigeon conditioner from pets at home for around £20 and as it swells to 2 or 3 times it dry size, it's as cheap as chips. It was a little "bitty" and so I've also bought 25kg of maple peas from bait superstore for £30 to bulk it out a bit. I'm getting through a pressure cooker's worth on an average day session, topped up with some pellets which I also buy in 20kg sacks as it keeps the price down rather than buying a 1kg bag for over a fiver. It really annoys me when you see sponsored anglers chucking in 10kg or more of boilies which would equate to about £120, if they had to pay for it of course. When I looked at buying some boilies a good few years ago, the brand I was using showed all it's sponsored anglers on their website - and there were plenty of them! It's bad enough buying it for yourself, when you know that you are subsidising other peoples angling, it does grate a bit. I changed to Baitworks as I liked the look of their products and as they sell direct to the public, they cut out the middle man (tackle shops I'm afraid), who want their 50% of the selling price. My local tackle shop used to sell pellets in 3kg buckets which made them a bit cheaper. They stopped doing it as they said the flimsy buckets they were using were too expensive. I offered to bring back my old buckets to be topped up but they didn't seem interested. I also enquired about buying a sack of pellets from them but that also wasn't met with much enthusiasm. I then had no qualms about going on-line and then buying in bulk.

Just got back from a 2 day trip. Apparently a bait company hired the place for a few days and my swim was littered with beer bottle tops, Fag butts and other assorted rubbish. The crisp packet and brunch bar were mine to go into the old quality street tub I use as my rubbish bin.

Makes the hedgehog I had to shoo out one night look pretty tame!

I had a mate who was into making his own bait and he pointed me in the right direction. For a while I started producing my own bait but a blank session had me wondering if the bait was the problem and I went down a bit of a rabbit hole! Now I buy my bait off one of the bait barons! They sell a fair bit of the stuff and plenty of people seem to catch on it and that's good enough for me. Admittedly there isn't the same satisfaction of catching on a bait you made but the trade off is that I don't now blame the bait I buy if I blank! That said, I've caught over 80% of my fish (155 in 2026 so far) on a change bait as I started to think that carp were treating all boilies with suspicion. Instead of following the crowd, I decided to mix it up and do something different to all the other anglers on the lakes I fish.

Baiting poles seems such a faff to me. OK if you are fishing very short but any sort of distance and you're like a plumber on a big job! Add a slight breeze and the thing is snaking around like a good 'un and the chances of getting close to your spot are pretty low. I know you hate boats Yonny but the stealth, accuracy and tight baiting they provide can't be beaten in my opinion. When they first came out I was apprehensive but I've embraced the positives they offer and I don't think it's a co-incidence that my catch rates have improved dramatically in the last few years. Cheating? Maybe but are you still using par boiled potatoes and silver foil for indicators? If the technology exists and other people are using it, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage if you don't use it Just my opinion, of course..

I went yesterday to my local days only park lake and managed 14 with 13 doubles with a 16, 17 and an 18. Kept them coming all day by regularly sending out the bait boat and got through a pressure cooker of spod and about 3kg of pellet split over 2 spots. Probably going again in a few days time and have 2 pressure cookers soaking as it's cheaper then pellet. That said, I have started buying my pellets in 25kg sacks as it brings the cost down a fair bit. It really is a case of "buying your fish". The more I chuck in, the quicker and more aggressive the bites.

During the long blistering hot summer we've endured, I've had more joy with the camera than the rod on some waters! The shot with the rods were on zigs just under the surface and the dragon fly was on that Common for quite a while.

I had this last year as the lake I was on had a lot of catkins and they dropped into the lake causing a huge raft of drifting debris. It was so thick that I had to stop retrieving the reel after about 10 turns and carefully bite it off the line. Unfortunately the berg became saturated and dropped to the bottom and sucked in oxygen out of the water and at least 25 carp perished. All the catkin trees were removed and the lake pruned to prevent the worst of the leaf litter problem.

I've met some great people on the bank but also some I'll be glad never to meet again. Here are some examples of "That Guy"; You've found a spot, got the rods out and the bivvy is up. Time to relax with a cup of tea and then it starts. Tap, tap, tap........tap, tap, tap.... tap, tap, tap. Worse, you know the idiot has about 11 more pegs to get in! You struggled to push yours in the hard ground with a bit of sweat and a few choice words but did it confident that the fish wouldn't be aware of your presence. Anyone owning a bivvy mallet should have it inserted blunt end first! It was 2 in the morning. It was during one of the recent heatwaves and all the bivvy sides were up. A blinding light hits you and a car rumbles past on the gravel track. Everyone has an emergency ever now and again so you let it go. Ten minutes later it comes back and parks again. I know the portaloo is 200 yards away and despite what you think, your Tesla does make a racket! A bloke was fishing on the opposite side with his missus and 2 kids. They had a BBQ at dinner time. No problem. Then the 2 kids get out a football and kick it all around the lake! I was fishing one rod about a rod length out near some rushes. All of the sudden, there is a huge splash right where I was fishing. I thought it must have been a fish. Twenty minutes later another splash and I saw the lead go in! I walked a good 25 yards to the next swim and had a few words with the bloke! A couple of kids were fishing near the dam. Doof. The lead went in. Five minutes later another doof. Every five minutes another doof as they cast repeatedly for hours. Yes, I blanked. A noisy bloke was on the other side, Regularly you would hear him tell his dog to lie down. Luckily after dark it all went quiet. Then at 2:30a.m., he started chatting to his mate in the next swim. I could hear every word, despite him being 100 yards away!

Heavier version of the original but delivers a punch.

Despite the sweltering heat, I managed 20 fish on my days only park lake including a 16, 17 and two 18's. The average size was about 12 1/2 lb. As mentioned before, it's not normally that easy and by no means a pastie water. Despite the conditions screaming zigs or a small PVA bag approach, I went in totally the opposite and sent out the boat with spod mix and pellet at least every hour or after a bite.

Probably my favourite track and depressingly brilliant. After Chester died, no other man could replace him and so they got in a female singer.

No, there aren't any bream in there. I've had similar occurrences on another lake that contains some large catfish and they frequently smash people up and due to bad practices by anglers, they are frequently trailing tackle including leads and you get all 3 rods register a bite but then drop off a second later.

As expected, my trip was a grueller and I packed up Sunday morning despite having paid until 6 in the evening. I couldn't believe how warm the water was when I washed my hands in the lake. There were a few fish crashing about early morning but they didn't seen interested in feeding. I should have had a good nights sleep but both nights I think that one fish was trailing tackle as I had numerous lifts on the bobbin before settling again, despite using backleads.