Golden Paws

I'm always up before first light and give the hooks a quick lick with the polishing stone, a fresh bait attached and a hopper full of fresh bait stealthily boated out to the spot. I'm a bit paranoid that I might have been cleaned out overnight and the amount of times the hooks come back with a blob of weed masking it, makes it a no-brainer for me. I don't fish particularly weedy waters but always check when I'm adding more bait. When I read about people fishing Rainbow Lake who cast out and then leaving it for 4 days, my brain doesn't compute!

They say that humans learn by making mistakes. Unfortunately some of us make the same mistakes over and over again and never learn! It's confession time, what stupid (fishing only!) mistakes have you made that cost you fish and you went home kicking yourself. About a month ago I was staring down the barrel of a 48 hour blank on a water I knew pretty well and had caught fairly consistently in the past. Fish were coming out but mainly at the top end of the lake and I was at the bottom. That said, the blokes either side of me had caught, so I can't use that as an excuse. At 3 a.m. on the final morning I had a bite and a chance to redeem myself. Struck into a good fish and played it for a good 10 seconds and then everything went limp. I did feel the fish rub on a bit of weed but when I inspected the line, I found it was shredded and even worse, I don't think it happened at that point. I used to place the hook into the zip on my haversack and walk off a good 20 yards of line and tighten the clutch and put the rod into it's full fighting curve to check the line but somewhere along the line, I got out of the habit of doing it. I'll certainly be doing it in the future. After that, I also started to put my finger and thumb on the line by the fist eye when reeling in and feel for any nicks or kinks. Line is cheap, don't risk it! Another time I had a pig-tail on my main line of about a rod length, so cut the line at the Korda Safezone leader and reattached it. The next bite I had, I struck and straight away lost the fish and reeled in just the knot. I had almost certainly cut a bit off the leader and seriously weakened it. It's no good writing a letter to Danny Fairbrass, it was 100% my fault. Now when I reattach a leader, I always grip the fused end with my finger and thumb to protect it and cut a few mm above the join and pull the loosened knot off with my teeth. As an aside, I highly rate Safezone leader, in fact I never cast out without one. Rob Hughes has said that when he goes diving and checking out rigs, he follows the line so far then on the bottom looks for the leadcore or tubing, I don't use either! When I watch some of the underwater video's, I can't believe the fish haven't sussed that the one with the hook is 6 inches past the obvious bit! So came on then, when stupid things have you done?

One from last Friday. Goujons and microwave chips (that cook a treat in the Ridgemonkey) and a bottle of Asahi. I don't normally ever take alcohol when fishing but made an exception this time and might make it a feature in the future.

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

If your boilie is breaking off when you withdraw the needle, it sounds more like you are using a baiting needle with too harsh a barb rather the knot causing the problem. Boilie recipes have undergone a change from being hard, which was supposed to put off smaller fish and make them easier to catapult or stick out, to softer which requires less boiling and so they retain more of their nutritional profile and allow water to penetrate them and release their attractants more readily. I use a Korda needle which is fine enough to penetrate boilies without causing any damage to them.

30lb BS may be a bit thick. Just strip off a few inches of the coating so that your hair section is more supple.

Just had an e-mail from a mate who has booked some trips on a new carp mecca water: We are pleased to announce that Britain's first indoor Carp arena will open in the autumn and we are taking bookings now.The venue is known as Mary’s Pool and the fish were stocked last week and are being fed with high protein boilies and pellets. The facilities will include a fully licenced cafe that offers deliveries and every swim has a cabin with an en-suite toilet and shower, kettle, microwave, air fryer, fridge, toaster and small oven with hobs. Other benefits include rear of swim parking with free EV charging points The 5 acre lake is inside a converted warehouse that has been insulated with thick layers of high efficiency rigid foam and is near Farkham Hall. The high-tech venue circulates the water using a bank of 150 metre ground source heat pumps incorporating oxygen saturation technology and will be kept at an optimum 24 Celsius, which will promote rapid growth of the fish. There will be 100,000 LED lights in the roof that are programmed to give 12 hours of day and night and are graduated to simulate dawn and dusk. There are also 200 wall mounted heated industrial wall fans that are strategically positioned to create an on-shore breeze and the strength of the fans are on a cyclic 360 degree power system so that it will encourage the fish to permanently move and so all swims should contain fish on a regular basis. The roof contains over 2,000 ten metre solar panels and the venue will be carbon neutral. “I’m incredibly excited about this new venture” enthused the owner, Rupert Chudley-Smith. “Thirty specially chosen fish with high growth potential are already in their new environment. They are all triploid fish as the eggs were subjected to heat and pressure shock on fertilisation and as such, they will not have the annual stress of spawning and associated weight loss. There are 10 forties and the rest are high 30’s and have a potential growth rate over 8lb a year and we are looking at UK 80’s within 5 years.” I know it won’t be cheap but after spending £400 on a winter ticket only using it 3 times and blanking every trip due to the weather, I’m sorely tempted.

Thanks for that. It was a toss up between the 100 and 150 but decided to go large! The 200 is definitely a 2 man and just too big for one angler.

Finally took the plunge and ordered a Trakker Tempest RS 150 bivvy and the skull cap to go with it. I've got an older trakker with the pram hood style and it's such a faff to get it up and down. I have preferred to use a brolly system for years but it was a bit cramped and it did suffer from condensation if I had to have it zipped up.

I "lost" a bedchair a few years ago in my garage. My current version is hung up on a wall to prevent a repeat. I spilled some hemp once and noticed that I was getting some visitors. Like Nick, I put a few traps down and nipped it in the bud. I keep virtually all my seed and pellets in strong plastic screw buckets and that seems to keep them at bay. Don't give them a reason to visit and clean up any food items straight away. I worked for a pest control Company for a few months (probably the job I hated most, mostly down to the people I had to work with) but I did take away that you have to be careful with breakneck traps. They should be fine in a garage but exercise caution if using them outside as you don't want to injure non-target species. These include birds, pets and children!

If you leave any electrical item for any amount of time, it's best to remove the batteries as they can leak over time.

Too excruciating for words!

More good advice.

https://www.total-fishing-tackle.com/ridgemonkey-advanced-boilie-crusher-full-kit?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAtNK8BhBBEiwA8wVt9z8O4N-y42mxVRRF4fqP2EaZj1Bn2XqRXRlaIBJ9tDWANusYyJ43vBoCo8EQAvD_BwE RRP is £57 and got if for £40. You can get a particle plate for it but haven't bothered with that. (Yet!)