Golden Paws

I've used Korda Safezone leaders for years and they have never let me down. Being fluorocarbon based, they are heavy and near invisible. I remember Rob Hughes writing that when he goes out diving to find a rig and see how it's presented, he looks for the leadcore or tubing and finds the rig at the end. I'm sure that Carp must have started to suss it by now!

I used to have a fairly easy job that involved sitting in front of a computer most of the time running a Chemical Plant. It was 12 hour day and night shifts and I found I was eating rubbish and at the wrong time of day. Typically I was having a breakfast before I went to bed after working nights otherwise hunger woke me up. I went from a comfortable 12.5 stone up to 14.5 before my job disappeared to India. After that, the next job I got involved a lot of walking and crucially it was close enough to cycle to work (12 mile round trip.) It killed me for the first month as the way home was a relentless climb and the first week I had to have 4 stops to get my breathe back but within a month I could do it without stopping and the weight started to drop off and settled at about 13 stone. Not long after I got a dog and we would go for long walks in the Countryside and that helped as well. Good luck Elmo, take it easy and look at is a marathon not a sprint. Clear your cupboards of chocolate and biscuits as they are always too tempting.

Can you get me a ticket?!!!

I always give my hooks a light touch with the smoothing stone and it instantly make the hook feel sharper to the touch. In the above video, Adam Penning describes sharpening as his biggest edge. He is literally removing metal to make his hook hyperdermically sharp. Hooks are made from a uniform strip of wire of a certain gauge and this determines the size number of the hook. Although you need the strength of the wire in the gape area, it's not so important in the point as this should be totally penetrated and not be affected by the fight. In the underwater films we've seen how some fish react to feeling a hook, some bolt and you get a screamer but increasingly some fish just shake their head and fling the hook out. If it has already penetrated a long way in, this makes it more difficult. A very thought provoking video.

Looking at some of the photo's has encouraged me to dig out my copy of Matt Hayes's Fish Eye to reread; https://calmproductions.com/fisheye I paid £30 for it and highly rate it, it's currently going for a fiver! If you are interested in photography, I highly recommend it. The standard "Trophy Shot" only occupies one chapter and there are lots of inspirational photo's to try to emulate.

A couple more shots of weirs and waterfalls.

I agree with Sparky, there's something about waterfalls and weirs.

Part of the joy of fishing is taking in the scenery and I always try to take a few photo's to capture the moment.

Found this guy on YouTube. Plays Heavy Metal overlays to things he sees. He found these couple of Trump loving lunatics on a god channel. The guy on the left is a complete fruitcake and the one on the right tries his best not to be embarrassed! Funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

Just skimmed through it. We've all done stupid things when we were younger, luckily we didn't have YouTube in the good old days to broadcast about it!

I did look at Kontour but it only comes in 200 metre spools and only in 12 lb BS.

Mono's are hygroscopic which mean's they absorb and take on water. Fluoro's aren't but being soaked in warmish water will probably make it more manageable and is probably worth doing once you have pre-stretched it.

Fluoro is great for sinking (double the density of water), near invisible, pretty tough and it isn't affected by sunlight degradation like mono's. Unfortunately when you have some great plus points, like most things in life, there's always a downside. I used X line for a while but hated it so much I gave the rest of the bulk spool to a mate. After several years I decided to try fluoro again and bought some Berkley CF600 after seeing some good reviews. I loaded it on the spools and the stuff was literally leaping off as I was winding it on. First time out I was casting out 40 yards to the far bank on a long narrow lake and had a wind knot in the middle and created a huge bird-nest. The stuff is stiffer and more wiry than mono's and you're not going to cast it as far. (Understatement!) However, I have still got it on my (spare shallow) spool and I have been using it but you have to treat it with a bit more thought than mono's. The first thing is to stretch it before use as this increases it's handling and it will wind on a lot better. Then before you cast out the first good few trips, walk out your casting distance and stretch it again and it should behave much better. I've still got it on my reels as I haven't fished long distance for quite a while and am fairly happy with it. I did look at the Daiwa and Gardner and both seem to be OK and would happily use any of them, even X line as at the time I probably didn't look into it enough and treat them differently to mono's.

I use pigeon conditioner (cheap and varied) and hemp (not so cheap any more) and once cooked, add a kilo bag of frozen sweetcorn (cheap and doing my bit for the environment by not using a tin.) After that I add a good dollop of salt and chilli powder. As I prefer using a spod to a spomb, I'll make up a groundbait mix to plug it, normally bound with the juice from the seeds but you could any add liquid you've mentioned. This time of year I don't go overboard with particles and PVA bags with crumbed boilie are a good starting point. Liquids can take it to a whole new level, watch Adam Penning's video below for some brilliant idea's.

The classic Animals song that was way ahead of it's time and the guitar into by Hilton Valentine is simple yet iconic. Passed away today, thanks for the memories.

Took this one this morning from my front garden.

PVA bags used to be made from Poly Vinyl Acetate (hence the acronym) but as the smell was believed to deter fish, they are now more commonly made from Poly Vinyl Alcohol (technically known as PVOH) but the old PVA name has stuck. I used to fish the Somerset Drains around Bridgwater for pike and there used to be a British Cellophane plant that used an acetate and it was more commonly known as British Smellophane! There are so many good proven flavours out there that I wouldn't waste my time on something that could repel the carp, it certainly makes me want to puke up!

Never do Facebook but any on type of gambling, the bookies always win! They rely on that adrenaline rush that you get when you win but the downside is that you can become a slave to an addiction. (A bit like Carp Fishing!) When I was in the scouts years ago, one of the leaders told me a story about how she went to a greyhound race and bet (and lost) a bit of money. No big deal as it wasn't much and all part of the experience. On the way out, she saw lots of blokes literally crying because they have bet (and lost!) a whole weeks wages and had to go home and tell their wives and family there was no money for food that week. Needless to say, she never went back but it does illustrate how it can get under your skin and consume your life.

Some superb footage of the big Carp in Milton Abbas with quite a bit of underwater footage. The first 26 minutes are of shark fishing and I found myself skipping most of that.

I thought it was only me triggering the profanity filter with the shorter version of Mr. Walker's first name! It could be worse, several years ago I put some photo's of my dog on Flickr at a local beauty spot known as something ridge, the something referring to a male bird being a 4 letter word starting with a c and ending in k. I checked a few days later to see if it was picking up any views and entered the search term and what can I say, they certainly did have some ridges! (Just checked again and all have now been removed.) If stored in an air tight bucket, pigeon conditioner will last for years before any harm comes to it.

I'm with you having my tips as low to the water as possible and slackening right off. There is a train of thought of fishing for line bites to let you know if fish are in the swim but having watched fish touch the line and their reaction to it, I'm not in a hurry to try it!

I couldn't give an answer as I've never made any but it will depend on the density of the dry ingredients. Probably a bit of trial and error and add increasing amounts of dust to a small mix and test them noting the ratio used. I like my wafters to just about lift the hook vertically so it is about as as balanced as possible. Obviously things like hook size and the weight of any swivels (if used) also affect this. I put on the wafter and drop it into an ice cream tub full of water to see how it sits. If it's not upright enough, I bore out a few holes with a 4mm ESP bait drill and push some cork sticks in and cut them off. If it isn't enough, add a couple more. It only takes a few seconds to do but increases my confidence.

Maize is definitely good and cheap but it is very hard and needs cooking well before use. I normally cover it with boiling water, leave it for 2 days and then give it a good boil for at least 30 minutes. Maize is also a bit bland so I add molasses or corn steep liquor to it once it has been drained. If you are using boilies, they will roll out of the swim if there is any appreciable current, I would halve or quarter them to make them more liable to get trapped between the gravel. Vitalin is also good as a groundbait which you can buy as a dog food in large sacks. Add boiling water to make a stodge and add hemp or corn or whatever you want and ball it in and it will break down slowly on the bottom.

You're in luck, they come with free crayons!

I'm not a bait expert by a long way (I buy them) but to expect to get the same sort of kick from a bottle and the same from the boile is optimistic as you have diluted the flavour right down by adding the dry ingredients. What smells weak to you is probably still overpowering to a carp and I'd stick to the recommended doses. Existing bait manufacturers know their product and what works best and they want you to have success and buy again. As Elmo said, you can buy bait rolling tables, something like this; https://gardnertackle.co.uk/product/rolaball-baitmasters-giant-size/ that should take the strain out of it. Good luck.