Pelamid

Another from the river Lot.......

Another from the river Lot.......

Another from the river Lot.......

Another from the river Lot.......

Another from the river Lot.......

One autumn the setting sun briefly lit up this scene on the river Lot, France. Quite a magical moment which I was fortunate to capture!

Not too many catfish, fortunately!
Yesterday I took my inflatable canoe upriver of Carjac. Lovely afternoon on the river.....
The boat has not been used this last couple of years, still looks good....
and had one silure, taken on a big yellow/black shad lure fished under a shear cliff amongst fallen trees. I was lucky to land it!
 
 
 

Also , regarding the barbel , i remember a session i had around ten years ago when i got them going on frolic , i made my own boilies from frolic and chucked some frolic ground bait in that had soaked overnight in water , both rods were going constantly for over an hour , i lost count of how many i caught  but , i think they are called "iberian barbel " i have never caught one over around 4 n 1/2 lb on the Lot , fun though on light tackle , the dordogne river is the place for good size barbel , up to 20 lb on there !

Yep , your mate sure knows what he is doing , some crackers  , dedication paying off there ,The Lot is a magical place for fishing , how many cats are there now , it's been a few years since i got to the Lot ,the last time i went i got beaten up by a big cat ,  i have been just fishing on my local river for the last couple of years , only managed a few short sessions though this year , next year i'm going out for longer so i am hoping for a few more sessions and should manage a trip to the Lot again .

I have not used tiger nuts for bait yet - but I have eaten them myself!
There is a good amount of vegetable fat in tiger nuts, as well as the fibre most seem to think is the main point of eating them. They are a bit tough but can be chewed, the flavour reminds me of hazlenuts.
Lately I have blitzed a few hand fulls in a heavy duty blender to produce a flour. It's best to push the resulting coarse flour through a sieve and then blitz the rougher particles in the blender again, then the sieve a final time. Any larger particles left I chuck in my groundbait mix - nothing wasted!
My wife makes bread and adds about 15% tigernut flour to her wholemeal mix. The baked loaf has a better crust and the flavour is subtle, nutty and very slightly sweet.
Looks like we have a winner with this flour - tigernuts are tasty!

this article also says roasting or germinating tigers, increases the antioxidant levels, i think sprouted nuts, seeds and pulses can be a good edge for any bait, if your willing to do the extra prep, i've got some sprouted chick peas in the freezer i'm yet to use, but make sure you research prepare them properly, in some cases they can be dangerous.
 

For me and river carp the Shimano Oceana OC Baitrunner in 6000 or 8000 size is perfect. It does not have a "longcast" style spool but casts up to 100yds with a 3ozs weight smoothly. I use mine with 30lb braid and the drag and baitrunner have been faultless.
As for the line-clip I am not sure, I only use mine to hold things in place when not fishing!
The price is not bad either - about £110 if you shop around.
My 8000 OC is at least several years old now, has done a lot of sea fishing and topped with several carp to over 40lb on the river Lot, France.
This carp was caught on the 6000 OC......

One autumn the setting sun briefly lit up this scene on the river Lot, France. Quite a magical moment which I was fortunate to capture!

One autumn the setting sun briefly lit up this scene on the river Lot, France. Quite a magical moment which I was fortunate to capture!

One autumn the setting sun briefly lit up this scene on the river Lot, France. Quite a magical moment which I was fortunate to capture!

I fished a few hours today and opened the 2021 account with this 16lb pristine mirror, caught on a pop up over a bed of hemp and boilie. 

I have an auto-immune disease (lupus) that was first diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. It was a battle over many years to get it correctly diagnosed and actually took two decades before I found doctors who were competent at treating the illness. Most gave me steroids (prednisilone) and painkillers, then sent me on my way!
I ended up hooked on painkillers, and it took years to get off steroids with all their long term complications.
Anyway, nearly died after severe pneumonia set in. THEN the doctors took my illness seriously! Finally (only took 20 years!) I found a couple of specialists who turned things round for me - I really do owe them my life!
My advice on anything health related is to find the best doctor you can that really understand your particular condition. 
Practical advice on fishing:
Don't drive too far, it is far more tiring than most will admit!
Short fishing sessions
Minimise your tackle - one rod/reel, rest, small bag of bits, bucket with bait, landing net, chair
Search those places where you can get your car close
 
I had to admit defeat with sea fishing, but when I got my state pension retired to France. I was lucky to be able to do that with a lot of support from my wife.
Settled for river fishing and have spent the last three years searching locally for easy places to fish - and my health is improving!
Here I am parked on the slipway (out of boating season) with my Decathlon chair (very comfy!) placed to take in the view.
......and caught some barbel, even hooked what was probably a carp - hooked pulled!
 

Jebus we’re all knackered haha.... lots of good advice here.
I’m going to a small site in April and going to see how I get on. My biggest worry is bending to unhook fish (presuming I don’t actually blank), so that will be the tester

I have an auto-immune disease (lupus) that was first diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. It was a battle over many years to get it correctly diagnosed and actually took two decades before I found doctors who were competent at treating the illness. Most gave me steroids (prednisilone) and painkillers, then sent me on my way!
I ended up hooked on painkillers, and it took years to get off steroids with all their long term complications.
Anyway, nearly died after severe pneumonia set in. THEN the doctors took my illness seriously! Finally (only took 20 years!) I found a couple of specialists who turned things round for me - I really do owe them my life!
My advice on anything health related is to find the best doctor you can that really understand your particular condition. 
Practical advice on fishing:
Don't drive too far, it is far more tiring than most will admit!
Short fishing sessions
Minimise your tackle - one rod/reel, rest, small bag of bits, bucket with bait, landing net, chair
Search those places where you can get your car close
 
I had to admit defeat with sea fishing, but when I got my state pension retired to France. I was lucky to be able to do that with a lot of support from my wife.
Settled for river fishing and have spent the last three years searching locally for easy places to fish - and my health is improving!
Here I am parked on the slipway (out of boating season) with my Decathlon chair (very comfy!) placed to take in the view.
......and caught some barbel, even hooked what was probably a carp - hooked pulled!
 

It's hard not to take a good photo here!
 

Good to see you still at it 👍👍👍

I have an auto-immune disease (lupus) that was first diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. It was a battle over many years to get it correctly diagnosed and actually took two decades before I found doctors who were competent at treating the illness. Most gave me steroids (prednisilone) and painkillers, then sent me on my way!
I ended up hooked on painkillers, and it took years to get off steroids with all their long term complications.
Anyway, nearly died after severe pneumonia set in. THEN the doctors took my illness seriously! Finally (only took 20 years!) I found a couple of specialists who turned things round for me - I really do owe them my life!
My advice on anything health related is to find the best doctor you can that really understand your particular condition. 
Practical advice on fishing:
Don't drive too far, it is far more tiring than most will admit!
Short fishing sessions
Minimise your tackle - one rod/reel, rest, small bag of bits, bucket with bait, landing net, chair
Search those places where you can get your car close
 
I had to admit defeat with sea fishing, but when I got my state pension retired to France. I was lucky to be able to do that with a lot of support from my wife.
Settled for river fishing and have spent the last three years searching locally for easy places to fish - and my health is improving!
Here I am parked on the slipway (out of boating season) with my Decathlon chair (very comfy!) placed to take in the view.
......and caught some barbel, even hooked what was probably a carp - hooked pulled!
 

I have an auto-immune disease (lupus) that was first diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. It was a battle over many years to get it correctly diagnosed and actually took two decades before I found doctors who were competent at treating the illness. Most gave me steroids (prednisilone) and painkillers, then sent me on my way!
I ended up hooked on painkillers, and it took years to get off steroids with all their long term complications.
Anyway, nearly died after severe pneumonia set in. THEN the doctors took my illness seriously! Finally (only took 20 years!) I found a couple of specialists who turned things round for me - I really do owe them my life!
My advice on anything health related is to find the best doctor you can that really understand your particular condition. 
Practical advice on fishing:
Don't drive too far, it is far more tiring than most will admit!
Short fishing sessions
Minimise your tackle - one rod/reel, rest, small bag of bits, bucket with bait, landing net, chair
Search those places where you can get your car close
 
I had to admit defeat with sea fishing, but when I got my state pension retired to France. I was lucky to be able to do that with a lot of support from my wife.
Settled for river fishing and have spent the last three years searching locally for easy places to fish - and my health is improving!
Here I am parked on the slipway (out of boating season) with my Decathlon chair (very comfy!) placed to take in the view.
......and caught some barbel, even hooked what was probably a carp - hooked pulled!
 

I have an auto-immune disease (lupus) that was first diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. It was a battle over many years to get it correctly diagnosed and actually took two decades before I found doctors who were competent at treating the illness. Most gave me steroids (prednisilone) and painkillers, then sent me on my way!
I ended up hooked on painkillers, and it took years to get off steroids with all their long term complications.
Anyway, nearly died after severe pneumonia set in. THEN the doctors took my illness seriously! Finally (only took 20 years!) I found a couple of specialists who turned things round for me - I really do owe them my life!
My advice on anything health related is to find the best doctor you can that really understand your particular condition. 
Practical advice on fishing:
Don't drive too far, it is far more tiring than most will admit!
Short fishing sessions
Minimise your tackle - one rod/reel, rest, small bag of bits, bucket with bait, landing net, chair
Search those places where you can get your car close
 
I had to admit defeat with sea fishing, but when I got my state pension retired to France. I was lucky to be able to do that with a lot of support from my wife.
Settled for river fishing and have spent the last three years searching locally for easy places to fish - and my health is improving!
Here I am parked on the slipway (out of boating season) with my Decathlon chair (very comfy!) placed to take in the view.
......and caught some barbel, even hooked what was probably a carp - hooked pulled!
 

As my current water is not particularly carp friendly, I've been exploring its pike potential with a few trips this year.
 
Over 4 trips a mate and I have had some good fish, pike from 2 to 21lbs, normally a couple each trip, although we did manage a blank between us each day.
 
The mate in question is the friend who managed to catch the twenty I lost last year, really into his fishing now, and enjoying it.
 
Our first pike trip produced 3 to me, and Colin saved a blank with the small jack last knockings.
 
My fish were two around 6lb, and a scrappy 16 with a missing pec.


 
The next trip, Colin managed another couple of jacks, and again I had 3, topped with a 17. The 17 was a bit of a nightmare, not the fish, but the idiot dog walker who as I was unhooking it, got so close to the rod tip, moved it away from his face, and pulled the treble under my nail, more problems unhooking me than the pike.
 
Unfortunately we both blanked next trip, but hey ho.
 
A week later we were back at the venue, after a couple of casts I cast a whole joey mackeral, and within minutes, a finicky take with just a few bleeps and a nodding rod tip, no line pulled out the clip I hit into this beauty at 21lb




 
The smile is very real, only my second ever pike over 20, worthy of a new PB at 21.
 
Chuffed