Jone5y

The one on the Ecton ticket?

I think if you're seriously tight on time then it's almost certainly not viable. Firstly, you obviously need time to roll the bait but you'll also need time to satisfy your urge to tinker with your recipe. Everybody I've ever known who started making their own bait developed a bit of an obsession with trying different ingredients etc which takes more time ONTOP of rolling your standard recipe bait. It's surprisingly addictive once you get into it.

I think if you're taking time off work to roll bait then you should factor in £ p/hr. If you're doing it in the spare time, it's clearly better than sitting watching the TV doing nothing productive. I think if you frame your life in terms of your time equalling your work pay then it's not cost effective. In fact, everything you do in your spare time besides more paid work isn't cost effective in that sense. Personally, I would say to try it but not because you want to save money. Do it because you want to explore the bait making experience. Do it because it's unknown to you and it's unnerving. Do it because learning about bait construction may give you key information which will help with many other things in life. Do it because it adds a further sense of adventure to your fishing. Do it because you clearly are intrigued by it and you'll be able to definitively answer the question of "What if?". Surely that's more important than saving a few quid? I certainly think it is! Imagine the laughs you're going to have, the elation the first time your bait catches a fish, the misery that comes from failures, and the joy of learning. Marvellous!

I've just found two pots of mouldy bait - one says "hardened" and the other says "cork ball" in black marker pen on the lid - and a pot of horrid fluorescent yellow things which stink of chemicals that I assume I got free from CC Moore at some point.

That just looks like the hinged stiff rig for people who are too stingy to buy bristle filament.

It's a very serious degree that I took very seriously, mate. I'm sure you'd expect nothing less from me. I definitely didn't submit a picture of Skeletor for an assessment for a pity mark of 10% because I couldn't be bothered to do the work!

I'm in the same boat mate. I've decided to chuck all my line/hook length materials and keep everything else providing they're in good order. For the price, I don't really see the point in keeping it and risking break-offs.

I did a bit of work experience at Oxford Linear Fisheries and got asked about spots as I was walking around the lakes quite frequently. Unfortunately for them I barely even knew the names of the lakes and I got a few funny looks when I mentioned as much. In my three weeks there, I fished only one night. Apparently the "swim" I was fishing was actually more of a hole in the bush. I was also made aware that I was stitching up the best swim on the lake to fish this "hole in the bush" which I'm sure nobody moaned about! 😄

Spend more time looking than fishing until you have an idea of how the carp behave and then start fishing

I'd trust a side-hooked wine gum near the carp over a high-tech boilie on a fancy rid nowhere near the carp.

Wrap paste around a cork ball. Get cork balls 2-3mm (can't remember which I used to do) smaller than you want the finished popups. Soak the cork balls in egg prior to making the popups. Add 5% Egg Albumen to your base mix (substitute for your binding component e.g. semolina or soya) to toughen them up. Air dry for at least 2 weeks. Store them in tubs and coat them in whatever oil/stuff you want periodically. I've still got a pot of homemade cork ball popups that I made at least 6 years ago dowsed in salmon oil which are still perfectly useable. I had another pot which finally went mouldy after about 5 years without use. If you actually want to care about your environmental impact then keep using cork balls and stop going on holiday in an aeroplane.

When I used to fish for carp, I used to keep everything as basic as possible so that the only significant variable was where I was sticking the bait. As long as the bait was likely presented cleanly enough on the bottom, that was good enough for me. It was incredibly stress free. All my effort went into finding where the fish were and moving onto them - or away from them as was more often the case.

Hi Ian, I hope you are well. In my hiatus, I went a bit off the rails and ended up going to university at the ripe old age of 27. Whilst there, an Albanian girl thought it would be a wise idea to hide my teaspoon (not a euphemism). Suffice to say that when she found her own teaspoon embedded into the centre of a hollowed out cucumber - again, not a euphemism - she realised she was dealing with a professional. She conceded immediately and I am now, in my own mind, the world champion. I don't spitefully hang toilet roll incorrectly anymore. However, I have been known to turn a microwave upside down to see how long it takes people to realise - you'd be surprised at my results. Although I'm becoming interested in carp fishing again, it seems that finding unkempt and underfished lakes is getting increasingly difficult which is making me hesitant. I suspect there is a few little unearthed gems on some cheap club tickets, especially given I don't really care about the size of the carp.

Thinking about dusting off the old carp gear after about 6 years or not touching it at all.