Roughtor

These just turned up

Wow,that's amazing ..Well Yonny I'm a 100 % believer.. One night ,around 25vyrs ago I was on a private water on Bodmin Moor, nearest farm that was habitated, is around 1 mile away ,although ,today that's changed as the derelict building is now lived in.. So I turn up ,using three 11ft 2lb tc rods ,gardner rod pod,Bitech alarms ,white ,single peg ,old original fox swingers,under my nash 45 inch storm sides..lafuma bedchair the works ....old skool etc,etc .. I set up in the sheep field ,which at the time had no fence ,its fenced nowadays ,anyway as it got dimpsy ,dusk all the sheep that's pregnant ewes,with a few lambs in tow are now backed up at the top by the ,then derelict farm,I had no idea why,except I thought fox ,dog or even sheep thieves ,I didn't know,but I was now aware.. Fishing wise its quiet ,until around 4.30 AM ,when I hear a terrible sound ,commotion behind my flimsy shelter, I didn't dare move or breathe ,even tho I remember dying for a pee,which was now hurting.. Ever heard a sheep scream ? I have. Eventually I dared to come out of my 45 inch brolly ,and there ,behind my shelter was a disembowled ewe, it was a right sight a proper,proper kill... And I blanked ...

No,I'm not talking about the big man with the white beard in the sky! I'm wondering how many of us have seen ,or seen signs of big cats in the countryside.. I'll start...there are lots of abandoned slate quarries nearby,one day a friend of mine wanted to mess about with didgeridoo acoustics, so I suggested this empty quarry ,it's filled up since and now has fish in it,anyway...its sunset ,and we're sitting in this quarry overlooking the Atlantic, looking towards lundy Island..it was awesome. My friend ,John was his name ,hadn't started playing his instrument I know that sounds wrong lol,...so he points upwards and there on the perimeter of the quarry was a silhouette of a very large feline ,it was no domestic cat ,around Alsation size .. We both went ,oh dear or similar and silent as you can went back to our village..I've had other experiences, but let's see if anyone else has first ...

To be fair that's quite a clever mindset here...well written.. Do they allow bait boats ,cos if not I'm out ...lol 😂

Spot on ,exactly the same as well.. If I do more than a 24 I got a lidl cool bag that I leave in my car as a hub ,is that the right word lol,so I return to it every 24 hrs , Also water is really heavy ,so I only carry 2 litres, so I have back up or use a farmers tap ,I also use on occasion a sawyer water filter ,but only now and then ...

What do people think.of those pop up walled mats ,like the Carper,or NGT,Korum and Fox versions ..? I quite like the look of the Carper version with handles ..

Good advice Yonny,looking at carbon stuff now...😊

Today ,I went down a new little club type of water...I was after anything other than carp ,...I had a tuberculed bream ,which fought like a carp,honest... And around 10 carp,which I didn't want ,was after Perch if I'm honest ,prawns n pin ,I call it .. Was fun on the float ,5lb maxima and a 14 barbless hook,...makes a change from sitting behind 'beepers '

Mate ,the 'golf ' word must never ,ever be mentioned on a forum devoted to piscatorial leanings I learnt the hard way ,I became an outcast ,as I once played pitch and putt,...( know that grating feeling only to well )..😏

What I used to do is ,if I don't use it on a couple of trips ,it don't come along anymore ..it sounds ruthless ,but I'm an older angler now ( 😭 )..so less is more One thing I won't get rid of is my original lockey stainless ,my wife bought it for me ,so I appreciate it even today ,when there is much light options ..to be honest ,much of my inspiration comes from the Bushcraft/wild camping crowd,they seem to have it down with minimalist ideas

I've been following a visual patrol route from the shallows to a mega patch of dead and decaying pads . It's pretty shallow ,but you can see the stems and rhizome entrails moving around ..so I plonked here for 24hrs . 11 takes ,and 8 landed ..including this one ,which was stocked nearly 5 yrs ago ,when it was much ,much smaller..soon those pads will be impossible to fish until next year.

I once seen a guy with so much weight in his lead bag ,it was heavier than my main ESP bag,rucksack ..so I thought about it and carry 6 leads ,3 on and 3 spare ,but with spares in me car...

I love threads like this ,minimalist I be, after many years of trying different ways of carrying our essential kit .. I find it very interesting seeing others kit,as in reality I don't fish with or see many other anglers .. So 40 litre ESP rucksack 27ul Trangia ,+ bit of fuel Old skool fox Alarm pouch plus bankstix underneath Bit of bait front pocket, coupla head torches, and my monster sized pouch .lol.....took me years and years to refine it ..

OK Yonny ,..I gave my son my original NI patrol pack ,he uses it all the time for fishing and shooting on the moors.. If anyone is interested,Kombat UK do a klone version of the NI packs and I've seen the originals for sale in the local surplus store.. Kombat ones are good ,but not as good as the proper ones ..

Still getting the odd frost til last week ..glad of my TB long top discontinued

I fish some big ressis or small private waters so I try and go minimal as I can I use a 45 litre ESP rucksack ,all my cooking kit plus bait and alarms go in that bag ,cook kit is a Trangia 27ul triggers broom version..tiny cup, spork that's it ... Food is frozen ,meant to last one day til cooked ,rest of food is easy cook stuff so I don't have the extra hassle of a another big bag ..my little food bag is the NGT tiny version ,my car is my hub ... I try and keep everything in its place ,so I know where it tis,...

Hello mate,yes I too have fished Bolingy ,but before Gerry and John Castle took over from Major Phillips ...I remember Gerrys wife Jill a lovely lady ..they owned a very smart bungalow in Bolingy village itself..called either Lake side or Lake View,which is what Dave Daws place at Lanivet was potentially named after as Gerry ran long island Lake at lakeview Lodge.. Gerry unfortunately lost his life at Oakside ,now known as Dead Gerrys ,sad but true.. Lake view ,held the biggest common in Kernow,although it came originally from Kennick ressi,I learnt a lot from Gerry ,I still use his mantra from him,which is LPB,location,presentation and bait ,in that order .. as you may know Gerry was the modern instigator of winter carp fishing ,where he pioneered it,..along with PYM baits ,and was a ardent advocate of Fred Wilton HNV theories and early user of the hair. Gerry and his mate Chris Bannister ,from College ressi fished Bude Canal together during the winter. ,right opposite the Bude Canal, waterfront fishing tackle shop.. He also wrote extensively about Cornish carping in the History of Angling,to be found at River reads ,online called the Early years ,in Cornwall, which has to be taken with a pinch of salt as the most influential angler of note would be Ken Townley and early members of Roche AC ,and my mate Jim Richardson from Delabole RIP ... Anyway inso far as the Strat or Neet ,I've heard of perch being caught and seen Mullet ,but never fished it due to being mainly in the summer time,busy etc... I keep being asked by younger Cornish to write and publish and share my photos before the Cornish carp/course boom,when subsidies were handed to farmers to diversify.. Cheers..

Thanks very much ..

Thank you

Hi mate ,you can spod or spomb on any sized lake.I find on smaller lakes it can ,and does put the fish on edge and pushes them away from your traps ,on bigger waters ,places that see a lot of beds of bait it can also limit your chances..I hardly ever use a spomb etc now ,it's my least used bit of kit ..I tend to use 3 or 5 bait stringers with a catapulted, scatterbait method .. Recasting,I try to keep my baits in as long as I can ,especially if I feel the position, landing of the rig is clean,...everytime you recast you could risk spooking that one chance you have...be mindful of the hookbaits longevity..trust your innermost feeling.. Plastic baits ,well I've caught all year around ,in all conditions ..I mainly use them with a small mesh bag with crunched up baits ,however it's venue dependent ie are you allowed to use them etc ,..they work great in and around a significant patrol route or feature with no,or hardly any freebies..I don't use them much for full on carping now ,only for roaching to be honest ..to stop the imitation corn getting taken off the hair etc.. I go with the Hutchy approach, if no visible signs of fish activity, no visible features ,I go ,if possible in the middle swim ,and go from there, one thing I never,ever ignore are the margins,ignore at your peril...lol Good luck...

Thanks both chaps above ..😎

It's 100% regeneration from otter attack ,I seen it lots of times on ALL the local waters.. From being bitten it takes around 15 months to get the stage in the pic.. Some heal better than others..,

Thanks very much indeed..

I better introduce myself I'm a angler and countryman ..grown up and live in Cornwall.. Angling is not a hobby to me it's my chosen lifestyle.. All the best

Hi I'm a new poster on here but not new to carping or traditional angling.. I grew up in Boscastle, fishing the Valency for small brownies up as far Biscombes farm where there was a lovely area where you could even run a small float down the river.and on one side of my family 16 generations are buried near to the head waters of the Valency river. The Valency has always flooded ,in 1958 it was really bad as a local man was killed,in 2004 no one was killed...you can see the height of where the water level hit in my brothers cottage ,near the harbour ..he's put a plague in the level ..my brother was also in the cliff rescue based in the village,but now at Camelford Station.. The National Trust, has made a natural phenomenon much worse by raising Cobweb carpark and straightening all the river from Emma Giffords pool to the new bridge ..My family live in the old part ,the proper part of the village, and the Jordan and Paradise streams destroyed our cottage, it ran under and out through the front door ..it ruined my mother's mental state .. As far as Otters go ,there is not one single water in the county that's not been predated ..places I've loved and grown up on..Beavers well,they obviously don't eat fish,however the legislation involved to remove them is immense ,I have seen at first hand damage caused by Beavers that have been let go on purpose ,potentially Beaver release could be as bad as the otter releases in the future.. I think it was well over 130 different waters that have been collated in the county...