marker

i don't like them myself, the bigger carp are generally ok but if your water has any decent tench, bream, crucians, rudd or roach etc you can say goodbye to them. you'll not find much in the way of birdlife either, anything duck sized generally gets taken, i even saw one try to take down a full grown swan once.

a few to look out for, warrington anglers have a water called the mount which is located in buckley, flint paper mill, tarporley anglers have a few nice waters just outside chester. port sunlight angling club have a few waters just outside willaston, they are in south wirral a few miles from e/port.

i've had tigers go like that a few times, i don't worry about it, if it does bother you just leave the bucket outside with the lid off, the smell will soon fade ;)

generally i prepare my own but for the odd trips here and there its easier to buy them ready done from the shop, i've used dynamite and bait tech for tinned tigers and they both work very well👍

i like a combination of hemp and maize for winter, i can't put my finger on why but they go very well together👍

most people seem to like the hot red one but i've done well with the standard green, it's a great bait, really good in winter too

I only worry if the lake is gin clear and I think the hooklink stands out on the bottom, I have a few sharpie marker pens in my box just in case, black, brown and green, you can pick them up cheap on ebay, golfers use them for marking their golf balls most of the time I only use them in winter when the colour has dropped out of the water on most lakes

yes the 'no trace' bead, I wouldn't trust one of those either ;)

alas not nige, I've been to 2 of the 8 and they aren't really my type of thing, I quickly worked out you get a very good choice of swims on the show weekend, the only way i'll be there is if the lakes are frozen, that's how I ended up going to a second one lol if we are frozen over that weekend i'll come and find you

i'm not sure the heli is safe either mate, in an ideal world yes, as long as the top bead comes free you should be ok, but weed can be horrible stuff and it doesn't take much to clog things up and stop a rig working as intended, the top bead actually coming off in this scenario is a big assumption, I wouldn't trust it even with a helisafe bead on

can't say i'm a fan of ridge monkey, everything they do just seems to be a copy that can be bought elsewhere cheaper so I swerve them the one thing i'm interested in buying this year is a baiting pole, i'm just waiting for some feedback on them first, i'm interested in the corus and nash ones if anyone has used them

50lb braid straight through is fine for short to mid range spodding, i'd be happy using that up to the 80-100yd mark

I use inlines fished 'drop off' style when fishing in weed, i'm not a fan of dumping leads but if it's thick enough to cause a problem landing them I will

thanks mate, I appreciate the feedback, I do try to make each one better but it's hard work, you start off with an idea of how you want things to go then you go fishing and film it, trouble is your fishing trips never pan out as you expect them too and you end up with something completely different to your original idea 🤣 hmmm, not sure I agree with that yonny, perhaps in video format from the big names but a lot of youtubers are still do it and it's completely out of control on fb and Instagram

happy Christmas all santa left me a couple of pairs of thermal socks which have already proved useful, he also left a wad full of cash so I can get what I want, so far my shopping list has 2 midi spombs, a collapsible water bucket for photo time, new spool of 20lb whiplash, a baiting pole, a new landing net and a cradle shopping day is tomorrow

I spend most of my time on youtube too these days, there are very few, if any, of these gripes in my videos, little or no annoying music, i'll never kiss a fish, no annoying sayings like pukka or unit, I dislike tackle and bait companies and their social media advertising tactics so no endless plugs, in fact my channel is dedicated to doing things on the cheap and using alternatives if you haven't seen any of my stuff before just search for 'mark carp', apologies for the plug but i'm sure there's something on my channel you'll find useful

been a member on here for many years but I don't post much these days, mainly due to time constraints😉 thanks for the feedback mate, i'm made up you took something from the vids and caught, that's the kind of feedback that makes it worthwhile doing them👍😎

I always use it within 24hrs of cooking because I like it fresh, additive wise just save your money and don't bother adding anything. I do like to use it with hemp, the hemp/maize combo is a cracker😉

I have fox halo and a petzl tikka 2, both are very good so i'd say go with the cheapest of the two 😉

just found an email for Liverpool leads mate its mikes.leads@hotmail.com mh leads changes the privacy of his fb page now and again, I think he takes it private when he has a lot on or needs time to do something else in life I guess?. for all the Instagram spam liverpools leads put out the only thing I could find was the email, no phone number or anything?, either way that's the email he uses so drop him a line 😉

my mate buys from ian carter and rates him highly😉 there is also mh leads based in warrington, they are on facebook, also Liverpool carp leads, they are on Instagram a lot, no idea if they have a facebook page but the leads look as good as anyone elses, lets be honest it's not easy to cock them up🙂lol

a bit expensive but I like the haiths jumbo tigers😉

a deeper is ideal for you then mate, I fish 6hrs a week usually on a Saturday afternoon, I have to fit in somewhere amongst bivvy anglers with far more time than me then try and nick a bite, with the odds stacked very much against me due to limited time, I grab any edge I can with both hands🙂

I've got one, it's very handy, no point in flogging it with a marker rod when a deeper will give you so much more in a fraction of the time😉 I bought a dedicated little android tablet to go with mine so I don't have to use my phone plus I've got a slightly bigger screen to look at which is handy if you need reading glasses like me🙂

thanks finchey, i'd like to think there's some useful stuff on there, i'm not the best at it, there's no crappy carp team stuff, endless plugging of gear or sponsorship begging 😉 I hate drum and bass so there's none of that and I fish alone and on limited time so they aren't very 'arty' either😁