Paul S

Yes Myles I believe the owners name is; very small lake. There's also Park Fishery up near Blackboys if you know it?

Do you know about Longreed?

I've not forgotten Jack, my mate is finding out for you. He did say it has got very tricky there but some decent sized fish to try for..

There is one called the road lake nr Hailsham, not sure who you would contact but can find out for you..

Before the houses were built on the Witney bank..

As you mention Minamino / multimino; has anybody tried the new AA Baits Megamino? MegaMino™️ - AA Baits The blurb is as always enticing, a mate has been using it and I must say he is doing well using a small amount on pellet, on a notoriously tricky CV lake. I have tried it the last 2 sessions but as my water here isn't one for giving up it's prizes often it's less easy to judge. A couple of pick up's a year is good going..

Ha, right posh that..! I went down the Nash canvas overwrap route in 91 iirc, back in the days of carrying everything to the swim.. Where are you based in Sussex Oldboy?

That was summer 89 I think; no bans for anything then, you had to buy a ticket at the post office in Lechlade to fish, £7.50 a day or £25 a week seems to come to mind.. That 200lb cat actually was from Cassien not the Ebro I remembered after posting above; one of the fist massive cats caught by an English angler at the time. Nowadays it has obviously changed a lot, like everywhere has, it is still a nice place to hand out fore a few days when not too busy..

That's the problem these days; and partly why I no longer have any fast bikes, certainly in the SE of the country anyway, way too many cameras etc, you just can't enjoy riding freely much without doing track days..

That's lovely, good to see some retro Jap 4's around still.. Did you do the resoration?

My last bike; loved it, so much fun and light enough to enjoy, prior was a VTR-1000 which was lovely, Speed triple also for a short while..

Agree 100% that this must be a controlled process if done at home; sterilisation of all containers and utensils, using one way breathers etc, things can go wrong very easily if unknowingly allowed . Done well with care and attention, it is well worth the extra effort in my experience. Fermentation and pickling are commonplace where my wife is from, the UK is slowly (as with everything) coming round to the process.. Think of it as a way of liberating the amino acids that form to make peptides and proteins, humans do this process in an extremely low ph environment in the gut, relying on trillions of microbes to break down these proteins and to excrete hormone's that serve to repair and maintain the biological system, whereas the carp has a far simpler, and shorter GI tract that whole foods can and do pass straight through, often seen on the mat or sling. Anything to help the absorption of amino acids can only be a good thing of course. It surprises me when a known angler states carp are stupid because they eat there own poo, he clearly missed that day at school.. Cooking hemp is not quite at the same level of natural processing even though it can produce fantastic bait..! The other thing is what the resident gut microbe balance is, which is a direct result of what we eat, the same goes for fish. Humans can have a wildly varied gut microbiome, some good some bad, often pretty poor if heavily processed food, beer, (alcohol in general) and fizzy pop etc are consumed regularly, leading to increased levels of communities of unwanted bad bacteria which will excrete the wrong substances for good health and lead to illness over time. I have a 56 page document on my own gut balance, something I was far more keen to get the results from than my A levels.. We should consider the same ideals for bait, as a long term food source especially, and avoiding any preservatives in my opinion is high on the list of priorities. None of my own baits use any preservative, natural or synthetic, including hookbaits even though (and before someone points out) they are not consumed..

I spent some time on there late 80's, flitting between summer and winter bays, the attached photo was summer point, this was also when I became aware of tiger nut's, having been mostly using chick peas until then, the carp went mad for tigers so I made the most of it, getting hold of them wasn't easy though, a non fishing shop in Swindon refused to sell any to me as they knew I was using them as bait..! Good times then though, I seem to remember some of the guys talking about an angler there fishing the winter bay near all the snags (now long gone) called John Allen, who'd recently had that 200lb cat from the Ebro..

Ha, thanks, I guess there's different levels of grown up

Thanks, glad your all sorted now too..