salokcinnodrog

This was Shingle Street last Wednesday. A high tide at 23.09 so I arrived at 5pm so I could set up in daylight, and see the low water mark. I normally aim to fish until 3hours after high. As you can see it is a high, deep, shingle beach, no real need for long casting, although I do put a big bait as far as I can 'just in case', and that was the one that produced the thornback ray on prawn and squid on a size 5/0. The short range rod, at probably 50metres produced a few dogfish, a tiny smoothhound and the conger eel all on ragworm and squid. No bites until around 10.30, the first doggy, the thornback came just after high, and the last fish around 1.30.

This year has been tough sea fishing. No major blowy weather, calm seas and clear water. Night time is the best time to be fishing. Lug worm and rag worm are easy to hook, put them on a hollow straight baiting needle then thread them onto the hook. Best then tipped with a bit of squid or fish. As with coarse fishing, don't overcast the fish, at night more bass and sole are caught within 30metres than at longer range. And don't think bigger is better, a size 1 or 2 hook is as big as you need for sole.

A belated welcome to Carp.com.

A few interesting points in here. Having worked in a couple of tackle shops and animal feed stores I know how much bait costs both ways. In terms of base mixes and boilies, the tackle shops buy from the manufacturer, at cost. It's basically divide buying price by 2, then multiply by 3 and add VAT, so £6.99 tackle shop buying price worked out at £11.99 when I was there. That's not that big a profit when you consider storage, freezer, carriage, wages and handling. It is very difficult to compete when anglers are able to buy direct from the manufacturer at cost! I used to field test, proper field testing rather than buying at discount, and I bought non test bait at discount, but got test baits for free, if that makes sense. The test baits I gave feedback on, and gave ideas for baits I came up with. There were a couple of my own flavour blends and pop-ups added to the bait makers range, which I never had to pay for. Come to that I know that a fish in I provided a lot of bait for for anglers going which was given to me by the bait company. I couldn't afford to pile bait in as a field tester, yet I saw some with magazine media presence really go for it. A bulk bag of pellets from a wholesaler is around £60, around £3 per kilo, so if a tackle shop sells them you are looking at around £5 a kilo, which is why so many sell 1kg bags. I'm not sure on the price of buckets, I think I paid £10 for a bucket last year (my sea fishing bucket) from a shop, yet years ago I used to get 10kg buckets of base mix for around £72.99, the bucket was free. @Golden Paws I don't like having loads of bait about, but I do have an advantage, Gladwells at Copdock Mill is 5minutes away, and I can buy ready prepped hemp, and 3kg buckets of pellets, or bulk sacks. Gladwells incidentally own Crafty Catcher so I can get bulk bags of Skrettings pellets or Crafty Catcher pellet buckets. I know Gladwells sell their boilie and bait range at the same price as tackleshops. I do buy 1 or 2 kilo bags of birdfood from the supermarket and prepare at home.

That would pee me off! I take Sky, we walk round the lake, and her mess is picked up, my cigarette butts get binned. I even now take the trouble to sort out my rubbish for recycling, easier with soft plastic now going in my blue bin.

I agree that the quality of hemp has gone downhill and silly prices. If I do buy it I now buy ready prepared by Copdock Mill/Crafty Catcher (the two are one company), rather than prepare my own like I used to. The amount of hemp I used to go through, whole sacks in a month! Carp fishing, roach fishing, and boy could carp trough on it. Kidney beans are brilliant. Again I don't prepare my own anymore, I buy tinned from the shop, prepared in chilli sauce. A great hookbait.

Tigers, maize, maple peas and hemp are the only particles that I don't think are improved by adding flavours to them, however dark brown sugar improves them. Chilli hemp seems to work no better than standard hemp in my experience, but other may find different. I flavour almost every other particle, birdfood, chickpeas, kidney beans, black eyes, and colour some of them. Kidney beans seem to be improved in chilli sauce (even better is that you can get chillied kidney beans in tins). Chickpeas and blackeyes, both take on colour and flavour during the soak, and turmeric and paprika are brilliant spices to add in the soak, as is crushed ginger. The ground turmeric and paprika add colour, while ginger is a 'flavour'. I've tried artificial or carp shelf flavours, and some work, others not so. I have a feeling that artificial flavours are not as good as Nature Identical or flavours made using essential oils or natural products.

Wasn't the original carp/specimen angler Richard Walker versus Match angler Billy Sails? Then there was a John Wilson one against an England international match angler, Di ck Clegg(?) Both were on 3 head to head matches and I think that both were won by the specialist angler 2-1. I don't think that I was born for the first, and can't remember the Clegg vs Wilson waters, other than John Wilson knew the Royalty stretch of river and drew on a big shoal of bream. I think that they used the same waters as the original, so it's likely that the Witham was included. I have seen John Wilson tie a size 16 spade end behind his back, and it was tidier than me with a spade end hook tyer. I think that we have mentioned the silly price of super duper tubs of pop-ups, and I agree £25 is silly money. I get disgruntled at paying £9 for a tub!

Respect! Here's another one for you: I was sat watching the water from my bivvy, and Sky and me saw a van move slowly along the bank to what I call 'second car park'. A few minutes later my Messenger bleeps, with the message asking if thats me on the far bank followed by: "Thanks pal ill been down in abit mite fish to the right of you if aviable". JR is dyslexic so I wasn't worried about his spelling, but 'asking' if its ok to set up in the swim to the right. Not that he needed to ask, the nearest swim either side is around 100metres away, but just a little courtesy. That is the attitude of majority of the anglers on the syndicate.

Another lovely animal! Funny story about a hedgehog from years ago at Taverham Mills. It was dark and I had to go for a pony so walked back to the lodge toilet, not bothering to switch my head torch on. As I came back to my swim I heard a crashing and clattering in the bushes. It was so loud I thought someone had fallen over and hurt themselves, rolling in the undergrowth, so I put my head torch on. It was a hedgehog with its head stuck in a sweetcorn tin. I'm especially wary of hedgehogs fishing now, not sure whether Sky is trying to play or eat them, but I have had to remove one from her mouth that had rolled into a ball.

Fox use 2.5mm Jack plug, Delkim was 3.5mm from memory.

Sadly the video is too big to post on here, so this is my Facebook link. Not your standard bivvy invader! He was carefully picked up and returned to the long grass: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DYAgLuaDK/

I used Daiwa Sensor for sea fishing and carp fishing, and before that Sylcast for both. Come to that Gardner Pro has been used by me for sea and carp fishing. I knew that many lines on the carp market are the very same line under different branding. Makes you wonder why line costs of some are so expensive. Same with hooks, different brands come from the same factory, although I think that Drennan/ESP manufacturer their own and Kamasan. A change from the time of Drennan Super Specialists being the only mainstream carp hook.

A couple for you, aimed at the American market

Without going on and on about the old days (late 80's and 90's) but remember when an Argus bed chair and blanket were fine, might have said this before on a HorseShoe thread tho! Anyway, can see the way 'carp fishing' is or has gone now, it's big business for a lot of companies, I am not bothered about the latest super bedchair/bivvie/bait boat/rod/reel/ bait etc etc..... Sadly I feel the pastime I really loved in the past is now for the social media generation, sign of the times I know. As for me, now given up the use of boilies this season, I am doing purely a particle approach, have had a few and just feels nice to me to do something different for a change 👍 Not sure about that😂 I'm mid 50's if that qualifies, so yes probably. I've seen the change of carp fishing, or fishing as a whole. I don't mind the increase in comfort, a sunlounger that would collapse at the most inopportune moment... I do much prefer the modern bedchair, even modern bivvies, but I do feel that the prices have made it ridiculous. I still prefer an umbrella system, although I will admit to having used a few domes, and very nice too; Hutchy Apotheosis, Fox EasyDome 1 and 2. I think it was Rod Hutchinson and Shakespeare who brought the domes onto the market, Cyprydome and the Apotheosis, quite probably the first switch from the camping market. I caught up with a research video on YouTube this morning, there are only 2 independent reel manufacturers, (Daiwa and Shimano), every other brand is made pretty much made under the same factory roof, whether Okuma, Sonik, Nash, Penn or whoever. The same reel can be sold under multiple brands and names, and at various prices.