salokcinnodrog

It is believed that carp were introduced into Britain by the Romans, however it was monks who introduced them heavily in around the 1400's, as Catholics were not to eat meat on Fridays, so stew ponds were stocked with fish.

I do love the nostalgia of 'older' anglers. I've already read Hutchy The Golden Years and it seemed from that, other books, and my memories, fishing was so much simpler

Around the year 2000 I would have said Shimano top range reels were the best to go for, but I don't think quite the same any more and the better value Shimano reels are in the lower price bracket. I can't remember exactly when I bought my Beastmaster 7000's, but it was when I was fishing Nazeing on the Central and South Lagoons so around 10years ago, maybe a bit more. They were around £85 each and I bought 4 at the time. 2 years ago on Ebay they were selling for around £80, so I bought another 3. I've got them on my 2.75lb rods and my 3.25's, and they have handled a fair number of fish. The current Beastmaster incarnation is the 14000XC and is around £90. I can give you the link via Johnson Ross: https://johnsonrosstackle.co.uk/shimano-big-pit-reels/27133-shimano-beastmaster-xc14000.html As a tackle shop either mail order or going in personally, Johnson Ross are good people to deal with.

That's only part of it, we are good at occasional wind-ups as well... Not always intentionally!

Welcome to carp.com

I know one of the bailiffs on Brackens used to use solar powered 'rock lights' to light the trip hazards in his swim, and had a Solar panel to charge his powerbank and laptop.

I used to love my Browning 9ft spinning rod for floater fishing and stalking. When it was stolen I was really upset. I honestly don't know how many fish I caught on it, including my first ever 20lb carp floater fishing. As for breaking rods, I went through a stage of doing it. 2 Century NG's trapped in the car door, my Daiwa Pro-specialist 1.5lb caught in the seat belt latch. I really have no idea of the best rod for stalking and floater fishing now, I seem to have different preferences to the media. I was digging around, is this your kind of thing:

The joys of media... I worry about how much salt I put into my bait. This spodding neat salt into the water really worries me, as salt does not 'go away'. Putting it in neat when we don't know the full effects. Salt will kill micro-organisms and various water life. I cannot remember which university, but from research, 1 teaspoon of salt can pollute 5 gallons of water permanently, which can ruin freshwater ecosystems. Even more amusing is that table salt is possibly a repellant. The best level in carp diet of salt is 1.5%. The shelf life versus freezer baits, no matter what I do when I make bait, I nearly always dry it for 24hours and then freeze it. I've tried totally airdrying them until all moisture is evaporated. No matter how good the preservatives, sometimes mould gets in. I've had foods and baits all go mouldy, despite being supposedly dried or preserved. The airdried bait is a strange one that confuses people. It is rock hard, but draws water in faster than baits with moisture as in either frozen and thawed or shelf life. As a result, they go softer quicker. They do not go as far with a throwing stick or catapult, they are lighter. I am sure it was Shaun Harrison who came up with or wrote about 'washing' attraction back into dried boilies, using hemp or particles juice. This is almost the predecessor of our fishing on the posts of this thread.

It's how a lot of boilies are being made shelf life now, a mix of glycerine, sugar and boiling water before drying. The glycerine stops the boilies from drying totally and with the sugar is I think an attractor.

I've not read Kempastini Book of Baits, so can't say it is in there. In Big Carp, Chris Ball chapter, I'll Let you be in My Dreams had a bait recipe for that water that Andy Little came up with. Andy Little has written a number of articles and books, and I have read a fair few, so it could be one of them. I don't know if it has been mentioned but soy sauce is something I add to particles as I soak them. I'm not a fan of salting them, and hemp adding salt in the soak stops it splitting, but soy sauce for some reason on birdfoods gives them an added kick. Then of course we have the old favourite of condensed milk on them.

I packed up today after a 3 day blank. I felt that last night or this morning I should have had a fish or two, but it was not to be. Monday was boiling and I had to set up in the deepest shade possible, opposite my usual pre-baited swim. It was not until the weather cooled yesterday and we had some cloud and rain I even felt I was near the fish. Oh well, let's hope that everyone manages to get on the carp this month.

I remember reading it somewhere, and it is going to bug me where I read it. I think that the other protein source may have been lactalbumin. I know that there is an Andy Little chapter on Savay in Chris Turnbull's Big Fish From Famous Waters, on how he was putting in massive amounts of bait at range and killing catapults regularly. The maple flavour, one that worked best at high levels.

Right under the trees it's been bearable, except between 4 and 8. Sky has been swimming every day as we walk around to keep cool. I'm up in the shallows, but until this morning I hadn't seen a thing. The deep end is wall to wall with thick weed and is unfishable. The weed is what had drifted, so I was able to net it out. It left me enough room to have the rods over the top.

Ooh, alarm ears! I'd forgotten about them. There were two types that you could add to your Optonics: the fixed ears or the moveable ones. I had the moveable ones so I could put my Optonics in the box at the end of the session. I had painted the fronts white so I could see them. I also remember the multi-pin jack plug sounder box that Efgeeco made. Here is a pinched picture The funny thing is that originally Dellareed recommended Del Romang to convert them as far as I can remember, then changed their minds and took it to court. Catchum, Rod Hutchinson's original bait company! Seafoodblend, probably one of the first fishmeal baits, and very effective.