salokcinnodrog

I used to love fishing after a good rain in south or westerly winds. I think it was my first season on the 2acre Brackens, and after serious rain it would fish it's nuts off.

I used to do the inline lead and everything in the bag years ago when I really wanted a nice tidy setup on Nazeing for long distance casting. A rubber tulip bead inside the lead and I think it was Fox tubing only just longer than the lead. I believe it was @nigewoodcock who suggested lighter blobbing the end of the tubing inside the tulip bead to hold it without glue. I lighter blobbed it while it was on a standard sewing needle or thin baiting needle, and then slid the tulip bead down to it.

Sadly that is the reason why I often have to put post moderation and human verification on new members. It's when new members who immediately start spamming after joining that we get caught out.

Like @yonny I never fish as well on a social as I do on my own. However like you I have lost interest in carp fishing at the moment, despite having a good syndicate, for a couple of reasons, most of which revolves around my dad. I'm also slightly bugged by issues that happened around members who only fished when their other syndicate was closed. I tend to catch when I can do 3 or 4 days, and either setup on fish, or prime an area for them to move onto. However I do know I love the lake and when things work out I will be back on there aiming to catch both Chestnut and the BC along with any other fish that just happen to come my way.

I know Rod Hutchinson do Water Snail Naturalz: https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/products/naturalz-16mm

You have loads of water in the Lea Valley. Look up Lea Valley fisheries https://leevalleyfisheries.co.uk/ they have loads of waters. While some are on a waiting list others are still open for tickets. I was fishing Nazeing Meads from 2008-2019 and if travel wasn't such a problem for me from Suffolk I would probably still be there.

Not from land snails unless you eat them, more likely to get parasites from water snails, and I do keep sanitiser handy after picking them out.

I go through stages of trying things out, and some of my favourite stalking baits in rivers are slugs and snails, because they occasionally fall in from bankside vegetation. Chub and carp have taken slugs on the drop, although snails are harder to hook... I did try putting land and water snails in my spod mix a few times, and a mate and I have been known to walk round the lake collecting them. We get water snails as big as your thumb! The best way to use them we found to stop them floating was freeze them. It never seemed to produce any more than standard spod mix. I've used Dynamite hemp and snails and it seems no better than plain hemp, although I do know that when fish get onto snails they are very good for growth and health.

Most definitely I am guilty of number 3 and number 8. I took out loads of pop-ups and the ones left appear to have reproduced in a Heinz 57 babies... As for the rod pod, I must admit to owning a Solar P1 but it has been abused a bit

I'm wary of sugar and salt, but even though glycerine comes from fats being processed, and supposedly needs emulsifying in winter, I found glycerine/glycerol flavours still produced in winter, even compared to the same flavours on ethyl alcohol as the solvent. It has made me convinced that glycerine is an attractor in its own right. I'm not sure if any of the bait or flavour specialists have written about it. I'm going to have to try to find out.

Fish to your own limits and conditions. I think that we have conditioned ourselves for fishing to be plotting up at the lake Friday night, popping the bivvy up, making ourselves super comfortable, then catching or not and packing up Sunday. That's 'carp fishing'. I went through a stage on a particular park lake where I didn't want locals knowing (a) I was there. (b) I was catching. I would sleep on a camping air mattress roll, with a tarpaulin cover after arriving as darkness fell. I could get the rods out more quickly, and in unfished areas. I've posted this pic before, but I could get up close with minimal disturbance and be off very quickly in the morning.

A glycerine and sugar syrup is now frequently used to make 'identical' freezer and shelf life boilies. The base mix is the same, but instead of freezing after drying, the baits are given a run around in the bath and then dried again. Freezer baits tend to have an attraction 2 or 3 days after thawing as the enzymes, salts and sugars migrate to the surface due to moisture, where I personally think shelf life's have the added instant attraction due to the glycerine. They may both be food baits, the same recipe but the glycerine make them more instant. The two can be used together, or separately. Shelf life boilies I have found to be harder, and the longer you leave them, the harder they get to the point of drilling. You can air dry, without freezing the standard bait to rock hard, it will need drilling to go on the hair, but they take on water more quickly and almost explode. Back in the early 2000's I played around with bait soaks and glugs, with ideas from the original Nutrabaits Bait soaks which were Nutramino and Multimino PPC and added my flavour and essential oil combination; the Peach Nutrafruit was on glycerine/glycerol. The hookbaits after a couple of weeks were rock hard and able to withstand the attentions of small silvers and chub in the lakes and rivers. I have played with other glugs, often based around Liquid Yeast Extract I did play with matching of flavour sprays, but they did need watering down to put in an atomiser bottle. One thing I did find was neat flavours could be a repellant or create a feeding area or attention area actually away from the hookbait. I can't remember which Tim Paisley book it is in, probably Carp, but both him and Rod Hutchinson came to the conclusion that the flavour was acceptable a distance away from the bait, and it is there that the carp boiled, rolled or attempted to feed. So use flavours at low level, or avoid them altogether and stick with natural attraction.

I'm Autistic and can remember back years. It's not always a positive!

I'm sad enough to be able to remember the majority of my captures from over 25years ago, albeit some do take a picture reminder.

I'm positive that my average is well over 20lb over the past 18years on the big fish waters. On Nazeing from 2008-2018 I can recall only 4 fish below 20lb; 3 high doubles from Brackens and a 10lb mirror from Central Lagoon. On Alton I did have a couple of doubles, both on snowman baits, a couple of 20's on pop-ups, one on a snowman and the rest of the 20's came on double 18mm bottom baits. I was catching a lot of fish from the syndicate until August and the personal problems. The syndicate has seen 20's and 30's caught on trimmed down 12mm pop-ups, 15mm pop-ups,, snowman baits and 15mm bottom baits, over just boilies and over particles, with only 3 doubles I think. To me the base of the pop-up to the lakebed. Be aware though, that not every pop-up rig sits perfectly upright. The rig shown, I may need to trim down the pop-up, and with that balance weight, you need a buoyant bait to lift it to that angle.