salokcinnodrog

It's blood type O that is most susceptible to bites, I did have to check it up. I did look at my Jungle Systems this morning and I know that they have moved away from DEET. It used to give me a real headache, and took print off t-shirts. Skin-so-Soft was good, but apparently the amount of citronella has been reduced, and I could only get the original from Avon Poland.

I have hardly even had to resort to the Jungle Formula or Lifesystems this year, but the majority of the swims I have fished are tree or bush free and quite open. I do hardly get bitten though compared to other people, something to do with blood type apparently. Just my luck, I can't even pull a female mosquito 😒 😅 I have seen plenty of chironomid hatches, seeing and hearing massive clouds of them above my bivvy. I'm wondering if the long dry warm weather possibly reduced numbers as boggy areas, streams and ponds have been dried out, and what has hatched recently on the occasional rainy day is facing increased competition to reproduce. On the occasion of being bitten or stung, I do have Savlon antiseptic cream in my rucksack. Stung: In June I was bivvy free opposite the island at the shallower end of the lake and woke up to something crawling just above my ear. Without thinking I attempted to grab it, it turned out to me a wasp and stung me on the head.

Shame I didn't manage to include the carp that leapt just after I took the original picture.

When my son Levi was around 10 we used to build 1:72 aeroplane kits together, me supervising unless he got a particularly fiddly bit, and he had them hanging from his bedroom ceiling. On the modelling front, I normally avoid Airfix for WW2 German aircraft as they don't include the swastika tail plane decals. It's history, for right or wrong, but model kits are classed as toys, so apparently it's illegal to include them. Any German aircraft I tend to get are Tamiya models kits which do include the correct swastika decals, and there is sometimes 2 spare, so I might occasionally get an Airfix model as I can get the markings right. Every model I end up researching for correct markings, camouflage and the like as box art or instructions are sometimes incorrect. I did spend a lot of time researching HMS Hood and the Battle between Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. Airfix and the scale models built which were photographed on Hood, all had red anti-fouling paint on the hull. Research showed she actually had grey anti-fouling.

Your best bet is probably a very good search through Ebay, hoping someone has obsolete stock, or is selling one.

Hard to believe she is 11 now

Welcome to carp.com We do have a specific section of the forum devoted to American Carp fishing, although it has been quiet (https://forum.carp.com/forum/16-north-american-carp-fishing/) and a moderator who actually lives and fishes there. I know North America is big, but hopefully he can point you in the right direction.

This was a May session 17lb. Despite the grimace, it made me smile, and laugh. I'd only just cast the rod in after getting back with Sky after a walk round the lake when it went off, I was sorting out the next rod, mid PVA bag making. Bait was in the water 2minutes, not sure the PVA on the first rod had even dissolved. First fish on the Shrimp!

I do have a soft spot for Century rods, although I have not used the FG's

I did only just refrain from a lewd comment 😉

We used to place baits by boat at Taverham Mills, and as @yonny says it can look totally different to how it feels. You could cast a marker float and lead out and get absolutely no feeling as the lilies would stop the float rising, yet look at the area from the boat and they were very thin and safe to fish to. The line would cut through them playing a fish. Other spots (as on the syndicate now) I have the float rise up, yet it is thick with weed. It's wading out that has shown how thick it is and a big bundle of weed can be down to a small root system. My marker float is normally used with a 3½ or 4oz lead. Today I waded out after casting out the marker rod, and I was showing 2½-3feet, yet I was up to my chest.

I don't know if you have read Carp Now and Then and Hutchy's Golden Years? He was a 'beast' of a caster as he had spent time sea fishing from the beach. I think your is saying exactly as I do in that in the case of the shorter rods, stiffer is being used to make up for length.

Very much. Word of advice, never wade in without a wading pole; it can help you keep your balance as well as bottom prodding. The silt on my current lake is probably up to welly boot height, and then water up to my waist, so pretty similar, although the stream bed you can add a bit more to the depth. There are also feeding holes which can put you chest deep, and I have been known to occasionally go fractionally over the top of my chest waders, hence the advice on a solid wading pole. The honest answer is the carp feed in the silt. I have found massive bloodworm in the deepest thickest silt, along with massive swan mussels, bigger than my hands. I still use run rings and standard rig set-ups, hooklinks around 20-30centimetres in an attempt to put the bait at the level the fish are feeding at. Lead size I normally stick with 2.5-3oz, but use flattened leads to hopefully reduce sinking in too far, but even dropping a lead in the margins can see it disappear. Funnily enough, in May I cast out a 3oz lead, PVA stringer and snowman bait and I am positive that crashed quite deep into the silt. I had a take within a couple of minutes, and I think that the lead had sunk so far, complete with run ring it jammed as the buzzer was bleeping (Delkims vibration).

I have a feeling that higher test curve rods are needed in shorter rods as the 'standard' lower test curves won't cast as far; using weight instead of length to create the same casting force, just a theory mind, but seems right in my head. Then we have the 'Korda' theory, that they needed higher test curves even in 12ft rods to make up for lack of skill/practice to get distance. I've said it many times in the past that with 2¼lb North Western and Armalites I could get over 100metres, but I spent many hours across the field practicing. Even my 2.75lb SP's I could get over 120metres. My normal casting distance on the syndicate is no more than 40metres, and my 12ft 2.75lb Enduro and Sceptre rods do that and more, to 100metres easily. That's funny, that is quite literally all I do use shorter rods for, along with jungle stalking. Even my clearwater floater fishing rod is 11ft. @crusian if you can get the carp feeding right under the rod tip on floaters, a freelined dog biscuit, or lump of crust just touching the surface on the centre pin is great fun.

My view is that the 10ft rods do not cast as far as a 12ft or even longer rod, even in the higher modern test curves. Much of my fishing is on larger waters (above 20acres), with open banks, and at times I need to cast long distances. Even my lighter rods for smaller fish are 12ft, albeit 2lb test curve. I think that the smaller rods to some extent are tackle manufacturers pushing a new item to sell a new item, create a new market.