salokcinnodrog

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.

When I set up on Monday it was absolutely scorching, but was able to get positioned in as much shade as possible. Well back from the water, and positioned so we only get the full sun from 4 until 8pm. I say well back from the water, when the lake is full, this spot is actually underwater.

What amuses me is that roller wheel alarms are all based on the original Optonics if you think about it. A 2 or 4 vane (or more if you had some craft skills) wheel breaking a beam of light. It is effective when used in conjunction with an indicator keeping the line taut and on the wheel. Technology may have advanced, it may now be magnets turning past a detector, but it is still a roller wheel. It was Delkim who launched the vibration sensing ST's, plug out to a wired receiver and then the TXi with wireless receiver, although they and Les Bamford had done conversions to a reed switch wheel on the original Dellareed Optonics. There were other attempts at vibration sensing, Bitech Viper. I think that it was a 'law' change in the 1990's that saw radio channels able to be used for wireless signals, although I may be wrong, but I do remember many radio stations switched or also transmitted from AM, or MW and LW, to FM. As for alarms, as I have mentioned, on a day session I prefer to hear the alarms themselves, whereas at night I need and use the receiver. Now that means that, to me, there is a market for both as not every angler will fish nights, doesn't want or need a sounder or receiver box. A long way away from being bivvied up as close as you could possibly get to the rods on the original alarms that made hardly any noise.

The only putty I will use is still Kryston Heavy Metal. I have not found a good enough replacement. I've checked the new Heavy Metal, it is the same as the original, but as @Golden Paws has said, putty can get misshapen and in the hot weather in the UK at the moment, or Signal crayfish will pinch and eat it, (and tungsten loaded rig and anti-tangle tubing). Your alternatives look good, and as long as they work. I use match or pole anglers olivettes, either with the hole through the middle or fixed with tubing, lock and slide, usually Drennan.

I've got a few new books, I only wanted From The Bivvy, Carp Season and More from the Bivvy 3, but for the price I ended up getting Tim Paisley's Carp Fishing, Carp Amid The Storm and More From the Bivvy. If I put the books I already have back on the site I may end up making something back.

Welcome to carp.com. The simple answer is fish where the fish feed, and that may be in the mud or silt. Something else that may be worthwhile is fishing floating baits, as simple as attaching a piece of bread or floating dog biscuit to a hook, putting a few free offerings in and getting your bait amongst them. Surface or floater fishing is a science in itself, and there are plenty of threads on here that may help. I'm not sure where you are based, so my advice is relevant to the UK, but should work everywhere. I first fished a farm pond I think 40+ years ago, and it was as simple as putting in a few grains of sweetcorn, and fishing the lift float method over it. If you bait up in a few spots with sweetcorn and pellets then you could get a few spots for fishing. It is still a way I fish now, even on some waters that are heavily carp fished with anglers and rods sat on the buzzers. First thing in the morning, or just going into dark. For carp fishing I would use a 15lb mainline in weedy waters. Other people will give other advice, chod rig, helicopter rig, long hooklink, paternoster or lead link, and all are right. It works for them.

I've got 2 carp landing nets: a Fox Warrior net which has had the mesh replaced a few times and a Rod Hutchinson Sceptre net, both in 42inch. I've spent more replacing the meshes over the years than the landing net originally cost. For years I lived with just one, but a few years ago came up with the idea of one on each side of the swim, so I could always reach one without, in theory of stepping around the rods to grab it. The 2 faults, they don't match, not that I really worry, and the second is many runs now seem to come on the middle rod... I can't remember who it was by, but the original Springlock mechanism landing net I do miss. I borrowed one for a while back in the early 2000's when I had a load of gear stolen.

Rats get immune to poison, and learn to avoid traps, and as you say with traps you have to be careful with where they are put in position. I think that that is possibly because of patrol route? I'm not 100% sure, but they use their patrol route as the base as it were, then when finding or sniffing food expand from there.

For years there were no problems at Taverham, then more anglers started fishing it when Anglian Water took it on and litter started becoming a problem. Klaus bought a brand new bivvy and rats chewed their way in through the groundsheet and into his bait and food bags. He found a chewed pack of bacon dragged outside the bivvy. We get a few rats on the syndicate now, not many, and as you can see, they don't cause me any problems, thanks to Sky. How she can wait patiently on the lead until they get close enough to her to attack them amazes me, she's normally head down and charge.

So to start the thread I mentioned the steak, so here is the real deal. And that is a Fishing Dinner: Rare rump steak with mushrooms, sliced green beans and sliced fried potato, a dash of mixed herbs and a crushed clove of garlic.

This was the other bundle I retrieved. I think that I pulled that lot in with my marker float and lead from memory. A few Korda leads in there, inline and lead clip. This is where I think people had been fishing to the spot and getting right under or going through it to the bank. The only safe ways I could think of fishing it was with tight line and being on the rod, or being in the corner swim and keeping the rod down under the snag branches, allowing fish to run out and away. Personally I stuck with fishing to it with the tight line and using the arc to get fish away from it.

To be honest complete numpty error. When I retrieved that I was disgusted, and did give it to one of the bailiffs when he came round. The lead clip wasn't locked onto the hooklink swivel, you can see the gap. It had been forced onto the leader (I think a TFG one), and a swivel attached to the mainline end. Looking at the tail rubber, it was a Solar Soft rubber. From that same spot on another occasion I retrieved a bundle of around 6 leads and rigs, some still with bait and plastic hookbaits on. I'll have to see if I can find that pic! I've retrieved helicopter setups with rigs still attached, on leadcore and leadfree. Strangely very few on naked mainline.

I think we all forget that accidents do happen. I have seen the springback from snapped line, and yes it most definitely happens; that bundle of birds nest that tangles up around the rod tip after a snap-off, a bite-off from a pike. No matter what, we do all lose rigs, with or without the lead. Obviously we do the absolute best to reduce that risk, albeit in different ways due to our beliefs. I don't believe in using a leader, unless mega distance casting with big leads. If it is weedy, snaggy then I personally think go without the leader, and accept I can't cast as far. I have tested lines and leaders, wet and dry, pulled for a break, and it nearly always breaks at the line join, the knot, or a fraction above it where it has been tightened down. The exception is if there is damaged line above it, where it breaks at the damage. Run rings give me the thought that a larger bore, hole through the middle, will go over that birdsnest that @kevtaylor mentions, unless the break includes and goes over run ring. I now come to @yonny 's point, a run ring and running lead is only truly a running lead when it is fished with a slack line, minimal tension, the line touching the bottom of each rod ring, dropping straight down from the rod tip, no tension on the indicator. When it is fished with a tight line it becomes 'semi-fixed', or a bolt rig. Preventing the fish having line, as in the same as snag fishing, forcing the fish to arc on the take can be done with a run ring and tight line, locked up rods and reels. In weed I'm positive that lead clips can jam up, and not release the lead. Aside from some numpty attaching the leader with a swivel, I retrieved this from a snag. The lead most definitely had not released. I do not know whether they had cut off the mainline or pulled for a break but the line did reach roughly from the swim to the snag where I managed to catch up on it and retrieve it with 15lb mainline. I've fished in weedy waters, Suffolk Water Park, Taverham Mills even areas of Nazeing Lagoons, and again with testing and experiments I found a Zipp shaped inline lead catches up less weed than a pendant setup, whether a run ring or lead clip. It colours my thoughts on why I don't like lead clips in weed, and do switch back to inlines, which can be fished to drop off.

I must confess I do keep my bait in buckets, not just for rats but to keep them away from Sky. She does however act as a good rat deterrent:

I had this caterpillar crawling along the floor of my bivvy, and so I didn't kill it I picked it up and took the photo. It is an Emperor moth caterpillar and while not rare rare are not particularly widespread.

Funny thing is I am the complete opposite of @kevtaylor and have had no problems with Delkims, from pouring rain to hot summer days, with either the ST's I have (promoted to pike fishing), and the TXi'd I use now for carp. When I worked in a tackle shop we had quite a few Fox alarms had to be sent back for replacement in the original Micron range, although the Mini Micron's which had no sounder box at the time were not a problem. Hopefully Fox updates have sorted out the problems, although I always wondered why they needed to 'upgrade' and replace the range every few years.

They can be quite aggressive to other swans and water birds. Earlier this year I actually filmed swans fighting at Redgrave. I later found the slightly smaller male dead in the rushes. It's my Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19aP8t7tzH/

Other than my buying tackle because it is 'shiny', I tend to analyse every tackle item I buy, and that includes end tackle. Various purchases have been made, and the item tested and slung in the bin, line, hooks, clips, PVA. I don't like lead clips, pretty much full stop. Their original reason for manufacture was as a way to remove a semi-fixed lead at the end of the session, not as a way to dump the lead on a take. Whoever came up with that idea, deserves a place in hell for littering and pollution. If you are using a pendant lead on a lead clip in weed, it may be an idea to change to a distance shaped inline lead. The inline catches up less, a lead clip might get jammed up with weed and not release, you are then playing a fish and a weed covered lead. On one day at Nazeing I retrieved 5leads, leaders and rigs all on lead clips from the snags, and one of them may until my intervention have had a fish attached. @yonny makes a point about the safest set-up is the one that lands the fish, however it does not mean fishing in the thickest weed or up to impenetrable snags, which I think too many are still doing.

Without damaging the fish. And that is why my usual set up is a run ring straight on the mainline or tubing. Suggestions work, they are the basis of invention and problem solving. However, in every product the idea then needs full inspection and development before production, or full proper instructions for use. @elmoputney that is not aimed directly at you as Korda (in my view) were responsible for a lot of bad angling practices with lead clips. As I have said above, I don't think that it is a true running lead, compared to a standard run ring and slack line you will have resistance, the internal bore of the lead clip reduces free line movement and any detritus can jam up that movement. It will need to be fished as a standard semi-fixed set-up. However as a lead clip, it is possibly the best version available. As long as the line is still able to go through the lead clip the rig will be ejected. I should add a point that whether running lead or semi-fixed lead, tubing increases resistance and although the line should pull through, and crack-off above may cause a 'wind knot' and so stop it pulling through.

I'm not sure, you have what is essentially a 'pulley rig' system as is used in sea fishing. There is inbuilt tension, so I don't think it is a true running rig. I've seen fish eject rigs when there is no tension, and Ken Townley wrote about it in Tim Paisley's Big Carp, where a lost fish at Savay came into Snags with a rig in its mouth. 2 days later the fish was swimming around in the snags minus the rig. As I mention, the majority of the time, the line breaks at the swivel anyway, the knot is the weak point. When I hooked the swan last week, and the line snapped, it was still in the clip, so I was able to check where it had broken; the loss was minimal, more where I cut off the curly-wurly. A fish trailing just rig and line is not likely to be giving false indication to other anglers, unless there is detritus caught up on the line, whereas a lead clip that hasn't ejected, and I have retrieved a lot of them, will. Not all had the tail rubber forced or pushed right on, some were just jammed up with a bit of weed, mud or stick! Something else, the loop of line in the PB lead clip, with the lead or lead swivel butting up against it, may be at risk of damage from the lead itself. If that loops breaks you will still be losing line and the fish. I don't think it is as secure as a standard knot to the hooklink swivel.

We use boilies as a practical and easy bait as standard, although as you mention, most other baits are not carp specific. I do love particles, especially maize and chick peas. Maize can be left quite hard after soaking and boiling, and chickpeas can be coloured and flavoured, but you also have maples, sweetcorn, the list is endless. If you buy sweetcorn from the freezer, I've found it best by adding two teaspoons of brown sugar, a grind of salt (rather than straight from the salt cellar), covered in boiling water and left to steep. That is for one bag. Tinned sweetcorn is good as it is, obviously put it in a suitable container, but also slightly 'stale'. As for other baits, luncheon meat, pepperami, various meat sausages, even chorizo, although I do struggle with that, it's known as Nick loves chorizo to eat...