salokcinnodrog

Like @InteraX I don't like them. I would prefer a bit of nylon or bait floss on the D or rig ring as I have found that bait screws can work free and drop the bait, no matter how much a swelled bait is supposed to grip better. It takes a big plastic one to grip properly! Incidentally, I save cut down used rig materials for that specific reason, to use create a hair or for mounting pop-ups. It doesn't matter whether it is monofilament, coated or uncoated braid. The only thing that doesn't lighter blob nicely is fluorocarbon.

I just walked Sky round the lake and to talk to the bailiff who was fishing. As we walked round I was keeping Sky calm, she likes James, so bounces, and because I thought he was margin fishing I called out 'hello' well before I got to him so he could come back to the main track past his swim, rather than me walk along the bank and possibly disturb his fishing, especially as I could see fish in front of him. We did stand talking fishery, syndicate and rules for around 30minutes, and the fish in front of him evading his baits. He was no more than 5metres from his rods even on the path. Hopefully it is respect.

I felt the switch Sunday night. After a few trips not using the bivvy it was put up as soon as the rods were in this trip. As I was setting the rods up we had a light shower in North West Suffolk, and at 2.30am it rained properly for an hour, and fish started crashing. Yesterday a massive difference, fish moving during the day. First time I have felt comfortable putting in any more than a PVA stringer or bag full for months.

So this weeks find is a pair of Optix polarised sunglasses.

I have a very simple system: My indicators and alarms are red, white and green. The receiver bleeps and the led lights in those colours. As I go to the rod I check the bleeping buzzer for the correct led, and look at the falling or rising indicator. This works with anglers who have a choice to be like me with different colour leds on the alarms, or those who chose to have one alarm led colour. The receiver will bleep, an led will show. Now in the UK, there is a legal maximum limit on the number of rods an angler can use, a maximum of 4, and clubs may limit anglers to 3 or even 2, so the numeric readout is not a particular need.

Sadly Mate, my local club is 'overfilled', so I had to join a syndicate.

At Brackens I knew everyone else was going to recast around 6pm at night, so I would make sure I had my baits in place long before that, and use their disturbance to move the fish out of their areas. Quite frequently I would get fish about 8 o-clock at night while they blanked. I also try not to change hookbaits, even after a fish. The smell of 'me' is gone, the first fish found it acceptable, so changing it might upset that. That attitude also comes with me now at the end of a session. My pop-ups are already counterbalanced, on floss and lighter blobbed, so don't come off unless pulled. I can quite easily just attach a fresh bag or stringer without actually touching the bait. The only time Sky goes silly, talking and jumping, when someone comes to visit, and most people she loves, but there are one or two who she is not keen on for some reason, possibly because they are nervous about her. I don't mind the majority of people if they move in next door, but sometimes there are some you wish hadn't. I make sure Sky is on bark mode, lol. I try to spot fish, and if I do have to move in next to someone I will just stringer and one cast rather than make a massive disturbance.

In the 1990's Daiwa and Shimano came up with the idea of one major tackle shop in the region supplying the rest. That major tackle shop got the biggest discount, who then sold on at a reduced discount to 'local' tackle shops. The smaller tackle shops did not want to buy from the biggest shop. Local shops preferred to buy stock out of the region. It partly caused the rise of the mail order shops being able to sell cheaper than the local shops, and created the argument about retail recommended price to the mainstream. Then you had the rise Fishing Republic and Angling Direct who were tackle shop groups that got big quick

Another independent tackle shop in Norfolk is closing down https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/26400533.wensum-valley-angling-taverham-closes-final-time/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwdGRjcATOnNxjbGNrBM6cy2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHgalWGfu_javnoI9KBSUAaSfkhngP-WUgEQcjOWnitQ__0pSrDEgeXFhuORX_aem_4aDPBQbhD_J0Qb0H614Leg#Echobox=1784743154

A couple of weeks ago I sent a couple of models to Help for Heroes, a 1/740 Prinz Eugen which I had ordered in the wrong scale ( I build ships in 1/600) and an HMS Belfast I had duplicated. Really pleased to receive this today and that it is handwritten makes it such a nice reply.

I fished there in the early 90's when it was one of the few places that allowed close season fishing.

A lot of tackle companies use a basic depiction of a carp with their logo or brand superimposed across the flank of the fish. You might be able to 'borrow' legitimately the fish image and simply add your own name

I tried that last weekend, setting up in the shade of a big elm tree, and blanked. Last year I created a bivvy spot right under the willows and again, the fish seemed to avoid the area. On both occasions the fish caught were in the brightest and sunniest spots. I would say that I should have moved, but with Sky I refused as I would much rather she was comfortable as possible, and unless I tell her will lay in the sun all day and overheat.

Brilliant news. Hope you have a good one or two

Water depth and oxygen levels in relation to stress will be an issue in shallow lakes. The mostly deeper lakes on the main continent are not as likely to cause as much stress. Oxygen is not as big an issue in the depths of lakes as it is in shallow waters. Fish can fight themselves almost to death in warm water, and take ages to recover. In theory, yes. Yet every year adults as well as children die in lakes and rivers. A no swimming lake just outside Norwich, a number of deaths related to swimming in hot weather.

I absolutely hate dropping the lead. Despite the theories of reducing the risk of picking up weed, and empty lead clips catches up weed. An zipp or distance inline lead will actually travel through picking up less weed than a lead clip. Again, littering is an issue, just because you can't see it does not mean it is acceptable. I know, stand on the bank of his lake, just throwing leads in. That is exactly what you are doing dropping the lead on every take.

That's me as well, it is easier to change batteries than recharge them on the bank. I already carry 3 powerbanks as low phone signal kills battery life faster. At the worst I can pop to the local shops and buy a set of square batteries to get me through. Rechargeable batteries have a limited life, heat destroys them, cold they don't work so well, and don't charge either. Hot weather can literally cook them off.

A friend of mine travels to Hungary regularly, where if carp are caught below a certain weight in kilograms are allowed to be despatched for food, above it have to be returned. Cheers, I speak some German enough to get around, but that's my limit.

Welcome to Carp.com. Difficult due to language or due to the questions and competence test itself?

I was very interested in Rod Hutchinson's writings on flavours, and his Ultraspice and Megaspice regularly appeared (along with Chocolate Malt) and someone else mentioned Garlic oil as an attractor so I combined the spice flavours with a Garlic and soya bean oil used in bird feeds as it was supposedly an appetite stimulant. It was not for allicin, but simply because they were good attractors in their own right and work well combined. The additional benefits regarding digestion and health were a beneficial 'side effect'.

Rod Hutchinson and Ken Townley have both made the point, coat a stone in a sweet flavour and it will be picked up, it is down to the rig whether you hook it or not. Carp don't have hands, to inspect an item physically they have to take it into their mouth. An item may taste like food, that can possibly be tested before they eat it, but to physically check hardness, they have to suck it in, or pick it up. A hard food item has to be taken to the back of the mouth to be crushed by the pharyngeal teeth, where smaller or softer items are often passed straight through the mouth, no additional crushing; although how a carp can consume a whole swan mussel and pass it through and out, and the flesh in the shell is eaten I don't know. Constant sucking and blowing, intake and ejection whether the food is attached to hook or not. No end of videos on YouTube or whatever channel you watch on showing that, be it boilies, maggots, sweetcorn or other particles. I have mentioned the 'super' high attract pop-ups, there are some attractors or flavours that almost force the take; N-butyric acid was one, Bromelain, (look up pineapple-n-butyric as a pop-up), but there are other attractors that at higher than standard levels will work in attractor baits, or in low levels in food baits. Incidentally, the high attractor level may cause the low level food bait to fail or blow. The attractor becomes a source of danger, and while carp don't think, continued hooking on the same flavour will get them to avoid it, for a period of time or permanently, or to inspect it carefully, at which point we have to look at the rigs again. Other attractors, may be a mix of enzymes or amino acids, could be flavours, chemical or natural, could even be something as simple as sweeteners like sacharrin. Sacharrin did cause cancers in tests on animals, but in the low levels we use, have not been considered a risk in humans. I have mentioned an attractor blend I love, Garlic Spice. Stinks, but catches.

And therein lies much of the problem. Big bait companies have had an advantage; if I buy a kilo of semolina it's around £1.80, if a big bait company buys a tonne of semolina it will work out at a lot less per kilo, around £920 per tonne, so £0.90 per kilo. Do the same with every bait ingredient and my homemade bait costs double the price to produce. Billy one man bait company in his garage or shed, won't be buying fishmeal, semolina, liver powder or maize by the tonne! As a result his prices will be more than a big company. The days of Bill Cottam expanding from his (parents) garage to a large industrial unit are long gone. Bait and boilies specifically is a 'busy' market, and it seems anglers don't necessarily understand it, from the bait itself, to using it, and even the difference in cost of buying it from tackle shops or direct. Nutrabaits, Mainline, Nash Baits, CC Moore and others had a recommendation on food baits, and a recommendation on attractor baits (originally shelf lifes). Feed the food bait, continuously, prebait, and the carp will accept it and take it comfortably. Good results will follow. Attractor baits, use as that, don't fire in loads, maybe a few freebies around the hookbait, use the few to attract the carp to try the hookbait. Then along came the published 'Korda' method, (used earlier but Danny Fairbrass did well writing about it), put in plenty of pellets, and spod mix and get the carp feeding on that. At the same time we had the mega high attract hookbait, the single pop-up that got a take, or not. Fishing moves on and backwards, now we are using high attract baits, maybe with added hydrolysates, liquid glugs over spod mix in the hope that the fish pick it up first. The food bait is 'gone' for various reasons, cost of ingredients rising, becoming harder or impossible to get hold of and even big bait companies changing direction or disappearing. Lots of little bait companies pop-up, disappoint or disappear. They are able to charge silly money for baits because fewer anglers have loyalty to a company anymore.

Never heard of them! Not being funny, but 'getting good press'; advertising now is more dissipated as social media takes over. I used to be very up with knowing bait companies, but when even long time companies are falling by the wayside. I keep making this point, if you have a cake of 30centimetres across, with 5 companies taking a piece, each has a decent slice. Now the same cake with 10 companies taking a piece, the slice is smaller. That is what is happening to the tackle and bait trade.

Mainline straight through to the lead. I did all the experiments on leadcore years ago and the simple answer is, I don't use a leader at all unless fishing at maximum distance, and it's always with run rings and running leads. The leadcore especially wasn't safe, beads stick, rigs don't eject, and helisafe doesn't work as the leader needs the lead to stay on to eject the rig. In fact I don't even like helicopter setups as bite indication is so bad compared to inline or pendant setups.