salokcinnodrog
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Posts posted by salokcinnodrog
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I wonder what day it is?
A mate of mine on Brackens did struggle with his footing at night around a few swims which had steps or slopes down to his rods, so got some solar powered rock lights, something like these pictured.
Not mega expensive either and the glow was enough to allow him to get to his rods safely.
As for torches at night, I found 3 headlights in my gear this trip, plus my wooly hat which has an led light on the front. That is the only bivvy light I use, and usually more for reading than anything else.
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I know we all lose and find tackle on the bank, but here is a mix of losses and finds.
My obvious losses include baiting needles and banksticks, and occasional marker floats but also cover the rod holdall blown in last week, a shoe, and yes I did have to go home with only one, which was not an enjoyable walk as I had also fallen in.
The admission is I own a pair of distance sticks, found at the syndicate and no-one came forward having lost them.
In the past I've also found the best baiting needle I own, which surprisingly is a Nash Latch baiting needle, an original Nash Siren alarm complete with a line indicator and bankstick.
We can add to that list of numerous Spombs, spods and Dot spots, marker floats and leads, the majority of which were attached straight through to braid and in the case of leads, normally still attached to the lead clip.
Anymore items that you dare admit to?
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So onto another session at the syndicate lake from Sunday through to Wednesday.
I arrived around 3pm Sunday afternoon amidst a mix of South Westerly winds, rain shower and yuck.
Syndicate rules permit putting the shelter up and putting tackle inside before taking the car down to the car park, so that is what I did. Car down to car park, and give Sky a walk back to the swim, followed by getting 3 rods clipped up and baited. Left hand rod 40metres, a 12mm purple Monster Crab pop-up and a small bag of micro pellets, middle rod, a 'greedy pig' snowman of 2x 12mm bottom baits topped with a couple of tiny Spiced Garlic pop-ups and a stringer at 50metres, and the right hand rod was a Monster Crab pop-up core.
I know it's early, but I've been putting a bucket of particles in on one rod on arrival, to prebait and to try to wean a particular fish that I have never seen eat bait. This fish is a big uncaught common, that I reckon makes a 42lb common look small, added to the mix this time was a couple of pints of red maggots.
Spombing out 40metres was not fun, the Spomb was on target with hardly any effort, but retrieving it was fun, and trying to catch the Spomb in the wind...
Sunday night I spent much of the night awake listening to the wind shake the bivvy.
No joy, and even the coots, tufties and swans left me alone.
Monday the wind switched more westerly, with a touch of north. After a walk around with Sky, fish searching and putting the sheep's electric fence back up there was no reason to move. Sorted the rods out, sticking to the same formula. A really quiet afternoon, but around 10pm the tufties moved in, and with the laser pen the little gits would spook and then come back. At 1am, I got a few bleeps and watched the indicator move up and down, so picked up the rod, and landed a tufty.
Expectations, and reality...
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5 hours ago, Roughtor said:
Don't be shy I won't judge ,well not really !
We've all done silly things ,hopefully learnt from them ,and moved on ,this aimed at us all regardless of experience or skill set ..
Here's mine ,I got left a clip on plummet by father ,it's a lightweight job...
I used it yesterday to plumb a marginal swim ,learnt its not heavy enough to give correct depth readings ,the rest you can guess..lol
What's yours !
Mine usually involve not checking wind direction before setting up the bivvy, (not this week despite nearly losing bivvy), but include leaving tackle box at home more than once, discovering I'd left rucksack at home after an 80mile drive and once leaving my rods at the reservoir as I packed and loaded car up in the dark.
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11 hours ago, LC1975 said:
Hi,
Has anyone used these in a size 8 on the business end of a rig? I've used them in size 11's, but 8's look a little blatant because of their shine. I don't get on with putty, not sure if i'm best off with a standard size 8 swivel or are these size 8 PTFE swivels that are meant to spin better elite and I'm over thinking it.
Cheers fellas.
9 hours ago, welder said:Just my opinion? Use a standard size 8 swivel. Ok, so PTFE has the lowest coefficient of friction known to man but we're asked to believe that this helps with rig alignment when this relatively small device is lying amongst whatever detritus is in the area of the landed rig. The PTFE thing is more a marketing ploy than a mechanical advantage.
Once again, just my opinion.
Ian.
@welder puts it very nicely.
While PTFE may be very 'slippery', your swivel is landing on silt, clay, gravel, or sand or whatever else is on the lakebed, any of those are enough to 'jam' the swivel and stop it rotating.
Add to that, your rig is in a direct line from the mainline, be that straight out on a pendant or inline set-up, or at 90% on a helicopter set-up.
The swivel is basically a simple way to attach your rig to the mainline. It doesn't really need to swivel at all, unless on a helicopter or Chod set-up when it may need to spin during the fight.
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On 17/03/2026 at 20:08, LC1975 said:
Hello,
Does anyone know if a finished 14mm cork ball pop rolled with a 10mm cork ball will hold up a hinge or chod rig? All the places I know that sell them only do them in 16mm.
I was thinking about making my own and don't want to waste money on hardware if 14mm finished hook baits are not up for the job.
Thanks
On 18/03/2026 at 07:09, yonny said:A real good 10mm cork ball will be ok but it's tricky to get really good cork balls nowadays. It's a lot safer bet using 12 mm cork balls for a 14 mm pop up.👍
Cork ball quality has changed, and gotten worse over the years.
Over harvesting of the bark, less than 9-12 years, and drought in the Mediterranean has meant that top rated cork is no longer used for cork balls, so lesser grades are being used. The basic answer is that where a 10mm cork ball would pop-up a 16mm bait, now they struggle with a 14mm and 12mm is the real limit.
I've mentioned it in the long distant past about making cork ball pop-ups, and the best results I got were sieve the base mix, remove any lumps before adding your liquid and mixing.
To your base mix, if you can add 10-20% of sodium caseinate, it is a buoyant ingredient and will assist with making your pop-ups pop-up.
The smoother you can get the skin the harder it is for water to get in and affect buoyancy, and even make the boilie mix come away from the cork ball. Not fun reeling in just a cork ball, and I've done that a few times long ago, hence my pedancy for getting it exact.
The next thing is testing every pop-up against your hooks. Dry them after boiling, test and then dry again. It is quite possibly why I prefer tying cork ball baits on over piercing them. It reduces water getting in to the bait. As water gets into cork it expands slightly meaning the skin gets pushed off.
Pedancy, or pedantry, both correct, and definitely disapproved...
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After not going carp fishing since August due to having personal issues to deal with regarding my dad I managed to get a couple of trips on the bank this month.
Last week was Wednesday to Friday. I got to the lake, and fancied an area towards the shallower east end of the lake. I did have an angler on the opposite bank slightly to my left, so I made sure I wouldn't interfere with his fishing, and got myself set up.
Sorting out my dinner I realised I had left my cutlery set at home, no major issue as I had a fork in the spares pocket of my food ruckbag. It did mean that I had to gauge 2 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee though.
The more important issue was the bucket of birdfood to get the ducks and swans to clear some weed if the carp didn't eat it, and worse Sky's food bowl.
I was in the sleeping bag for 8pm, but awake listening for fish. A few crashed between Dave and I between 8 and 10pm when I eventually fell asleep while the frost was forming. Sky refused to come in the bivvy, and slept outdoors.
Thursday was a walk around looking, but nothing made me want to move. That night was most definitely warmer, but nothing crashed, so Friday saw a slow pack up with a blank.
I wasn't intending to fish again for a week, but Sunday I got back to the empty lake, complete with garlic soaked birdfood particles. I hadn't forgotten anything this week, set myself up in the same swim, although checked the wind forecast to the 3nights and had the back of the bivvy facing North West.
Two quiet days, despite searching and walking around the lake with Sky on Monday and Tuesday. The only action I saw was the swans, tufties and coots mooching around the particles, although they never picked up a hookbait
Tuesday night, just after dinner Sky decided to come in the bivvy, so I knew that the rain and wind forecast was coming that night. Around 8 I crashed out for a couple of hours, but at 10 got woken up to the short bivvy pegs being pulled out of the soft ground by the wind getting up to 50mph. Sky was sitting on the umbrella skirt/groundsheet join, so it didn't blow away, but it was close!
I got out my long pegs and bank sticks, and went out to swap pegs and push them in at least 50cm. Managed to get sorted, but stayed awake until 1am, when I realised that my 20year old Aqua rod holdall had been blown away, and is likely to have sunk.
This morning was a bit of a pig to pack away, my mix of banksticks, tent pegs were difficult to pull out, and obviously trying to juggle loose rods, landing nets, slings and throwing stick into the car.
The sad part is that the historical black poplar has finally given in to old age and nature.
Expectations or hopes were a fish, reality was a near disaster.
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15 hours ago, crusian said:
Hi Everyone .
I'm thinking about using an ESP Marker Dart Float in the small size with a 2oz lead to quietly check out margin spots on short sessions i.e. I don't want to disturb the swim too much .
What shape of lead should I be looking at please ? .
Ta .
I nearly always use a tournament or plain pear lead on the marker rod.
6 hours ago, greekskii said:Uncoated lead so you can feel more through it. I’m pretty sure you can get hold of small marker style leads.
I often use a sea fishing breakaway lead, cut the arms down and cable tie them in position. Very useful for picking out debris or minor weed clearance in the margins. You can get them in all sizes fairly cheaply too on eBay.I've always got some handy for a bit of clearance, a couple of 3's and 4oz.
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On 20/03/2026 at 20:36, Roughtor said:
One of my favourite open access waters has put the prices up.,it's a lovely safe ,secure place ..
I've just worked it out ,for me to do a 48 hr sess,all things considered including
Fuel ,its an hours drive on bad rural roads
Food
Bait and other sundries ,I'm now looking at 100 quid for a 48 hr ,I shall still fish it ,but not as many sessions ,for me it's too much outgoings ...so really ,they've lost custom in reduction of potential sessions from me ,I know a few who are saying the same ...so in a way the reduction of footfall is counter productive ...to putting up the prices ...
Lots of full carp set ups for sale,not only post scamdemic either,have some places priced themselves out of reality of today's climate ..?
Fishing cost is always personal. Personally I find £24 for 24hours too expensive and I baulk at even £10 for a day session. I know one local water is £35 for 24hours!
I could not justify a minimum of £2000 for a years fishing at day ticket prices.
However I can justify a £500 syndicate season ticket or even £300 for a club season ticket.
Fishing is my 'get away from the world', my relief from pain, from being trapped inside the flat. It is cheaper to be fishing for 3 or 4 days than the cost of electricity and gas in my flat.
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10 hours ago, framey said:
We can’t afford to buy it back..
unless it’s a compulsory take back but that aint gonna happen either as too many rich people have their fingers in the trough.
4 hours ago, elmoputney said:I have shown you the only party that wants to fix this issue. It's up to you whether you want to keep having sewage dumped in rivers now. I'm not getting into another debate about politics.
We also can't afford not too.
This is hopefully the Feargal Sharkey explanation of how it doesn't cost a penny:
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59 minutes ago, elmoputney said:
They are the only ones who offer the solution you wanted ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
That may be true, but that does NOT excuse their other idiocies.
David Paulden, sorry, Zack Polanski as he changed his name to, is dangerous. Remove the UK from NATO? NATO and the UN are at least holding the American Idiot back a little bit.
Subsidise net zero energy even more? When as yet both solar and wind power are not technically viable. Convert farmland for food into solar farms? Fine, OK, then add in the pylons across the country to the towns. Wind farms in the North Sea? Brilliant, you still have to cable the electricity to the land, and more pylons across the country.
Populism does not make for common sense.
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36 minutes ago, elmoputney said:
There is only one political party that want to renationalise our water. To me it's simple people either want waste dumped in their rivers and to have our assets owned by billionaires or they don't.
I think if we all stopped paying our rod licence the present government and most other parties would just ban fishing as a consequence sadly.
And the Green Party are otherwise extremely dangerous. Their 'progressive' policies are followed by people who have little or no common sense. Take into that what you will!
There is no political party that actually has the common sense to run this nation; political parties are run to suit one group of people, and it is not the actual population.
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1 hour ago, elmoputney said:
Do you think I'll be able to hit 20 wraps with it? I mean 12ft ones btw.
Just over 73metres?
It might help if you are only reaching 60...
12 hours ago, yonny said:Greased Lightning is brilliant, works really, really well. I used it on a water that needed big chucks and I reckon it put 10 yards on easily. Coupled with 10 lb line and a shockleader it felt like I could cast anywhere I saw carp! It's good for your line too.
Eh? It's been a go-to for distance casters for probably 20 years or more!
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1 hour ago, OldBoy said:
Not sure if this is the right section to post this in, but guess it gets the most views on here.
I don't do faceache etc but if others do, this should be spread as much as possible.
Recently watched the docudrama 'A Dirty Buisness' on C4, also remember Feargal Sharkey saying this for years about sewage etc being illegally discharged into rivers, lakes and the sea.
Didn't take much notice until now, the situation is actually criminal, imo, and needs to be acted upon, not sure the EA come out in a very good light at all tbh.
Another site that opens your eyes is the SAS, not the army one, but Surfers against Sewage, they now do a map showing discharge history in almost live updates...
Certainly opened my eyes to what is actually going on!!!!
No I am not a 'tree hugger' but blooming hell... this is bad
It's fishing, and I am sure carp waters are affected by sewage. Some will have stream or river fed inlets, with possibly sewage treatment above them. In fact, just as I was writing this I thought of 7 venues and lakes in my local area that are nearby to sewage outlets on my local river.
Our MP's continually voting against stopping sewage firms allowing outflow into our waterways is disgusting, as is the continued private ownership.
Feargal Sharkey has explained on television how easily water companies could be nationalised again, without the water companies being 'compensated', their billion Pound demands.
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3 hours ago, Golden Paws said:
I used to use Greased Lightening for barbel fishing on the Lower Severn years ago. Not because I had to cast stupid distances but because it helped to smooth out the line when I was casting 3 or 4 oz feeders with a 1.75lb TC rod. It did leave a bit of an oily trail in the water though but as I only squirted it on the spool with about 20 foot already out, I didn't unduly worry about it. I believe it was made of some sort of PTFE compound.
PTFE would make sense.
I noticed the oily compound when I put it on on the bank, might be why I stopped as I wasn't sure on what it was.
7 hours ago, OldBoy said:Ah, that was it 👍, actually I did a google for it, apparently it is still available!
I don't fish anywhere now that is not within my casting range, actually thinking back I wonder if it did make any difference when I needed a 'big chuck' but liked to think it might have tho 😃
I'm the same, never sure if it made a difference on my casting. It seemed smoother, not as 'noisy', but I can or could cast a distance anyway.
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On 13/03/2026 at 13:15, InteraX said:
I've bought myself one of the new Reel Rapz at the Big One. It seems like a great idea if it does what it says on the tin (makes monos much more supple and heavier), but there are a few questions I have that you outstanding gent might be able to help me with.
Firstly, does soaking a line affect it's diameter or breaking strain in any way?
Secondly, does a soaked line cast any further/differently to an unsoaked line?
Looking at The Tackle Box line tests and the stated line strength, I'm guessing those are based on dry lines. Does anyone know if breaking strength has been compared when dry vs when soaked?
I am of the load line slowly onto the spool wet, and it is tidy, doesn't tangle or cause me grief.
Wet line casts more smoothly than dry line, and it is probably on recasts, soaked.
I normally have a couple of casts to get it right, so by the time I cast properly the line is wet.
8 hours ago, OldBoy said:Not sure what this gizmo actually is supposed to do, if you want to wet your mono before casting just tip water over spool?
Years ago, remember a company - maybe Kryston?? - brought out drops to put on mono to help long casting, err never seemed to catch on 😄
Myself and @greekskii have often had - 'words' - in the past, but for me not worth falling out over tbh 👍
I do have to agree with his comment:
I’m not sure I get the whole point of all this, but you cast line out and leave it in the water for hours on end. It’s well soaked up to the distance you’re casting anyway.
I have used Kryston Greased Lightning and yes it does seem to make it cast even better, as well as appear to improve abrasion resistance.The old dropper bottles, I would put a line across the spool back to front, turn the spool 45⁰, same again, and again until I had done a full 360⁰.
I have not used it for a few years though.
One thing I did find was it seemed to make the line more buoyant.
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Sadly I have had to do a bit of an edit, so this thread doesn't read as well as I had to take out a few debatable posts.
We can get back to specialised hookbaits, what makes them work?
Is it the flavour combination, the attractor package, or additional ingredients, even the ph of the lake or in that area?
We keep going round in circles, and its possible that glycerine is an attractor, or maybe the flavour itself, be it spicy or the base of a product.
Vanillin, iso-eugenol, glycerine, black pepper oil, garlic oil, bromelain or n-butyric acid all have their place, maybe even lemon juice or citric acid or flavours containing terpenes
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During Lockdown in 2020 I started getting back into my model building again.
The majority of the aircraft are in 1:48, with a few 1:72 on separate shelf, and the ships are 1:600.
Got a few more to do
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41 minutes ago, elmoputney said:
Doesn't make him any less of a rapist though.
True, but he's not been convicted. Until he is convicted its defamation to say he has been.
I still don't like him and think he's dangerous and proving it right now.
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1 hour ago, elmoputney said:
Are you saying he isn't?
Technically he has not been convicted of rape in a criminal court. He was found guilty of defamation of E Jean Carroll with him saying that he hadn't raped her in a defamation case, which he was found guilty of, and had to pay around $80million dollars. The judges summary included that while Trump had raped her, as it was a civil defamation case he could not be sentenced.
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11 hours ago, elmoputney said:
Key Points on Claiming Asylum in the UK
No "First Country" Rule: There is no international law stating that refugees must claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.
UK Inadmissibility Policy: Under UK law, the Home Secretary can declare a claim inadmissible if you were previously in a safe country where you could have claimed asylum.
Removal Challenges: While the government aims to remove people to safe third countries, this requires that another country is willing to accept them, which is not always feasible.
Post-Brexit: The UK is no longer part of the EU Dublin Regulations, which previously allowed for the transfer of asylum seekers back to their first point of entry into the EU.
How to Claim: You must be present in the UK to claim asylum; it is not possible to apply from outside the country, such as at a UK embassy.
49 minutes ago, framey said:My last post on this thread simply because I don’t want to fall out with anyone
I don’t think i actually said there was a first country rule
but there should be
if it’s safe in a neighbouring country then that’s where you should stop.
and you should be able to apply at an embassy it’s British soil.
The rules on asylum are interesting. For claiming in Britain you must prove that in your home country you face persecution on race, religion, social group or politics.
You must be in Britain to claim asylum, so no claiming at a consul or embassy. There are however specific forms Undocumented Friends and Family that can be issued at consuls and embassies to get legally to the UK. In other words, an illegal entry into the country, by boat, or hidden in a lorry for example with no travel documents, you can be refused entry.
As I mentioned Tony Blair negotiated a contract to house them in hostels, hotels and houses of multiple occupancy, which the Conservatives were forced to continue, with additional contracts going to Serco and Group4 along with others.
At the same time, local councils had their right to refuse taken away, and homeless units for British families were closed down.
There was a country that was willing to take these people in, Rwanda. A negotiated settlement by the Conservative government that the 'progressive' left disagreed with.
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25 minutes ago, greekskii said:
It’s the same with all these people harping on about Iran, that regime is/was only there because they overthrew a brutal and sadistic dictatorship installed by the British under proxy for the Americans, because the leader at the time who everyone in Iran loved, wanted to nationalise oil and cancel the contracts with BP.
A history well documented and factual, but that they bury whenever they can. History repeating itself again. What do they say, if you keep on doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, they call you crazy. Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran…
Yep, the British installed and backed The Shah of Iran because Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh wanted to have a close look into Anglo-Iranian Oil who he felt were not paying a fair price for oil. When they refused he basically nationalised the company. AIO is part of BP.
Also the funding of Iranian arms by Ronald Reagan and his additional attempts to stall the Iranian hostage situation so he could become President of the USA blaming Jimmy Carter who wanted a peaceful defusing of the situation.
That one is shameful. USA sending arms to Iran 'discreetly', while the Iran Iraq war was going on, with most major nations, including USA supplying Iraq with weapons.
Jimmy Carter had placed an arms embargo on Iran, as they had inherited US weapons during the fall of the Shah.
When the UK, and USA learn that you can't back both sides against the middle or intervene in other nations.
Rod Shots
in Scenic pictures and wildlife
Posted
This first picture is where I had my bivvy to take the picture of the swans.
I mentioned bird flu in the original post, it looks like it has hit again. The lake is down to 7 swans, 3 of which look like yearling cygnets from one of the dominant pairs.
The lack of numbers has meant that the dominant males are not so aggressive and not such a pain in the rectum.
And a couple of pictures from the last two sessions, taken in the same swim on the other side of the lake.
Just to the left of the picture on the far side is the copse that Sky and I were using for shade.