salokcinnodrog
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Posts posted by salokcinnodrog
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8 hours ago, BackInTheGame said:
Thanks for the response gents.
I don't particularly want a 10ft rod and as an oldie is not a size I have ever used before. The reason I asked was I am seeing an increasing number for sale, maybe others are not getting used to them.
Most of the 12ft rods I am seeing for sale 2nd hand are 3.5 or 3.25 TC. I usually go for a 2.75 and maybe push to a 3lb TC. This is mainly because I have this feeling a 3.25 or 3.5lb TC rods are a bit overkill for me.
My fishing is not often on large venues where I need to cast 60-70 yards. And fish are generally up to about 30lb.
Am I wrong in thinking 3.25 or 3.5lb TC is too high for mid size venues where you are only really needing to cast 30-40 yards on average.
I fancy a set of Free Spirit rods (I have a 9ft stalking rod that is great). Possibly e class in 12ft.
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.
10 hours ago, OldBoy said:In perspective, I still have a 9 foot Wychwood extractor, I used it at a small Dorset lake years ago for margin fishing with a centre pin, probably the most enjoyable carp fishing I have had for years, but on everyday carp fishing I do now, just not an option and can't see the point really? 👍
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.
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5 hours ago, BackInTheGame said:
So I am looking around for some decent 2nd hand rods. Looking at free spirit e class possibly.
However I have seen that there are now a lot of 10ft rods, carp rods have always been 12ft to me unless they are for stalking.
Apart from the obvious advantages in smaller venues/swims, are they any other advantages or disadvantages of 10ft rods.
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.
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3 hours ago, kevtaylor said:
I wanted to buy some locally produced honey as it can help with hay fever apparently, getting you used to the local pollens. Sadly the FB seller didn't send me the link I needed to pay - but interesting all the same.
I found Baz's Bees honey by 'accident'. I used to fish Alton Water and as I drove through Tattingstone noticed the honesty box next to the bus stop. At the time there was a QR code for direct payments.
If I can buy surplus eggs or fresh fruit direct I am happy to support. Anyway this honesty box had jars of honey in, so out came my £5 into the tin. Since then whenever I drive through Tattingstone I have a look see if he has any for sale, and return the cleaned jars.
Otherwise I buy honey from my greengrocers or Jimmy's Farm.
If you have a local farm shop or garden centre or nursery they might have a supplier who is local.
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12 hours ago, kevtaylor said:
I did think that maybe the propolis may be good, being as it's made from honey and used by koi keepers I believe but even that sounds un-proven in the report.
2 hours ago, yonny said:I don't think that's 100% accurate. I had a look at the report that this article is based on when it was first published and (I think*) I recall it was looking strictly at propolis products rather than all carp care treatments.
I have mentioned several times on here, way before this stuff was published, that I question the use of propolis in angling. The use of propolis originates in koi keeping. It creates a barrier on the wound to lock out any nasties rather than act as an antibacterial/antifungal solution (although dodgy marketing from the tackle firms would have you believe otherwise). This barrier effect is fine when a koi is living in a posh pond with clean, filtered water with controlled salinity. Not so fine for a carp lake - my opinion is that you risk locking nasties IN to any wound.
There are other (non-propolis) carp care treatments options available that are genuine antibacterial/antifungal treatments. How effective they are is open to debate but one thing is for sure - they cannot do any harm to the fish. Even if it washes off straight away you can be safe in the knowledge that the hook-hold or wound was completely free of anything that could result in infection when you send mr carp home.
My overall opinion is: we don't really need to use treatments, but if the right treatment is used, it cannot be a bad thing.
Propolis is actually the "mortar" that bees use to build there hives! I think it's a mix of beeswax, bees spit, and plant resin. Clever little [censored]s aint they!
I know honey itself is one of the healthiest substances available.
There are a few c&p's coming:
Due to honey's high sugar concentration and acidic pH level many microorganisms cannot grow in it
Honey is a folk treatment for burns and other skin injuries. Preliminary evidence suggests that it aids in the healing of partial thickness burns 4–5 days faster than other dressings, and moderate evidence suggests that post-operative infections treated with honey heal faster and with fewer adverse events than with antiseptic and gauze.[103] The evidence for the use of honey in various other wound treatments is of low quality, and firm conclusions cannot be drawn.
Antibiotic
Honey has long been used as a topical antibiotic by practitioners of traditional and herbal medicine.[108][109] Honey's antibacterial effects were first demonstrated by the Dutch scientist Bernardus Adrianus van Ketel in 1892.[110][111] Since then, numerous studies have shown that honey has broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, although potency varies widely between different honeys.
Sorry about the Wikipedia numeric references left in place, but Wikipedia was the easiest place to confirm my own understanding.
Mind you I WILL NOT be covering hookholds in honey, I love it too much on toast or with peanut butter in sandwiches, (blame my daughter Lily for that one).
The other thing with honey is that supermarket honey has been found to be 'fake', so I always get mine from a local supplier; an honesty box in Tattingstone (Baz's Bees) or greengrocers who have another local supplier.
Would set or runny be better for hookholds?
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I was reading through the thread that I think Andy ( @crusian ) started on Carp care treatment and recalled the advice not to use them from a scientific perspective. If anyone is interested here is a link to the webpage:
https://www.ukfishingschool.co.uk/post/carp-care-liquids
I must confess, I did stop using Kryston every time as I was wondering about whether it worked as 'it says on the tin'.
I have had a couple of recaptures, and spoken to other anglers who have caught fish I had caught and I can honestly say of those fish there is no apparent mouth damage, and a few of them have been out regularly.
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2 hours ago, yonny said:
Call me crazy, but I think you guys are looking back with rose tinted glasses. Imo you always had guys that lacked etiquette. I don't think that's changed at all. Obviously it depends on the waters you fish, with day tickets tending to attract such characters (as they always have done). On every single decent syndicate I've been on, kn*b heads have been few and far between. Yes you always find the odd one, but most are sound. I personally find it refreshing to find that most youngsters are a pleasure to bump into on the bank. They remind me of me when I was there age.
The lack of etiquette now does seem to be more commonplace on all waters.
I grew up fishing a club venue in Suffolk, as kids we knew the serious carp anglers, or were social specimen anglers ourselves and everyone gave each other respect. It may be that the club rules were strict enough to avoid conflict, although match anglers ruled the roost.
The early 1990's I fished Taverham and although day ticket there was no major trouble. I didn't notice any problems until I fished Weybread and first met a particular person who still has a reputation even today, despite his big fish record.
In the 'That Guy' thread I mention the courtesy that is on my syndicate now that someone is no longer a member. The 'swim jumping' has pretty much stopped, and there is less back biting than when that person was a part of the syndicate, and the occasional numpty gets nurtured.
It may be that as I tend to fish weekdays I avoid those numpties, but when I have done weekends, 5 anglers on 40odd acres with spread out fish mean there are few conflicts.
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On 18/09/2026 at 14:12, salokcinnodrog said:
Clothing, life was cold in winter, although most of my winter fishing was for roach and pike. A tanksuit, that if you were lucky was actually waterproof.
I said if you were lucky!
It rained heavily all day, and I had to resort to putting my ski jacket over the top. That pike was 18lb and was caught on 12ft North Western 2¼lb rods. I think that the smile says everything for a wet day in the late 1980's.
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I've moved this into UK Carp fishing as I think it's worth more than NCB.
I can go back to carp fishing in the 1980's when 'the rise' was on it's way.
From Mitchell reels that were easy to clean and re-oil, to Daiwa Ab1350's which I won and used for float and tench fishing, and onto Abu Cardinal Ultracasts, the rear drag made fishing 'spool runner' possible, then the Shimano Baitrunners.
North Western rods, which I would prefer over many more modern available brands, Century Armalites, mk.l and ll.
As for brollies, making your own overwrap from a tarpaulin and then being able to get a proper branded overwrap to go over a 50inch umbrella.
Clothing, life was cold in winter, although most of my winter fishing was for roach and pike. A tanksuit, that if you were lucky was actually waterproof.
What irritates me is the lack of courtesy and etiquette in fishing now, and it has become a 'sit behind the rods' at all costs, often missing out on stalking and floater fishing.
A rise in commercialism, waters and media I think have killed the mystery.
As for tackle shops, as much as possible I prefer to go into the shop, although if I do have to order tackle online I prefer to use Tackle Box in Kent and Johnson Ross in Hoddesdon, both of which I have been in. I am lucky though, I do have 3 very good tackle shops within 5miles of my flat.
- OldBoy, ouchthathurt and crusian
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This was Shingle Street last Wednesday.
A high tide at 23.09 so I arrived at 5pm so I could set up in daylight, and see the low water mark. I normally aim to fish until 3hours after high.
As you can see it is a high, deep, shingle beach, no real need for long casting, although I do put a big bait as far as I can 'just in case', and that was the one that produced the thornback ray on prawn and squid on a size 5/0.
The short range rod, at probably 50metres produced a few dogfish, a tiny smoothhound and the conger eel all on ragworm and squid.
No bites until around 10.30, the first doggy, the thornback came just after high, and the last fish around 1.30.
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16 hours ago, riks said:
I tried sea fishing at snettisham Bay Norfolk this year and yeah il stick to my course fishing 🤣 was not a fan of those lug worms and threading them over the hooks. Was there all day as the tide came in and not a sausage . Probably doing it wrong but I've had a go ha ha
This year has been tough sea fishing. No major blowy weather, calm seas and clear water.
Night time is the best time to be fishing.
Lug worm and rag worm are easy to hook, put them on a hollow straight baiting needle then thread them onto the hook.
Best then tipped with a bit of squid or fish.
As with coarse fishing, don't overcast the fish, at night more bass and sole are caught within 30metres than at longer range. And don't think bigger is better, a size 1 or 2 hook is as big as you need for sole.
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15 hours ago, riks said:
Hi all
I'm riks and I'm 40 years old and have been fishing on and off since I was a teen. I love my carp and course fishing , love feeder fishing ! I joined up a couple weeks ago as I was looking for information regarding my old school fox DXR alarms and wether fox mk2 illuminated swingers would work with them. Well the help I got was awesome. I took a chance on purchasing the swingers without knowing if they would work and members of the site advised that they should/would and safe to say saved me from an expensive dose of anxiety 😂 . I'm originally from walton on Thames so I've always been a river thames fisherman but now I live in greater Manchester I am mainly stuck to lakes . And also looking for fishing buddies as I don't really know anyone up here I'm sad to say. Unfortunately I can only get out every other weekend so not as often as I would like with family and work etc. just want to say thanks to those who helped me with my post and tight lines to you all 🎣
A belated welcome to Carp.com.
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5 hours ago, Golden Paws said:
I buy 20kg sacks of pigeon conditioner from pets at home for around £20 and as it swells to 2 or 3 times it dry size, it's as cheap as chips. It was a little "bitty" and so I've also bought 25kg of maple peas from bait superstore for £30 to bulk it out a bit. I'm getting through a pressure cooker's worth on an average day session, topped up with some pellets which I also buy in 20kg sacks as it keeps the price down rather than buying a 1kg bag for over a fiver.
It really annoys me when you see sponsored anglers chucking in 10kg or more of boilies which would equate to about £120, if they had to pay for it of course.
When I looked at buying some boilies a good few years ago, the brand I was using showed all it's sponsored anglers on their website - and there were plenty of them! It's bad enough buying it for yourself, when you know that you are subsidising other peoples angling, it does grate a bit. I changed to Baitworks as I liked the look of their products and as they sell direct to the public, they cut out the middle man (tackle shops I'm afraid), who want their 50% of the selling price.
My local tackle shop used to sell pellets in 3kg buckets which made them a bit cheaper. They stopped doing it as they said the flimsy buckets they were using were too expensive. I offered to bring back my old buckets to be topped up but they didn't seem interested. I also enquired about buying a sack of pellets from them but that also wasn't met with much enthusiasm. I then had no qualms about going on-line and then buying in bulk.
A few interesting points in here.
Having worked in a couple of tackle shops and animal feed stores I know how much bait costs both ways.
In terms of base mixes and boilies, the tackle shops buy from the manufacturer, at cost. It's basically divide buying price by 2, then multiply by 3 and add VAT, so £6.99 tackle shop buying price worked out at £11.99 when I was there. That's not that big a profit when you consider storage, freezer, carriage, wages and handling.
It is very difficult to compete when anglers are able to buy direct from the manufacturer at cost!
I used to field test, proper field testing rather than buying at discount, and I bought non test bait at discount, but got test baits for free, if that makes sense. The test baits I gave feedback on, and gave ideas for baits I came up with. There were a couple of my own flavour blends and pop-ups added to the bait makers range, which I never had to pay for. Come to that I know that a fish in I provided a lot of bait for for anglers going which was given to me by the bait company.
I couldn't afford to pile bait in as a field tester, yet I saw some with magazine media presence really go for it.
A bulk bag of pellets from a wholesaler is around £60, around £3 per kilo, so if a tackle shop sells them you are looking at around £5 a kilo, which is why so many sell 1kg bags. I'm not sure on the price of buckets, I think I paid £10 for a bucket last year (my sea fishing bucket) from a shop, yet years ago I used to get 10kg buckets of base mix for around £72.99, the bucket was free.
@Golden Paws I don't like having loads of bait about, but I do have an advantage, Gladwells at Copdock Mill is 5minutes away, and I can buy ready prepped hemp, and 3kg buckets of pellets, or bulk sacks. Gladwells incidentally own Crafty Catcher so I can get bulk bags of Skrettings pellets or Crafty Catcher pellet buckets. I know Gladwells sell their boilie and bait range at the same price as tackleshops.
I do buy 1 or 2 kilo bags of birdfood from the supermarket and prepare at home.
- Golden Paws and kevtaylor
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35 minutes ago, Golden Paws said:
Just got back from a 2 day trip. Apparently a bait company hired the place for a few days and my swim was littered with beer bottle tops, Fag butts and other assorted rubbish. The crisp packet and brunch bar were mine to go into the old quality street tub I use as my rubbish bin.
That would pee me off!
I take Sky, we walk round the lake, and her mess is picked up, my cigarette butts get binned. I even now take the trouble to sort out my rubbish for recycling, easier with soft plastic now going in my blue bin.
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5 hours ago, OldBoy said:
Tigers and hemp - never buy hemp anymore - poor quality imo and price gone through the roof too. I sometimes use an alternative that looks like it tho,
Not tried Kidney beans but have made a mental note 👍
I agree that the quality of hemp has gone downhill and silly prices. If I do buy it I now buy ready prepared by Copdock Mill/Crafty Catcher (the two are one company), rather than prepare my own like I used to.
The amount of hemp I used to go through, whole sacks in a month! Carp fishing, roach fishing, and boy could carp trough on it.
Kidney beans are brilliant. Again I don't prepare my own anymore, I buy tinned from the shop, prepared in chilli sauce. A great hookbait.
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21 hours ago, OldBoy said:
Remember someone doing some Brazil nuts maybe?
Trouble is, I think, most cooked particles would never soak in any 'extras' just wash off quickly in lake water... 😕
1 hour ago, yonny said:I think tigers are a great examples mate. A little sugar transforms them.
Agree on the salt (particularly rock salt), garlic and chilli too. Fantastic additives.
I'd also mention fenugreek, yeast extract (marmite), condensed milk, fish sauce, fizzy drinks (coke/red bull) etc..... there's loads of them (most of which are heavy on either salt or sugar) that can really put a twist on your particles. Do they work?.... who knows. They defo don't do any harm as I've caught plenty of carp on all of them.
3 hours ago, greekskii said:I’ve just made some tigers. I add heaps of dark brown sugar at the soaking stage. Boil it in the same solution. Really kick starts the “gooing” stage. Two nights in a relatively cool garage and there is a heavy goo already.
poor example as tigers don’t take much on but I tried one and they are super sweet compared to a standard one cooked without sugar.
I don’t add anything to particle apart from sugar, salt or garlic. Occasionally chilli. No artificial stuff, think it defeats the point.
as Yonny said you dont boil out salt or sugar. When you cook pasta you add salt to the boiling water before adding to pasta, to enhance its flavour. You then boil it and you get the taste. The salt remains. Sugar in the same.
Tigers, maize, maple peas and hemp are the only particles that I don't think are improved by adding flavours to them, however dark brown sugar improves them.
Chilli hemp seems to work no better than standard hemp in my experience, but other may find different.
I flavour almost every other particle, birdfood, chickpeas, kidney beans, black eyes, and colour some of them.
Kidney beans seem to be improved in chilli sauce (even better is that you can get chillied kidney beans in tins).
Chickpeas and blackeyes, both take on colour and flavour during the soak, and turmeric and paprika are brilliant spices to add in the soak, as is crushed ginger.
The ground turmeric and paprika add colour, while ginger is a 'flavour'.
I've tried artificial or carp shelf flavours, and some work, others not so. I have a feeling that artificial flavours are not as good as Nature Identical or flavours made using essential oils or natural products.
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On 05/09/2026 at 14:05, OldBoy said:
Years ago remember a thing about 'Carp anglers' vs 'Match anglers'..... Match fisherman won on Carp caught weight.....
Wasn't the original carp/specimen angler Richard Walker versus Match angler Billy Sails?
Then there was a John Wilson one against an England international match angler, Di ck Clegg(?)
Both were on 3 head to head matches and I think that both were won by the specialist angler 2-1.
I don't think that I was born for the first, and can't remember the Clegg vs Wilson waters, other than John Wilson knew the Royalty stretch of river and drew on a big shoal of bream. I think that they used the same waters as the original, so it's likely that the Witham was included.
I have seen John Wilson tie a size 16 spade end behind his back, and it was tidier than me with a spade end hook tyer.
I think that we have mentioned the silly price of super duper tubs of pop-ups, and I agree £25 is silly money. I get disgruntled at paying £9 for a tub!
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Respect!
Here's another one for you:
I was sat watching the water from my bivvy, and Sky and me saw a van move slowly along the bank to what I call 'second car park'.
A few minutes later my Messenger bleeps, with the message asking if thats me on the far bank followed by: "Thanks pal ill been down in abit mite fish to the right of you if aviable".
JR is dyslexic so I wasn't worried about his spelling, but 'asking' if its ok to set up in the swim to the right. Not that he needed to ask, the nearest swim either side is around 100metres away, but just a little courtesy.
That is the attitude of majority of the anglers on the syndicate.
- crusian and Golden Paws
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Another lovely animal!
Funny story about a hedgehog from years ago at Taverham Mills.
It was dark and I had to go for a pony so walked back to the lodge toilet, not bothering to switch my head torch on. As I came back to my swim I heard a crashing and clattering in the bushes. It was so loud I thought someone had fallen over and hurt themselves, rolling in the undergrowth, so I put my head torch on. It was a hedgehog with its head stuck in a sweetcorn tin.
I'm especially wary of hedgehogs fishing now, not sure whether Sky is trying to play or eat them, but I have had to remove one from her mouth that had rolled into a ball.
2 hours ago, Golden Paws said:Makes the hedgehog I had to shoo out one night look pretty tame!
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Sadly the video is too big to post on here, so this is my Facebook link.
Not your standard bivvy invader!
He was carefully picked up and returned to the long grass:
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10 hours ago, OldBoy said:
However, bought some 15lb sea fishing line after and did exactly the same job and if you think about it, sea fishing line needs to be more abrasion resitant?
I used Daiwa Sensor for sea fishing and carp fishing, and before that Sylcast for both.
Come to that Gardner Pro has been used by me for sea and carp fishing.
I knew that many lines on the carp market are the very same line under different branding.
Makes you wonder why line costs of some are so expensive.
Same with hooks, different brands come from the same factory, although I think that Drennan/ESP manufacturer their own and Kamasan.
A change from the time of Drennan Super Specialists being the only mainstream carp hook.
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A couple for you, aimed at the American market
1 hour ago, InteraX said:Can you share that YT video. That might be interesting to see.
I agree that I prefer the modern bedchair. Thankfully I missed out on the sunlounger heyday.
I've got a Trakker RLX flat 6 and I don't have any problem with the big snooze I've got on it. There's only 1 strap across the centre with a hood both top and bottom and no issues. I've even got one of the big trakker pillows on there with a strap around the head section, again with no issues. I don't think having 6 or 8 legs should cause problems to sleeping bags.
A sleep system may be able to reduce some weight, but I suspect for the biggest manufacturers it's there to turn it into a disposable item. You can't take the bag off to wash it. If the zip breaks, you've got to replace the whole top or complete bed. With a separate bedchair and bag, you can swap out parts as necessary.
As I suggested earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if a less honourable reel manufacturer tried to make it so the reel was sold with line and you couldn't replace it yourself. Anything to lock you in.
Look at the way tech and the car industry has gone. I don't doubt they are much more advanced and have a lot more advanced features, but I don't want a subscription for heated seats/headlight arrays or anything else and please stop snooping on what I'm watching on my TV thank you. That's just creepy!
Of a certain age? I'm in my early 50's. I wouldn't have ever thought that description would apply to me, at least not until I'd retired, but maybe we were brought up in a different world (I first came across the internet and email in 1993 when I started at Uni and the only GUI web browser was NCSA Mosaic running on Sun SPARC computers). I don't want to be beholden to the uber wealthy and tied into subscriptions for everything. It may cost me more initially, but I still buy CDs/Vinyl for music. I then have it for a lifetime. If we just allow it to happen then we'll loose everything we gained over the 20th century. The NHS, social security, extended lifespans etc. We've allowed our politicians to be influenced by those with money too much and that's on all sides.
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On 30/08/2026 at 11:14, InteraX said:
They're trying to create a captive market where you have to go to them.
Look at landing nets. You used to be able to easily get a handle and a net separately. These days about the only people doing a reasonable carp net without handle are NGT. As for handles, they should last a lifetime if you can find a decent one.
Everything is now being integrated For your convenience or to lock you in.
Eventually, I can see a time when reels will come with Line and you can't reload them without specialist equipment or other things like that.
You won't own anything and you'll be happy.
Sorry if I come across a cynical, but it's what's happening in many other industries. Just look at cars. When most people get a new car these days, they're not the purchaser, the pcp provider is, so if anything goes wrong the dealer won't speak to them. Late stage capitalism.
On 30/08/2026 at 12:56, OldBoy said:On 30/08/2026 at 12:56, OldBoy said:Guessing you guys must be of a 'certain' age?
Without going on and on about the old days (late 80's and 90's) but remember when an Argus bed chair and blanket were fine, might have said this before on a HorseShoe thread tho!
Anyway, can see the way 'carp fishing' is or has gone now, it's big business for a lot of companies, I am not bothered about the latest super bedchair/bivvie/bait boat/rod/reel/
bait etc etc.....
Sadly I feel the pastime I really loved in the past is now for the social media generation, sign of the times I know.
As for me, now given up the use of boilies this season, I am doing purely a particle approach, have had a few and just feels nice to me to do something different for a change 👍
On 30/08/2026 at 12:56, OldBoy said:Guessing you guys must be of a 'certain' age?
Not sure about that😂
I'm mid 50's if that qualifies, so yes probably. I've seen the change of carp fishing, or fishing as a whole.
I don't mind the increase in comfort, a sunlounger that would collapse at the most inopportune moment...
I do much prefer the modern bedchair, even modern bivvies, but I do feel that the prices have made it ridiculous. I still prefer an umbrella system, although I will admit to having used a few domes, and very nice too; Hutchy Apotheosis, Fox EasyDome 1 and 2.
I think it was Rod Hutchinson and Shakespeare who brought the domes onto the market, Cyprydome and the Apotheosis, quite probably the first switch from the camping market.
I caught up with a research video on YouTube this morning, there are only 2 independent reel manufacturers, (Daiwa and Shimano), every other brand is made pretty much made under the same factory roof, whether Okuma, Sonik, Nash, Penn or whoever. The same reel can be sold under multiple brands and names, and at various prices.
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I was having the typical bivvy thoughts while fishing and made a major realisation.
In the days of a standard sleeping bag, it would fit onto a standard bedchair, from sunlounger to Lafuma, to original Fox bedchairs.
There were some decent cold weather sleeping bags, manufactured by cold weather sleeping bag specialists.
Tackle manufacturers got involved in the sleeping bag market, sleeping bags with pockets for the bedchair to hold the top and bottom on the chair, so it would not slide off.
Then came the gradual switch to 3 and 4 legged bedchairs and the now universal flat bed, and tackle manufacturers discovered a problem that they had created; with the position of the legs the pocket or flap holding the bedchair was now not suitable. Sleeping bags could rip, get caught up and tear.
Next innovation is the 'sleep system', bedchair and sleeping bag combined. It takes money away from other industries and puts it as a fishing essential.
The 'Realisation' is that this tackle innovation is to solve a problem that tackle manufacturers created for themselves and anglers.
Now having been outside at -12 in a sleeping bag, I would much rather be outside in a sleeping bag created for survival at those temperatures than a tackle manufacturers sleep system.
Of the bedchairs I have had over the years, from Lafuma and springs, to Fox, Bison, Badger (heavy, but very comfortable) Saber, Chub and Solar, probably the most comfortable was the Bison, not a flatbed like the Chub and Solar.
Not just in bedchairs, but in tackle, rigs and ideas, are we going forward or backwards?
Silt
in UK Carp Fishing
Posted
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).