salokcinnodrog

Big Blues? Shimano Big Blue Baitrunner M Apparently the best carp fishing casting reel ever made for long distance casting as decided in tests by Lee Jackson and Paul Forward. Prices on ebay for them are anything between £140 and £355 at the moment.

Skinners do some dog foods very close to Vitalin. The one to look out for was Skinners Field and Trial in an orange bag, but annoyingly they have changed their packaging. It is very rich in molasses so sticky. Other than that, try a mix of rolled maize, rolled oats, Layers mash and a ground dry dog food.

What do you class as a big carp? A carp is big if it has reached 20lb. The favourite way to target big carp is not always the easiest, but sometimes the most fun, it may not be the most productive, but may be more enjoyable. Simply fish a water with those big carp in it. The majority of carp anglers favourite tactic is turn up, fire in DF's spod mix and a few boilies, cast or 3 rods on the dance floor, hit the chair and wait. My favourite tactic for 20lb carp is walk round with a stalking rod, look for fish, try to get them on surface baits, cast a dog biscuit where they are and have a bit of good luck, and a big cheer when it hits the landing net.

My rigs are the same as I normally use, a D-rig or rig ring on the hookshank for pop-ups, a Multi-rig for snowman baits. I still use run rings, but if the weed is bad over silt I will use the lead on a 150mm lead link of 20lb clear Amnesia. On the syndicate lake I have tried raking swims, the carp avoid the spot, let them clear it by feeding and they are happy to keep coming back to it. As an add I DO NOT like helicopter setups in weed, too many missed or funny takes over 30years of fishing.

What are you looking at budget wise? I got these for a friend's son, the friend himself loves them so Benni rarely gets to go fishing... https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/3x-enduro-carp-rod-12ft-2-75lb/ I don't know how many sets are left.

Bear in mind waters are different, and my session length tends to be 4 or 5 days/nights. On my very weedy syndicate lake if we use after spawning as the summer, on arrival I flick out 3 rods with either stringers or bags depending on known clear or feeding spots. Around 4 hours before dark I tend to put in loads of bait, as during the day the carp normally refuse to come out of the weed and only show just before dusk. One rod is normally a boilie rod, fished with a food source pop-up bait over around a kilo of boilies (a long term food source bait, not an attractor bait), one with a snowman bait fished over a 5kg bucket of sweetcorn, hemp, flaked maize and particles and one rod with a food source pop-up off, but near a baited area. There is so much natural food that the carp might need loads of bait to attract their attention, sometimes I will need to top it up every day, other days I leave it. Its down to feel and whether the carp or tench have cleaned up. I carry on doing this through autumn until normally the start of the colder weather usually November. All of the above have worked so confusion reigns! In winter it gets harder, the fish don't need so much food, so I switch to a high attract pop-up on one rod, a single food source pop-up on another and stick with the food source bait fished snowman on the last. The last two are fished with micro-mix pellets and boilie crumb in PVA bags. I still look for fish, although on the syndicate, there is a Winter area where they seem to hold up, so the rods go in there. Spring is probably the hardest time, knowing when the carp move out from the winter area and spreading up the whole lake. The first April captures tend to come from a couple of known swims; fish anywhere else and you are likely to have a blank session, although the autumn/winter stocked** fish might come from anywhere. It's also difficult knowing how much bait to put in, whether the carp or tench are cleaning it up, or tufties, coots and swans are on it, so for me any Spod/Spomb mix is mostly breadcrumb, small micro pellet and powder with crushed boilies, although I do start increasing the amount of loose, throwing sticked boilies in as I leave. I'm still on the high attract pop-up, snowman and the food source pop-up.

I've got a big choice from various sessions: 4 winter carp just after the lake thawed in February on Nazeing, 20, 26, 26 and 17lb 2 Ardleigh carp on the day of the London bombings, a 23.6 and 24.12, both fully scaled mirrors, but the overnight session was not as important as my Mate who was on the tube that day, thank heavens he survived. A 3 hour session on the river that gave me a 28lb pb at the time. Multiple 20lb fish from Brackens Pool a couple of times, from Earith Virginia Lake, and even from the 475acre Alton reservoir.

Take your pick: I'm still catching on the last of my Rod Hutchinson Monster Crab and KMG boilies, other fish are coming out on maize or sweetcorn, one member on my syndicate is catching ON hemp, another on maggot, someone else on worms.

Think that says almost everything. Most anglers who walk round a lake choose the middle of the day, yet have missed the first light shows, or have gone before the dusk/dark shows. I HATE mornings, yet when I was fishing Alton Water to find the fish I had to be there an hour before first light to find the fish. Not easy when you finished work at 11pm! However on my late night shift before 2 days off, (3-11pm), I would still walk various stretches looking for fish. On my current syndicate, binoculars are a must, shows can be tiny, just a fin breaking 200metres away, if you don't have binos you've missed it. They could also be a bit more obvious. Another thing, try to find natural food areas, look for 'thick' bubbling, rolling.

Now other bike minded people on here are @welder and @levigsp Frank (levigsp) is also the person with an immense knowledge of carp strains, bikes, and hunting dogs

Welcome to carp.com

Currently I usually have a different pop-up on one rod from my feed bait, one on the same pop-up as the food bait and a snowman of the food bait in 15mm and a 12mm Monster Crab pop-up. Pjpu's are supposedly the ultimate pop-up, nothing coming close in terms of buoyancy and longevity although I have found that most pop-ups I use still pop-up after 3-4 days. The only problem with glugging pop-ups is that you can change the buoyancy. I had some that took on much liquid they sank, so flavour sprays are the alternative, but how quickly they 'wash-off' might be an issue. The only thing that I can suggest is see how long the food bait pop-up stays popped up for.

Be prepared for it though. While the winter was wet, it wasn't particularly cold, so might not have died back. On my lake I don't think that we lost any time due to the lake freezing over, and the weed, (especially the silkweed) is already coming through with fresh growth.

I dread to think how many bedchairs I have had over the years, Lafuma sunlounger, Fox, Bison, Chub, Badger, (actually a good product!), and Solar. I think the usual life was around 6 years other than the Lafuma which was only a year until I bit the Fox bullet. (I can go back to the 1990's and before sometimes sleeping on a mat before a bedchair. The honest answer is that so far the Solar is the best and most comfortable, I haven't had to replace elastic and it hasn't sagged. Believe me it doesn't happen on every lake, or even on mine all the time. If the ground is really wet we stop cars going round past the inlet (all winter), so a barrow trip might be needed. Wow, just checking my references on my bedchairs, and found this, a thread on bedchairs: Strangely enough, I think unless you buy right at the top range, prices aren't too far different or inflated.

I saw @newmarket have one delivered when I visited him a while ago, so when mine died I had it already in mind.

More Nutty bait, another 10kg of shelf life, a new retaining sling to replace the old one that's dying, of age, and more PVA bags. https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/folding-camo-recovery-sling-xl/

That's weird! As @kevtaylor has said for Solar to have a problem is a rarity. Perhaps a fault in the frame manufacturing? Sonik items on the other hand i now avoid after cheap rod rings drop inners, and chairs where the extending legs slide in under Nick weight, I'm only 80kg... so they can only be used on a perfectly flat and level bank.

Yes, I have the original Solar bedchair, and yes it's comfy, however the folding legs don't lock in or out, it is you making sure that the legs are fully opened before you get on it, and I have occasionally forgotten to check to my cost. The strap keeps them in place during transport, so it's not a problem. I also use the legs as 'side bars' when it's on my barrow. You have approximately 100millimetres on the full leg extensions so you can get flat and level on most ground. The Springloc system locks as well, it does not slide. To be honest, most of the time weight is not an issue for me as I can drive to most swims on the lake.

It's not just you, I've had totally different forecasts from the BBC to MetOffice.

I'd go Cotswold every day. Any reason for 10ft as opposed to 12ft?

I use Metoffice on my phone as well as the app installed by Samsung as well as checking BBC regularly. All 3 are giving wet weather for at least one day this weekend. I've noticed that forecasts are changing regularly, I can check for 2 or 3 days ahead, then 24 hours later get a totally different forecast.

I do recall a friend of mine used to take his boxer dog with him to Rib Valley

I'm not sure on the effectiveness of most fishing tackle brand winter clothing, as most are not outdoor specialists in the clothing range. I prefer army surplus, hunting or shooting clothing. My cold weather clothing is from army surplus, and Hoggs of Fife, along with Merino wool socks. Top half is usually t-shirt, Norgie or UBAC with a standard fleece on top, and a Hoggs Strathmoor jacket on top, (look at current outdoor shooting or hunting jackets), or a DPM wind and water resistant smock on top. Bottom half is combats with Hoggs overtrousers, and the Merino under my combat boots. For the neck I do have either a snood or my shemagh. That is cold winter wear!

Ooh no, you don't need a bivvy heater. A decent sleeping bag for night, and good clothing for day. Too many 'accidents' with bivvy heaters, burnt down bivvies, and deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning. Even using a stove in the bivvy is a risk. Years ago a mate I used to fish with had a run while his stove was on to keep him warm, he only burnt a hole in his sleeping bag, but other mates have destroyed their whole bivvies and woken up in A&E.