salokcinnodrog

That's the Solar buzzer bars with the goalpost adaptors, so I can use either pod or sticks. With the ground being so soft sticks work. Had to keep the tips up, still a lot of weed about.

You might find this interesting:

I googled it, 3552 I might actually have been bored enough myself to play with the mathematics so came up with 3000.

I believe that 1pint of maggots is 3000 grubs for some reason, I've not counted them, but now I might have to, to be sure. I've seen it both ways, a couple of mates were fishing a lake in winter for roach, baiting up with half a pint of maggots in small swimfeeders and getting 'plagued' by carp disturbing the swim. A 20lb carp takes a while to land on a size 16 hook and 2.6lb hooklink to 5lb mainline on a feeder rod. Then as B B says, other places really respond to heavy baiting. Spodding in maggots and fishing PVA bags of them over the top. Not my favourite method but a couple of pole anglers at Suffolk Water Park match lakes were fishing massive pole floats and continually firing in maggots over the float. It may be prolific but they were catching some fish to double figures.

Jim Shelley size...

We grow old and grey disgracefully... Imagine the children of today who don't experiment to find out why or whether an idea works, but simply follow it slavishly from Nash, Korda, Tom Dove, or Elliot Greys social media page...

I do remember you with no eyebrows... Did you end up pencilling them back on? Didn't see pink reels or rods back then! I seem to remember someone did some DPM green and brown alarms, can't remember who though.

By live bait I take it you mean maggots or worms. Saying that I've heard of carp eating small gudgeon or silver fish targeting perch or pike, along with deadbaits. I've rarely fished maggots specifically for carp, although I have put maggots in my groundbait for them. My winter baits tend to be boilies or sweetcorn. Normally I've fished the water all through and the fish are eating my boilies. It will also depend on the water.

Must admit I've been on army surplus combat trousers in olive green, DPM or MTP for years. Some of my olive green ones have faded, but not ripped on brambles and the like. In fact the only rips have come when they are worn so thin after around 10years old. It was information on the Combat Pro clothing I was after more than anything. As I said above, and before, most of my clothing stuff comes from either army surplus or Hoggs of Fife. Not found anything close from a fishing tackle brand.

Just had a couple of interesting adverts appear on my Facebook feed, does anyone know anything about Combat Pro clothing and the streetwear trousers? https://coral-clay.com/products/combatpro-defender-jacket?_pos=1&_sid=f545427af&_ss=r https://coral-clay.com/products/combatpro-defender-set?_pos=3&_sid=f545427af&_ss=r https://coral-clay.com/products/urban-cargo-streetwear-trousers?_pos=2&_sid=96121b9ec&_ss=r

@newmarket might be the person to ask. He did used to live nearby I believe

I used to use special shaped ones particularly as hookbaits, avoiding round ones the same size as my freebies on the hook. Glugged cubes or larger baits that stood out meant I never mixed my baits up.

Post it on Facebook and the male and female Karen's will accuse you of racism. I pointed out that economic migrants were being housed first to a local councillor, who I actually knew, and got unfriended on Facebook. He didn't physically speak to me for 5years. I'll stop there, this is a new purchase thread, not a rant at the iniquities, rights and wrongs of migration. I've bought another 20kg of RH KMG in both 15 and 20mm. I found it more consistent for takes than Infusion and the Infusion is currently not available, so it's an easy choice. I also added a kilo of Monster Crab 20mm boilies for chub and barbel. More PVA bags, leads and bits on the same order. I think that the winter will be fishing over small amounts of boilies with KMG and the dreaded pink pop-up in my favourite flavour as well as using up my pink Infusion pop-ups.

The housing system is screwed. Local authorities have taken away many homeless units, for other purposes. In Ipswich the big homeless unit on Woodbridge Road was converted into an offshoot of the hospital. One of the others was turned into private housing, no local authority accommodation. The hotels that were for British homeless, don't ask, I'll get accused of racism. I spent a year sofa surfing, and 6 months living out of a backpack in a tent. It wasn't the local authority that picked me up, it was a charity. When the local authority eventually offered me a flat, the first one was in an awful state as it stood, in a very rough area. Cracked glass in the double glazed windows, concrete floors that were pitted and electric wires hanging out of boxes. This was the state I was expected to take it in, and make it liveable myself. I'm not fussy, but safe would be nice!

If what you are doing is still working, keep on doing it. My gradual changes would be to fish slightly further away from the islands, basically until takes stop. Increase the 'dissolvable' or soluble items in the bag, so faster breakdown pellets, or even powdered groundbait. When bites stop start fishing different areas, to find the fish. There are often specific features that the carp hole up in year after year. It could be snags, near drop-offs, dead weed, even by the rushes. Carp don't always stay or even live over the winter in the deepest water. I've seen carp holed up in the rushes in 3feet of water where the maximum depth of the lake is 6 or 7 feet deep. They didn't want to be in the clear silty bottom. The lakebed around the rushes was absolutely filled with bloodworm. Nazeing Meads has depths down to 20feet, my winter catches were nearly all in 6feet of water. My approach changes depending on whether I am fishing a water as a 'campaign' or as a one-off. I don't change my rigs, or my bait. I use less bait, I don't normally feed as much, although I still bait up when i leave. I don't tend to use many particles in winter, my exception is sweetcorn; carp love sweetcorn, it's rich in Lysine, and can provoke a take when boilies just aren't working. If it is a campaign then it is the same bait I've been using and feeding all the year so far, although one rod (out of 3) is often fished with a high attract bait, usually my Garlic Spice pink pop-up. If it is a one-off trip I do tend to recast around regularly with various high attract baits until I've found the fish. For further trips, I start where I left off or caught.

Funny, but not funny...

Treated my 10year old Solar pod to a new bag as the old one is splitting. My alarms and indicators will all fit in as well

Oh believe me, I try to do my bit for the environment and I don't take the immediate environmentally friendly statement of a product or technology as fact. The truth is that some 'green' technologies are just as damaging but its not obvious. I save my batteries after use, and take them to the recycling ♻ bin after use, my soft plastic goes to the supermarket recycling. As @Golden Paws has said, rechargeable batteries have an unreliability issue, the charge does not last, so it is use the best battery available. For my alarms, my Duracell batteries are currently on a year, it would be longer, but I bought new alarms in August 2022. My Energizer camera batteries are on 6months, my Petzl headlight batteries are on a year. My rechargeable headlight had to be charged after 4hours.

Back up again, a Carpology article by Bill Cottam https://www.carpology.net/article/features/carping-allegedly-october-23/

I'm not sure new technology rechargeable batteries are more friendly to the environment! Mining lithium, cobalt, chromium, and other rare metals? Here's something for you, I use power banks to recharge my phone and my tablet when I'm fishing, so no problem with rechargeable batteries, however, the 3 power packs, between them only last 4 days. The phone battery is used up faster when phone signal is low and it struggles to pick up. It is not like they are cheap power banks as one is strong enough to jump start a car! Convert the shorter battery life to alarms, your power bank is now being used for 3rd purpose. A fish is at risk if the battery has died. I've used rechargeable batteries in alarms, I have a home charger that recharges PP3, AAA'S and AA's, all of which I use in both camera, torches and alarms. Again, battery life is limited. Cold weather and rechargeable batteries don't mix well. Rechargeable batteries have a life, before the battery dies. We seem to advance technology without thinking of the actual ramifications, moving too fast.

I use my local shops as much as possible, Birds and Breakaway on the north and west side of Ipswich, Markhams if I need anything heading east. If they don't have or can't get the items I want then it will be online or personally to Johnson Ross and Tackle Box. I'd much rather not go to Angling Direct.

I dislike rechargeable batteries for alarms, (and torches). Nothing against them in the right place, but rechargeable batteries have a terrible tendency to fail when you need them most. Delkims also have PP3, square batteries, not AAA's. I mention torches in brackets, I have a wooly hat with a USB rechargeable led lamp in it. The battery life is in hours, compared to the battery life of my headlights being in weeks. I quite frequently read from say 6pm to 10pm, 4 hours, the hat light will be dead after that 4 hours, the battery headlight will be doing that for days. Now switch that to your alarm, you have an electronic circuit, minimal power in use, maybe a led, when the limited life of the battery runs down, so you end up recharging it with your power bank. Then your powerbank is empty... Or worse, you miss a run. Alarms with removable batteries, whether AA, AAA, LR1, or PP3, have a longer life, it's not hard to replace. You could in theory use rechargeable batteries rather than 'disposable'! Here's the next points, those AA, PP3, are quite frequently manufacturers numbers, everyone knows that a PP3 is the 9v 'square', although the brand number will be Duracell MN1604 and there are others. Rechargeable batteries have for years had limited life, whether replaceable or not, and struggle in cold and wet weather.

I often put up a cheap link for gas canisters when I renew mine. I'm forever bargain hunting. Sadly local shops simply can't keep up with the price of 6x 500 size gas canisters, nor even my local camping shop.

@kevtaylor makes the point about the rod being a good one, I would say, avoid Sonik and Avid Hybrid Spod/Marker rods. On both of them I have had rings lose the liners. The liners fall out in transit, and on the Avid rod, the liner actually broke. I have had to replace 2 or 3 rings myself, and reglue the liner into the frame. I'm not sure what rings they are but 'lightweight fittings' now means cheap to me.

Big question with some variables included. Do you need a spod/marker rod? I've added in the bracket marker as many spod rods now do both, use as a marker rod and spod rod. When I was fishing the 2 acre Brackens Pool at Nazeing Meads I went 3 years without using a spod (rod), however my marker rod was used for precise location of the gravel, which if you missed, instead of fishing 7feet, you'd be in 22feet of water. My baiting was solely with stringers and mesh, as much as 30baits on a stringer, and I caught plenty. That is probably the last time I can recall not using a spod or Spomb. Now what makes up the variable, is the size of waters, what is working and what you might do differently. On a 4acre water, say going up to 10 acres, fishing boilies only, I don't think that you need a spod, almost every spot can be reached by catapult or stick, it is when you add in pellets and particles and mass baiting that the spod becomes essential, as anything above 30metres takes out cattie range. Are you going to fish boilies only, or do you need particles? Can you hit your spot with numbers of solid bags? It is different from most other people's fishing, it could be your edge. That might be your answer there. For a few years, my 3rd carp rod was my marker rod, it was 'ok', but not perfect, so I bought a marker rod and used braid. The feel was totally different, from gravel feeling flat, I could sudden feel 'the bounce', from weed feeling steady thick, I could feel pull back as it broke free. Braid may have been a lot of the answer, but the right tools for the job help. Next question why 3.5lb TC rods? On waters up to 4acres I wouldn't go above 2.75, even banging out big stringers or bags. I only use 3.25 TC rods on 45acres. The test curve does not equate to how big a fish, or how powerful a rod is, the action also needs to be included, but higher (say above 2.75lb ) are designed primarily for long casting. One 2 acre water I bailiff, with carp to over 20lb, you would be asked to leave with those rods. Other rules include No leads above 2oz, and hooks no bigger than size 10. When I fish there, I don't even take my carp rods, but use my specialist rods with a 1.75lb TC and believe me I've had many carp over 20lb and it's more fun on the gear.