salokcinnodrog

Liquid or powder? I have a nice garlic oil I use in my baits. Maize can be a great bait, but I always felt needs spicing up a bit. There were plenty of rudd years ago, I had a few over 2lb, and you could see massive shoals swimming around the join point between the open water and the island end. Strangely that is very close to the one swim I did well for carp fishing particles. Fishing towards the hawthorn bush and barbed wire fence, a gravel bar that is very up and down, from 5ft down to 10ft in the space of a couple of feet. I heavily baited with pigeon conditioner and Trigga boilies, and had 5 carp in one night with 3 20lb commons, a single figure mirror and another double. Shauna my daughter also landed another 20lb common. I tried the same method further up and round where the end of the island and the rushes stick out of the water on the bank between Reeds and Virginia. I could not get past 6lb tench all night long. In the main lake, bream, bream and bream. I was a heavy pellet baiter (I'll leave the jokes to others), with plenty of chopped and whole boilies in the mix. Mostly 8mm pellets in the spod. If I fished at longer range over 50metres, it was boilies only. When I fished the main lake, I tended to fish towards the margins to avoid the bream as I regularly found carp or saw signs by the rushes, or under yhe brambles.

When I fished Earith, if I put in particles I got plagued with bream and tench, not that I mind catching bream and tench, but they kept the carp out. I caught best over pellet and boilie. On Ardleigh, plenty of bait could get you both bream and carp, and Alton I rarely caught bream, nearly all carp. Every water seems to be different.

I've never done well on butter beans, it could only improve them.

A teaspoon of each to 1kilo of Chick peas, stir in the water as you add it to soak them

I do think that flavoured Chick peas definitely work better than standard just soaked and boiled A nice yellow colour, actually caused by soaking in water with added turmeric and cumin.

Sessions like that for a gorgeous fish, you can see the cheer or 'yes'.

Earith, my second fish from the water, and 24lb. Just amazing how long ago it was as it seems like yesterday. The first fish was an 18lb wood carving common

I think depending on the weather conditions you'll get 2 days maybe 3 out of your particles until they start to whiff a bit. What I often do is freeze a batch in a 5litre bucket or ice cream tubs and take that to the lake still frozen, along with the bucket of fresh. The frozen bucket can take a day or two to defrost! A day longer if you have a good cool box or one powered by your cigarette socket in the car. Hemp, tares and maples it might be possible to prep on the bank if you have a big gas stove, soak for 24, then boil. I tend to think of hemp as bait up every day. Saying that, tigers and maize and other particles, once baited into the lake, could be a decent baited area and will last... Might keep the fish hanging around the area. Some places respond to one off baiting, others are every day venues.

I think that is a problem with a lot of tackle items, and media coverage. Dangers aren't pointed out in the article, ignored and/or not being used in that safe situation. I could go for the leadcore 'issue', and it's inherent dangers, on pendant or inline set-ups or excessive lengths, fish safety and 'dragging' fish away from weed or snags on a 50lb leader etc, but I think that finally it's getting through. Tackle companies seem to release a lot of unnecessary, unsafe tackle, maybe without realising the idiot factor, maybe money, or maybe simply not understanding, and tackle companies need to make money to survive. Problem is lead clips are too easily 'misused', or not used as their original purpose, which was to remove the lead at the end of the session. By fixing it permanently to the swivel, pushing the tail rubber on all the way, we are potentially back to the days of permanent fixed leads. What's wrong with a large bore John Roberts quick change bead attached to the hooklink swivel by a piece of large tubing? Or the run ring with a quicklink holding a lead on able to run free? I've queried rig safety, lead safety with the media, given my explanation and findings, and on occasion been accused of not fishing, just being a keyboard warrior. I'll let you decide on that one... I recall Gary Bayes years ago writing an article querying lead clips, stating the dangers, and his answer was to tie the lead on with doubled over 4lb mono. Bet that went down well considering his tie-ins.

Google Maps and Google Earth can be brilliant (see my Nazeing South Lagoon pic), but sometimes you have to go old school and resort to Ordnance Survey maps for incoming streams and contours.

Trying to find a legitimate reason for them. Doesn't appear to work with light leads, doesn't appear to be needed using a heavy lead. Appears to be something else that could snag up in weed. Oh My Cripes...

I think since just before it's release I've used Gardner Pro in 15lb, light or dark with no worries and am comfortable with long casting with it. I'm just going through in my mind the crack-offs I've had and one in a heavy wind when the line went round the butt ring, and two when numpty forgot to check the bail arm was open. I did used to use 15lb Sensor brown, but since I started with Gardner Pro, never gone back. Beans and peas, Molassed Rabbit mix to bulk out your particles. Hot water to soak it around 12hours before use. It's a good background feed. The rest of your particles sounds good, the maize and tigers are the important bits, and if you prep some and stick them in a liquidiser you'll get a nice cloud.

I tell you what, if you can find some pics from directly above you could be onto a winner. If not book a hot air balloon flight, or convince someone to sneak a drone across lol. Pictures from above will potentially show features from above, even if not depths. Looking at the pic, I'd say the second arm on the right has an inlet stream, and the main feeder streams are in the devil's horns at the far end. The second arm you'll be on looks to be a ridge line bay, with possibly an inlet on the end near the green blob of trees

Sounds like fun! Ardleigh and Alton reservoirs are my forays into big water fishing although Alton is only 475 acres. I used to spend hours walking around it. Some days before or after work I'd pick a section and walk that, other days all the way around. I would usually prebait an area for a few days before fishing it, a mix of pigeon conditioner or chicken seed mix with tigers and maize plus a bucket or 3 of Vitalin (see current alternatives now it's discontinued), with a few boilies, but if no boilies allowed, maize, or tigers would be OK on the hook. If I couldn't prebait, most fish would come on the 2nd or 3rd night after baiting when I arrived, although I did have a couple of fish on my Garlic Spice pop-ups first night just cast out. I only had one fish on Alton in a bay, the rest came from the northern end of the reservoir in big south westerly winds, big enough to send spray 20metres up the bank into the bivvy, near the bridge over the reservoir, or right up near the limit of fishing where it shallower up. The one from the bay was after lockdown was over, and I found a couple of fish in The Wonder right at the end. Again a bit of bait around the weed produced fish. Depth wise, my fish came in depths between 6 and 15feet deep. For a reservoir of the size you are talking, I would think that the water will slope down, a possible drop-off, then slope again, probably based off a series of feeder streams gradually deepening towards the dam wall, deepest is not always best. @jh292 is this a fishing trial to see the potential, with possible long term fishing permission? Or a simple one off?

I think he was soaking it, then placing it on kitchen tissue in trays in the airing cupboard like growing cress or mustard.

I was upset and annoyed that Vitalin was discontinued, it was my base for baiting up for years, probably since around 2005, and I can remember my Nan used to use it for her dogs back in the 1980's when I lived with her. My alternative is Molassed Rabbit Mix, which I get from Gladwells, its 10minutes from me. https://www.copdockmill.co.uk/our-brands/small-animal/ Skinners dog foods also do a Muesli based Field and Trial dog food that I think could be a decent alternative, but I have not yet tried it. Unlikely you messed it up, soak and boil, but I recall Bryan Jarrett saying it was better sprouted. When I do maize I do add sugar to the soak, preferably brown sugar, roughly 2teaspoons per kilo of maize. On the syndicate a few years ago maize was fed during the winter, the spots fed with maize weren't 'dug up', yet spots baited with pellets were. I have a feeling, not 100%, but I think tufties were eating a fair bit of the maize rather than carp.

I never found butter beans particularly successful unless they were flavoured, don't know why, but a spicy flavour in as you soak them worked. Kidney beans I've done well on, both tinned and soaked and boiled. Black eyes, great bait, although the tomato soup method is messy. You don't need that many and tench love them too. The more you bait, the more tench... Like @Golden Paws I've used loads of beans, and caught on most, chicks, haricot (and baked beans, Heinz for freebies tipped in, cheap own brand for hookbaits), mung beans (beansprouts). I think it was Chris Yates who reckoned broad beans were rubbish, but he occasionally caught on them (The Secret Carp, I seem to think). Maize, probably the best known particle, can be brilliant, yet other waters almost nothing. Often fed to the fish during winter. I've found maize can be hit and miss, but when the fish get on it, they get on it big time.

I don't like helicopter setups anywhere near snags, they allow too much rig movement before indication. I've lost fish because of that movement, 20-30metres before any indication and Delkims at around 100metres, fishing in clear water, but the fish made it to an overhanging tree stump. Look at run rings with a tight line, or the (for me, dreaded) lead clip. In fact the run ring will or should also slide off the leader if it does break. Length is always tough, I tend to use a shockleader as 4/5 turns on the reel and drop, whereas snag leader does not need to be as long, as fishing next to the rod, you will be straight onto it, and only the extreme end near the rig will be rubbing any snags. My snag leader is Solar Contour Unleaded, don't think its still available, but I've had fish to over 20lb on it from the syndicate, and the length is my casting drop, minus the tip to first ring, so it doesn't affect my casting, probably around 1½metres long. I don't know if you can remember the pic, a large stump in the water, in front of that is a metal grill embedded in the lakebed. I had a few fish from that spot on the setup.

Check the size and format, and possibly the Internet speed. 4/5G can be so slow if signal is bad that photos don't load

I've had a set of 3 Delkims submerged when the lake and river broke the bank and joined after series rain. Got them out, dried them at home, and replaced the batteries. No problems they still worked

A device that strikes the hook automatically is apparently banned under fishing licence rules in certain areas.

Oh boy can that be fun... NOT! The way I found to get them was to pick that spot and heavily bait over it, and I mean heavy, a 5litre or more bucket of groundbait; my favoured choice was* Vitalin and particles, hemp, birdfood, and pellets with some small boilies mixed in and fish with a couple of 8 or 10mm baits on a hair. No need for finesse, either a lead on a lead link or run ring and a standard braid or coated braid knotless knotted rig. *was: I think that Vitalin has been discontinued, so my alternative is Mollased Rabbit mix with flaked maize, although you do want or even need to pour boiling water on it 24hours before use.

Think that is what keeps drawing the annoying swans in. I'd got the spot working, had a decent carp and a few tench off it. Now as soon as the swans move in, the fish move out.

Dale Jennings messaged me via FB and asked if I knew @welder or how to get in touch. He is, sorry, both are, on my FB friends, so now able to keep in touch.

Aye, that can be a problem, as can swans...