salokcinnodrog

This week's view from the bivvy, but has also included seeing a barn owl come out from between the trees and across the dam wall, and a video of a kestrel hovering above the tree border, as well as hearing tawny owls through the night

Sundridge, Dellareed Optonics. Del Romang and Les Bamford did original conversions, and originally Dellareed were OK with it, but then decided to take it to court as an infringement of copyright. Think it was because they were using Dellareed casings more than the actual changes. Then Delkim bought out their ST Reed switch vibration rather than the roller wheel, must be early 1990's. Basic Optonics were a pain in the butt, too quiet, you couldn't hear them. I can't remember when the volume control was added, but you could fit a sounder box on the originals, an 8pin audio plug if I remember correctly. The changing of the roller wheel could be fun as well, it was a 2 or 4 vane, but I always wanted more sensitivity for pike so made 12's out of a foil milk bottle top.

It used to be easy! I've been known to walk a good couple of miles fully loaded round the reservoir or lake. Fully loaded with water that would be 100kilos, but spare clothes, waterproofs, stove, cooking equipment, and scales etc only weigh about 40kilos. The 40litre Molle packs are available if you have a search through the surplus stores, and from personal experience they last. The various specialists are looking to the conclusion of Long Covid having caused it.

Rod Hutchinson one is good as well, but for a change I was trying not to push my subsidiser🤣😉

Oh the Vets bill, ouch! Sky just had her annual check and jabs, that hurt me and my pocket more than her. She's lost 2kg from last year, which is actually good, has lovely teeth and loves the vet and the veterinary nurse, probably because of the treats, even though the vet gave her the needle. Have a look at https://www.johnsonsofleeds.co.uk/product/mtp-bergan/ https://www.britishmilitarysurplus.co.uk/genuine-british-military-issue-mtp-90-litre-bergen-current-issue-1537723.html I have updated my DPM 100litre to one of the new MTP Kombat Airborne bergens. They are slightly shorter and wider, and sit flat. Trying to think what I need, although it would probably be just buying for buyings sake. I'm terrible to buy for, my gear is usually chosen on my situation rather than for fashion.

I haven't lived around Norfolk for years, so the only advice I can offer is from my previous posts.

We keep missing an important point about keeping feet and head warm, although @bluelabel has covered part of it, with tucking trousers into socks, the type of socks. Your standard cotton/synthetic mix socks aren't going to do. I may walk to my swim in them but do change. My winter socks are either the Merino wool socks mentioned on the 'What is your newest purchase?' thread, or Yuedge winter hiking socks. For comfort I put a pair of insoles in my Nitehawk combat boots, it has actually improved thermal properties as well. I have not yet worn the thermal boots this year! Hat wise, as much as I hate wearing a hat, a Beanie with an USB headlight, a Herringbone flat cap or Thinsulate Thermal hat. There are not many decent hoodies for winter use, most tackle brand ones are too thin, although there are a few. I do wear one at night sometimes with the hood up, my head then stays warm while I'm in the sleeping bag.

Yes tomorrow will be a pike trip, easier to find than the carp or roach I hope. It's got big carp, and big roach. Couple of 2lb roach when I found a shoal of big fish over 2 weekends. And a couple of carp caught within 24hours of each other

My lake has been frozen since last week, and even my local river has frozen over. I had to put a bucket of oversoaked Vitalin and chopped/mashed boilies into the freezer. I am hoping Alton Water is clear enough to fish tomorrow.

I read that as well, but at the same time when you buy a base mix it is normally at optimum levels of ingredients for the compromise of cost, nutrition and rolling. Cutting it with maize meal, semolina or soya flour to make it go further is just doing what various bait companies have done and gone down for. I can give you a very basic base mix, that will work extremely well: 10% Liver Powder 20% Calcium Caseinate 30% Maize Flour 40% Semolina Flavour wise, the Liquid Liver from Rod Hutchinson. I did used to use Nutrabaits Liver Elite. You could modernise it with a hydrolysate in the eggs. Now that was sold as a proprietary base mix or completed bait.

Pretty much no nutritional value whatsoever; there is very little usable protein, almost only carbohydrate. The only thing it is good for is high attract hookbaits in my view. If you add anything to it remember EVERY animal needs protein, fat and possibly carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals. Carp fed in scientific experiments required food with a protein percentage of 25-30%.

The guidance on a gas canister is 'keep out of direct sunlight, use in a well ventilated area'.

It did not help that Darrell Peck actually put a video on his Facebook or Instagram feed using a bivvy heater. The post has since been removed.

Sorry, I disagree. EVERY year, common sense fails some and they pay the ultimate price. A bivvy heater in the bivvy with the door closed is asking for trouble, no matter what gas. A fire in the bivvy, or carbon monoxide, and somebody gets severely injured or dies. Carbon monoxide is caused when the fuel does not burn properly, whether it is gas, coal, wood or oil. Direct quote from the NHS: Causes of carbon monoxide poisoning Common household appliances used for heating and cooking can produce carbon monoxide if they are not installed properly, are faulty, or are poorly maintained. Appliances that can cause carbon monoxide include: gas boilers gas cookers and clay ovens gas or paraffin heaters wood, gas and coal fires portable generators Using barbeques or camping stoves inside, and turning on vehicle or lawn mower engines in your garage, can also cause a build-up of carbon monoxide.

Sadly every year it happens, that or a bivvy going up in flames. I don't know how many times it needs stressing, but too often it happens, maybe this will make people think again. Every angler who says "I never fall asleep with the heater on" is just ignoring the issue. The extra heat can cause you to fall asleep with the risk of death.

Normally I would remove external links, but not this one. So many dangers with bivvy heaters. My sleeping bag has changed, but my advice still holds true. Clothing to deal with the cold is better than using a heater.

Welcome to Carp.com. The largest fish for me will come when it's ready, not when I want it. I've got some lovely VS stockies to go for along with some proper old originals.

At the same time if I have caught a fish, I have faith in that rig and bait. It doesn't 'smell' like me, the fish have accepted it. Putting on a fresh bait or rig, I could be starting from scratch again. I would much rather dry out the end tackle and make a fresh bag. Faff maybe, but better than having doubts about whether the rig is right. Years ago I started tying my bags or mesh to the hooklink swivel or above the lead, but Gardner and other brands now make PVA bag swivels or clips. It's easy enough to tie a bag on and hook the outside corner, so you can have ready prepared bags or mesh. Thinking about it you can use the clip on a run ring or lead clip and attach the lead as well 😉 At short ranges even if it is a bit wobbly in flight it will still hit the spot.

I still make bags up as I use them. The 'time saved' or convenience of a ready tied bag with rig doesn't necessarily suit my fishing. I don't necessarily want a new bait out there, I want one that 'smells' of the lake, so I dry my rig and bait before recasting.

Coming on along with @elmoputney 's post as well. I think that the only ready-made baits around when I started were Richworths. I went through Honey Yucatan, which I caught more on than Tutti-frutti, and Salmon Supreme. Then came the joy of upsetting my mother with homemade specials. Chappie dog food, semolina, ground pond pellets and eggs, stunk to high heaven but caught. I then started playing with Nutrabaits, but Brian Hewitt and New Concept Baits Mariner Mix really caught me, and loads of fish. I'd love to get that recipe back. I was rolling bait for him and myself with a concrete mixer! Shame Brian sold the company. Back to Nutrabaits I saw how Enervite really turned on the carp in Weybread Number 1, and then how The Biollix caught on Barham and Taverham. I was using that more than BFM. The switch to Trigga though, absolutely amazing. I ended up getting B&F to make it up for me I was rolling so much, probably using 10kilos a month. They also started selling my 'tweaked' Trigga baits as using Nutrabaits ingredients. They asked me to test their baits when I moved onto Ardleigh and I caught the first fish on the 42 range. Weird, for some reason I missed a few years 'session' fishing, probably due to the love of my life, only doing the occasional night, but still had input into the next test baits, Smokey Bacon which I took onto Nazeing, followed by Smoked Mackeral. I also came up with the combinations on a few of their pop-ups. In fact only 1 bait I could not catch on, no matter how much I saw the carp eating it in the snags. Then as they say, B&F fell apart at the seams. Kind of left me holding a paddle but the canoe had a hole, so I started using Solar, again testing for them, the original Seafood Takeaway in frozen and shelfie. The move workwise for me to Gladwells, meant I could get my hands on Crafty Catcher and Rod Hutchinson baits as the factory rolled both, (they also roll the Ringers Match baits). While I like Crafty Catcher, especially King Prawn and Crab Meat and Sea Salt, I seemed to do better on RH, the KMG produced loads on Alton, and both Monster Crab and Infusion have produced on the syndicate as well.

Too darn fast! I'm hopefully chasing both new stock and originals on the syndicate. We went through the picture records of stocked fish from 2020 after a capture last week. A cracking fish put on 10lbs in a year, and 14lbs since being stocked!

Like @newmarket I tend to carry on doing what I'm doing until the first few regular frosts or even into December. I would say 'first frost', but we had one a couple of weeks ago and then a few days and nights of almost constant temperature with rain. In fact with the rain, I think the fish carried on munching big time. Tim makes some other very valid points, stock levels, bait reliant, how busy a venue, etc. My syndicate is quiet anyway, the most I've seen is 9 or 10 on 45 acres, yet compare that to a commercial and you would have 50 anglers on that lake... The commercial is 'overstocked' so you catch compared to the syndicate. I do use less bait, but I tend to up the numbers of boilies and drop the levels of particles. Particles I think rely on the oils within to attract, in cooler weather the oils cloud up and solidify being less attractive.

As @framey says, people want to pay £4.95 over £10.95 a kilo. Years ago when I was using Nutrabaits, even with a tackle shops staff discount, base mixes were costing me £7.95 a kilo, so add my bits and tweaks bait cost me around £9/10. Bill Cottam wrote about Hi-Nu-Val costing over £10 a kilo to himself when he first used it. (Behind the Rods, very good book). I recall a 1.5kg (?) bag of base mix cost £14 retail. It wasn't much cheaper to roll your own compared to Trigga and Mainline boilies costing £10.99 per kilo from the freezer! Now there are so many bait companies, some reputable, some not so, and some big ones aren't always as good as they should/could be, bait prices have come down. It could be more cheaper ingredients, or it could be cutting quality and cost. The hard part is finding out or knowing which is which. Not easy when some ingredients have become unavailable or prices have increased.

I actually mix RH Monster Crab, KMG, and Infusion as my feed. All 3 are good baits. The original idea was to mix them and then use the favourite on the hook exclusively, but I've caught on all 3 so keep feeding and fishing them.

I haven't deleted anything, the off topic posts are in NCB under 'Rant', @kevtaylor I think Run rings will come off a coil of line. I had a pike bite off a couple of weeks back. After going out I did get everything back except the lead. It may be that a lead clip works best with heavy leads, lighter leads simply don't create the reaction for the tail rubber to come free, however the one I retrieved is a 4oz lead, still attached, quite probably bitten off at the rod tip by a pike. I've never liked lead clips, I simply don't think FULL STOP that they are a safe item of tackle.