salokcinnodrog

I'm sorry I am a Solar Stainless person through and through, complete with a rod pod...☺️😂 When I do use single sticks, it is Solar banksticks, some of which are over 20 years old. In fact I nearly always walk my lines out, so I do use a single stick every trip. The P1 stuff is pricey, but I have tried budget stainless, and yuck, it just didn't have the feel, no ground driver point. On occasion I need a pilot hole it is tent peg in the ground, then stir it round. My other suggestion if you want lighter would be the Solar A1 Aluminium sticks or RH Gunsmoke sticks, but I'm sure that the Rod Hutchinson ones are 19.5mm outside diameter, probably the same as your storm sticks.

Don't ever go with preconceived ideas, you'll ignore the best approach. In the margins, the carp are usually feeding on the bottom, a pop-up could be above them and ignored. One of the guys on on our syndicate has been quietly catching doubles when all else is quiet. Float fishing a couple of worms on a size 8 hook! His setup is basically for large tench. I used to fish a few busy day ticket waters, and on most margin fishing, a handful of hemp and pellets with a float fished hookbait over the top produced most fish.

Check with the fishery. If the weather is dry enough, maybe no need for a tent for an overnight session, so nobody is any the worse off. As @newmarket puts it, I'm a lunatic, but sleeping under the stars is fine. In terms of the tents, olive green is more country coloured over the blue. Come to that though, ridge tents or dome style? That in itself is a fun one as if you have a low green dome tent you could 'get away with it'.

On a hot summers day... A husky water dog.

I know this has been discussed in the long ago past. It's something I do now as a matter of course as I have to reel in every day to take Sky for a walk, so the swim gets a couple of hours with no lines in. I've had fish in the past where I had to leave the hookbait in the same spot untouched for 48hours. Fish that I was able to watch hanging around the area after I originally put my hookbait in. I think that a fair few people also reel in every day to check or change hookbaits, but how much difference do you think it makes?

Years ago, pictured in Tim Paisley's To Catch a Carp was a rig with the line just going through the eye of the hook, as the hair with bait on that. At the end of the hair was a bead or rig ring tied on in case of the boilie collapsing. Fiddly to tie, and a fresh hooklink for every fish. Like you I would worry about losing fish to an end of line knot or loop giving way. I don't get enough pick ups to lose fish! I'm always wary of ready made shop bought rigs, but for those with difficulties tying rigs I can understand the need. Any tackle brand that sells bits and pieces of end tackle is surely a good thing, but as with every one, tackle must be suitable for purpose and 'fish safe', as in we should not be leaving tackle out for potential tethering etc.

I'm nearly always rods out first, then bivvy. Finally after coffee I'll put some bait in. Sometimes it's coffee before bivvy, and that my friend is why.... Basically I bait up after fishing over a PVA bag or so and giving it a couple of hours. The ONLY exception of the bivvy going up first is if it's raining. Boiling times for 40mm baits, 2minutes tops, but dry for 24hours before freezing, or putting into dip. You might get away with 2mins 30 seconds, but I never found any longer made them any harder. I do have some mega hard hookbaits myself. I drill them before sticking bait needle through them. Mike Wilmott might say different times but he knows his mixes.

Yes I did merge the posts, the joys of phone upload limits. I do like the bivvy, at least you have room around it now. Do you use the inner rib liner? I was struggling with mine this week, cramp in my fingers and I couldn't pop the clips onto the ribs. The other good thing is that you don't need to put the front arch poles in place as just a Brolly and can get away with them or Storm sticks. After the times you've had, I'm glad you're catching, but like you, those little fellas do get a bit much after a while. 2x 24mm baits... The other options I would have thought of both Elmo and Crusian have come up with. Are there any particular spots the larger fish come out of? May not be fashionable but the corner swims might be an option.

Hmm! Gas and electricity has doubled in cost. My grocery shopping started going up in 2020, from £30 a week to around £50 now, that is at the supermarkets. Dog food, still around £12 for 15kilos, which is a months complete dry food for Sky. My greengrocer and local butchers prices are the same, where I get my vegetables and meat from, as much as possible locally grown. Quality is SO MUCH BETTER. Tackle shop prices on gas canisters have gone up by £1 to £1.50, yet the Camping and Caravan stores price is the same. To be honest, it looks like supermarkets are raising prices, yet local shops aren't yet. I'm going to be checking prices carefully for PVA products as that is my usual need to restock. I did a large bait order a couple of months ago so aren't panicking yet.

After dealing with Nash Tackle while in a tackle shop, avoid, sorry @nigewoodcock, too many breakages on delivery, and returns after sale. After personal views on Sonik, rod rings, chair their build is not the best. Your choice, there can be only one...

I've still got Solar Lockey Stainless rests. Refoamed a few times! Think I could sell them and my Quiverlocs for more than I paid for them! My Century NG's actually had a 'ball' on the butt section behind the reel seat, to stop the rod being pulled forward off the rest. I discovered it meant that I didn't actually need to use a rear rest.

Years ago we had a thread going called 'Complicated rigs', it covered a session I had on Ardleigh, then broke into a long discussion on lead set-ups, various rigs, and whether we made things more complicated than they need to be. While I do play around with rigs, I do catch more on a bog standard line aligner usually knotless knotted rig. I may have a sliding ring on the hookshank and tie the hook on with a line aligner, this is more often so I can change the hair length to suit the feeding and hooking of the fish, but this also means I can use a pop-up or bottom bait on exactly the same rig without much faffing. Too many carp anglers forget that getting the carp to feed is more important than the rig is. If the carp are feeding comfortably what is an 'ineffective' rig according to experts, fails the palm or thumb test, can actually be effective hooking the fish. Equally if a super effective rig is in the wrong place and the carp aren't feeding then it will not work. My personal view is that 'effective' rigs are needed when we aren't feeding properly to get the fish comfortable on our spot, or aren't baiting (maybe prebaiting) enough of our bait.

Your rig pic with a pop-up gives very similar properties to the Bent Hook rig, but with no mouth damage. Difficult to eject, nice low lying pop-up, close to freebies.

Try that with a pop-up 😉 You want the hook sat on the kicker with the pop-up sitting nicely tight to the hookshank, so the hookbait lifts everything up vertical.

Talk nicely to girlfriends...

Pinch a pair of tights, put a few in there to normal size, cut that section free, tie and heat seal, then tie to hook.

I must admit I am not a fan of backleads, to me the only place to use them is to keep lines away from boats. I have used them in the past to keep lines down in tight swims, but noticed indication was much reduced. Captive backleads are probably the best way to not lose them as long as they do drop off on the take or as you lift the rod up. I used to add and screw in Solar Indicator clips to a slightly drilled out 1oz inline lead, and a small closed steel screw eye then along came Gardner Captive backleads, which solved my problems with boaties.

Baseball cap, sunglasses, and already tanned skin, plenty of water. Sky had already been sent into the shade available

It's only the t-shirt flap covering his modesty that meant I let it run. At least he is not hanging out in front of a sign saying 'no nuts'...

Dampen them, leave for 5mins, squeeze into balls and fire out. The balls will break down leaving a nice smell trail, and get the carp hopefully munching everything on top

The sleeping on the floor is probably out for me now. Sciatica hurts bits that shouldn't. This week, even though I did unload from the car, I didn't set up the bivvy, it's nice weather for it, but looking at MetOffice I wouldn't be doing that this weekend.

2 nights, no need for a bivvy. Not the tidiest I must admit, but everything is in order and reach

Thing is that on the original Vader range they are using cheap eyes where the frames bend. Customer service should NOT be having to replace items that are broken so quickly; essentially they are not fit for purpose! I clip my spod or lead link to the butt or tip section first eye when I fold the rod down, and have actually seen it bend. Not sure if the updated Vader X or whatever they have gone to use the same rings, I think they have switched to Minima type rings. None of my other rods have done that, even the single legs on my RH The Ones don't bend. The Sonik Spod/Marker Hybrid should actually make a decent rod for pike fishing, slinging deadbaits out quite a way. Might be a bit 'hard' for live baits though.

I'm sat by the lake at the moment, but have to pack up today, work tomorrow. I might grab the chub floater rod for a bash this afternoon, although I think any caught might be a little tatty after they spawned a few days ago. I also have a bass rod made up, although I didn't check the Holbrook or Felixstowe tide times.