salokcinnodrog

Argh! I just put a cupful of maize to soak in a bucket before i add pigeon conditioner on Saturday, for boiling Sunday. Blooming weevils started crawling out of the maize so I have had to soak my last 5kilos. Going to have to either put the lot in next week or freeze it. Something I have started doing with particles is save my slightly salted pasta water and soak the particles in it before boiling.

Some of the fish caught the past week have been dripping milt and have all been caught near where they spawned last year. I believe males get ready earlier than 'the ladies'. We know the bigger fish in the lake are female. They aren't up the other end at the moment. Plenty of walking Sky around when I'm there, and I've not seen a fish. Casting at the showing fish and they move away. If you can sneak a bait out quietly you stand more chance of catching.

Well I thought I'd bring this back up as the blanks and learning from them paid off a couple of weeks ago, but bit back this week. The fish are finally starting to move, and a number of the males have moved into the shallower water. Now to find the bigger females.

Polaris pop-up mix can be a bit inconsistent. Try the BAF, they do some lovely colours😉

Mainline are a decent range but I'm not sure if they are ester based or Nature Identical (chemical based to achieve a natural smell). If they are ester, sugar or essential oil based you can go higher than the recommended, whereas most NI's I would religiously stick to the recommended with a few exceptions. Chocolate, some fruits and Squid and Octopus can be used at 5ml per egg. (RH Chocolate Malt could be used at 5ml per egg for 6 eggs in a bait!) If in doubt, go 1ml maximum.

Have a look at Rod Hutchinson Ballistic B pop-ups. I have a jar of yellow Aniseed and Bunspice that are 4years old, but they are now being used up as a topper over Vitalin and maize with snowman baits. The rest of mine are no more than a year old. My own MegaSpice and Garlic, bright pink, KMG in fluoro red and normal, Monster Crab in purple and some Raspberry and Black Pepper in pink. The last one has not produced a single fish so they are being replaced

I did pick up 2 more Aerlex's off the bay when somebody was silly enough to put a low starting price with the auction finishing at 3am on a Sunday.

That post made me smile, result young Sir

little bit of that

Is it this one? If it is, it is on his Haith's Maize blog

Location is key! Find the fish first. As @emmcee says if you can't find them try to get them to come to you. Baitwise for that keep it simple and cheap, crumb, groundbait, particles maybe Vitalin and a few boilies. Don't keep chopping and changing rigs, the chances are they are not at fault, it is simply the location. I get your point on regular recasting, but it could be that that is keeping them away. Leave one rod in place, all day, but maybe recast and rove with the other. Your bait will work, your boilies sound good, but in my view, just take one boilie out of the bag, any one, and put it on the hook. Don't change it on your recast, leave it, stick with what you are doing. That means stick with the pop-up or the wafter, even bottom bait. Years ago I fished a 2mile section of river between 2 weirs. The carp would move along the section, quite visible, but had places where they preferred to feed. It took 3 months of baiting with just pellets, boilies and sweetcorn to find these spots and to get them used to my boilies. Strangely, sweetcorn was a 'blown' bait, the carp would leave it alone for at least 2 days, although tench and eels would pick it up in certain spots. Quite possibly simply because most people fishing the area used sweetcorn and the carp realised it would result in a hook in the lip, even if they managed to escape. (Not everyone was fishing with gear suitable for carp). The result was a few carp to 28lb.

Wonder if you could fit an isotope to them...

You probably won't get all of the problem line out, whereas walking it all off will cure the problem

Can you walk it off somewhere and reel it back on? If not put onto a spare spool or reel and then back on.

Only thing is my pop-up counterbalance is below the boom to minilink swivel.😉

Carp rigs catch more anglers than carp, and go through fashions. The simple answer is one, maybe two: A knotless knotted rig, with maybe a line aligner. That rig can be used for pop-ups, bottom or snowman baits. It is simple and it works. For pop-ups, if you use coated braid, on the 'strip back' end or braid, a power gum stop knot, attach putty or even a match anglers olivette as your pop-up weight. D-rigs or Ronnie/Spinner rigs cover your specific pop-up rigs. I gave you an answer 'over the road', but here I can give you a link. On a knotless knot rig, with a snowman or bottom bait adjust the hair length dependant on where you are hooking the fish. The perfect length for the hair is when you are hooking the fish dead centre of the bottom lip. This might interest you as well

Personally, I would avoid second hand reels unless you know their provenance and life history. Some may be genuine 'used once only in France', some may be 'I didn't like them'. If the angler didn't like them, then why? Alternatively they could be absolutely battered and abused! If you can pick up original Big Baitrunner LC's or Big Blue's, Aerlex's or Biomasters then do so, they were built to last. (I still use original Aerlex 8000's for bass fishing and have one on one of my spod rods) I worked in a tackle shop for a number of years, and I personally think the newer Shimano reels are not as high quality, nor built to last like the Shimano reels of the 1990-2010 years, with the exception of the cheaper and smaller ST baitrunners, the Beastmasters and the extreme expensive top range. As has been said, have a play and feel.

The fish haven't moved into the margins yet, still a bit cold, so everything is going on any shows, which can be rare to see, or previous spots. Problem with that is that once an area either becomes pressured, or the natural food is gone, the fish can avoid the spot. They also don't seem to follow the rule book on wind direction. I've waded out to past feeding holes, and the carp haven't fed on them for a couple of years. They have just filled up with soft silt again. This week 4 of us saw fish in an area, so between us we 'bracketed' the area. Only 2 caught. I know some members have gone over a year between captures, it is low stock in a large water. You can easily miss rolling or jumping fish, simply by not looking in the right direction. I heard fish in winter, but they were rolling in the dark, so pinpointing them is not easy. Winter captures are rare, equinox to equinox. Bruce saw fish feeding in the margins last year, lowered a bait in and had 2 in a Night. Good angling! Nowhere near Russian Royal family. Originally my Grandfather had a Germanic name which he anglicised on coming to the UK around 1905.

There is an alternative option and it is a lot cheaper but still with Shimano. I use the Beastmaster reels myself, and find the 'Baitrunner spool' is very easy to get used to. They do handle Nicks abuse, I am hard on my fishing tackle, out in wind, rain, waves and mud, reeling in through thick weed, so they have plenty to deal with. https://fish.shimano-eu.com/content/fish/eu/gb/en/homepage/Product-detail.P-BEASTMASTER_XB.html/#product_image_2 I would suggest you shop around for best price! I have played with various reels you mentioned and the Cl4 just seemed too light. It is probably my imagination but they didn't seem strong enough or sturdy enough. Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Strangely enough, my ancestors come from a town on the Ukrainian Romania border called Reni when it was under the Russian Tsarist Empire.

Strangely enough I just sold a Nash Siren to one of the guys on my syndicate to make up a set of 3 for his dad's fishing. I found it walking along the River this winter, along with a ND PTFE bobbin. I was sewing the landing net mesh this week to increase the number of holes, (work that out 🤣) I can't however repair the Spomb I broke. The nose release broke on impact and is somewhere in the lake.

This is my simple PVA bag or mesh mix, ground up Vitalin, boilies and a dash of white bread crumb. I might add a handful of molehill soil when I get to the lake.

I only tend to buy new gear when I actually need it. My bivvy being the last big 'splurge' to replace one that was dying from use, starting to leak and wasn't big enough in the winter for Sky and me. I don't like getting up and kicking and tripping over a big dog who has taken the only available space on the floor to keep dry. Rods I have been thinking about, because The Ones are starting to feel a bit soft, but they still land fish, despite a bit of worn varnish. Reels, I like my Beastmasters, they still do what I need. I can repair a lot of bits and pieces myself, re-mesh a landing net rather than buy a new one. I'm with @yonny in that get the right gear for what you do saves money in the long run, so my essential purchases tend to be PVA and gas canisters.

Strangely enough, one of the guys who manages the syndicate has been comparing pics of stocked fish to my 23 this morning. We have come to the conclusion it is one of the rare 'Quarry' fish that rarely get banked, (don't think this one has been caught before) so it looks like the rig has confused it from the norm into making an error.