salokcinnodrog

I dislike the helicopter setup as bite indication can be compromised. The number of times I have watched fish move with no or minimal indication at the buzzer and indicator. I have seen a fish take, and the indicator did not move, the buzzer did not sound, it was only seeing the line arcing through the water that gave away that a fish was on, at only around 40metres. (Pre Delkim). Even with Delkims, at around 120metres in the middle of the night, I had a 24lb mirror that bleeped a few times, which I hit. I recast, same spot, same distance, a couple of hours later had 1 bleep, no movement. In the morning the line was in a totally different angle to where I had cast it, and was running into a snag on the island. The fish had moved some 50metres. Regarding your fishery rules and 'no fixed leads', I would suggest you check exactly the meaning with the bailiffs, as I do know some where no fixed leads does include lead clips, inline leads, and helicopter leads. I.e they do insist on a run ring or totally running lead.

My rigs have barely changed in 30 years of fishing. For bottom baits a basic simple knotless knotted rig with a line aligner. For pop-ups a sliding ring on the hookshank stopped by a hook bead, and a coated braid hooklink stripped from the hook to the height I want the bait popped up. Either putty or a match anglers olivette is the counter weight. This works with pop-ups and snowman baits. Choose your hooklink material for the bottom you are fishing over. In weed I prefer braid as it lays better than stiffer materials like mono or fluorocarbon. The running lead can be fished with a tight line or a slack line. If there is no undertow, fish it with a slack line and your indicator fished at maximum drop only just providing weight. Whichever way the fish goes you will get a run, any bleep is notification of interest. If you fish a running lead it is a Bolt rig, the fish will run, but can run towards you so you need your indicator tight.

A fixed lead is basically any set-up where the lead cannot come off the line in the event of a break-off. A lead clip or helicopter setup could be construed as a fixed lead, the lead clip if the tail rubber is pushed on tightly. Heli safe clips are NOT safe, the lead needs to stay on to allow the rig to come off the broken line, a heli clip does not allow that to happen. The answer is to use a running lead, kits are available from Korum, Fox and other brands. As for Ronnie rigs, you can use them on running leads, but I would suggest you make the hooklink long enough to allow the hook and bait to slowly sink down on the lakebed. In other words use a pop-up hookbait that only just sinks the hook and swivel. It may not offer any advantage over other pop-up rigs.

I would much rather be comfortable, but at times I wanted to be silent, in and out without advertising my presence. I would arrive after work at close on midnight, and then fish until the morning and pack up before the dog walkers and local numpties arrived. A full bivvy set-up and all the gear would have been far too noisy and left far too many signs of my fishing. In fact, my rods were even wrapped together around my landing net handle, no rod holdall, as that just added extra carry and most of the weight in the rod holdall is bivvy.

Old thread resurrected and I am still the same. Quite frequently I will have my 2 outer rods fished in the margins, the middle rod to 'the middle' is a bonus rod more than a catching rod. I mention catching 30's from the margins, and it still holds. THE BEST feature in any lake, including Brackens, and I caught from the margins of Nazeing South as well, even if the rods were on buzzers. My syndicate can be rock hard, maybe 150 carp in 45 acres, yet fish still get caught close in. My mate Bruce caught his first 2 fish from baits lowered in when he saw fish feeding in the margins. Within an hour one had its face on camera, in the middle of the night so did another, he was made up. My first 2 fish from the lake were caught around 10metres from the rod tip, just over the marginal shelf as well. The number of fish I have caught on dog biscuits lowered from the rod tip just touching the water, even with the centrepin.

Reckon pike spawning is about now on my lake. Not been really cold and now we are officially in meteorological spring pike and perch are the first.

I can laugh now, but got my car stuck in the mud as I came off the hardcore path. The lake owner told me to get my gear round to the swim and she would arrange a tow out in the morning. Bit of a telling off, but she is a lovely lady so know I deserve it. Two barrow journeys later, 1 Spomb that unclipped itself putting a bit of pigeon conditioner and Vitalin in after 3 casts, I'm now sat in the bivvy after dinner with a coffee.

The price of a house, around £115,000 for a properly conditioned one to original spec. You felt safe in them.

I liked the Ford's of the Sierra, Escort and Fiesta era. The modern Focus and Mondeo I really don't like; horrible to drive and no 'feel' with the exception of getting the ST version. Same with Vauxhall and the Cavaliers of the time. My 2.0l i Ghia Sierra was a beast. Ipswich to Earith in Cambridgeshire, 85miles in 45minutes, (Don't ask...), as was my Lotus Carlton. My eldest daughter didn't like it, until she discovered it was the Lotus. Funny thing is I ended up with speeding tickets in slower cars or vans. I do like my Golf, they go on, better than the A class Mercedes I had. Once one thing went wrong, the whole system and car went up the shoot. Believe it or not I can get me, my mate and gear for a weekend and Sky in the Golf, just by folding half the rear seat down. Just been keeping an eye on the lake, one of the VS stockies came out last night.

GVAC near me have a no floating bait rule on their waters. On one the ducks and seagulls fight over bread thrown in. It is in the village of Needham Market, and is the local beauty spot, public access so I can understand it.

My alternator packed in the other week. I'd driven around 20miles towards the lake when the battery totally went, must have been low anyway as I hadn't driven for a couple of weeks. Had to wait tor 2hours to get towed back to Ipswich. Cost £150 for tow back to mine, £50 for new battery as I think the old one was cold affected and wasn't holding charge properly, then £260 for the alternator. The garage had the car in over the weekend as the first replacement delivered Saturday was damaged. On top of £350 for MOT at end of December was not happy.

Buzzards, skylarks, grey wagtails, Egyptian and Canada Geese, along with the swans for me. That south easterly wind made it tough packing up. I would much rather have stayed curled up in the bag watching the water.

I have the joy of packing up today. Blanked, but to be honest I expected it. Far better 4nights fishing than watching rubbish television. The lake only occasionally throws up a fish in winter. Nothing carp wise has been out since December. It was the same last year, nothing out after the equinox until the spring. When those fish could be anything from 20 to 50lbs though...

I wish on a carp! Once the shelter is built then it is easy to keep warm, dry and out of the wind. I think this winter is the most I have set the bivvy or brolly up before getting the rods out, usually I get the rods out first before the bivvy in case I spot a fish and want to move. Putting the bivvy up almost tethers you to the spot.

Bialetti Moka coffee pot. Real coffee.

Best wishes from me to your wife, hope everything goes well. I'm at the syndicate lake now, set up and settled down with a good hot coffee. Sky is laying down outside watching the world.

I agree with the a lot of your post. I prefer to fish over small traps myself, and when I leave prebait for my next trip. The prebaiting means I can fish with small traps. However there are times when it can pay to bait up heavily and the fish move onto it. Larger waters or where a bait may be at its most effective after 3 or 4 days. The larger water I prefer to use groundbait and particles as well as boilies. I simply couldn't afford to put in 10kilos of boilies for 2 or 3 days fishing, and I don't think they are as effective in holding fish as particles and groundbait. I regularly used to fish Taverham with 10boilies left in the bait bag on the last night. Enough for a fresh hookbait and a stringer.

I'm back at the syndicate from Wednesday. The last fish out was in December and I think I know where they have holed up. It is definitely not the deepest part of the lake! The maximum depth of the lake is 8feet, but the spot I think they are in is 5feet deep.

Was at this gig, love Brixton

Frozen groundbait due to ice particles within being lighter than water often floats😉 The annoyance when I have watched floating groundbait drift out of position!

Not right now. Until I see the fish start to move I'm on bags at the most.

As much as I like the thought of fishing Ashmead, I can't see the benefit of joining the Carp Society. The only single species group I am interested in is the Pike Angler's Club

@yonny do you think that there are decent shelf life food baits out there? I'm convinced that some shelfies are as good as the freezer version of the same bait, RH Infusion, Crafty King Prawn, or even some shelfies being a food bait in their own right like RH KMG, where there is no freezer version. Solar did some, Seafood Takeaway was as good in both versions and for bait hardness I preferred the shelf life as a hookbait. KMG I took onto Alton and caught, and I am positive that it was not just down to the background feed (groundbait) as at times I simply could not spod groundbait at over 100metres, but could throwing stick boilies out that far. I think I have mentioned earlier in the thread about how Crafty Catcher preserve the shelf life King Prawn, a glycerine sugar syrup bath. The recipe is the same just the preservation, freezing or bathing. Going back to Tim's @newmarket new question, I have used the pale pink Krill and Garlic pop-ups, they are a match for the KMG in a colour that produces in the winter on the syndicate, (even better with around 5ml of garlic oil tipped and shaken in the tub) and a good top bait on snowman baits, BUT in terms of the Big Catch shelf life, I have not had any experience of baiting up with them.

I found that the threads turned on older Fox buzz bars after a few years. My mate couldn't work out why his buzzers would not stay straight. If you can pick up a set of buzzer bars that will fit the pod?

When I was rolling my own, I had to roll them before or after work. Shift times of 4pm to 11 at night meant I could be rolling bait in the morning between 9 and 12, or after work from 12 until 3am. 2nights fishing on my days off meant I could be arriving at the lake around 12.30 at night after work. Once I had the bait working well it did not get tinkered with, but I know what you mean. I got to the stage where I was making up a minimum of 10kilos of base mix every month.