salokcinnodrog

Personally I think that the days of fishing a shelf life attractor bait as it stands are gone. I used to make a 450gram bag of Salmon Supreme, Honey Yucatan or Tutti Frutti last a few weeks, fishing every weekend. The only way I could ever get them to catch was to fish a stringer of 5/6 boilies with the hookbait. Prebaiting with them was a waste of time and bait. The way to fish now seems to be: A) fish over spod mix. B) heavily glugged or soaked hookbaits C) a and b together D) the few who still fish a food bait. It is a few years since I was fishing day ticket waters, Bromeswell was the last, and most of the fish I caught were on bright overflavoured pop-ups; pineapple and n-butyric or plum and my garlic spice and my food bait. There is one Crafty Catcher bait that I would happily take anywhere, the old King Prawn in shelfie or freezer. If I was on various days waters, I would also be probably fishing with PVA bags loaded with hemp and pellets, and quite possibly sticking with the bait I know. Even on day ticket waters I found the fish would switch onto the food bait at times in preference to the pop-ups.

No worries. The honest answer is I don't know anything about them

At least with the Carp Society you know it will continue to be run as a fishery, hopefully with the same 'neglected' but well-managed feel. A place I have wanted to fish myself since reading about it in More From the Bivvy by Tim Paisley.

One thing with pop-up rigs, I think that the hooking mechanics are often different from bottom bait rigs (including snowman baits), because the carp may not be sucking, but mouthing the bait. They may suck the whole lot in, but a longer hair could see them not taking in the hook. I know Brian Garner and Bill Cottam did have success on long haired pop-ups on The Mangrove though. The Spinner and 360 rigs, or even any hinged pop-up rig should guarantee bottom lip hooking. I have had occasional top lip hook-ups with a straight through stiffer hooklink material, where I'm convinced the carp has closed its mouth over the pop-up facing away from me, I.e it is between the rod tip and the bait.

Try it with a rig ring stopped by a hook bead on the hook shank😉 Then attach the pop-up bait with floss or braid lighter tagged. You can also do Joe Turnbulls version with a mono D

Mix 40% koi carp pond pellet powder, 10% sodium caseinate with 50% semolina. You will only need 20 grams maximum of silkworm amino acid powder and betaine that you add to eggs. If you can get liquid liver add around 20millilitres in to the eggs as well.

Puddledock Ockenden? Might be a good day for the young'un Alexander Lakeside?

Pigeon poo works as well https://willyworms.co.uk/products/van-den-eynde-pigeon-sh-t-1kg

It's a very good glug poured over pellets and boilies not bad for a short term bait soak. (Overnight)

Try Peanut oil and Worcestershire Sauce mixed with dried yeast.

Check the mesh, away from the ends it should be OK. I've had the same problem with tubing, done exactly what you did😳 Getting hold of the GP204's is impossible, I don't think that they are still available, but the Muggas are and still good. If you need a straight shank, I have been using Solar 101's, another hook sharp out of the packet. I won't get into the sharpen or not debate, I don't, and use hooks straight from the pack. Ronnie Rig, https://gardnertackle.co.uk/gardner-fishing-videos/secret-ronnie-rig/ I think they sell Ronnie Rig hooks to the clip, just tie on your hooklink

I would check the rig sleeves, the rubber or plastic deteriorates. The hooklink materials should be fine as should the hooks as long as they are rust free. The hook patterns sound familiar, my favourites! VMC Mystic I have used myself in the long shank inturned eye and curved patterns. They keep their sharpness for ages, and don't need touching up before use, although once the point is gone I bin them. Walk in to get a few bits and walk out £45 lighter 😜

It's been a Meatloaf kind of week Bat out of Hell, Back into Hell, and Welcome to the Neighbourhood

I do prefer a low pop-up, as I tend to have the fish to be feeding rather than an 'inquisitive' take, and I do normally fish spots with minimal weed rather than in the thick of it. I had switched back to inline leads, even with Spinner rigs, but I have been able to hand place rigs out in chesties and know that I have good presention. If I was casting it out I would probably be back to helicopter set-ups.

Brackens was one of those small waters, only 2 acres but with around 12 or 14 pegs. Any more than 4 anglers on there the fish would switch off in many swims and 'hide' in the corners, when only 3 swims would give you a chance. The ' no free baiting' rule (catapults, throwing sticks and spots were banned), made things very hard, and you had to get your hookbait right into the corners, either under the undercut bank or tight under the overhanging branches.

I have one Nazeing Central Lagoon rig left, as described, only I had used coated braid to cope with the crayfish. it is the one on the left

I agree with that to some extent, but if you have all the other anglers all doing the same then you may want or need to be slightly different. I have to go back to Brackens on Nazeing, the majority of the anglers on there when I joined were all 'knotless knot' on whatever coated braid, with either fake corn or single boilie on the hook and very few freebies around. I had spoken to anglers who had fished the lake, and wanted to be different in both approaches; I wanted to fish over bait, (hence massive 20-30boilie stringers), and a different rig. The rig was easy enough, either a combi rig, braid and Amnesia or coated braid with a stripped section. The hooking arrangement is where I varied from standard, line aligned hook, with a free running sliding ring on the shank stopped from going round the bend by a hook bead. That gave me the option of changing hair length, and 'reset' with a snowman bait. I'm pretty positive for such a cute pressured water my catches were better than most.

If a fox can, I'm sure an otter can.

North Weald Airfield? On the A414 between Chelmsford and Harlow.

Aye, the birds. Sadly the land based mammals can't get in

Sadly fencing is the best way or even only way forward to keep otters out. Unfortunately this can prevent the other natural wildlife getting in as well. Until last year I had never seen an otter attack on a Swan, although I had heard of it. The otter attacks the neck to kill it. Other birds are also prey, from ducks and ducklings, coots, anything they can catch.

Crows, foxes etc will have likely cleaned up the original carcass, so I think it is a fresh one. Even though it has not rained heavily or at all in East Anglia since the New Year, the dew point means the ground is still wet and muddy. It looks like either the carp are shoaled up in an area on the lakebed (quite probable in winter), or the spot is the otters preferred eating spot, both are possible.

@jh92 Specially for you Mate, One of my traces crimped up using 28lb Drennan E-sox wire and matching crimps. The treble is a size 4 Partridge and the single a size 6 Korum Specimen from memory

I rarely put any bait in at the start of a session, and bait up on top of the rods after a couple of hours. One rod is always left unbaited, only the bag itself from the cast. I did used to tie pop-ups on through the rig ring, but found the thread and blob just as easy. The only exception now is if I tie a pop-up to the hair loop above a bottom bait to create a snowman.