salokcinnodrog

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.

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.