salokcinnodrog

Porridge for breakfast in the winter, with goat's milk for me, done and eaten straight from the pan, but topped with a dessert spoon of soft brown sugar😉 Add a coffee from the Bialetti and I'm happy

This any use?

It has been noticed by Shaun Harrison as well that right in the teeth of the wind is not always the place to be, but fish a swim or two off it. Rod Hutchinson also wrote about the fish backing off a new wind years ago on Savay. It may be pressure and everyone fishing at the end of the wind, as on the reservoir the teeth of it was the place to be when it was quite unpressured. It had to be a new wind though, not a couple of days old, although if there was bait there to hold them... Yet on Nazeing the fish didn't always follow a new wind. It could be better to search specific places. @yonny though, what about the depth of the waters? I've noticed deeper 15ft plus venues the fish often just move along or up and down the water column rather than with the wind.

I looked on Dynamite website, only 1kg dumbells on there

Sky will eat anything, so taking a bag or bucket of Vitalin, nothing goes to waste. What doesn't get used for bait she will eat dampened down neat or mixed with her Corporals Crunch. Huskies eat pretty much everything, they are self sufficient and run free in summer in their own habitat in Siberian. Vitalin can have the problem of being high visibility, coots, ducks and swans will feed on it, but just as easily, and has been pointed out, it can be used to feed them off... As well as being attractive to fish; all non predator species.

I agree with you on knots, different materials work best with different knots. Even mono, some are grinner/uni knot, others are blood knot, although almost everything works with a palomar. I would not use anything other than 3 turn blood knot or Rapala loop knot with Amnesia. Fluorocarbon I have found is blood knot as well. I have had carp snap knots I have tested, the acceleration and turn of a take on a water knot, mainline to hooklink, Sensor to Berkley XL. A water knot between the two just does not work for me. It is the only floater set-up I use with a controller and swivel. Come to that I just can't get XL to join any other line, it has to be tied to swivel or hook. Yet on a normal test pull it will not break. Never found any other material I could not find the right knot to join to another line.

I use 15lb line on the lift float; no point in fishing light and letting the fish get into the weed or snags. As for hooklinks, I find myself using shorter hooklinks than I do for sitting the rods on the buzzers, so for 15cm or so it is easy to use mono. In most cases, our hooklinks are more abrasion resistant than our mainline, but we don't necessarily recognise that. We have (or should have) chosen our hooklink material on its behaviour, suppleness, stiffness etc. No real need to complicate matters any more when float fishing. The only need for a swivel on a lift float setup, to be able to put a loop of line through to attach your Swan shot to.

You do realise that my Delkims are over 20years old and still being used every session😉😊

I test every hooklink, every leader knot, if I can snap it, then sure as heck a fish can. I'm relying on a gradual increase of pull, strength, but a carp uses its speed. Within a metre it can be at top speed, that can be enough to put the tackle to far more tension and pressure than me. Fluorocarbon as far as I know has different abrasion resistance and although the stretch is similar, it's elasticity is less than mono. Mono can stretch and go back to its original state, whereas fluorocarbon, can't it tends to 'ping' quicker than mono.

If I can pull a rig apart, then it is not good enough. That is the same with Sea Fishing rigs, carp rigs or pike traces. I have used crimps for years on all three, although I found carp rigs it just didn't 'fit' and I prefer to knot them.

I'm the same, no need to use an ounce of lead. I use either putty or a couple of Swan shot and fish lift float style. Porcupine quill or a waggler fished with a float band, perfect.

I agree exactly. The ability to assess, learn and correct without going round in circles or up your own bottom is good angling. Chopping and changing every trip and then catching but not knowing why is luck. I honestly think that too many angler's are given a false perception of what they can achieve; overstocked waters, or even waters jam packed full of big fish at credit card prices. Like @elmoputney I think I earnt my largest fish, I learnt the water, learnt the fish, and caught plenty on the way. My previous largest was lucky. Turn up on a lake, come up with a unique rig and set-up, find a feature, put some bait to it, and first fish, catch a PB. The next 'PB' was fishing through the year, catching most sessions, and realising where the fish were hiding in December. I don't think that just turning up on a Holme Fen, to catch a new largest fish is the way forward. I want to have earnt my next PB. By the way I don't necessarily think my largest fish is a PB, I still class that as a 28lb carp from the river

I don't think that is luck, more like good angling. If it was only the occasional big fish over small ones then I would say luck, but if you are consistently catching big fish then good angling. The more you understand, the harder you work, then the 'luckier' you get.

This is where I think overstocked waters do more harm than good, giving a false impression. There is a difference between catching a few roach and perch to keep the interest to catching carp and starting with a big fish to beat your 'pb'.

I would disagree with part of that, as there are some very good baits available on retail. The big difference is pressured and unpressured waters. Most waters in America are unpressured, carp will eat anything, it is pressure that can get them to switch. The other thing that many anglers don't understand is 'overstocked'. An overstocked water the fish may need to eat anything and everything to survive. Compare that to waters rich in natural food, you might need to increase the amount you feed, or the quality. (particles vs good food boilie). What is good angling vs luck? A mate of mine walked round the lake last week, saw fish in the margin feeding, carefully and quietly put his rods onto them and had 2 stockie doubles that night. Good angling I say. I'm fishing around more often, trying to learn swims, putting hours in, and at the same time learn the movements of the originals. I haven't had the luck YET. As much as I want to catch I'm learning things for later, although I do feel at times I am chasing my tail

The messy bit is in the top section, but I know it is all in there: Leads, leader and hooklink materials, forceps, Greased Lightning, 2 bottles of Klinik, cutlery, toothbrush and toothpaste, along with packets of beads, shrink tube, silicon and rig tubing and finally PVA bags and string. The current lead total is at 15 3oz and 10 3.5oz. The 2 drawers are actually tidy, each is compartmentalised and everything goes in its place.

I'm still using a Plano 2 drawer tackle box, over 20years old. Handle has been repaired but it still takes everything and doubles as a bivvy table. I tried the Fox/Korda type flat box and it just doesn't work for me

There is 'BUT' to this though. Just because you copy or do what 'Big Name' anglers do, it does not make you a better angler yourself. Following fashion; rigs, tackle even the methods they fish will not necessarily increase your captures. You still need to find fish, and then get your bait and feeding right and your rig in the right place. Sadly some who are in the limelight could well be time bandits, or pulling strokes to get results. That definitely does not make them better anglers. That is the point of 'at any cost'. Something I think is that every angler goes through a period of doldrums, not catching. It is the better anglers who can deal with it and get through to good times again. The 'not so good' will just give in and follow fashion without thinking. They blame the rig, the bait, never themselves or the simple fact the fish aren't interested. I bring this up for a reason. Currently on my water 'the originals' aren't showing or being caught. The only fish being caught are stock fish from the past few years. It looks like after spawning together they have gone their separate ways. The stock fish in fishable areas, where bait is going in, the originals hiding in the thick weedy unfishable areas. The stock fish relying on bait, the originals on natural good.

A very good method I use myself, although different bag supplier. I'll have to check which bags I use, got them on a trip to Gladwell's and they are currently hidden in my car... You could seal a bag or mesh around the lead, either on a run ring/lead clip or helicopter set-up Only problem with hooking onto the outside of the bag is the impact can rip a hook free from it as it hits the lake surface.

Think I have changed my habits over time. Due to the depth of the lake I'm on, I have hardly been using both spod and marker rod. In many cases I have been putting bait in by hand in chest waders. However, not all swims are shallow enough so I take a Spod/Marker rod combined, and yes it has braid on it😏😂😉 I have the run ring set up on the leader with a lead link and an American snap swivel on the end of the lead link. At the end of the leader I use a swivel with a Breakaway Spinlink clip and tail rubber over it. I attach the spod or Spomb to the Spinlink and clip the snap swivel on the lead link to it as well. That way I can use 1 rod for both marker/leading or baiting up.

I have found that consistency of pop-up mixes is getting worse. Mainline Polaris sometimes is brilliant, other times it is pants. I have since tried the BAF pop-up mix and that is good. Only thing is that I will end up with a couple of years pop-ups as I'm not using many at the moment.

A number of them float. Any insect ingredients from crushed or liquidised insects will need to be 'tested' to see whether you need to add heavier ingredients.

It does still contain molluscs and crustaceans.

That space should reduce condensation! If the overwrap is tight to the bivvy or brolly it is 'just another layer', you do need a gap. Even now with a plain brolly I get condensation on dewy colder summer nights, although I am positive the brolly itself does not leak.

Hmm! As a member of the PAC, Pike Angler's Club, I don't think fishing for pike before September or even October is good for the fish. The water temperature is far too high and playing pike in these temperatures causes stress that can, and will kill them. I have seen it, even on rivers. The Broads system regularly loses fish killed by the holidaymakers 'dabbling with a spot of pike fishing in summer', which is why specialist tackle shops like Steve Burgess of Bass Online in Horning will not sell pike gear to holidaymakers between June and September, no matter what the cost. The exception is the deeper colder waters of Scottish Lochs and the English Lake District where bottom temperature stays around 4 or 5 degrees Celsius. Next problem is any baitrunner system has more resistance than an open bail arm; in carp fishing we use that resistance in our favour, however in pike fishing we want minimal resistance. Baitrunner systems (and playing fish off the clutch or drag) also create line twist, so you actually only ever should want to use it on a take.