salokcinnodrog

I must admit I really don't like metal framed cradles, fish thrash and damage themselves, or thrash and get dropped onto metal. I have 2 unhooking mats, a big Rod Hutchinson Cabrio Unhooking Mat, and a Chub Xtra Protection Mat. I do struggle with a mat with deep sides due to a screwed back, lifting a fish can be painful, and having to bend over a walled cradle is a killer, so the majority of the time I use the Chub Mat. If I need to use the barrow to transport my gear I take the Cabrio mat as it makes a really handy barrow bag. The Chub mat folds in half and stores my pod bag and centre bar, my weigh sling and sack, and a spare pair of storm poles which double as distance sticks and camera phone mount.

I do frequently even in shallow margins. I've seen fish in the margins on my syndicate with their backs out of the water feeding. Bruce lowered a bait on a fishes nose in around 60centimetres. Two hours later he caught his first syndicate fish, followed by another that night.

I've just had to top mine up, squid, blueys, soft shell crab and black lug. I'm happy with shelf life boilies in my chosen food bait now. For years it had to be freezer baits, but after catching as many on decent shelfies, I was happy to switch. As for sea fishing, I do catch a fair few fish on squid and bluey or squid and crab. The thornbacks do like them!

Little bits and pieces to restock at the end of the session, rig rings, swivels, hookstops, and bait for sea fishing, squid, blueys, black lug and soft shell crab, soon made light work of £45

J̌This is the version from this mornings fish, Gardner Mugga, 15mm meshed Nutty Bait pop-up and tungsten weight on the loop.

I did switch to a Gardner Mugga this session and adapted the rig slightly, a loop knot to the swivel, and a sliding pop-up counterweight on the loop. Properly nailed in the mouth.

First thing this morning on a Nutty Bait pop-up: 29lb @crusian 40metres, towards Scotty dog I've just been through my pics and our Facebook group. I have caught it before at the same weight last year. It was one of the 2020 stocking

Years ago on Taverham, a mate and I were told that it was not fishing and just a few freebies would be the best way to catch. Dave and I had taken up a 10kg base mix bucket full of hemp. We put the lot in the plateau swim to the astonishment of other anglers. In the morning I think we had 10 carp between us, all over the hemp. All night there was rarely a quiet hour, the carp really got on it. You can fish one rod on limited bait and one on the heavily baited spot. Personally I prefer fishing over bait, you get the bottom constantly being stirred up when the fish are on it, and that can disguise the rigs.

Are you going in with preconceived ideas of what worked in the past will work now? Lakes can change over time, from being a boilie only water to a particle water, or vice versa. It's just a case of watching and location. Not the easiest thing to do, but instead of fishing spend a day looking. Even 'waste' a show if you see something by casting a marker float and lead at the spot and finding what they are on. You had the liners, that's a start; were they liners or dropped takes? Investigate the area between the bank and where you were fishing, out with the lead and marker. Maybe they were liners and you missed or overcast the feature they were on. If you were using a Chod rig, maybe you were done, something (not so nice) to think about, but I have found helicopter set-ups really reduce indication at the rod end. A single bleep and I was done, or an absolute screamer when the fish couldn't get rid of the hook. I have also had long range helicopter rigs moved over 30metres with just a couple of bleeps and a shake of the indicator. The last time I used an 'unejectable' rig on a helicopter setup was when Bent hook rigs were allowed!

I use the Hemp ones on a multi-rig over hemp and in the bag of pellets https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/naturalz-wafters/ I'm just as happy with the 360 rig and a sliver of pop-up or a Nutty Bait pop-up over the bag as well. With the 15mm Nutty bait pop-up I have put in 3 or 4 whole boilies in the bag. The sliver of pop-up is usually fished over spodded maize and birdfood when I want a small hookbait. I say sliver, I've trimmed it to the shape and size of something in the spod mix, either maize, maple pea or whatever.

Sonik Tackle has a bad reputation with me!

I use PVA almost every cast, either over spodded bait or 'empty' areas. I've had a fair few fish from the syndicate on patrol routes with just a bag that has been cast in for about 5 hours. I don't have much rudd trouble though, there are not that many silvers. The big rudd tend to stay down by the western end, and rarely go up to the shallows at the east end. I did say I get silvered, but I also think that the pellets break down. My bag mix is mixed sizes of pellets with some crumbled boilies added in.

On Ardleigh I tended to recast The Method every 5minutes for the first 30minutes then leave the last cast before hitting the sack. That way I had a decent bed of bait in the swim. I didn't always spod bait in, sometimes just relying on the recasts. I'd usually prebaited the area a day or so previously. As for PVA bags, stringers or mesh, I could just cast the once and leave it for the next day if I know it's on spot. If I'm not happy it is reeled in and recast. I'm not too worried about the occasional patch of bait elsewhere. A bag or mesh of pellets and crumbed boilies will get silverered. A few loose boilies in the area won't do much harm.

Watching for the mouse or whatever that surfaced and dived back down. Something like that, although I don't actually write it down. I remember every swim and the distance from the original high water casting spot. I did message a mate this week after I got home: "After last night's phone dilemma, it crashed, I lost a carp this morning, hook pulled. Monster crab pop-up sliver on a coated braid Multi-rig. I'd played it from aiming at sneaky squirrel around 40metres. It ran right, so I waded out with my net, got it to go left, and it went past middle rod and hook just popped out. Not a good session. So upset I packed up a day early".

Have a look at a specialist type barbel or specimen rod. Many have interchangeable quiver tips and a specialist tip and the backbone to deal with carp. I picked up the link for the Darenth Valley Tackle Box twin tip, but there are others available. https://tacklebox.co.uk/rods-en/specialist/specialist-rods/tackle-box-darent-valley-11ft-1-25lb-avon-quiver-twin-tip-rod/

Welcome to carp.com. If what you are doing works, take it onto other waters. As @kevtaylor says, the Method is underrated and underused. Years ago when I was fishing Ardleigh Reservoir in Essex, I used the Method, groundbait moulded around my lead, with the hookbait held in the groundbait ball by its 'stickiness'. It produced a number of big carp. Rigs confuse anglers, probably more than they confuse fish. The problem is anglers don't know they are confused and chasing their tails... Pop-ups, bottom baits, snowman, critically balanced, for each one there are a 100 rigs, and one rig to cover them all.

I ended May on a low, the phone issues, followed by a hookpull on a fish I'd been playing for a couple of minutes. However June starts today, and maybe with some more spawning to go. Let's hope it is a good month

That's Wile E Coyote... With Scotty dog, sneaky squirrel and cheeky pig to the right in order.

I wondered who was nicking my ready mixed Vitalin blocks...

I've had that myself. One that really sticks in my mind was on Brackens when fishing with Big Dave. I'd had a couple of fish, and had run out of my rigs, so I pinched one of his tied with a Korda Kurv. I had bleeps, but no hittable indication. I reeled in, put on a freshly tied rig with a Gardner Mugga and within minutes had another carp. I later checked his rig, and the hookpoint just was not as sharp. If anyone remembers it, it was the hook in the finger and lift the lead off the desk test. That was always my thinking on Brackens, let them push the fish onto my already positioned baits. I was always using running leads and very slack lines, so the fish wouldn't be spooked by a tight line running through the swim. This is a weird one on my current syndicate though. When I arrive I tend to put a fair bit of particle in on arrival, expecting to write the first night off on that rod. Yet within an hour of spodding I have had fish. I'm thinking the fish are constantly travelling and find the bait.

An annoying strange occurrence last night while fishing. I picked up my phone, with about 30% battery left, in a bad signal area in North Suffolk, to check the weather on MetOffice, and the phone froze as I opened the app. Despite all attempts to close it, I eventually had to attempt to restart my phone. Instead of restarting it would get to boot screen and then click off and attempt to restart continually. This continued for a couple of hours until it switched off permanently. This morning I tried to restart it again, and plugged in my powerpack to check it was not a flat battery. It started doing the reboot and restart again, so for obvious reasons I packed up and came home. Back at my flat I switched sim card to my old phone to check for missed calls, one I expected from Bruce, as I have arranged to give him a lift Friday. I had another missed call from my Dad, who said apparently I had called him around 5am this morning. Despite trying to hard reboot using the on and volume buttons, nothing, so I had to do hard factory reset and reload all my details and apps from my old phone. It does mean that I have lost pictures from the last year.

I have no problem with a first light recast, although I tend to hold back on the spod or Spomb until mid-morning unless I'm positive that I have been cleared out. Saying that, most of my casting goes out with a PVA bag, mesh or stringer, so it's play by ear. I've seen fish avoid baits for 48hours after they have been put in, even putting in washed out baits didn't work, it had to be left for 48hours. Pressured spots can be problematic! To start with on Brackens Pool I used to do my daily recast mid afternoon, topping up my 30bait stringers, before everyone else would cast in for the night with their single hookbait. I fished one swim in Car corner where I could 'sneak' bait in by hand, climbing through the brambles and tipping a bucket of Vitalin in. I cast on top of it, and left the bait in place for 2 days until it was taken by a 30lb fish. That spot directly under the tree was the 2nd rod 'standard'. The left hand rod was cast to the car, and in that 2 days produced 3 doubles. On Taverham Mills I've seen it take a week for carp to move onto a pressured spot, a gravel bar that when I first fished there would produce almost every night. Over time it got harder and harder until the fish avoided it. My daily recast now is normally around lunchtime, I reel in around 10.30 to walk Sky round the lake. If I get a night fish, it's easy enough to put it back out there, I have my 'head' map of distances and far bank markers. If anyone has seen it, it's trees given names: 'sneaky squirrel', 'Wile E Coyote', or other obvious features.

Vitalin has gone, but Gladwells at Copdock Mill sell a very close equivalent called Vitacarp. They purchased the ingredients list and market it themselves. I don't think it contains quite as much flaked maize as it did, and it is not quite so 'sticky'. I know of a couple of 40's. It was @shakey on here who shared with me some pics of his dad with a decent 40 and a big heavily scaled fish he caught from there when I was fishing there. Dave Lane also did some time on there. The 3 biggest fish I had were all 24.12, a fully scaled, a proper leather and a prehistoric looking mirror. Ardleigh was the place I took B&F Co's Particle42 as my first field test bait, and caught from the off. Sadly Bait and Feed then decided to cut base mixes with extra semolina to customers on the baits they rolled. I stood up for them big time, and got my fingers burnt when they did it to a named angler and base mix manufacturer who tested it. They did make some very good baits that I was in on: Smokey Mackeral, Smokey Bacon (actually a ham flavour on a meat and birdfood base) and obviously the Particle42. They also rolled my Spiced Garlic pop-ups for me, which they hated as doing them everything stunk for ages of Megaspice and garlic oil. I still use them and roll them myself now. Now for some reason that Megaspice and Garlic oil does not seem to stop producing on various waters, although I've not had a repeat capture, its worked everywhere.

That's it, Addit Taste, Digest and Attract. I never liked milk protein baits unless The Addits (and/or Bengers) were in there as I didn't think that milk protein baits are easily digested by carp (or most humans!). Giving the additional protein breaking down enzyme helped with the digestion. There is a big theory that in some animals carbohydrate is unusable for energy, they can only utilise fats and protein, so balancing them is the important part of a bait. I mentioned that the 'prebaited food source' baits are not used like they used to be. I have seen a good bait dominate waters, Protavit Liver, Trigga, BFM, Premier, even Activ8. Not using them you may as well accept the occasional inquisitive fish rather than catching regularly. I know that numbers of anglers have written about it, with named waters, named anglers, and I have managed it myself, even a slightly tweaked bait being an improvement over the standard ready made (freezer or shelf life). The Method, underrated and now underused. It produced a number of decent carp for me on Ardleigh , where the size of the water made using a food source bait impractical. Baiting up with buckets of Vitalin and fishing balls of that moulded around the lead meant I had groundbait around the hookbait rather than casting 'blind'. I've never found a 'wonder' hookbait, or found plenty, but they only have a limited life; sweetcorn, or pop-ups, green zing, pineapple N-butyric, Monster Crab, Squid and Octopus, until the carp avoid them. It's that 'digesting a stone' point, sooner or later carp will discover it's going to result in a hook in the mouth, or it's not doing them any good. The carp rarely eat pop-ups! I think we do do sensory overload. In a water there is a natural pH, be it between 6 and 9, and attraction is a specific 'distance'. Too strong attractors, too high a level (say 5ml of flavour compared to 2ml) may create a feeding zone or acceptable level not at the bait itself, but metres away, or even become repellant.

Semolina I've always thought of as part of a balanced bait or as a binder. It's a decent source of carbohydrates and quite filling. I personally think that the days of the food bait are over as there are so few animal protein based baits around any more. What is around is, I think, often yeast based with nut meals and semolina as the binder. I put animal protein; fish meal cost became prohibitive, and few bait companies are making chicken or meat meal based baits, which I thought were as good, (The Biollix, Protavit Liver, DT did a chicken special as well). Almost every year I do liquidise my left over mackeral and herring deadbaits from pike fishing and mix them with semolina and chapatti flour and make boilies for my barbel and chub chasing on the Wensum and occasional trips to my syndicate as something different from my standard bait. Nutrition wise, if carp are eating boilies, a bed of various anglers baits, it can't identify one particular boilie as the high nutritional one and eat only that, it will likely eat a mix of them and 'notice' that the boilies are good for them full stop. It's only when a 'cr..' boilie is the only bait that they may start to avoid them. However fish in overstocked or waters with low natural food stocks will need to eat bait anyway.