salokcinnodrog

Years ago my son was becoming interested in drumming, so I set up a load of bait buckets in order for him. Sadly I know in Ipswich that cancer and ICU wards have been closed and switched to Covid treatment. Other illnesses, mental health, cancer and stroke patients are being left with no help.

I'd be lost without bino's; I use mine for regularly scanning the water looking for fish, even at the wildlife. Especially useful in winter for watching the coots and grebes. If grebes are working an area, it can be a good pike spot. If coots or even tufties are about it can be a good area for carp food. Yes, occasionally I do look at other anglers, on an open bank I don't think it can be helped. What they do in the swim is up to them, but every now and again it can bring up a new spot. We have enough respect for each other not to 'swim jump', but I figured from where someone was fishing and catching from a patrol route. By working out the route I was able to find a spot fish were coming through for myself.

Great fun, especially when your bait is hanging off your rod tip just touching the surface and gets taken.

Baiting up over lilies doesn't stop the root tubers growing, they are thick. Cutting is the only way, and as mentioned, they will break away and regrow. This might be of interest:

Your finger! To be honest if I'm stalking, most of my fishing is within a rod length of the bank. If I'm snag fishing at any more than 20 metres, then I'm using my normal rods and reels. If your older reels are good, keep using them.

Take the roots out, which is easier said than done. Lilies are thick tuber type roots, and can be cut by saw. If you leave bits the pads can regrow from drifting roots. Canadian pond weed is a 'mare, take chunks out and it still spreads as thick. Hope for a cold winter and keep raking the spot to take out shoots and roots.

Go for a centrepin reel😉 Something like Advanta Discovery. If you want fixed spool, I'd struggle now, you don't particularly want plastic gearing or clutch mechanism. I suppose the cheapest is Shimano ST4000. You don't need a Baitrunner though, a standard fixed spool reel will do

Crays can be a right pain in the rectum. I have had meshed baits, in armour mesh or stockings mesh munched. Armour mesh they can cut through, stocking mesh will pull and hole, so either way you end up with a ball of plastic on your hair. The little blighters will also cut mono hairs, so I would advise Korda Armorkord (see I own a Korda product), or 25lb braid as a hair. Rigs I would recommend using coated braid or fluorocarbon, although see my comment about mono hairs, coated braid is the best option. Plain uncoated braid they will pluck, twist and tangle. I would advise against using real bait pop-ups, and do not use putty on your rigs or tubing. For some reason Crays love tungsten, will pull it off, cut tubing into tiny pieces. They will also walk and pull down pop-ups to get the bait, and they can remove boilie stops. The answer as your original post is drilled wooden balls, soaked in a decent glug. My recommendation is a mix of liquid yeast, Marine 30 or KMG liquid, with a tiny amount of flavour per pot. The balls will float when you get them, but after taking on the glug for a few weeks they usually become critically balanced. I used to use a wooden ball on the hair, then tie on with a double overhand knot, a real pop-up to the hair loop as a snowman set-up. If they get the pop-up, you have the knot holding your wooden ball on, so still have a bait. If you need any added weight to weigh your hookbait down, use match angler's olivettes. As for chucking a pierced tin of dog food in the margins, you attract those in the margins, not much point if you are fishing any distance out as they are out there as well.

Didn't that go down 'twitcher hitter' route? I try to keep my lines and tips down as low as possible, although sometimes fishing a long way out with an undertow, or weedy margins, I do need to raise the rod tips.

A lot of flavour! With a 1 egg pop-up mix I add the same amount of flavour as recommended for 6 egg mix. So in your case use 5ml. When you work with a flavour you get 'nose blind', basically your sense of smell is overpowered and you no longer notice the smell. Exactly as your work or home, they have a smell that you don't notice, but others coming in do. (There is nothing like wet stinking dog smell, you only notice that for a while) To keep shape, roll them with a mix as dry as you can comfortably work, almost too dry. However if you are making the pop-up mix from scratch, then some ingredients do take on water and mishape them. I often have mishapes (which I am happy with myself) when I roll them. Don't boil too many at a time, keep them moving in the pan, as one side always sticks up out of the water.

In the land that time forgot, 😖 back in the 1990's, I used helicopter rigs quite extensively, and came across a number of problems, one of which was losing fish to hook pulls. Outurned eyed hooks like current chod hooks was not the answer with pop-ups, the cure was go to inturned eyed hooks like B175's, (or bent hook rigs, now banned) and or stop fishing helicopter set-ups if we used bottom or critically balanced baits. On most occasions I work on a simple premise: If I am losing fish to hook pulls, or the hook is right at the edge of the mouth, lengthen the hair. If I am hooking in the cheek, or the back of the mouth, the hair is too long. If hooked dead centre perfect. If not hooking anything, no runs, fishing in the wrong place. However, regarding hooking, by increasing the amount of free bait by the hookbait, more boilies, more particles or groundbait, can act in the same way as lengthening the hair...

Try bacon and egg in a brioche bun...

I suppose in terms of this year I half succeeded against the odds, catching 20lb carp and pike from Alton water despite Anglian Water keeping it closed for 6weeks longer than lockdown, although losing my ticket after a couple of Eastern Europeans cast over my rods 2 days on the trot and me pointing out very strongly they were in the wrong, was not part of my plans. A month on The Wensum after spotting 2 big barbel in an unknown area, but failing dismally in the low flow. Then onto the new syndicate in September, which I am still trying to learn. I have had a few pike out from there on a prebaiting trip... Goal for next year as always is to enjoy my fishing, catch a few and maybe a Personal Best. That goal is becoming harder over the ages, not because fish over 33lb don't exist, obviously they do, but because I prefer to catch genuine grown on fish from British fish farm heritage rather than stocked at 40lb plus.

Believe it or not, one of the least useable proteins for carp, unless as @emmcee says, you add an additional enzyme. (Bengers anyone?) Personally I think that as carp are omnivorous, able to eat both vegetable and meat matter (within constraints), a meat or fish protein is the best at supplying all the essential amino acids, although there is one non meat and strictly speaking, not vegetable, that contains every essential amino acid.

Please, carp do NOT have a stomach, I am positive because I know my biology, they have a continuous intestine which digests the food as it passes it through. The more they eat, the faster it goes through, so as fast as they swallow, it will come out the rear end, a continuous stream.

I can think of very few baits I used wheat germ or wheat gluten in. It breaks many baits down too quickly. Carp don't have stomachs, so ANY bait just gets pushed through anyway. As for the original recipe, mix and match, explore and learn, but don't be surprised if it turns out as a slush. You need dry ingredients, blending them up won't give you a 'flour' unless you really go for a long time and in the case of tigers, is a good way of killing your grinder. You can buy and use ground hemp, but again, it is not easy to use as it is oily.

I think the same. I found that we would only get night takes at certain times of the season; October to November, then early March to end of season, and on big full moons. Bite indication is important, you can't watch a float constantly at night, you need other indication, and free lining is a no no, too much chance of a dropback and deep hooking

I use an either a Korum Ruckbag or ESP Cool bag for food, gas and stove https://esp-carpgear.com/products/luggage/cool-bag/

Think they are self limiting numbers, very few silver fish seem to be in the lake.

I got an animal feed or ice scoop from work, copes with my very wet particle mixes, keeps my hands dry and prevents me spreading onto my rod and reel.

To heck with paying that. Go to Petsathome. https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/-7101417p--1

Tie an overhand knot in the leader, but don't pull tight. Thread your mainline through the knot, and then tie a grinner or uni knot around the leader, wet and pull both knots tight. As habit I lighter tag the ends. I've used this knot for years, both carp fishing and sea fishing.

Unfortunately the shortened form of Richard was being used as an insult, often with head, so it got added. I've just spent 5 nights on the bank, blanking, but despite some serious frosts didn't get cold. Daytime wear was combat trousers, boots, and a Regatta base layer on top half with a fleece, then a zip fleece top. If I got cold then I put my snood on, and overtrousers on. The sleeping bag is still the Morpheus Extreme 4, but with a sleeping bag cover. I didn't have to resort to the extreme of another jacket, or even my Army Norgie. Bruce who did 1 night was pretty similar although he was using his Norgie with a paratrooper smock jacket instead of the base layer

Being different to what others are doing can be a good edge. Bream can be a right pain, but the areas they feed on can be carp spots. The only thing I have found is bream tend to vacuum an area of the food, eating everything, including big boilies, tiger nuts etc. You end up using massive baits to avoid them. On Ardleigh, most nights if I had bream I wouldn't get carp, although there was one exception, strangely from the same swim John Wilson had a carp in the middle of a day's bream fishing. His was a mirror, mine was a common. That same swim did give me some good carp normally a night or 2 after prebaiting with groundbait and boilies. The day I baited was bream, 2 nights later the carp were there. I was using groundbait moulded around my lead 'Method style' rather than PVA bag.

I saw that on my Facebook feed. Really sad. One of the few angler's who has really left a legacy in the fishing world. RIP Marsh.