salokcinnodrog

If I have to wait on a session for more than 3 days after preparing particles, I stick them in the freezer, and take them out around 36hours before I fish.

On Ardleigh every fish I caught was around the 6 foot depth, where Alton I caught in depths from 6feet down to 15feet deep.

I have followed it out with chesties on my current water, and once it is below the water surface, I lose sight of it, tripping over it on a couple of occasions

I honestly can't remember the last time I used any other line than Gardner Pro in light or dark, it must be since Gardner released it! Richard Gardner sent me a spool for an honest appraisal so I attempted to test it to destruction. The line held up better than I did. My casting at Nazeing could be anything up to 150metres, 15lb Pro does it, with or without shock leaders, and a 3.5oz lead on a 3.25lb tc rod. The line diameter is consistent, 0.35 for the 15lb. The only thing is that the breaking strain exceeds the stated strain, I seem to recall it was 18lb in tests with a balance and scales, using a Uni or Blood knot. Bracken is a weedy water, or in 1 swim I fished, the line dealt with that while playing fish through it, and I never had it give up around the snags.

This is where you don't put the rig in the bag, just the lead. Have the mono or fluoro coming out of the top of the bag, and hook the point into the outside corner of the bag. You might need a short hair, or tie it up with a Pva twist if you use a longer hair. In fact a doubled length of Pva, round the top of the bag, then put the loose ends through the loop, twist one round and a granny or overhand knot to each other

Try mixing creamed corn and salt in a small amount of spod mix. Really cloudy. If you do use a spod to put bait out, keep the above version separate in a separate container as I really don't like to put much salt in the lake. Too much can reduce protein intake (@Greekski may be able to explain better, although his own views may differ) and digestion.

I'm never one for dropping the lead off on helicopter setups. It is the lead that allows the rig to be ejected if you get a break off. I have pictures on here for a naked setup using tubing to protect the mainline, but there are Cox and Rawle beach beads that do the same job, just do not glue them, and leave the open bead at the rod tip end. Coated braid, fluorocarbon or nylon hook links.

I honestly don't know. They look good, but it would be whether the build quality is good

I'd argue, the Shimano Aerlex 8000's were the best 😉 I still use one for my spod rod, and it is around 15years old, only occasionally cleaned outside. I don't think it has been serviced.

I'm not that keen on the latest 'more expensive' Shimano reels. A few years ago I bought myself Shimano Beast master reels, around £60 each. Bearing in mind I worked in a tackle shop, so I was able to play and compare various reels before buying. I honestly did not like the £100 price tag in relation to build quality. The Beastmasters have round metal line clips, as you have said, it doesn't matter which type. I haven't owned a Daiwa reel since the 1980's (Ag1350's?) , I found Shimano gearing better, and they were well ahead with baitrunner over Bite'n'Run.

I agree, although some hooks have different gauge wire. A size 10 Solar 101, may be heavier than a size 8 ESP, although I have not compared it. I have actually pushed my luck on Bromeswell as the rules are for a size 10 being the largest hook allowed, but I did do a brand size comparison as there is no universal size. A size 8 B175 is around the same size as the Solar 101, but with a long shank and inturned eye. The B175 is also lighter in relation, being made of thinner metal. I also seem to get more positive hook-ups on the B175 to the Solar hooks. It may be rig related, although I found D rigs better on Solar hooks and sliding ring on shank, or a uni-knot loop for the bait tight to the hook and knotless knot better on B175's. The B175's also appear, by sight to be sharper out of the packet, but that may be down to a longer taper to the point. I have come away from pop-ups themselves and taken this thread off at a tangent, sorry. Going back to the pop-up theme, I found if fishing over maize and hemp, a standard yellow, (not fluoro) 11mm aniseed and bunspice on the hook, fished low to the lake bed works nicely.

Anywhere near that you can unload gear rather than barrow the gear down? I was lucky on both Ardleigh and Alton to have an access road I could unload the gear, put it on the barrow and then put the car in the car park. One car park was even right next to a decent swim

I think that Shimano want to be involved in every part of carp fishing now, and bait is possibly easier to break into rather than bivvies and bedchairs... So many established names in every aspect trying to outdo each other...

Glycerine for me, added to any glug I use if I want extra attractive hookbait. I remember using Nutrabaits Bait soak complex, a mix of Multimino, Nutramino, and another, adding 2ml of Peach Flavour, a couple of drops of Cinnamon Essential oil and 5ml of glycerine. My soaked baits were rock hard; perfect where silver fish were constantly playing with the baits. They kept for years as well. While meshing hookbait in tights works, every now and again, the hook seems to catch a strand of the tights, preventing bait movement on the hair. If you have a crayfish problem though, meshed or hardened hookbaits can still be munched by the darn things. That is time for drilled wooden balls soaked in bait soak! I do still occasionally mesh hookbaits if coots are around on your baits, they can pluck them of the hair if they are soft enough. The mesh comes from supermarket fruit, garlic or onion plastic wrap.

A fair few of my fish came from the second swim out of the nature reserve. The first swim out was a tackle eater, broken hooks, frayed leaders, where they had embedded or rubbed against the edge of the old roadway and the drains and culvert.

Alton there is no fishing from the dam wall, so you are limited to the banks either side. I actually tried to avoid the dam area for carp fishing, sailing club, wind/kite surfers, the remains of the water park buoys where everything was tethered, and fished as far away as possible. A southerly or south westerly wind pushed fish to the other end of the reservoir, where depths and banks were more manageable. I did occasionally have to add long legs, banksticks onto my P1 pod. I also used a lot of chopped or half boilies to stop rolling down slopes, although the deepest I found was the old stream bed(s) at 22feet.

Solar do line biters which slide down from the rod tip, used at Rainbow in France. Talking of which there are a number of homemade contraptions, like swivels fitted into coke bottles to keep the line up. You can also use suspender floats, or predator inline sunk floats, but these do cut down casting distance, but with a boat you can put them the distance. On Alton near concrete blocks I had to use a long snag leader of 30lb Amnesia to stop cutoffs

Most definitely. I've been baiting a swim on Re...... and one spot I have is a cast towards the far bank tree, but it is like a tiny bay. I 'creep and clip up' to get the bait in the spot. By that I mean I aim at the spot, and then work out how short (or on target) I am from it, pull a bit of line off the reel if needed and clip up, although I do know if the wind is right a 3.5oz lead and 3 boilie will fly right in, so I may well bait up the area with a few 'miscast' stringers. I don't often use distance sticks, preferring to walk the line out the distance and marking it on the bank, with a stick. I also seem to be able to get my Spomb close to the marker float first cast and then clip that up easily. Again an easy cast to get right on the fishing rod as I feel that down to be sure it is weed free.

I analyse every trip at the end, even if I caught, to try to work out what I'm doing right, or wrong. It is easy to catch and accept the session as a good one, but could you have done better, caught more? To me it stops me getting stale and doing the same thing every time when things aren't working. It is possibly why on Alton I found a couple of working methods, in various swims. The problem with blanks, especially on harder waters with fewer fish, is you might not be doing anything wrong, just unable to get on fish, especially like on my current syndicate, where you don't want to interfere with other angler's, respecting their space and fishing. I.E we won't fish spots they have been working or prebaiting if we know about it. Saying that, if you blank it could be you got something wrong. Last session, I blanked, but I had an idea that I am using the wrong hookbait over hemp and maize; a 20mm boilie tipped with maize is not the right choice, I think I might need to use a small yellow pop-up to counteract the silkweed when fishing over those particles. Over the 'boilie baited' rods a boilie could be the right choice.

For me even a 45minute drive before or after work can be a bit much with my shifts. My prebaiting for years has been put the last of my bait before I leave at the end of the weekly trip. For that reason it is nearly all just boilies, unless I have saved a bit of spod mix. At the same time we do all want to catch, even more so if the lake has special fish. I love the lake I'm on, some big commons, and still some uncaught fish, I would dearly love to put one or more of them in the landing net.

The other way is the sliding ring on the shank presentation I like.

Must admit I rarely think of carp sucking in pop-ups, I tend to think they mouth it, then close their mouth and the hook pr icks, as the carp either closes its mouth or tries to eject, so 'closing the gape' doesn't really make any difference. I think bottom bait, including snowman rig mechanics, are totally different to most pop-up rig mechanics. Sucking and blowing rather than mouthing baits. I mean a Withy rig has a totally closed off hook, but was very effective.

That is just the sort of post that makes me smile😊 I know we all have different waters and ideas or opinions, but it is definitely easier to catch fish on 'overstocked' or heavily stocked waters where the carp rely on the angler's baits than a sparsely stocked water rich in natural food where they may not see an angler from day to day.

Welcome to Carp.com Don't over think! Fish waters or a water where you will catch. I know that sounds obvious, but if you are going to sit it out for one big fish then you may well be sitting out and blanking for a long time. You may need to lower your expectations, you aren't going to catch 20 after 20, you may be having to fish for single figure fish. Don't 'faff' with rigs, or bait. A knotless knot (possibly line aligned) rig catches most fish over the latest fashionable rig. Fish your bait to catch, get the carp feeding on it. That may be boilies, or boilies over groundbait or particles. The more you pressure yourself, the harder it gets, the more you go round in circles. Fish to your strengths and find the fish. Don't just turn up and fish the last known producing swim, unless you are sure the fish are there. Don't necessarily pile the bait in, forget piling your spod mix in, a single bait or stringer quietly put in often produces more.

I think you will find yeast is the one non-animal protein that contains every essential amino acid. Look up Marmite...