salokcinnodrog

I have a couple of brolly systems: TFG Oval brolly and overwrap, which has been promoted to single days and winter pike fishing. The other I have bought is the all singing and dancing Rod Hutchinson Cabrio Hybrid Brolly system. https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/hybrid-brolly-system-htb017b-htb017e/ I bought it because I fancied a new system, not because the TFG was on its last legs or anything. With the extension I have room to sit my chair in front of the bedchair rather than sitting the rear of the chair on the bedchair. It is still quick to set up.

Never tried olives. I think I would probably end up eating them, although I'm now wondering how I would keep my feta cheese cool as that goes well with olives wrapped in a slice of proper ham...

That says something to me! If Yonny had some bad ones from Monster, and yours 'aren't right', a bit vinegary, (even if delivery was delayed) personally I would avoid Monster Particles. When it comes to ready prepared particles, those in the containers by Dynamite, I have found to be the best, as they are actually cooked in the container I believe. As Yonny says, preparing your own gets best results and you know what they are like. I normally do all my own particles, I can experiment with soaks and solutions, but to be honest, in most cases particles are most attractive and need no extras than soak and boil/simmer. Adding chilli, garlic or whatever rarely makes them any better than the standard. Tigers are a soak for 24hour minimum, and then boil for around 30mins.

The bottom bait and snowman rigs rigs were identical, only the pop-up rigs were shorter. The rigs were like the pictured combi-rig, or coated braid. I could actually swap a bottom bait rig to a snowman rig. I don't know if you have seen my sliding ring rig? A sliding ring on the hookshank, with the hair tied to the ring, so I could tie on the hair and use the same rig for either. It gave me the option of changing hair length as well to suit my 'rules' about where I was hooking fish: If I am hooking fish hooked dead centre of the bottom lip the hair and rig length is right.If I am hooking fish at the back of the mouth, the hair and rig is too long.If I am losing fish to hookpulls, nothing on after indication of a run, or hooking right at the very front of the lip, then the hair and rig is too short. Everything was hooked perfectly. My lost fish (on pop-ups) were actually down to hooklink snapping after being chafed on blocks on the bottom. Looking at that, I have not changed my rigs for over 12 years, what worked then, still works now. Its weird. I basically had a rod on each at all times as I never knew which one would produce at any session, until by the bridge I stopped, after 3 sessions, fishing snowman rigs as it didn't produce and fished only bottom baits and the pop-up. It was also the spot where I could bait up by hand directly over my hookbaits, tipping my bait off the bridge. The other locations were Spomb loaded, plus the stringer attached to the hook. In any session, it was only one rod that produced, with one exception by the bridge where I lost a fish on the pop-up and landed 3 on the bottom baits.

Yes Mate. Just each session I caught there was a preference for one or the other. By the bridge was 5 fish caught on bottom baits in 2 sessions, then next session, same area was pop-ups for 2 fish, the only fish that were caught on pop-ups. Snowman baits did not work there. Further up towards the nature reserve was all on snowman baits, and one of the bays was snowman bait. On occasions I 'swapped' rods to the catching spot, so trying bottom baits where I had caught on snowman etc, nothing for the rest of the night. Put it back to how it was for the next night, catch fish again. Quite strange that up by the nature reserve as the bottom was clean, no silt. By the bridge, nothing on snowman, again clean bottom as it is a funnel, although the occasional concrete block. Up in the bays, silty bottom, and fish were caught on the snowman, no other presentation.

Most definitely, soak and boil definitely increases the attraction. No need for sugar.

If I put any particle in in the winter, it is normally well soaked pigeon conditioner, hemp and sweetcorn. I don't know why, I tend to avoid larger particles like maize, black eyes, maples etc, especially since maize is apparently such a good winter feed.

On the reservoir I had one rod on a pop-up, one on a snowman and one with a standard double bottom bait. Each session I caught, it was always a particular presentation that caught, despite putting one of the others on the same spot. So if I caught on a double bottom bait, that is the only thing that caught on that spot, even though I would swap rods and try another. The snowman and bottom bait rods were fished at the same distance, at either side of the bed of bait. My beds or baiting situation was chicken corn or hemp or the two mixed with boilies over the top, fished with stringers.

Enjoy your trip. Hope you catch a special one

Welcome to Carp.com. I live about 10 minutes away and have seen some changes there over the years, not all for the better. You have the Specimen lake for the biggest fish. Pay your money, find a swim, and then basically you book yourself into that swim, that is where you fish, unless they will allow you to move. Ok if the fish are there, but they can move round the lake very quickly. I think it is only the Traditional and Main/Specimen lakes that can be night fished. There are carp in all the lakes, which will go at least to double figures. Personally, while it is a nice place, I think it is expensive, although the cafe does a good fry-up. £50 for a weekend, or £10 for a day on the day lakes is a bit much for me.

I tried braid for spodding, really didn't get on with it. I never stuck a weed rake on mono though, I used my marker rod for a small Breakaway lead which has braid with an Amnesia shockleader. Saying that, I have also miscast with my fishing rods with an ordinary lead on mono and pulled it back through a patch of thick weed on a major gravel bar and had that give way.

Carp will pick up and spit out even definite foods, I have watched it happen with maggots, bloodworm, sweetcorn, boilies. Sometimes they come back and take them again, sometimes they leave them. We choose foods by taste, carp don't have that recognition. What tastes good to us is not always what carp want, and what they like, I'm positive I don't think tastes nice; worms, maggots, slugs... Add to that your hook, if it behaves differently from the free baits, carp (and other fish) will reject the bait. Carp and chub are specialists in the identification of hookbait. To some extent the more free bait, the less chance of them identifying the hookbait, or more correctly the pre-occupation they feed with less wariness.

Interesting one this. Carp will eat animal matter, bloodworm, maggots, worms and slugs etc, they can easily be digested, and are a viable food source. In theory, meat and fish would also be good protein sources, however I think from memory carp and other cyprinids lack the enzymes to digest meat in its whole form. They can only utilise 'surface' nutrition. It gets excreted as most things do, a 'squidgy' mess. Carp have been caught on dead fish, squid, steak, liver etc; almost every year a pike angler has a carp pick up and get hooked on deadbaits. One of the best baits going years ago at Savay was a mix of liquidised squid and liver, stiffened with semolina, then boiled. It produced numbers of fish, and still works. I can't remember which bait company it was, but instead of using eggs was using liquidised wet fish with a bird food base. The bait caught plenty of fish, but could not be kept on the bank for very long, there was no shelf life version. A long while ago back in this thread I mentioned liquidising maggots and casters and putting them in baits. I was trying to give a natural amino acid profile while having the resistance to small fish. Again, it worked, but got time consuming. I think as I understand it, Once a meat or fish is processed, either liquidising or dried and processed into a meal, then it can be utilised by the carp. This also makes making boilies easier, we can work out a decent bait containing everything the fish need, vitamins and minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. This brings us onto Fred Wilton The easiest way is to quote from Bait Evolution Fred believed that carp, like any wild creature, given the choice over time, would show a distinct preference for a food source that offered it the perfect balanced diet fulfilling all or most of it’s nutritional needs. Given the choice of a food source that is nutritionally nearly perfect against various much less nutritional food sources, the carp would show more and more preference for the nutritionally perfect food source, if it was applied to a lake consistently over a period of time. Flavours were only added to the baits as a ‘label’ and not as the primary attraction source. The base mix is what the fish wanted and the flavour simply allowed the carp to identify the food source and differentiate it from other food.

I won't join mainline to a leader with a loop to loop knot, I think that a proper leader knot is tidier and stronger. What knot I use is determined by the thickness of the lines being joined. If they are a similar diameter it will be a water knot or uni knot to uni knot, if the leader is thicker than the mainline it will be a shockleader knot; overhand knot in the leader, then uni knot through and down the leader, wet and pull tight. I have actually broken the hook when it stuck in rocks on the lakebed rather than my Amnesia leader cracking off! I did use TFG clear looped leaders for a while, they have a fused loop, even with them I would uni knot through and down the loop. Using large rubber beads I was sure if I smashed off, the rig and beads could be ejected. I do think that if you have to use a leader, that a helicopter set-up where the beads and rig can be ejected (never the lead) is safer than a lead clip. If you do use a lead clip then the lead MUST be able to be ejected if you smash up.

I know a lot of waters have not been producing many fish because of the hot weather we had for so long. Simple answer is walk and look for fish, put bait in, and keep an eye on it. I would be baiting up with pellets or Vitalin, even sweetcorn, then walking round and doing the same in a number of spots, and keep looking at them regularly through the day, maybe eventually dropping a hookbait in on the lift float. That technique has worked for me on plenty of waters, from heavily fished lakes, to lakes that are hardly fished.

Maize is tough, soak it for 24 hours, in water and the flavours, boil for about 20 minutes, it will still be hard, so a bait drill is handy before putting it on a baiting needle. You don't need the flavour, but anything is worth trying... I would be fishing for those Muskies and Northern pike in the northern states. I would suggest giving @buzzbomb our American moderator a message, he can probably help you far better with American style carp fishing and ideas than I can.

Indeed, that elastic through the method feeder could leave a fish trailing hook, and feeder if the mainline snapped, and aggressive takes could easily snap you up. Years ago I used to put a length of soft tubing over the hooklink swivel with a braid hooklink. Before the cast stretch the tubing down the hooklink, and allow it to retract. It would pull the hooklink back inside. On a take the hooklink would extend, an elasticated, or extending rig.

The other thing in your favour is (I presume you are in the USA), most of the carp you are fishing for are pretty much unpressured, very little angler pressure. As a result they will eat most things as so few people are fishing for them. Even then, you have 'best' baits, maize is cheap and easy to use, and boilies in America harder to get hold of, mostly imported or homemade. Maize and sweetcorn are actually high in the amino acid lysine, which I believe is a feed inducer in its own right. Certainly when things are tough, I know sweetcorn, even in a temperate UK winter, daytime temperature of around 4-5 degrees Celsius, (I wasn't night fishing), was at times the go to bait, producing fish when boilies didn't. Nick

6 years in my flat for me. The no wife and no (actually grown up) kids is bitter sweet for me. When Liz and I were together, I thought it was for life, sadly she didn't see it that way. I ended up homeless and living on the streets. Because I have been down and out I think myself lucky that I do have my flat, so I am happy with every day, even if it is not the best. @fangus15 enjoy every day Mate, throw those flies, and in the winter drown the deadbaits. Take care and never give in

Only 1😉

Same here, 4 or 5 turns of the leader on the reel

Yonny, The Poles have actually started their own breeding program, back in the 1970's, and have moved away from the original Galician strain. Males were collected from the Vistula, and females from Golys, they are now into the 5th generation (breeding years 1973, 75, 86, 90 and 93), to improve the growth rate. Standard colour is yellowish brown with mostly irregular mirror scaling. Since the rise of carp fishing, and farming (for food and fishing), many European countries have gotten into carp breeding.

Kev, To be honest I think my ability to recognise swims is down to my memory and being in the autistic spectrum. On many waters I have fished, I have walked it so often I know almost every swims bank features, although swim trimming does occasionally confuse me. Heck yes. If you know a particular fish comes from a particular area, if you are targetting that fish you can get a head start by knowing the swim from the picture.

As much as I agree, I'm the person who can recognise swims by what is behind on a number of waters. I can't remember who it was on here, but somebody put a picture taken at night and I told them the lake and peg the picture was taken in. (Taverham Mills, peg 25) A mate of mine locally has taken to cropping his night taken chub pictures to remove background not to stop me finding his spots, (I know many of them myself anyway, we regularly bump into each other on the river), but to stop other anglers. If you have flag iris in flower on your water, that really brightens up a shot. The yellow flowers do look good.

I can get reasonable night pictures on my phone, but definitely prefer the camera flash. The mirror was taken on the camera, good flash, no extra lighting, the common on my phone. I don't think the common picture is as good, you have a 'merge' between my t-shirt and the background, whereas with the mirror, same colour hoodie (and they are even now) you can see the difference. I can definitely see the benefit of video lights, heck my dad used them years ago when filming television programmes at night (he was a vision mixer, cameraman and studio designer for London Weekend Television, and used them on outside broadcasts), but I do find I already take so much gear that extra lighting is too, too much. My current camera is a Canon Eos, no bells or whistles, just flash and self timer, which to be honest I have gotten used to. I was on Fuji Finepix, but water killed two, so picked up the Eos for £5 on the bay.