salokcinnodrog

Reduce buckets! Please! Bird food bucket, groundbait bucket, dog food bucket, toilet bucket and PVA mix bucket. My passenger footwell has that many buckets in. I'm thinking the same about going back to just boilies, but the particle and groundbait tend to get the fish and birds keeping spots clear, although I could do without the birdlife... I think Nazeing is the last water I fished just boilies on, and I didn’t do too bad, but waters since then have not lent themselves to only boilies.

I do that, go through a reorganise phase, then go back to what I did previously as I found what I did previously worked best for me.

I split your post of the old 2009 Ardleigh thread as Google Analytics won't find or use threads that were started more than 5 years ago. I haven't been over there for years, I lost interest when my fishing buddy was on the tube that was in the London bombings, thank goodness he survived, but couldn't fish for a few years. I do know my big fish pictures are still around if you search though. The only thing I can suggest is walk and look, walk and look, constantly searching for fish, maybe baiting a few areas in case you don't see anything.

As the seasons roll on into winter fishing can be really tough. We had a wet autumn, with a couple of big storms putting a lot of cold water into the waterways. My syndicate lake rose a metre in 12hours. That is water level, not bank space. In terms of bank space, I had to move my rods and bivvy back 5metres. The constant cold water going in from rain, flowing in off the land and inlet stream put the fish off feeding. I don't know the depth or size of your lake, but walking and watching may or may not show you where the fish are, it may be that you have to fish it, a different area each time. It's so tough as so many different possibilities. It may be that the carp have been an learnt to avoid hi-viz/hi-attract pop-ups in the obvious flavours that 'everyone' uses. They may take a washed out pink or white bait, they may prefer a food bait, or even the 'smell' created by liquidised corn, or liquids in PVA bags. It may be that silver fish feeding attracts them. Watching the birds can be useful. Coots can suddenly surface looking flustered if they come across a big fish, it might be a pike, but it can be a carp. Fizzing in winter is not always carp, it can be a pike hitting the lakebed or turning the bottom as it hits a fish. 2 or 3 rod limits change how you fish; you have lost or gained an option. I'll go through my 3 rod fishing as that's what I do, but you will have to decide what to drop if you only have a 2 rod limit: Rod 1 is fished with a washed out pink pop-up in my garlic spice combination a thumb length off the lakebed. My lake has a reputation for the occasional winter fish on washed out pink baits (not much is caught through the winter), the garlic spice is one of my favourite combinations that catches well for me on many waters. Rod 2 is fished with my food bait (KMG) fished as a low pop-up, a Ronnie, 360 or D-rig tight to the lakebed, cast in with a PVA bag of crumbed boilie. Rod 3 is a snowman bait, the food bait tipped with a 12mm purple Monster Crab pop-up and again in a bag. I don't tend to put in any extra bait actually while I'm fishing, saving it until I leave, prebaiting for the next session a week later. (I normally fish 4day sessions). I don't have many silver fish in my lake, so using them is not really an option for me, but baiting up with any of or a combination of maggots, liquidised sweetcorn, finely ground breadcrumb can be a way to get fish feeding. I prefer red maggots, simple reason for me, they are the same colour as bloodworm, and in clear water, harder for those pesky coots and tufted ducks to see than white maggots. A teaspoon of mixed chilled powder and turmeric in 2pints of maggots degreases them, and adds a little attraction. Try to avoid oily fish meal groundbaits. Cold oils really don't release in cold water, and can take ages for the fish to digest. Lighter oils like sunflower or rapeseed may still work but don't use too much, you do want the oil 'breaking free' and coming up.

You've picked a tough time to start fishing a lake. The big question is are you sure you have found the fish? Sounds obvious I know but no point fishing the margins if they are in the middle of the lake. Spots to look for the fish, near snags, tree roots, maybe any rushes, dead or dying weedbeds, possibly natural food beds (bloodworm), which can be found by casting out and dragging a lead along, the grippa leads are good for this as @ouchthathurt mentioned. Over leaf litter is when I pretty much stick exclusively to pop-ups, making sure I have my bait above it, although in silt I try to get my bait to the level the fish are feeding at. That doesn't sound like it makes sense, but carp might not feed on top of the silt, but dig into it, picking up mouthfuls of natural food. On other lakes they might feed on top of the silt, especially if its horrible stinky stuff. Talking of stinky stuff, leaf litter I've heard can make the area more acidic, and put the fish off feeding for a while. On my syndicate lake, the lake is a pretty consistent depth, no drop-offs other than the old stream bed, however there are some softer holes in the silt where carp have dug them out. Imagine the lake is 4feet deep, and then you suddenly drop to 5feet deep. These holes gradually fill back up, but the bottom is softer. Those pop-ups, about the only time that I have a bait off the lake bed, normally I fish close to the lakebed, the counter weight directly below the hook, but in leaf litter I will fish with the weight a thumb or even forefinger length below the hook. Are you able to attract smaller silver fish and get them feeding? Their feeding might actually get the carp investigating. For that a groundbait with very little solid food content, maybe fine ground breadcrumb, liquidised or creamed sweetcorn. Hookbaits, obviously try sweetcorn, maybe maggots or boilies. Boilies: you might find in winter certain flavours work better than others. I used to do very well on Dynamite Green Zing, Solar and Nutrabaits Pineapple and N-butyric pop-ups, along with my own recipe Garlic and Spice ones. The occasional fish in winter on my syndicate comes out on pink pop-ups. I have to keep going back to it, years ago, I did a session between Christmas and New Year. For 2 days I caught on the high attract pop-ups mentioned above (my original garlic spice) then after feeding a few of my normal food bait boilies every day, I started catching on them, ordinary bottom baits. In that week I think I ended up with 10fish, nothing massive, but any fish in freezing winds and temperatures near 2 or 3⁰ Celsius is a good fish. The yellow and green pop-ups on the second lake worked on day trips when we hadn't got a bait established. On those two waters Other pop-ups just didn't cut it! Braid definitely gives a better sense of feel than mono.

I sometimes wish I wasn't single, believe me. An acrimonious split wasn't good with children involved. Although fishing most weeks is nice, the back and hip problems do make things painful at times, and life comes first. It took a whole year to get PIP sorted. I've got a trip planned this week, then more car problems to sort. I'd be really keen on another carp.com social. I'll see if I can get some beef or venison steaks ordered if it's a trip I can attend, I have a very good local butcher.

I have a centrepin, shooting jacket and flat cap, is that close enough? We had a clean up of dead branches and brambles around the lake and estate, and 2 bonfires were built. One was around 200metres from my bivvy, I smelt of wood smoke for 5 days.

I'd love to, although with hip and back, I'm not sure what I'm doing with hospital appointments etc. If you can a Sky dog friendly venue would be nice? I know it is a long way for many, but is Horcott a possibility? Maybe the Tench lake?

After making the comment above on the 'Is Fishing Tackle too Expensive?' thread I had to treat myself to a full Kelly Kettle kit. Admittedly £75 but I think it might be saving gas...

I've got spacing details and ring sizes for 12feet rods somewhere. I'll dig them out. You'll have to adapt for 12ft 6in, but should give you some idea. Despite fashion, 40mm is probably the largest you will need, but I would tape and try both.

My honest opinion is yes, life is too expensive and with those 'labour saving, must have' devices, smart meters and equipment which use energy constantly compared to being able to switch off. I, meaning we, can buy a smart light switch, a smart doorbell, smart heating system, which constantly uses electricity, yet 'old fashioned' light switches don't use electricity when the switch is off. The bi-metallic strip thermostat didn't use electricity, but the smart 'stat is continually on. I'm tempted to say eating out at a restaurant is too expensive, but I know the ins and outs of wages, the hospitality industry and how costs have gone up, which brings us to the cost of electricity and gas, even transport and utilities. When CEO's take huge wages, massive dividends are paid to shareholders, yet prices to the user go to silly levels. Then when we go to low tech alternatives like wood burners, laws are put in to make getting the 'right' wood, yet countries burn forests, destroy the environment then things are seriously wrong. It is the little people who suffer. Our skills and trades have been forgotten. Our metal production, steel uses massive amounts of energy, furnaces, burning gas, coal or coke, which go to carbon emissions. You can't have both no carbon emissions and no industry, you need production, which means one is not possible. Then cost of transportation goes up, and prices increase. UK wages are higher, say £10 a week to your Oriental factory worker compared to £10 an hour in the UK. Fishing tackle is just part of it. You want 'made in UK', but we have lost the skills, so it becomes expensive. Having a UK factory goes to UK emissions so we went abroad to get it cheaper...

I can remember a fair few nights getting home at 3am, and before going to bed filleting a few bass or cod and then freezing the fillets, with 1 left out for dinner that day. My bass fishing is often quite cheap, almost like deadbait fishing for pike with a popped up bait. Even my chub fishing is cheap, bread, slugs, lobworm and dog biscuits, those same baits work for other species. On my 'Distances and Wraps' thread I mentioned the 'need' or lack of, of distance sticks, and alliterated to it above. You DON'T need to buy distance sticks, 2 banksticks will do, but there are other products that probably come into the same boat. I'm trying to compare my tackle to other anglers I know, my mates etc, and I'm probably the most guilty of spending money on 'shiny': Five rod holdalls, three bivvies and umbrellas, seven bite alarms (3 Delkim TXI'd and 4 ST's), carp rods, spinning rod, float rod, specialist rods, marker rods, spod rod and reels to suit and two barrows, two bedchairs, oh gawd, stop now... There's still more to say!

I saw this in NCB, and decided it is a topic for main discussion as not everyone (meaning me) regularly go into Non Carp Banter, so I moved it, leaving a link to its new position. I've made the point that as anglers and as people, society as a whole, we are targeted with advertising and marketing of things we don't need, and fishing tackle of most disciplines is the same; products to 'make life easier', that frequently take away personal innovation or make it that everyone is doing the same. Fishing can be cheap and simple, a hook attached to the line with enough weight to get it where we need to cast to, simple barbel, chub and roach fishing, and either a float or rod tip to indicate a take. That is as simple as it gets, BUT, you can't watch a float or rod tip constantly for hours or days at a time. This brings us to our need for bite indication, a buzzer or audible alarm. Tackle has developed, rods that could only cast 50yards back in the 1960's have been superceded by rods that will cast hundreds of metres, and obviously the cost has increased. Reels that could only hold 200metres of line, more modern gears and the baitrunner, or Bite and Run. In alternative disciplines from carp fishing, sea fishing may work out 'cheaper', possibly because some fish may be saving us food money, as well as being leisure, although I admit lug and rag is expensive unless you dig it yourself. In terms of waters, many are overpriced; clubs, day ticket even syndicate waters. I can't justify £25 per night to fish a day ticket lake, nor can I justify £235 for the local club (including night ticket) when my syndicate is £500. There's more to say, but I'll save a few thoughts for further discussion...

You're welcome. There were some massive bream in the big lake, double figures. The tench fishing in the small lake can be fun as well, especially on the float.

Spent a lot of time on GAPS waters over the years, I can go back to 1984! Causeway, lovely lake, but hard work for carp. The sound of the A14 always seems to do my head in. Alderson, nice venue, the big lake can be crowded, and more than 5 carp anglers it will be cutting each other off. I used to prefer the intimacy of the small lake. I never fished the canal. On both lakes the carp can be caught on floaters at times.

That's the Solar buzzer bars with the goalpost adaptors, so I can use either pod or sticks. With the ground being so soft sticks work. Had to keep the tips up, still a lot of weed about.

You might find this interesting:

I googled it, 3552 I might actually have been bored enough myself to play with the mathematics so came up with 3000.

I believe that 1pint of maggots is 3000 grubs for some reason, I've not counted them, but now I might have to, to be sure. I've seen it both ways, a couple of mates were fishing a lake in winter for roach, baiting up with half a pint of maggots in small swimfeeders and getting 'plagued' by carp disturbing the swim. A 20lb carp takes a while to land on a size 16 hook and 2.6lb hooklink to 5lb mainline on a feeder rod. Then as B B says, other places really respond to heavy baiting. Spodding in maggots and fishing PVA bags of them over the top. Not my favourite method but a couple of pole anglers at Suffolk Water Park match lakes were fishing massive pole floats and continually firing in maggots over the float. It may be prolific but they were catching some fish to double figures.

Jim Shelley size...

We grow old and grey disgracefully... Imagine the children of today who don't experiment to find out why or whether an idea works, but simply follow it slavishly from Nash, Korda, Tom Dove, or Elliot Greys social media page...

I do remember you with no eyebrows... Did you end up pencilling them back on? Didn't see pink reels or rods back then! I seem to remember someone did some DPM green and brown alarms, can't remember who though.

By live bait I take it you mean maggots or worms. Saying that I've heard of carp eating small gudgeon or silver fish targeting perch or pike, along with deadbaits. I've rarely fished maggots specifically for carp, although I have put maggots in my groundbait for them. My winter baits tend to be boilies or sweetcorn. Normally I've fished the water all through and the fish are eating my boilies. It will also depend on the water.

Must admit I've been on army surplus combat trousers in olive green, DPM or MTP for years. Some of my olive green ones have faded, but not ripped on brambles and the like. In fact the only rips have come when they are worn so thin after around 10years old. It was information on the Combat Pro clothing I was after more than anything. As I said above, and before, most of my clothing stuff comes from either army surplus or Hoggs of Fife. Not found anything close from a fishing tackle brand.

Just had a couple of interesting adverts appear on my Facebook feed, does anyone know anything about Combat Pro clothing and the streetwear trousers? https://coral-clay.com/products/combatpro-defender-jacket?_pos=1&_sid=f545427af&_ss=r https://coral-clay.com/products/combatpro-defender-set?_pos=3&_sid=f545427af&_ss=r https://coral-clay.com/products/urban-cargo-streetwear-trousers?_pos=2&_sid=96121b9ec&_ss=r