salokcinnodrog

I sometimes wonder about Spod/Spombing, to be honest I don't see the value of using a small Spomb. As the bait falls through the water it spreads out a long way, not really enough in one area to attract or hold the fish. In a Rob Hughes 'Under the water' article I think his words were "Spomb in what you think is right, then do 5 more". You really are better using a PVA bag or mesh than a small Spomb. If I spod or Spomb bait in, it is a job that takes at least half an hour, sometimes longer, and you don't want to be doing it over deep water, especially if there is an undertow that takes your bait away from the impact point. As has been pointed out, spod or Spomb size needs to match the rod. My Big Bertha will cast a load of 12oz, the usual load is 8oz and that is to over 100metres. If I go to a smaller load than that I am just windmilling the bait dropper around the rod tip. Next thing, I keep saying it, I DO NOT get on at all well with braid on a Spod or Spomb rod. 50lb braid smashed it, cracked off, and aside from the loss of a bait dropper at £? a time, the guy on the far bank could be quivering. A crack-off can go more than 4times the cast distance. I still use mono, and I can use 50lb Greased Weasel mono leader. Mono has stretch, which reduces crack-offs for me. There is no or minimal stretch on braid, and hitting a clip can cause it to crack.

I used to fish Taverham Mills regularly with inline leads, in the days of 'learning for yourself', rather than todays hyped up 'its all in the media'😱😖😆😉 The lake is quite weedy, a mix of lily beds, and in places, silkweed. I rarely lost any fish due to weed build up on the lead, in fact with a zipp or distance shaped lead, most weed slid over the lead. Just don't use an inline lead with any neck😉. Even with tubing there was limited weed hang up. I don't like dropping the lead at all, unless I have to. The excuses of 'fish come up in the water without the lead', I'm sorry, I never found that true, they play the same, a fish fights how it wants to, deep or shallow. I think it is the fishes 'character' that decides how it fights. Some stay deep, some come up. A particular fish I knew in Taverham every time it was caught was like a bag of spuds. You pumped it in with no scrap. I first caught it at double figures, and my mate Bruce caught it a few times up to 20lb. Also, a fish that is being played, does not necessarily want to fight or run through the weed, dependant on type of weed, Would you want your eyes covered when you are running? Lily beds fish might use to run into, or there are channels through or under the weed.

Or as Danny himself originally recommended, an inline lead, with a ring rather than swivel, or a swivel inside the buffer bead, and it does work with a short pop-up rig. Used that set-up myself before he recommended it.

Shameful!

I don't think hemp is a bream attractor, and with how they feed, I don't see the need to add it to any bream groundbait. Bream hoover up food from the lakebed, there is no need to use hemp, or even any particle in the groundbait mix. Plain breadcrumb, a mix of white or brown crumb will hold them. The addition of maggots, chopped worm or caster is simply as a hookbait sample so in theory they will take the hookbait. With that though, you can carp fish over groundbait, any spod mix, and boilies on the hook and catch bream, because they do hoover up the groundbait. Particles in bream groundbait simply bulk it out, but particles as part of a spod mix, with no groundbait will also be a feeding area. I do some fishing specifically for (big) bream, and groundbaits aimed at bream fishing do not produce any more bream than Vitalin or plain crumb. The reason I think for 'flavoured' bream specific groundbaits is aimed at match anglers trying to stimulate feeding, whereas I was fishing for fish that I knew would be in the area, or moving in. To avoid bream, don't spod in loads of bait in areas they visit.

It starts off tidy at the beginning of a session, then by the end looks like a bomb has gone off😳😱 I haven't tidied it since my last carp trip in October😉😁

Strangely enough, ready made pop-ups are about the only things that upset Sky's stomach. She did get into the habit of going into my fishing tackle and freezer and stealing bait if she could; ready mades, particles, tiger nuts. I have to lock my internal doors as well as the front door if I go out. I make some of my own pop-ups, the Garlic and Megaspice ones, they just get air dried and stored in the tub in my bait bag with the rest of the pop-ups. I don't bother with keeping them in the fridge.

I still use a Plano Tackle box, years old, but it takes everything, including my toothbrush and toothpaste, 😖😆 The only thing missing from it at the moment is my leads, which are currently in my pike gear Ready tied rigs go in Gardner rig tubs.

I've gone away from big name brollies and shelters and back to basic names. The brolly I use now is the TFG Oval brolly with an overwrap, cost around £170 for the lot, or go to the TFG Power brolly, which is basically a brolly with full front and storm sides. I have a mate who has one and it has stood up to plenty of abuse as has my Oval. The Power Brolly takes the same overwrap for slightly more protection in colder weather.

Honest answer is I dislike Lead Clips and try not to use helicopter set-ups unless I absolutely have to. My preference is for a Run Ring, fished on a slack line as a running lead, or a tight line as a Bolt rig. The running lead is first choice, but undertow and currents sometimes prevent that, so a tight line instead. The helicopter set-up I found personally, on many occasions has cost me fish. From fish moving with no indication, as much as 30metres at range, to hookpulls due to the hook and mainline not being in the same plane or angle.

I actually tie Ronnie rigs on coated braid on the occasions I use them, with a loop to the hook swivel, then make sure it is perfectly round. The other thing with fluorocarbon, and mono, is that the abrasion resistance of coated braid is better, which on the lakebed I fish in is important. I have my hooks angled forward, so the pop-up is vertical and hiding everything.

Main lake was rife with them, and basically in any long line like from the coach company through the cut into main lake, or from coach company towards Reeds join the bream could pester you over particles. Even the big 2lb+ rudd would get onto them around lilies. There was almost a triangle in the islands end the lake of bream routes. Add the sunken island (reeds growing in shallower water) which was tench heaven, particles were a no go. Saying that, in most cases, I tended not to fish into open water, preferring to fish safely as close to features as I could, with the winter exception of fishing from the 'point' towards the open water to the right of the islands.

If I can I fish slack lines, with running leads, no need for super sensitive alarms in most cases. However, there are times when I need my alarms turned to maximum sensitivity, working out sensitivity vs undertow and then going as high as I can. Roller wheel alarms do not give best indication, especially with semi-fixed leads. I have seen, on more than one occasion, an alarm not sounding as the fish took line in a perfect arc, not taking or giving line (dropback). As an add, I also use my Delkims for pike fishing, fishing paternostered float ledgered baits, or plain ledgered baits. I want maximum sensitivity. A big pike will often sit and munch a deadbait on the spot, whereas a smaller jack will pick up and run. I need indication of that pick-up from the big girl. The Delkim will bleep on a float twitch, where my attention may have wandered.

If you go back onto Virginia, I found bream and tench absolutely loved particles and pellets, including pigeon conditioner, with an exception in one swim that has extreme depth changes on the causeway between Pats/Georges and Virginia. A bush to the right in front, a tree with barbed wire to the left in front and you had a gravel bar coming down from the far bank. Anywhere else if you piled in anything other than boilies you would get hit. My belief is that the depth changes stopped the bream hoovering the bottom and they weren't keen on that feature. Best way to avoid bream is stick to boilies, and if you do use pellets, only in a PVA bag on your casting out.

High pressure at work always makes me want to go fishing...😖😆 Seriously, I don't care the weather pressure or even the weather itself, the only way you will catch is if you go fishing. This year I had my best catches in strong south westerlies that brought rain. The bivvy and everything got wet at times, but catching big fish from an unknown water made up for it

Nice little jack from Suffolk, taken on mackeral tail ledgered in 15feet of water from the ressie.

I try to stick to simple! A line aligned, knotless knot rig on coated braid produces most of my fish when I use bottom baits, which is most of the time, although as I can fish 3 rods, I tend to have a pop-up on the 3rd rod. That is a rig ring sliding on the hookshank or D-rig also on coated braid for abrasion resistance, and my pop-ups tend to be close to the bottom, (as per the pic), held down with an olivette at the hook eye, so they are no more than hook height off the lakebed. There are times when a 'higher' pop-up is better, on some lake beds. That did produce a number of fish for me last year in the early months. The fact that you are catching fish, carp and bream, shows you are getting it right. Sweetcorn is one of the best baits going, but is not selective; it will catch almost everything, roach, rudd, carp, bream and tench. To be honest on mixed fisheries I would be happy catching any fish, so sweetcorn would be my 'goto'. It is only if I want to be carp specific that I use boilies. Time comes into it as well. If i'm fishing for the day I will use softer baits, I'm not normally carp fishing for just one day, although occasionally... Big Dave caught far more carp than I did at the start of the year, he was fishing the Method feeder, for all fish. He was happy catching fish from 1lb up to doubles, whereas my approach was aimed at carp with pop-up boilies, I didn't want to be hooking skimmer bream. I was targetting specific areas, close to lilies, or the margin shelf. On a blooming great reservoir I don't want to be wondering if my hookbait yesterday was snaffled by a 8oz roach, so I use big hard boilies.

I wouldn't use a helicopter rig anywhere near weed, I stick as much as possible to rigs below the lead. In most cases I have found an inline tournament or zipp shaped lead gave me the best set-up, that weed actually slides over with no problems.

If you do go back on Earith, Reeds, Georges and Pat's pool were good for floater fishing. About halfway up Georges there was a kind of 'pinch point' where the carp would show in a gap and loved a dog biscuit. In Reeds I would often have 2 rods into Virginia from the causeway, and be flicking floaters into Reeds ready with a third rod if they started taking. Before anyone says that is irresponsible, you are no more than 10feet from your rods in Virginia even if you are also fishing in Reeds. Pats had a couple of massive commons in there that I would put closer to 30 than 20. Obviously I don't know if Ian had to move stock around, but those commons did love a lobworm freelined onto their noses...

I think glycerine in the soak/glug acts as a preservative, and as a hookbait hardener. The glugged baits in the area were often left until there was no other baits left. May be possible that the soak made them different, so as they weren't the prebaited ones, which the carp were searching for and eating, the carp didn't touch them until there was no 'regular' food left. Yet they were ripping the bottom up to eat my normal bait. It is also possible that the carp were leaving any bait, that hadn't been in the water for a minimum of 24hours. On this particular water, at times, you had to leave a cast bait in place for up to 2 days without moving it. I had tried mixing glugged baits in with my normal baits, so there was a mix. It put me off using soaked glugged baits on here, knowing that the normal bait would work anyway. On other waters, glugged baits could be taken before unsoaked baits, as maybe the glug did act as an attractor. This I found best with single baits, using just the glugged baits on the hook, when I had put in no freebies, but possibly over baits other anglers had put in before leaving.

I don't glug baits if I am prebaiting. I want the bait to stand on its own. I found glugged baits, when prebaiting, even in natural liquids like liquid liver, molasses, or liquid yeast were sometimes left over the 'natural' bait. I'm not sure 'find the bait' is quite right, especially after fishing large reservoirs where it can take the carp a couple of days to move into the area. All of my fish have come to baits out of the bag. Same with prebaiting on Earith, even though I knew about glugged baits, every fish came on a plain straight ordinary boilie, and I did try both high attract pop-ups and glugged baits. However I do think a glugged bait can create a feeding trigger or inquisitive take if the carp find one 'on its own'. My largest or personal best river carp of 28lb did take a bait soaked in Nutrabaits Bait Soak Complex, which was I think a mix of Multimino, Nutramino. The session was only 2 1/2hours long. I was using a soaked bait over pellets to try to get a feeding or pick up reaction. From that bait soak I did start playing with natural liquids, occasional natural flavours and glycerine. Liquid Yeast and Liver with glycerine worked best, but even with glycerine as a preservative had a shelf life.

The past year I stopped glugging my baits. They go out exactly as they came out of the bag or tub, and I'm sure I found a few fish on Alton that took plain straight hookbaits. In fact, I think the only reason I started glugging baits again was using wooden balls to combat crays and so did the same for any real bait. I have caught on soaked and glugged baits, but don't think it is an essential all the time.

I think this is where our individual experience may come into play, causing our slight difference of opinions.😉 I do use a boom, but I will lead and cast around seeing how the marker float behaves and rises or not. The float and lead size we use may have some impact. A large float with a lighter lead will feel 'free and easy' or clear. The lead is being held up by the float, not giving lakebed feel. Increase the lead size or decrease marker float size you can get a true feel. I look at many marker floats on sale, and see the huge body and orange (or yellow) tip and think that they are for long distance fishing. I prefer the smaller ESP Marker floats, with a heavier lead which 'drags' rather than glides across the lakebed, giving me the feel, and if using a used uncoated scarred lead, even being able to see where the lead landed or dragged over when I look at it. To me this brings me onto something else; I feel all the way back from cast impact point to bank, even if I do let the float up at specific points ('my spot' or another feature I have found). I rarely have just one cast. A lot of anglers say that "playing with the marker float is a fish scarer", I am the opposite and not found it so, but again maybe that is down to where and I use it, that word experience drops in again. There are times I will have clipped and know my spots, but I have caught fish still with marker floats in place, not having had the time to reel it in before getting a take.

I'm not necessarily looking for clear areas. As i'm pulling back I can feel weedy or silty spots, both things which may trap a ring or swivel and stop the float rising which is dependant on buoyancy of float as well. Just because it is weedy may mean it is an area I want to fish, especially if the rest of the lake is barren.

Run rings work as well...