salokcinnodrog

Sadly we still have idiots jogging in groups, or walking dogs together around the local parks, or they were when I walked Sky this morning. Every time I saw someone coming I simply changed direction, zig zagging my way across the park with her. She got let off the lead inside the old tennis court enclosure on Chantry Park in Ipswich.I saw one woman with her dog off the lead, as another dog was playing her dog ran up to play as well. She had to go retrieve it, and was most definitely within 2metres of the owners.On my way back I had to go to the local shop, still some items out of stock, breakfast cereals and bread, so to find essentials will have to go further afield.The golf course and hotel at Ufford Park where I work is totally closed down and the 'essentials' chosen. Even though officially on holiday I have to go do the year end stocktake then I will be on furlough. Yes I am peeved I can't go fishing, it would be total self-isolation and I did argue the point on the Alton Water Facebook page when they closed the Anglian Water Parks before the AT announcement. I'm also willing to bet that local residents will still be walking their dogs around the reservoir, even though it is supposedly closed. It is such a size you would need constant ranger patrols around all 12miles of footpaths!

Not many pike come out at night, but there are occasional captures, especially on full moon and at tail end of season. Never freeline, it gives too much movement of the bait and can lead to deep hooked fish. I actually go to 'fixed' leads (sinkers) on my hook trace, around half an ounce, and a 2oz paternostered lead on a weak nylon link, then I can fish a sunken float or surface float. The other rod tends to be ledgered (paternostered), with a floating or popped up bait. Pollan (a type of fish) float, or I use balsa or cork to pop the bait up.

In the £100's at least.

Solar P1 pod, you have to use the Solar buzz bars or something of the same diameter. I do love mine, it gets used almost every carp trip, but the buzz bars not having threads can be annoying if I don't need a pod as sometimes I do prefer a goalpost buzz bar set-up on softer banks. On the stony banks of the reservoir it is a godsend though.

I have a plain mesh weigh sling and a retainer bar type. It is often easier to use the plain mesh sling than the retainer sling, it is easier to slide the mesh under the fish than lifting it over the bars on the mat. With the retainer type you need it open on the unhooking mat before putting the fish on.

The big mistake was doing it in front of other people. Trap it, cage it, then 'remove it' later as I believe the law allows. Justice at the moment is on the side of greenies in most cases, with one big exception of HS2. There are some organisations who receive 100% help from CPS, some of which is totally misaimed. I have seen the RSPCA get prosecutions pushed through for very dubious cases. I find it maddening that the UK Wild Otter Trust or any other nature group has no figures on how many otters there are in the wild. You can pretty much guarantee that we know nationwide approximately how many deer there are in any particular area, yet we don't know how many otters.

Delkim ST alarms with Att dongles and receiver. Century and Rod Hutchinson Rods, both with Shimano reels, TFG Oval brolly and Overwrap, Fox landing net, Solar P1 pod, JRC bedchair, Wychwood sleeping bag and a Carp Porter. Whatever suits my fishing, any camp...

To start with I would be sitting in the gap between the two trees under the name of the lake with a pair of binoculars, watching the whole of the lake, 10.9 acres is not that big, then I would walk the lake, finally going back to that original spot for a few minutes. Then if there were fish signs I would move round to them. The hard part is that day ticket fisheries you rarely get the chance to move onto fish, but the bonus is that the bailiffs should give you an idea of where the fish are.

You might find this thread useful:

Followed it up with another 12lb fish

Been having a few pike trips this year, nothing special until today. A ledgered pollen produced a 20lb1oz fish. Hadn't been out more than 20minutes

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.