salokcinnodrog

Someone on the VE day flyover managed to get this picture, proper aerial view:

Pain au Chocolat, chocolate croissants or chocolate brioche dunked in hot coffee, proper French breakfast. An absolutely wonderful fishing snack!

I keep looking at day session shelters after my TFG brolly with storm sides broke at the wire on a very windy day session. It didn't go inside out, it actually got blown 'shut' with the wind coming onto it. I might be able to repair the TFG, but I have a feeling that a spoke did poke a hole in it.

I remember Rod Hutchinson giving a taped interview on I think his Woldview fishery. He said that the smaller carp go for it first, and the big girl would not be among them and actually avoided the warmer water until she was ready which was mid to late June. I've seen on our lake it is the younger stock fish that start the spawning motions long before the original fish, and don't necessarily use the same 'year in-year out' spots of the original fish. This year so far the dam wall was the spot, last year it was halfway along by the rushes, yet the original fish use the shallows by the island. Going back to Hutchy, he caught the big girl in the last chapter of The Carp Strikes Back (reprint) in August from memory and she was shedding spawn in the landing net, so what should have been his first 40 was 39 something. I used to think that it was temperature only, but the number of times I have seen carp start to spawn around a specific date (late May), even if it is cold, and then go again once it is warmer is pretty regular, so I am sure daylight hours has something to do with it. Even pike will go at a specific daylight hours if the water temperature is low and go again when it reaches optimum. I was on my syndicate this year watching them go first week of March, then mid April they were in a mates swim winding him up bumping lines and spawning. Totally, predators before the silvers, and no fish spawn or small silver fish are safe when the predators are eating them. Big pike bursting into a pack of roach or perch to grab a fish, or even grabbing a mouthful of fry. I do and don't on the closed season. I used to hate the Easter holidays as I couldn't fish, but it gave everything time to recover, birds to nest, banks to regrow and fish to spawn, yet proper spring fishing after the cold and wet of winter...

I think media driven is the right description, where even in the early days of printed media, magazines you could see anglers making the decision to fish full time in return for sponsorship or employment. I do think that social media has to some extent stopped it a bit as while Facebook and TikTok, YouTube and whatever are around it does not seem to be getting to every angler anymore like the printed word, it is too dissipated, too broken up. I mean almost every angler bought one or more magazines, yet I am positive that not every angler can be bothered following every YouTube or TikTok of all of those anglers putting stuff up. For myself I am less interested in social media than I ever was in the printed word. I do do Facebook, but more for anti-establishment and comedic posts than anything else, although I do put fishing ones up occasionally, but who would want to follow me?

I would recommend Lemons Hill North car park, cross the bridge and walk towards The Wonder. What was 'grassy bank' has 5 or 6 swims, and then the next swim is around half a mile along the reservoir. Walk back and go along the bank towards White Horse Lane, the top footpath is away from the swims, so take the lower footpath at the bramble bush. It comes back up to the top footpath and then splits again before the swims are right next to the path. There are a few swims on the other side around 200metres from the smaller Lemons Hill car park. Oh, don't forget that AW in their wisdom have put blooming meters in the car park, which is why I frequently park at the bottom of White Horse Lane adjacent to the houses and do that route in reverse, making sure to look around the area at Lemons Hill car park. Anglers do get free parking included in their ticket, but I would be darned if I would pay to walk around the reservoir. Don't park on the bridge, cars do get tickets for that.

Very interesting topic. Is it just media driven, or is it 'carp only'? I grew up fishing, with a close season on rivers and lakes. Summer was tench and bream, and winter was roach on the river and pike. I was a mix between a match and big fish angler. Carp were a bonus on the second rod, although in the late 1980's I did start fishing pretty much for them almost exclusively. I was lucky in that I did actually get my name in the Anglers Mail with 5lb tench and 5lb chub when I was 14, and by the time I was 17 had landed 2 9lb tench, bream to 8lb, a couple of 2lb roach and a 20lb pike. I kind of stayed on the edge of the fishing industry and media, rolling bait for a company, and in my early 20's actually running a water for a couple of years. I was also appearing in CarpTalk a bit, on my own catches and submissions and also with Ian Jones who was writing Cambs Uncovered, publicising catches and waters in the area. I guess carp.com is or was the edge of media, as certain subjects have made it into magazines or online media, either directly or as Carpology has done with a 'sneaky' pinch. I've actually moved away from carp only, probably since about 2014, chasing big roach on a reservoir, more 20lb pike, and the tench again to 12lb. The media driven did get to wind me up...

Since the locking of the car parks that sort of trouble has stopped. The local kids could be a pain down at Lemons Hill big car park, sitting on the nitrous canisters. I was getting out of the car, putting gear into the swim (which about 2 weeks ago was under water), although there is another quite sloped swim in the car park cut since. I also used to park down the lane by the White Horse and go 2 swims to the left, about 200 metres. The first swim was a snag pit, the remains of the old road from Tattingstone to Stutton, I've put up a pic so you can see. You now have another car park, entrance by the layby and houses on Lemons Hill, so that keeps walks short. The longest walk I had was The Wonder Car park and going left to the end of the bay on the far side. Birchwood can be a pain, but although I fished it a few times, never caught carp in the area. I never found it busy on any day of the week, although there might be a few people fishing, you never felt like they were close. The only thing I would say is try to reduce background on any pics you put up, or don't let everyone know you are catching. There were a few problems with lure anglers casting over lines (Eastern European) which put me off, and got me in trouble when I spoke out about it.

There are a few car parks around Alton; The Wonder, Lemons Hill North and Birchwood are not too long a walk. With the combination lock access there are a couple of car parks that non anglers don't have access to. Even better is on one swim I could bait up directly over my marker float from the bridge... The size can be daunting, although I live about 10minutes away, so I could walk areas before work and then fish from Sunday to Tuesday on my days off. There are definitely some fast growing fish in the stock that AW put in.

Suffolk venues are still as tough as they were around 20years ago. The day ticket waters are still mostly Suffolk Water Park and Hintlesham, and season ticket water is GAPS. There are a couple more with the occasional syndicate but if anything water availability is worse. Alderson is GAPS best fishy water although Causeway is quieter as it is tough. As I mentioned in the post above, Alton is possibly the best option although day tickets don't allow night fishing. At the north of the county, Hinderclay is day ticket and talk nicely to the manager Stuart and he might be able to give you some information.

Honestly no idea anymore.

Are you still fishing locally? I did spend some time on Alton Water and had a few good fish, it's probably one of the best non syndicate waters in the area, although other users make it a bit difficult at times. I think that I mentioned I've given up on GAPS, but did get onto a very nice syndicate in the north of Suffolk.

I don't know where you are currently fishing, or the size of fish, so this is a personal, generalised view. Obviously you have the lake, is it snaggy or clear? Are there loads of weed and rushes. Are you casting long distances? What size fish are you fishing for? For the clear water, maybe just double figure carp I'd be 10lb or 12 quite happily, if they go to 20lb+ 12lb, if 30lb I'd be using 15lb line. Even with reeds and weed, and 20lb fish I'd be around 12lb. I landed a lot of fish from Taverham Mills and Earith on 12lb line even with lilies, and that was Daiwa Sensor. I'd had the same thoughts as you. The other thing is line diameter. A 0.35mm 12lb line is going to have a breaking strain well over 15lb, 0.32 is going to be between 12 and 15lb, 0.30 is going to be 10lb to 12lb. If you need to cast long distances and can use a leader safely, then 10 or 12lb line is going to be the choice. The other thing obviously is lake rules, do they insist on a minimum line breaking strain? I know a number of waters insist on 15lb line minimum or maximum.

Our syndicate is shut for at least a week, they have started to do exactly that. May starts today...

Welcome back

You have other problems with gated fences on footpaths in that not everyone shuts them, or self closing gates don't close properly.

Fencing won't happen everywhere. Too many places can't be fenced, some syndicate, some club, even day ticket due to various reasons. Footpaths, farmland, even landscape regulations. As an example we would love to fence around it, but because it is in a Capability Brown landscape and historical grounds is subject to certain regulations. The property can be fenced, but there are inlet and outlet streams that can't be, so the lake has to be open. I believe syndicates are exempt from being able to apply for funding.

Coots, pike, swans, geese and ducks. I've seen how otters will grab a swan by the neck, and bite in until it dies. I did see on on the lake going into a rabbit warren, rabbit numbers are very low around the lake this year. The roadside warren has been wiped out. It was 20metres from a copse alongside the lake, where the otter hid. The warren on the house side has less rabbits than usual, but that is right next to the main car park and track, so may get regularly disturbed.

The one thing that I do feel is that different anglers have different references on big or small waters, it may even be water shape. On Taverham Mills and Barham B-pit which are both around 20acres, I never thought of as big, whereas the 12acre Weybread Number 1 I did. Weybread was more an open water where the other lakes were totally irregularly shaped, bays, points and peninsulas with no real long casting. I did really struggle on Weybread, it was the first water I was competing against other anglers including Jim Shelley, for a swim, and the 'team baiting'. Weekends were manic, and that at the time was my fishing time. As @yonny puts it, I was out of my depth, but I did catch my first 20lb carp, a fully scaled. The next year I went back to Taverham Mills and started catching on a decent bait. I started walking and locating, watching and learning. While I was catching far more, I didn't have another 20lb carp until 1995. I definitely class Ardleigh Reservoir and Alton Water as big, 160 and 475 acres respectively, as I do Nazeing Meads Central 40acres and South at 20acres which are connected by a bridged channel.

I spent the afternoon and evening on the beach at Felixstowe Saturday, no thornies, but did manage a couple of doggies and whiting. That is a decent size ray for your lad, sizeable across the wings. Bet they were like trying to pull the plug out...

Well done to everyone catching. Too many posts to like them all, some of those fish are absolute crackers, beautiful!

I find smaller lakes harder than bigger less pressured waters. The fish tend to be more wary, more rig aware, even more bait aware, so getting ahead of both the fish and other anglers. It is so much harder getting rigs that the fish aren't 'used to', although current fashions can make things a little easier if everyone is on spinner or Ronnie rigs, and you can come up with something different. When I first went onto Brackens Pool I knew it was heavily pressured, and nobody used much bait due to the rules of no catapulting or throwing bait in, everything had to be attached to PVA. I came up with my sliding revolving ring presentation (an adaptation of something I had seen Rob Maylin write about), and used plenty of big stringers, 30 boilies at a time, and would put in as many as 20casts of stringers before my hookbait cast. The first fish I caught was in a swim that was often ignored and was 30lb.

Manufacturers and tackle brands with their own media production. It has gotten to the stage that you can't easily get 'sensible' tackle. I've been arguing the toss about it for years. Practice casting is no more as 'high test curve rods will cure the distance shortage immediately'. Years ago in the 1990's I was hitting over 100metres with 2¼lb TC rods, admittedly with 8lb line and leader, and eventually switched up to 2¾lb rods with 15lb line, line which has become standard, to get the same distance. Nazeing Central and South was a real eye opener, I needed to hit 150metres, so went to 3.25lb rods. Everything was in 12ft, I could get those distances. The shorter rods just didn't seem right, especially as I have been to casting tournaments and seen rods get longer from 12ft, to 12ft6in, 13ft even 14ft. I get a shorter rod for stalking, it makes sense, but not in a massive test curve with a tip action.

Welcome to carp.com. Have fun finding your way around

That's my point, when it comes right it does mean so much. The common went in in 2018 at 18lb, it's now over 30lb, the linear was a 2020 stocking that was double figures. Last season I did have a very good year, although a 6 fish session really made my season