salokcinnodrog

I have tried a few fish both in UK and abroad, carp, pike, gudgeon and bleak. Gudgeon and bleak used to be eaten whole, basically stir fried like whitebait, or in a pie. I've never found carp earthy, although that may be because of being 'washed' in water (tank) rather than straight from the capture. The same with pike, although they are bony, fine needle bones that take a lot of picking out. It kind of bugs me because obviously we catch and return, but carp were brought over specifically for eating, monk stew ponds possibly even the Romans. Pike were eaten for years. Problem with everything is taking from the wild rather than farms or 'overstock'.

The light is on as you say! There are fish farms already around for fish breeding for food in various countries. In Israel, Jews obviously have to eat kosher, which is freshwater fish, and carp are on the menu. It was imported Israeli carp that brought a batch of KHV to Europe. In Eastern Europe a lot of laws now in place for the wildwaters and lakes, there is a maximum size that can be taken. Poland, Romania and Hungary I know have fish farms. China is another country where carp are eaten. Paddy fields planted with rice, stocked with carp and flooded. At harvest time the paddy fields are drained, and carp and rice are harvested. I've been to restaurants in Germany, the food carp are in the tank, pick your fish for dinner, it's not a display.

The amusing thing to me is that my syndicate lake has produced a 50lb common on natural food. Sadly the fish has died, but it was a 1970's stocking. We also have Chestnut who normally comes out around 43lb, and another uncaught big common that I and others have seen and would reckon to be 50lb+, along with a big mirror of over 40lb I think, again, not recently caught. In addition we have a progressive stocking policy, so from 80ish fish in 45acres we have gone to around 165 (estimate), and the fish are normally stocked in at double figures, although there were five that had to be moved from a quarry lake so permission was gained to put them in, 15lb, 18lb, 23lb, 30lb and 39lb. The 39lb has been caught after spawning at 35lb, both the 18lb and 23lb commons have reached 30lb, the 30lb died after spawning we think and the 15lb is an old male staying around that weight. Even in the middle of summer, I can fish the lake from Sunday to Friday and not see another angler, and at weekends there might be 2 or 3 on the lake, so not much bait going in. Cost is less than £500 a year. I've put pictures up on here of fish I've caught from there, and the past few years growth rates have been phenomenal. One of this year's stock fish going from 11.10 to 21lb, and others have caught fish doing similar rates, then stockings from 3 to 4 years ago hitting 30lb plus. Now obviously you can't just stock in any fish and expect them to be big fish, our syndicate manager has quite literally hand picked 20 carp each year from the supplier.

I believe the extreme feeding is why so many of the original Simmos had a short life. They had a high fat and high protein diet. I think some fish made it to 20lb in 2 years! I know of a few waters with original Simmos that within two years the big stocked fish were dying, yet originals were still going. Leney fish reaching 70years? I'm sure Raspberry in Redmire was an original stocking from 1934, and was caught at the age of 67. These commercial Fisheries are not my bag at all. I really worry for the fish, but the instant biggest is best attitude has pervaded carp fishing. We see new records, the biggest fish in the headlines, yet we rarely see long life of these high pressure high fed fish, and that is different from 20years ago when Scar and Les Graviers and Rainbow and those fish were record swapping between them. I'm pretty sure while those lakes are commercial very little feeding happens other than bait.

Welcome to carp.com. I fished Nazeing Meads for years, some very good fishing, but you did need to be very aware...

Welcome back, and welcome to carp.com. My carp fishing break is only 2months, and that is because my syndicate doesn't fish well from October, so I switch to pike and sea fishing

There are so many choices in mainline, and you will likely get many answers. I used Daiwa Sensor in brown for years, it casts lovely, although it needed replacing fairly regularly, often twice a year or more. The brown is softer and more supple than the clear. On the Sensor clear, it doesn't knot as easily or tidily as the brown, but from a friends experience he said that it stands up to damage and 'overstretch' better than brown. I would probably have stayed with Sensor if it wasn't for Gardner Pro line. I was given a sample to test before it's release. It has pretty much been on my reels ever since in either light or dark. Every time I get new line, I replace it with the same.

Welcome to carp.com

I thought they were black stop beads! Split shot wouldn't likely slide down the line and be tight now.

Mike Wilson baited around Wilson's Island on Savay with maize for weeks, catching bream then double figure carp and prebaiting still until September and catching a 30.

A local club to me has a rule of no floating baits or zig rigs, so anglers were fishing baits just under the surface with a float. When bailiffs found out what was going on it was amended to baits were not allowed to be fished in the top 18inches of water. I must admit that if I can surface fish I would have more distance between the float and hookbait, so that does look rather freaky.

The Baiting Pyramid I remember reading about, I think was originally a Mike Wilson idea, a chapter in Rod Hutchinson's The Carp Strikes Back and articles in CarpWorld. Rob Hughes, for some reason I can't remember where it was, I think I read it in a magazine rather than on a video. I know that at times it works, but also attracting silver fish, bream etc can also get pike sitting around the area putting everything off, or even large numbers of bream holding carp away. The pike problem has been a real issue on the syndicate.

That's something I've done sort of for years, a few steps forward or back, or even changing up lead size. There is also a difference in casting between mono and braid, and mono being elastic can come back further than you think as it retracts. The number of people I see wondering why they are so far away from their marker, I've always allowed around a third of the depth past it to account for swing back, although I have smashed a few Drennan or ESP markers or pike floats in the past with the lead. Oh boy! One night at Taverham Dave Cobbold and I put in a 10kg base mix bucket full of hemp on one spot with the original Gardner spods. The anglers on the lake were astounded and laughed, until the morning when we'd had around 10 doubles between us. It was Rob Hughes who said if you have an idea of how much bait to Spomb in, double it. I've frequently put in buckets full of bait for fish. On Alton tipping whole buckets in off the bridge... I loved that swim! Funny thing is that if I caught on the bait I didn't catch on the single bait, and if I caught on the single bait I didn't catch on the bed of bait. Every other swim I think it was all over large amounts of bait. I've tried wading and putting bait in on the syndicate and failed, yet Spombing has worked sometimes, not every time. Stringers and throwing stick have worked. It's a case of find the fish or hope they come to you.

The Nash ones weren't rumours. A French carp society meeting he admitted it on video. I don't think I still have pictures of the transcripts, but I believe I posted them on the forum

Your contract is with the place you purchased them from. As not fit for purpose, I would be getting a refund and something by a different manufacturer.

As you put the braid on the reel put a twist of power gum under the clip. So power gum under the clip, around the spool and knotted on the opposite side. Then cover it over by reeling the braid onto the spool. That should help protect the braid from clip damage.

If you fix it to a wooden board with a lip it will sit nicely on the work surface, and can be taken fishing and sat on your tackle box. Makes crumbing boilies easier and quicker than a Krusher

My map work:

Oh joys! If you have a combined spod and marker rod then braid is the answer, you can't avoid it as you need the feel for leading or marker float work. For that I use 0.36mm 50lb Angryfish braid, to a 40lb Greased Weasel (mono) leader. Point of note, so many people say you don't need a leader, but I regularly recover spods, Spombs and marker floats attached to just a braid knot which has cracked off. It is caused by braid having zero stretch as it hits the clip, and normally breaking where the braid has been tightened down, or right at the clip. I learnt that lesson myself, so always stick with the leader. Other thing is I also like my fingers as braid can cut very badly if you catch them on a miscast. If I need to leave a marker float in place and bait up to it, then my actual Spod rod is fished with mono to leader. Mono has stretch, so you can get away with 15lb mono to the same leader, or even 30lb Amnesia.

I spent a lot of yesterday going through back Facebook to 2016 to get back pictures that photobucket has put on hold now that they are charging for hosting. I setup the photobucket account around 2006 and for years it was no problem, hosted pictures, used on here and carpforum, and as storage because PC's simply didn't have the memory, or needed replacing every few years. Then photobucket changed terms and conditions and charged for pictures used on other sites. I've been through photobucket and filled up tablets and phones with years of pictures. I now need some of my old pictures for PAC (Pike Anglers club) talks I'm doing this season, first one next month in Lincoln, region 48. Then the joys of transferring them from Android back onto USB stick, which means renaming everything to store them in the order I need them.

Yes Mate.

I got stabbed with a syringe by a shoplifter back in 2011 I think it was. That was an A&E job, HIV, Hep C and B tests, and a year of blood tests and Hep B immunisation jabs. The 'no win no fee' solicitor took the case on for criminal assault etc. The court awarded a total of £1000, which in terms of the mental health covered bog all. After he took his cut I got a total of £520. The assailant got 2years after changing his plea on the trial day, he'd served 11months on remand, so had 1month more to serve before his release. Pleading guilty pretty much got 50% of the sentence reduced and time served. Really not worth the effort either way. Justice and sentences really wind me up, and Starmer let loose a lot more on early release to make places for 'right wing fascists' who were in many cases demonstrating against the current immigration, and not all were rioting.

I don't think so. Only 1 fish came from any sort of marginal or 'surface' feature, a marginal lily bed in a bay, the rest came from wide open water. I did get through plenty of calories walking and Spombing. My Spombing and casting was normally to a marker float. I also didn't have to worry about a sailor or windsurfer hitting a bait boat as happened to someone up near the dam where the sailing club are. When I was Spombing there, I used mono, the marker rod was used with braid. As @kevtaylor says, no problems with it not hitting nose first at the distances I was fishing, which was up to 100 metres I guess, hit the clip and it drops. When I use the Spomb with braid I do get the occasional not opening problem, but it's a whole lot more aerodynamic in any cross wind than the Nash Dot Spod, and that seems cheap and tacky, I really dislike it.

Very witty, although I did just edit the title from cash reports to catch reports before seeing this

I've put the discussion in Tackle and Equipment... https://forum.carp.com/topic/33654-a-section-for-bait-boats/#comment-387097