salokcinnodrog

There are loads of hi-attract flavour combinations around. Pineapple and N-butyric acid is probably the best known combination, but I have faith in a few of my own, one of which is Another combination I have used successfully is Eucalyptus Oil and Cherry Flavour, along with Cinnamon Oil and Peach, both have worked well. You could try Iso-Eugenol and Orange/Jaffa flavour. You will probably find some of those are quite similar to some well publicised pop-ups.

@crusian, through a couple of pm's made me really think about my fishing. I struggled for a couple of years on Nazeing. I was catching occasionally and big fish closest to my largest fish, but I never really felt on top of what I was doing. This year was a total change, going onto a large reservoir where no-one had really carp fished, no-one knew what was about, so it was all new. Plenty of walking, looking a few times 'camping', but over the year I have caught more fish, and more 20+ than in the previous few years. Even with no 30lb carp this year, I would say it has been more enjoyable; from the scenery over 350odd acres, to the catching of probably uncaught fish. Fishing has been mostly on my terms. From two days of mostly sleeping, to two days of watching. To prebaiting and catching, to learning.

Agree entirely Mate, although I dislike using them unless necessary. Think this pic shows how necessary it was in this swim.

I've mentioned how much I dislike using leaders for carp fishing, the risks of jammed leads on lead clips, lead not releasing etc, and why when I do use leaders I use a large bore run ring that can get over any leader knot. This morning I had a run that felt funny from the off, same spot I've had a few fish from, eventually got it free and landed another high double. This is what it did to my leader, lucky to have landed that one. I have lost a couple, broken hook link twice, so reckon they had rubbed over whatever.

I've got a bucket of chicken corn and hemp soaking ready for boiling tomorrow, once thats done I'll sling a kilo of KMG boilies in it, and since I've swapped shifts on Saturday from late to early, I can go prebait and walk the dog round the reservoir for fishing Sunday until Tuesday. As I said it has been taking the carp two days to settle onto bait. The 28 was excreting chicken corn and hemp shells all over me last week, so maybe prebaiting a day early will give me first night results... Thats a hope, I'll probably blank now. Not been the nicest weather for camping or catching my last three trips, wet and windy. I've had rain blowing under the brolly, so this week the overwrap came out of storage. Needed it as well, Monday night was weird. 10pm it was blowing heavily with absolute monsoon rain from south east, and I caught. By 11 it was calm and clear, could see the moon, then at 2am, windy as heck again with showers and I caught again. In fact, I haven't caught unless it has been persisting it down with a decent blow on the reservoir. I've found a decent wind with rain some of the best autumn to winter conditions for years.

You mean what I do most of the time?😖😆😉

It is a difficult one to gauge about moving. At the moment on my water my fish are coming on the second night over the bait I put in on the first night, although that may be skewed as the weather has changed and really gotten windy and wet and blowing into my spot. If I move I could be starting from scratch. If however I caught on the first night, and then saw fish the other side and nothing in my area, I would likely be upping sticks. I wouldn't be upping the bait amount when I'm fishing, I think baiting on top of them, especially boilies, can put them off, but you really need to know the water. If I see fish, I tend to fish up to them with stringers or single baits.

The honest answer as you have already said is every lake is different. I'm also not sure that naturals do decrease in winter, carp feed size swan mussels just dig deeper into the silt, and carp don't expend so much energy digging them out. Bloodworm I think increase in numbers, but I may be wrong. If you are starting to catch, you are getting it right, so keep on. If that is an increase in bait while it is still warm, go for it. If it means dropping down to single hookbaits try that on at least one rod against what is working. Autumn and Winter are actually the times I do catch more I think from memory. I don't add any liquids to boilies as such, they go in as they are. When I have prepared my particles I drop in some (shelf life) KMG boilies that go in when I arrive onto my spots. My hookbaits, stringer or mesh boilies go in straight out of the bait bag, although I often mesh my hookbaits in tights or vegetable wrap, (what onions and other vegetables are sold in from supermarkets). Signs I look for; that is always a difficult question, but showing fish; rolling, splashes and big bubble or silty cloudy patches of water are a start. Even flat water in ripples can be a fish. I have also seen 'shapes' under the water when looking down at the water from above.

We have come a bit off topic of just rigs, but just as an example this is the rig, the exact rig, hook etc that caught me four fish from the reservoir. I have made the comment in the past about hook sharpness; if they aren't sharp enough out of the pack, then don't use them. Get a brand that is. You can see how much abuse that has taken as the coating on the braid has been well rubbed and the point no longer looks sharp. The hair was the stripped hooklink braid long enough for 2x 20mm boilies, straight out of the bait bucket fished hard on the bottom around bridge supports.

Don't necessarily think of a rig as just a pop-up or bottom bait rig, although the Ronnie rig is pretty much pop-up only. I have used both the D-rig and Multi rig with bottom baits. My standard 'bottom' bait rig can be used as a pop-up rig, just by using a shorter hair, tying the bait tight to the rig ring, and adding a pop-up weight. I can use the same D-rig, Multi rig or bottom bait rig for snowman baits. On heavily stocked lakes it may be that there are not enough freebies around your hookbait, that could be pellets or particles, or groundbait. With a pop-up it could be that fish are wary of picking a bait that is 2inches off the lakebed. A single or double may recognise its not nailed down. A 20 or 30 may not. The kicker may or may not be the problem, there can be a difference from water to water, area to area on hooking fish. On one water I fished a standard knotless knotted rig failed to hook fish. I had to add a proper line aligner to hook them. Just lengthening the tubing on a straight shank can create better hookholds, a bent or curved kicker is not always necessary.

I use the plain Fabsil, either spray or tin. In my case it is always done on the bank when fishing. The spray is two cans per bivvy, or a tin is enough for brolly and overwrap. I use a brush, but have heard a sponge is better.

I can get 2/3 boilies at a time around 80metres in anything other than a headwind. A stick does have an advantage in that you can put in around 5 boilies in at a time rather than just one, so it can be faster than a catapult! Straight or curved, you have to find what works best for you. I can use straight and slightly curved, but get some of the more severe curves and I am baiting the margins or my feet...

I still use a Cobra stick myself, my Ace is many years old, well used and irreplaceable. If I ever killed it I would really struggle to find a direct replacement. Look after your throwing stick, keep it clean, if you go carbon, keep it safe and protected. Yonny mentions distance, it takes practice, perfectly round, very hard baits that don't split, and a bit more practise. I am good for around 100metres, and I do spend time practising on the reservoir. I have tried a number of sticks, so here are my findings: You will need to find a straight or curved stick that suits you, not all are the same. I struggle with excessive curves, but cannot use a totally straight stick. I could not use a Korda Eazi-stick, they were awful. I needed two hands to use it to be able to come from a directly overhead motion, to keep the baits going straight. I can use a big heavy stick, but I do start to notice it after a kilo or so. 3 kilos is my limit! Since the demise of Cobra and being bought out by Nash Tackle you would think that Nash would make the best sticks, but sadly not, you will be looking at Fox Rangemaster, Cygnet Sniper in plastic, or for lightness, carbon for me it would be the Gardner Pro-pela. The loading port is a fad, it adds weight, slows the stick down in the air. Next point, cheap plastic, Cobra's were or are heavy, but it is decent quality plastic, it was built to last, not all sticks are now. Many while the shape is right, are of poor quality plastic that bends, cracks or even just gets marked and appears as a white line where the plastic has been damaged. Carbon, brilliant, very light, but take very good care of it. It is an expensive item to break. That means keeping it in a good strong tube, not just a plastic case.

In most cases rigs are a complete fad as Elmo has pointed out. For pop-ups I still resort to plain bog standard pop-up rigs, often a D-rig or a sliding ring on the hookshank, weighted down with a match anglers olivette. For the smaller fish on Bromeswell (4-15lb), it put loads on the bank for me earlier in the year. A coated braid, with a short stripped section near the hook. The pop-up either on a bait screw or a rig ring, and tied on. I do use Bromeswell as an experimentation lake, and the maximum hook size in the rules is a 10, so I use the largest size 10 possible. (Different makes have different size standards). This same rig has produced fish on the (big fish) reservoir as well, as has a coated braid line aligned rig with 2x 20mm bottom baits on a braided hair. I also mostly use running or bolt rig lead set-ups, rarely helicopters, I think that there is too much free movement on the end tackle end, with no indicator or buzzer movement on helicopter leads.

They should send them in polystyrene boxes so they don't defrost. However, unlike the others I will never refreeze boilies. Best way to get 'frozen' boilies delivered is before they have been frozen after being dried.

For years Terry Hearn used black Amnesia as his boom on stiff hinge links, because it lay well, even though fluorocarbon was available. I still use clear Amnesia in 15 and 20lb for mono hooklinks. My braids and coated braids are from Kryston before they were sold by Dave Chilton. I bought plenty when I heard the sale was going through, so I have Merlin, Snakebite and Mantis in the 'original' colours (Merlin changed years ago from an olive green and white to a black white and green configuration). Don't convince yourself you need your hooklinks to be totally camouflaged, nylon hooklinks are as good as any on the lakebed, only the abrasion resistance is suspect. The Mantis Gold I use is a charcoal grey almost black colour, and Snakebite is green.

Fish with what you fish best with. On most lakes I have fished I nearly always use particles, especially hemp and corn, not just sweetcorn and maize but pigeon or chicken corn. It can really get the fish grubbing around, even if I fish boilies on the hook. There are times when particles attract bream and tench and they won't let carp feed due to numbers of them but it is rare. On those lakes I will switch to boilies only.

Overnight in the freezer and they could well be still alive next day, just very slow until they warm up. I used to use a lot of maggots, so here is my advice: Buy fresh maggots from the tackle shop. The newer, fresher they are the larger the food spot is. Older maggots have almost no food spot, and will soon turn to casters. When you get back riddle the maggots, take off all the sawdust sold with them. Put them into a maggot tub with fresh clean sawdust or maize meal. If you buy a pint of maggots, put them in a two pint bait tub. Basically for the amount of maggots you buy, double the size of the bait tub. Keep your maggots in the fridge, and riddle them every day. This removes dead skins and casters, and check the sawdust/maize meal. There is a 'but' to fresh maggots, in winter, especially on rivers, older maggots wriggle more on the hook.

Hooklink materials, a massive choice which catch many anglers. I have a few hooklink materials from mono, the same as my reel line and Amnesia, coated and plain braids. I try to keep my rigs simple. More anglers are caught up in rig fashion than fish. My usual starting point is 'old school'; a standard hook either knotless knotted or tied on, with a proper hair made from dental floss or hooklink braid. A line aligned hook, with shrink or silicon tube. I can use this for bottom baits or snowmen baits, or even pop-ups. Does it catch? Yes!

Confidence, something I have struggled with the probably the past couple of seasons, then last night... I know my rigs work, i've been using the same rigs for over 10 years, with snowman or bottom baits, even double bottom baits. Simple, line aligned, coated braid hooklinks with a proper length hair. My bait, whatever I use, I know it will work, be it boilie over particle or boilies alone. I have probably gone through more chicken corn and hemp this year than for a few years, because I think I can put it in more easily. Boilies, I rarely choose a pup. I tend to know a good bait, although there have been exceptions. The thing I was losing confidence in was my location, hard to pinpoint carp on 350+ acres, and I wasn't walking enough. Saying that, it could take the carp a couple of days to move onto bait. Setting up on them was not always an option. If carp were around, I should catch them. I think my biggest fault this year was baiting up every day rather than letting the fish settle onto it after day ones bait. Blanking can do your head in. That to me is the biggest loser of confidence, even if it is not your fault. I try to analyse what I did wrong to put it right, and as with everyone probably go round in circles. Go back to basics, and what you know works, catch again.

Stumble out of the bivvy, trip over, knock yourself out and fall into the lake? I can do that when sober, add alcohol and weed and it is curtains.

Another angling death on Sunday: https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/chantry-park-ipswich-suffolk-closure-for-body-found-1-6270782 Anyone who knows me, via here or Facebook knows how often I walk round the park with my dog. The air ambulance was just taking the body away as I was walking my dog round the park lake on Sunday morning. Two police officers inside the police tape on the bank footpath with bivvy inside as well. I had actually walked Sky around the park at 23.30 the night before, doing a 'patrol' against poaching and taking of fish, and I know darn well the 'angler' concerned was drunk and 'smoking'.

Not seen them for years

I hope your lake has good winter form! In winter can get into a depth they find comfortable, or even an area that holds a few features like snags, weeds, natural food, maybe weed stems. You might find the depth thing fun, if it is over the 70feet deep area. If for example, the area they like is 6ft deep you could be fishing 64ft high zig rigs... I would seriously contemplate fishing easier waters with known form. It is very difficult trying to find winter carp on any water, especially larger lakes on your own. In winter I tend to use exactly the same bait as I did in summer, especially if I have been prebaiting and fishing with it. Believe it or not, those hi-attract pop-ups catch me more fish on high stocked waters than they do on the harder waters I fish, despite me always fishing hi-attract baits on one rod every trip. The harder water fishes best to my normal food bait.

I tend to use the 'right' lead size for my rods. So for my 2.75lb TC NG's I use a 3oz lead, for my 3.25lb TC The Ones I use 3.5oz leads. The reason is simple, I know that optimum weight and a 3 bait stringer will cast maximum distance, and whichever rod I pick up, I know I can cast the same. If I need to change casting distance, usually shorten, I can add more baits on a stringer, or remove if I do need to cast slightly further. At the moment, due to undertow I am fishing semi-fixed leads as well. I have found lighter leads, under 3oz can be moved (and if the inflow was pouring in at Nazeing) I could need to go up to 4oz. However, when I can fish running leads and a slack line, I found the 3oz on my NG's was exactly right.