salokcinnodrog

I suppose so, but even though I may be a field tester or sponsored angler, I still fish for me, not for my bait or tackle deal. The bait or tackle deal comes from being able to do what I do, so I carry on doing it. I don't 'have to' keep my name or pictures on the social media, and every fish is worth a smile.😉 It is the lack of smile that annoys me; be happy, show your emotion, get a record of it, because life comes and goes. Sometimes being able to see what happiness you had can save your life, makes you realise everything is worthwhile. Being a grumpy guts in pictures, why? The dedication to chase, pioneer on waters or catch a particular fish is hard, and when it comes to a particular fish I fail miserably. I prefer to be on bigger waters putting my time in alone or with a close mate who thinks like I do, who has the same motivation, where we can communicate our spotting of fish, share success or failure, but my fishing time I do really prefer alone, so for me it is the (genuine) new water, or pioneering where I do best. I think that although it was run by the owner as a syndicate previously, my catches on Earith Virginia Water were used to publish and show what was in there by Ian Jones. I was in the right place at the right time, with a good syndicate owner who happened to be writing Cambs Uncovered for Carp Talk. Not just his water, but a lot of the results from waters in the area were in that column, but my name regularly made it in there. That is what got me my bait deal, but continuing to catch from Ardleigh when it was still new, and then straight onto Nazeing with some big fish helps.

Not sure about the 'bulldog licking pee off a nettle' shots, 😖😆, they always strike me as doing it only for the numbers for their latest sponsor. If you are only chasing numbers, then I think you are in the wrong pursuit. I've been there, done it, as many 20's in a season, have to beat my largest fish etc, and realised that there was/is more to it than that. I go fishing to relax, enjoy my time off work or the pressures of life. Sometimes my fishing trip is almost all sleep for two and a half days, other times it is work hard looking, baiting and chasing. Some of my trips are with a Mate, but most of all I enjoy time on my own with my dog. I enjoy the being away from everyone. I struggle to deal with crowded waters. I prefer to be out in the boonies, away from everyone. That really does affect my choice of waters. I can't deal with local club waters, which are crowded almost every weekend, even if I do fish from Sunday to Tuesday or Wednesday. I like being able to hide out on a big open water, as much as I enjoy catching big fish. Beating my largest is no longer the priority it once was.

Do not put salt on hemp as you soak it or it will not split. Add it to the water after boiling.

Strangely enough you may well find one 'big name' angler prefers to fish the gravel bars, yet another prefers the silty areas. Both may well have caught 'that' special fish from their chosen area. I would never claim innocence, I have used various methods to get baits in place, swimming, bait boat or boat, (although not for over 20years), wading, or casting it. We all have different strongpoints, and probably a few weaknesses. The hard part is working out what works for you, within the rules (!)

Angling is never a level playing field; time, money available to spend on equipment, even transport and rules other constraints can mess things up. I can give you a simple that I use though, a 1oz lead sinks approximately 3feet (1metre) per second. On my local reservoir I use this quite frequently to get a rough depth when counting my feeder and lead down. I have 'double checked' my counted estimate with a marker float, and come up with the same reading. I have watched fish feeding, what happens when you can get up close can be very different from the same fish who don't know you are there. By that I have sat in cover watching carp, and I'm positive they knew there was a 'predator' about. Yet watching the same spot from high up a nearby tree, the carp fed comfortably, clearing the area rather than backwards, forwards, in and out. Now we all know the Korda team did the 'Under the Water' dvd's, yet they created a 'predator', an unlifelike situation, a blooming camera in the environment that is not normally there. Were the carp (and other fish) behaving normally or not? I have mapped various lakes, some physically put onto on paper, some physically recorded with marker and mentally remembered in my head. I have pictures from Google Earth with features showing, distances of casts to features of one lake. Some lakes can be googled and pics like that will appear! Strangely that comes to your next point of interest, weed. Weed is a brilliant one, it can grow over your lines in a day, it follows the sun, it is a food holding feature, it is cover, and weedbeds can be travel routes. I have seen weedbeds where the fish have 'tunnels' through it. The carp (and tench) will go through these tunnels under the weed.

I don't think one method of feature finding will find everything. Even gravel bars often have a layer of silt on them, which a Deeper may not identify as a bar, just as a shallower area. Strangely enough there are some lakebeds I really know well, some features that marker floats and leads are extremely unlikely to pick up, years of experience, getting out onto the lake with a boat or swimming. On Taverham, one of the island gravel bars has a trough that is around 150mm deeper than the rest of the bar. Fish use this slightly deeper line to swim up from the depths to the island margins, checking it for food as they come. Another swim has a massive great flat topped rock, standing proud of the lakedbed, with nothing around it except weed. A marker float or leading around is extremely unlikely to find these features; it would be quite difficult to land a marker, followed by fishing end tackle on the rock. The ONLY way to find these is by going out to them and seeing from above, boat or Deeper. Yet to identify a gravel bar or patch as (silt on) gravel may require personal eye visual or a marker float and lead.

At the same time, I do like the heavier pod as it increases stability. Going lighter on some equipment is not always the way forward.

Two of the people blocked are known fish thieves, stealing fish from waters to put in their syndicate lake. They even boasted about it on FB, and the EA, local club and council are involved investigating them. Don't forget I don't just carp fish, so while I don't mind helping bream and roach anglers, or other carp anglers (in private), it is the lazy carp anglers who are just going off other peoples efforts.

I have a standard P1 pod, I wouldn't change it for anything else. I can fit longer banksticks to raise the front or rear.

Phil, at the same time, look how effective the bent hook rig was. Elmo's rig is on those lines, difficult to eject.

Put it this way, a few people on Alton's Facebook page have been blocked from seeing my posts. Pictures have been from all around the ressie, not just where I was fishing.

Not always so healthy, bacon sandwiches on Tuesday lunchtime, although porridge for breakfast was a bit better. (Prepared and eaten in saucepan). For a session of a couple of days, I can keep a pint of milk in my coolbag, although I do have to have goats milk. Ages ago we had a Bankside recipes thread, I do still like decent cooking when I'm fishing. I can't live on Pot meals, and 2/3nights is roughly what meat keeps for in the bag. Onions, peppers even mushrooms will last that.

Welcome to Carp.com. What matters is how the rods and reels feel to you. Personally I would think that the 5010 baitrunners are a bit small on 3.25lb rods, but at the same time I think 3.25lb TC rods are too heavy for most fishing, they are long distance fishing rods. Fox FX11 reels are long distance casting reels, which is what a 3.25lb rod is designed for.

Monday night was couscous with stirfried chicken breast, mushrooms, green pepper, garlic and tomatoes, spiced with cinnamon, ginger, coriander and chilli seeds.

Aye, but he was not on my friends list, and can only have seen where I was fishing through Alton Water's page. Dave has also gotten wound up at even bream anglers not bothering to do any work. We've been targeting an area that all of a sudden has become heavily fished to the state that it can be difficult to find a swim or peg. Sadly the other anglers aren't catching as they simply aren't putting enough bait in. We've stopped naming areas, and clipping our photos to the extreme to reduce background.

Not one Mate. I know I can't see the whole of the water in one walk, it is 10 miles round, but Dave and I stop at bridge and look both ways, head to either Birchwood or The Wonder then study with binos from there, both ways up and down.

I should have bivvied further back as I could be seen if you looked carefully off the bridge. Not a recognised dog walker, I know a few of them by now, or correctly Sky knows their dogs.

Talk about others trying to cash in! Last week on my session before starting the new job on Wednesday, Dave and I arrived at the reservoir on Saturday. There had been no carp anglers on there at all this season, god knows I had been walking it enough, but Saturday, exactly where my bivvy had been, someone else had set up. At first Dave could not get why I was so upset about it, but I think other people eventually got him to understand. Ended up somewhere totally different, with a longer walk at another bay, not quite so sure of it, but it has prospects. Again, no fish, but more learnt. Fished the same spot again this week for two nights, from Sunday after work until tonight. Still trying to find them.

Enjoying it very much😀😉

For catfish, personally I would avoid mono or fluorocarbon hooklinks, and go to coated or plain braid, although plain braid will get plucked. Length I would probably look at 150-200mm long for rigs, with around 20mm from hook to bait on hair. Bait for cats is fairly simple, 20mm pellets, 2 or 3 on the hair, gives you a chance of both species, as will any fishmeal boilie.

Believe it or not, don't boil them for so long, but dry them for longer. 50/50 mixes are attractor baits, that do break down quickly anyway. You should not need to boil any mix for longer than 2 minutes maximum, better 1m 30s. Leave to dry overnight, preferably 12-24 hours.

For the rods I would say 'ouch!' 3.5lb is a heavy test curve that is designed more for long distance casting than fishing, fish playing. I still say that in the UK you need no more than 2.75lb TC, with an absolute maximum of 3lb unless you do need to cast long. Fashion has gone a long way in making life more difficult than it need be. Matching reels do make life easier, although the 10000 size is about right in either the DL, Beastmaster or XTB; the DL is a 'larger' baitrunner but with 15lb line due to line diameter and capacity you would struggle to cast much above 90metres. The other two from memory are 'big pit' style. After using DL and Beastmaster reels, I honestly think the Beastmaster are better quality.

I have Side cutters as I found the end cutters don't always fit in the fishes mouth😉, and Stanley Fat Max are definitely the best. I have no problem using barbed or barbless, although I do think that barbless can wobble and cut more during the fight as the fish changes direction, enlarging hookholds. A small or micro barb prevents that wobbling. I have seen carp eject barbed hooks after a snap-off, as long as there is no added weight. By that I mean no lead, leadcore or rubbish providing tension. If there is tension then it does not matter if the hook is barbed or barbless, it can be difficult to eject.

Big Dave was fishing for them today, he was chuffed he caught 3 @ 5lb each from the reservoir. He now prefers the challenge of fishing for bream and roach on Alton more than carp fishing on Bromeswell. I've not hooked any bream from the reservoir, yet, double 20mm boilies probably make that a tough proposition for them to pick up my bait. Things I've forgotten; tackle box, more than once😖 and driven home 70miles on one occasion to collect it, bedchair

Could well be😉