salokcinnodrog

You can boil it, it increases the attraction, but it doesn't need boiling as long as it has soaked for 24 hours. Careful if you buy any other manufacturers boilies from there. Not something I will put down in public, but I have some suspicions...😁😉

Yes Mate, but be aware, it becomes around 60kilos or more! If I'm fishing for a few days, 5 kilos will last me easily. If you use a 3 pint maggot tub to measure it out into a bucket, add boiling water that will last you a days fishing easily.

Thats alright then, I hate Nash, lol😖😆 Had to return too many broken rods when I worked in the tackle shop...😖😉

Welcome to Carp.com. As others have said look in local animal feed stores for pellets, chicken corn, Vitalin even pigeon conditioner. Failing that ebay is a good source for things like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GardenersDream-Mixed-Poultry-Corn-Deluxe-Feed-For-Chicken-Geese-Duck-Seed-Food/254211112564?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144 Soak it in a bucket with boiling water for 24 hours, boil and its ready to use. Mix in with some Vitalin and you have a very good groundbait. Boilie wise there are plenty of good makes out there. Depending on what you want a food source or an attractor bait you have a massive choice. For boilies you could try Rod Hutchinson who do deal direct https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/bait/

I had my first session there this week, which although I blanked, I did enjoy and learnt a bit about the water. The session was a success in itself and while there I heard some good news about a job I had been interviewed for, start next week. As soon as I got home I just wanted to get back. With my start date for work, I've managed to pencil in another trip from Saturday until Tuesday and then work the next day.

Thanks, just thinking of that carp brings back good memories, the 20lb common that thought it was a 50😄😖😆 That undercut produced a number of good fish, and it was especially good when the lake was crowded. Strangely enough, with the topic currently ongoing in Tackle and Equipment about rod lengths and casting, it was a cast where you had to drill the cast at a very low angle to get a long way under the bank.

The angle you cast at will determine how far under the trees the lead will go, and the distance you cast. Working on ballistic theory, with no external forces, the study of bullets, leads, shapes etc, the lead being cast at 45 degrees will travel (cast) furthest, it will also hit the water at the same angle you cast at. Cast at 60 degrees, the lead will leave the rod tip at that angle, and hit the water at that angle, however 60degrees will mean it will dive down in the water at that same angle, not going under the trees as far as a cast at a lower angle. Feathering the cast can change the angle, as can hitting the clip. Hit the clip, and instead of the lead carrying on at the same angle it will swing down on an arc, further reducing the distance under the tree. It is pretty standard knowledge that dependant on you the angler, the longer rod you use to your maximum limits, the further you will cast. The shorter rods have become fashionable, a marketing exercise, in creating new buyers for equipment in most cases. However some swims do not lend themselves to long rods, overhanging trees and the like. The longer rod has more tip speed, reducing effort to get the same distance over a 10foot rod. Higher tip speed generates casting distance.

If the lead has moved, usually, somehow a fish is responsible, be it a fish trailing line, line 'bite', or a rig ejection. Undertow can move a lead, and cause constant action on the bobbins though. You may need to up the indicator weight to prevent this movement. Bobbins should NOT be chosen on fashion, but on actual fishing situation, and mega light bobbins are not suitable on every water, even every swim.

I'm not a great one for lakes with loads of rules, for my fishing. This may have changed over time, but rules are in place usually to cater for the 'most stupid' denominator or the 'idiot factor', although idiots are usually idiots whether they follow the rules or not. At least with rules in place they can be safely removed... If the rules state no leaders, no leadcore I'm happy enough, doesn't affect my fishing. My biggest turn-off is as others have said, being booked or stuck in a swim, although Smufter's lake with the common sense rules on that, that appear to have been carefully applied does still sound very attractive. On Suffolk Water Park, I don't like being stuck in a swim, not being able to move. If I arrive on Monday, set up on showing fish, and by Tuesday they have moved, so would I, but you are booked into a swim and may be stuck.

Strangely enough depending on water depth, of the whole lake, the deeper water is often the most oxygenated. A reservoir, the most oxygenated water will be 4metres deep or more. However, in a 'normal' lake you are looking at maximum depth being not much more than 3/4 metres, so mega deep water is out of the question. During warmer days I would be looking under cover, weedbeds, overhanging trees, snags, and the like. If you have undercut banks then these can be very good spots, and for obvious reasons you might not see carp in them.

This should explain it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46606125

Trying to find them in 375 acres... Put it this way, as much as I love everyone, it is one water I wouldn't name or say which area I'm fishing.

Welcome to Carp.com. I prefer to use my local tackle shops, very rarely do I use online. Particles I can dive into Gladwell's. I can always find an excuse to go via the tackle shop. The exception is my field test stuff, bait and tackle, which I get direct from the manufacturer.

Seen carp, hooked a few while fishing for other species.

Well I finally have a long session arranged on my large Suffolk reservoir, from Sunday until Thursday. Got plenty of bait to take, I think it will be a case of bait and bring the fish in, bream onwards to the carp. I can seriously see 40kilos of Chicken corn and a bag of Vitalin going in with a few kilos of boilies to get them to feed. 375 acres of water, of which in the past 2 weeks I have walked around a few times. I've found some hidden swims where carp have shown with good features that I can hide Sky and myself in. The weather I think is due to break, some rain forecast in East Anglia from Saturday, should see the fish get their heads down at last. What are you plans onwards for this weekend?

You can get loop tyer to get your loops all the same length, think its Preston and Gardner who make one suitable for hair rigs.

Must admit as Danny says, pre-tied rigs made by tackle companies do make me wince, but if the need is there... My reasons for disliking them are multiple. Biggest worry is what if I lose a fish on them due to a bad knot or hook? Who do I blame? If I have tied the rig it is my own fault, whereas if it is tackle manufacturer it may not be my fault. Next thing, what happens if the rig is not quite right? I can shorten rigs, cut them at the swivel end, and reknot it to the mainline swivel. However I can't lengthen them. I can add an extension to the hair for the bait, an additional loop for a snowman, adding a pop-up, but often can't shorten it I do have around 25 ready made rigs, that I have tied myself, in rig bins. I tend to design my rigs for the water I am fishing, so one rig bin contains Bromeswell rigs, one contains Nazeing rigs, and one will be Alton rigs. The fact that I use a revolving ring on the shank means I can change hair length, lengthen or shorten it. I do have rig tying nights at home; every hook is checked, every knot is tested. I found tying at home means I can do things at my leisure. I found tying on the bank means I may make short cuts, not check something properly.

Use silicon tubing instead of shrink tubing. You could use a plain uncoated braid or even mono for rig tying. Easy enough to know exactly how much coating you need to strip on coated braid though.

The lightest possible that I can still cast the distance. Normally 1/2-3/4 of an ounce, maybe an ounce if the undertow and waves are quite strong.

Big Dave and I were at Alton Water today, he had the lions share of the skimmer bream while I was catching mostly roach. 30 fish between us 50/50 skimmers and roach. Best skimmer 2lb and some larger roach of about half pound. Most bream coming less than 10 feet out. Lots of good bites from the start but couldnt hook them. Changed tactics and left the bites to go until almost pull round and we were hooking skimmers, although the roach were still giving tip taps. 2 red maggots best bait fished over a vitalin mix groundbait.

It wasn't cast at showing fish, but one of my favourite fish from Brackens was a 2 tone heavily scaled linear. The lake rules are no free bait can be put in by catapult or throwing stick, the only way to put free bait in was with PVA. I put in a load of my 'BIG' stringers, there is a picture somewhere of one, but I think it was 30'ish casts of 30 bait stringers. Within 10 minutes I had the linear at 28lb. That is just after plenty of disturbance, those stringers with a 3oz lead made plenty of noise. To be honest, I was baiting up for the night, not expecting a take in the middle of the day. On the same lake, it was a small lake of 1 1/2-2 acres, if fish showed or rolled, it wasn't worth casting at them, they were very aware and would disappear. You could however land on them and get some pretty quick takes within minutes of casting.

As Elmo says, that is a whole lot better. One thing I will say: DO NOT fish a helicopter or rotary rig where the lead can detach. It is the lead being on the line that allows the rig to come off the other end. Just noticed something else about leaders; I don't usually fish braided leaders with a loop, I prefer to use a needle knot it makes a smaller tidier finish that anything and everything is more able to slide over, but the no swivels joining leader to mainline is very sensible.

Welcome to Carp.com. That is very ambiguous wording, covering everything and nothing. A rotary/helicopter or chod set-up, if you use a swivel to tie the rig to is NOT attached to the mainline, it is free running within its limit, able to rotate, so definitely not attached. As you have said, the normal attached swivel a join is from hooklink to the mainline. It is the swivel that is the connection between the two. The simple answer is to tie your mainline to a quicklink or a ring and attach or tie the hooklink to the other side. A run ring or lead clip will go on the mainline as usual, but if you use a run ring make sure you use a decent buffer bead to protect the quicklink. As for swivels on leads, you do know you can cut them off? They work better without them as well😉

Believe it or not I would only add 10ml of fish oil into a kilo of boilies. I don't think oils in baits are as effective as other liquids. They are beneficial on floaters, and in small amounts in your groundbait, but I don't think provide as much attraction as water soluble liquids.

What do you consider a showing fish? A full leap, rolling carp or even massive patches of bubbles sheeting up are all forms of shows. In fact you can add the carp sitting with their backs out of the water. Sometimes leaping, rolling fish shows or bubble patches are carp feeding heavily on a spot. Other times leaping or rolling is a carp just moving through an area. I've cast directly (with a 3oz lead) at swirls, convinced it was fish flattening the surface, and had takes. Other times those swirls are fish flicking their tale and moving away. If I arrive at a water and see any show, I try to analyse it. On some waters leaping fish will just swim straight past so I will try to get ahead of them. On others it is indication of fish stopping to feed. My best winter catch came to what I thought was a show. The water was chocolate colour, with meltwater pouring in the inflow so strongly that near the inflow you could not hold bottom with a 3oz lead. I walked round the lake, saw a flattening of the surface in the ripples, so set up on it. I've heard other anglers say cast past it, reel back onto the spot and let it drop, but by the time I've done that I've lost it. I tend to watch the spot as I'm casting, so naturally aim for it; whereas casting past I would be watching the lead and end tackle, then try to reel back to a spot I've not been looking at.