salokcinnodrog

I gave up believing the amount on the spools. On my 10000 Baitrunners I have loaded straight onto the reel spool. On my Beastmasters I have some backing line. Backing line is usually just 'last' years line, and then when I strip the old line off I just go as far as the backing. At some point I must have been sad enough to work out that a bulk spool spread across 3 reels and I loaded the original backing so that it filled exactly. That bulk spool will give you 3 reels, plus leftover, so you might as well use it at.

Stick to one water, preferably a fairly easy one. Find out what works. It could be pellets, particles or groundbait with a boilie on the hook. Stick to one rig, stick to one bait. I look at every single session, every trip, on every water. If I blank it is what am I doing wrong? If I catch it is what can I do better? In most cases we screw up our chances on getting into the swim. We pile bait in, sit on it, and have given the fish all the food they need to take their time to eat. The weather at the moment is warm, so warm that the fish may not be comfortable feeding. It can be better to just put out single hookbaits, maybe a small PVA mesh or bag. It may even be that right now the way to catch on some waters is floater fish at dawn or as the day cools down. In terms of rigs, a knotless knot rig will still catch most fish. Don't get confused with Ronnie Rigs, German rig, 360 or whatever. Put your rig where the fish are, you can find them. It may be that you need to go to an easier water to catch a few fish

I was going to make a comment before reading your last post, I'm glad I held back for a change😖😉 My honest answer is many rigs are sold just to sell more tackle for tackle brands, and confuse anglers, however you have a genuine reason for buying ready made rigs. I would still buy just a standard line aligned hair rig for bottom baits or D-rig for pop-ups. There are a couple of ways of attaching bait to the swivel: Put a pop-up or bottom boilie on a baiting needle, A pellet band through the swivel, then the pellet band through itself, then put the boilie on the band and stop it with a boilie stop. Or you could tie a pop-up to it.

As much as I like 'rare' shaped hookbaits, I do tend to just grab a boilie out of the bag and stick it on the hook, simply because I now get my bait direct from RH rather than make my own. I have caught on various specials; massive cube boilies, sausages boiled then cut into discs, boilie mix rolled flat and then cut with a playdoh cutter (Bart Simpson), cut down boilies, uncooked air dried boilie mix, then obviously the boiled brick cut into cubes.

I'm a Gardner Pro fan myself. Used it for a few years now with no problems

I did used to turn my own casters in the past, although 2 pints of maggots would only give me 1/2-3/4 pint. Your tinned products should still be good. I was watching a programme on TV a few weeks ago, a tin of sardines from the 1960's was opened and found to be still edible with no loss of nutrition or taste after scientific testing.

I was more interested in getting the fish to accept the bait, so wherever I fished they would be happy to eat it, pick up the hookbait. No matter which swim I fished I caught, all over the lake, I believe because they had come to accept my boilies as a food. Also I made no secret that I was using Trigga, but what I had kept quiet was I had added a flavour, (Liver Elite), taste enhancer and sweetener (Sweet Cajouser) and added extra GLM extract. My version outfished the standard version that was available as a freezer bait or shelf life.

Prebait what you can afford! When I was fishing Earith Virgina Water, about 20acres, I was only putting in a kilogramme of boilies every week. Ok, I had put in around 10kg before I even started fishing, but when I left every week I would put in a kilo over various spots in the lake. I was only fishing over stringers, bags and a few freebies, a mix of pellets, whole and chopped boilies, no more than 500grams at a time. Basically I was taking 3 500gram * bags of boilies, one for fishing with, and two to put in at the end, and a small bucket of pellets, around a kilogramme. * I was making my own bait, so always bagged them up in 500gram bags. Any extras would get airdried and after they were totally dry would get added to the pellet bucket or saved and used instead of frozen baits.

You might find that some of the single bleeps are actually fish bumping into the line before it is along the bottom, where it 'pings' as they catch up with it on their fins. Tench, bream, carp even pike can give liners. The other possibility is that at the longer range, it could be a proper take. I have had my Delkims give only a couple of bleeps at 100metres, yet the fish had moved a fair distance. Nylon monofilament at long range could well be stretched, under tension; you have tried to tighten to the lead, the line is slightly elastic. You will remove the bow, and stretch the line. The 'semi-tight' affect in my mind is you giving enough slack to allow the line to go back to the non-stretched state. At any long distance you want the line as tight as possible, and even with that, I think that at around 60metres, the line above the lead will be running on the lake bed (did someone mention catenary effect). Possibly, dependant on rules, you might find at distance, braid is a better bet, there is minimal stretch (around 1-2%). Undertow itself does not necessarily go directly against the wind, bars, islands and plateau's can change its direction, but it can definitely mess up your baiting and line lay. It can be bringing lumps of weed against the line, 'bleep', or moving the line and lead if it is strong enough.

Can you do me a favour please? Don't include swearing or inferred swearing with asterisks in your posts. I am asking nicely, because you can be banned for it😉 You will find a lot of new waters are like that, you have to earn respect. It can be as simple as offering the bailiff a tea or coffee as he comes round, or even other members, if you show willing they might give you tips that help you put fish on the bank. Acting like you know it all can be a way of winding other members up, and can get you straight into trouble. If you are catching quickly, then don't boast, but admit quietly you have caught a few. If other members know admit what you are doing tackle wise, even baitwise, BUT, don't admit to everything... Losing fish is not a good thing, nothing to brag about, it signifies a problem that you need to solve. I tend to go on a water with my own ideas, ways to catch fish, but advice from other members is always welcome.

On furlough to the end of July, and hoping I have a job to go back to

I just got a message from a mate, we have been invited up to have a look around when we can fit in with the syndicate manager. Glad I have been holding back on money while I've not been working. Saved up in case the worst happened and the hotel didn't reopen.

I would say yes, because I often use the marker to bait up to with the Spomb or spod. A mate of mine uses the Sonik Vader Carp Marker/spod rod. I have used it with a Korda Marker and 3.5oz lead for feature finding on the reservoir.

Welcome to Carp.com. The most important thing on any water is finding the fish. It can be a lot easier on smaller waters than bigger waters to find them. On 8 acres I would imagine you can see most of the lake, if you see anything showing get on it. That may mean just casting to them, or it may mean moving swims and getting to the right spot. Don't confuse yourself over rigs. Get faith in one rig, put it in the right place. The same with bait. If you have faith in your bait, fish with it on the hook, and just a small bag, mesh or stringer. No need to pile it in. Make sure you get best indication, and be prepared to watch the water and line. With helicopter rigs, something I have found, you may need to hit single bleeps, you might not get proper runs. The carp can move the rig a long way with no movement on your indicator, and if you are fishing with roller wheel buzzers it might not make any noise at all!

It may be the best sleeping bag, but I'm not sure on your food bowls😖😆😉 Sky always gets fed outside the bivvy, and her water bowl stays out there. Big dogs are such messy drinkers...😉 Looks pretty tidy that Mate, mine always ends up looking like a bombsite

I don't think it is just carp either, especially in the warm and dry East Anglian region, although river anglers are few and far between. I have spent some time on local rivers recently, and even the rivers are low and chub and barbel are hanging back in more oxygenated water, non-fishing weirs, mills and the like. On some stretches of the Gipping it is rare to see fish in some shallow flowing stretches, but this year where it washes fast over gravel that is often where the fish are. We really need some low pressure and steady rain.

I am using the Wychwood Morpheus 4 sleeping bag, but I do find it a bit warm in summer, sleeping in t-shirt and combat trousers, so I often just end up sleeping under a bedchair cover. In winter though, it is good down to -5, so with the cover I stay warm. They now do a Morpheus 7 I think it is. Another couple of alternatives are the Gardner Crash bag or the Rod Hutchinson All Season, although you are looking at £60 vs £120 https://gardnertackle.co.uk/product/camo-crash-bag/ https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/all-season-sleeping-bag/

I would have said the Gardner Sticks as the best manufactured, but if they are not long enough, then how annoying. I use the original Cobra Ace I think it is, a properly curved plastic stick, by estimate I would say it is over a metre long. I can stick 20mm baits well over 100metres, although occasional mixes I do have to wet the stick as it will split them, even shelf lifes. I prefer frozen baits that are just thawed on the outside, but still hard in the middle. I was saddened when Cobra went under and Nash bought out the name as I simply don't like the Nash Cobra sticks, the quality and feel is totally different, and yuck!

Hmm! My local EA bailiff wears his EA jacket and hi-viz, so you can see he is EA when he walks up to you. He is also very polite and does chat and ask how things are going, he is into normal fishing conversation. It probably helps that I know who he is and he knows Sky. He has asked to see my licence once, then the next few times I have seen him he didn't bother, quite possibly because it is to hand. The EA can easily check on a hand reader if you have given your name and address, and have ID to hand, although I do not know how if there is no phone signal in the area. It may be that it is done afterwards, so any non licence holders get a letter through the post. My money is on someone trying it on. I bailiff a fishery and even when selling tickets or checking tickets I'm polite, albeit gruff as is my way normally. If I don't have my ticket book to hand I do have the owners number to hand so I can let him know that I have spoken to 'such and such', insert name and text him.

Most anglers put far too much bait out when they fish. The problem us that they turn up on a day ticket lake, even a club lake and immediately want to fish over 'their' own bait, without knowing what is there already, what other anglers have put in, so spod or Spomb in 5kilos of spod mix. The fish don't have to move far to feed, they are able to pick and choose. It doesn't help right now that the water is so warm, the air and water temperatures are high, the fish are just mooching because the weather is uncomfortable to feed heavily in. Best way to fish for most is just a hookbait with PVA bag or stringer. There are times when putting plenty of bait in us the right thing to do, but I don't think most anglers know the waters they fish well enough.

The other thing is, it may possibly be members or officials within the club doing it off their own backs, not necessarily with club approval.

Get straight onto the EA. You ( as in the club) do not know if diseases or parasites are present, which is why they are so stringent on consent. It can only take one diseased fish to wipe out a water (I have seen it happen). The only exception is if a club/venue has multiple waters on one site and are already registered as a fish farm I believe.

10mm gap between boilie and hook, often with hair made of dental floss. I usually use a sliding rig ring on the hookshank to tie the hair to. I think I made the backlead point on another thread, they reduce indication, ditch them. *edit*

Sorry, I can't say anything yet as it is so new, although I do know it has been mentioned a long time ago on here. I was fuming about Alton, even more so with this weekends weather, perfect for a bite or two. Elmo, what a muppet. I'm still trying to work out whether he was talking to you or to his walkie talkie. If he isn't fishing, then as far as I'm concerned it is your water. If he had prebaited previously, then a polite word would have done wonders. If there is no-one about then digging around with a marker is you learning the water.

I've been speaking to the owner of a very special syndicate in Suffolk. The lake is around 40 acres, and hasn't been heavily fished for 30 years, he has only had it for a couple. I do know a few of the fish in there, original stocks, and there is a proper ongoing stocking policy. It is not a cheap syndicate, but compared to other waters most definitely not over the top.