salokcinnodrog

The lake I'm fishing is a mix of silt and weed, very few hard areas other than a Causeway through the middle of it. There are two types of silt, under the trees, (basically one end) there is black smelly silt, the rest is sandy coloured. I have waded out into it, (most of the lake is no deeper than chesties) you can see or step into, fish cleared deeper holes, they will dig into it for food. A day after wading out, you can see your trails from the previous walk. Hemp sits on top, or just slightly under the top, yet I think boilies can sink in. I have not yet seen a boilie the day after putting them in, even by hand. I do not know if this is fish (very few silvers) or sinking in, but I think it's them gradually sinking into silt. I have not found any problems with 3oz leads plugging, and sticking, you can reel in with no issues, unless you hit weed. I don't pull the lead back on any lakebed. I may feel it down, but never pull back.

Not sure if it goes back to the days of Relum, but Hutchy gear has had the reputation of being good gear. I have had various RH bits of tackle, bivvies, rods and reels and it is good stuff. I would say though, compared to modern unhooking mats that one does look a bit thin, with no sides. Mind you, the bubble foam balls in beanie mats get compressed and become useless. That one I think is sponge foam inner

I went through a series of hookpulls years ago on Fox Series 2's in size 6 and 8. During the fight the hook was opening out enough to pull free, and then springing back into shape. It was only when one stayed 'straight' that I figured what was happening. The fish were fighting very hard, in a silty water, from the off, normally hooked close to the rods. My usual course of action on hookpulls is to lengthen the hair, working on my theory; Hooked at the extreme edge of the mouth/lip, getting hookpulls then lengthen the hair. Hooked deep down in the mouth shorten the hair. Dead centre of the lip, perfick. While this is all well and good, sometimes simply increasing the amount of free bait around the hookbait can also improve your hookholds.

I eat plenty of garlic, and rarely notice getting bitten, only the occasional, but I do hate the buzz when the darn things are about. I have a mozzie front for my bivvies, and its not just a thin mesh, it is thick enough to prevent seeing through it, although the further away you are from it, inside, the better. I end up either with front section on or off. (I haven't put the front section on the Hybrid Cabrio yet), and just resort to the Skin so Soft.

Some makes are definitely more buoyant than others. Nutrabaits pop-ups used to be more critically balanced than pop-up, I have not used them recently so don't know if it is still an issue. Solar Pineapple and The Secret will pop-up a size 8 Solar101 hook nicely (largest hook size allowed on Bromeswell). Dynamite Monster Crab (orange) and Squid and Octopus were the same, although to go with Rod Hutchinson Monster Crab boilies I have been using their purple Monster Crab pop-ups. The Garlic and Spice is one of my own concoctions and is in a deep red.

Ziplock or plain freezer bags are perfect. I break mine down into 500gram or 1kg bags and store them like that in the freezer. Something else that works is supermarket ice cream tubs. Makes a 'single use' plastic tub multiple use, and they will stack tidily in a chest freezer. Just remember to eat the ice cream first and that once used triple chocolate ice tub is now fishmeal boilies... Thinking about it, don't wash the tub after use and you have ice-cream glazed boilies!

Sounds like what has become known as The Rapala knot. I use it on Amnesia and coated braid if I want a loop. With coated braid though the loop knot does become just a doubled length of line after playing a fish, so will likely need changing hooklink if you want the loop for the freedom of hooklink and movement.

Last year a mate had just landed a decent fish when he blacked out and fell into the lake. I jumped in and gave him CPR while he was in the lake, it took four people to lift him out, 20stone of wet (living) but unconscious angler. Scared? Hell I was. He was in hospital for a few days but is alive and well. It still gives me goosbumps thinking about it. Otherwise, the sounds of a hedgehog with his head stuck in a dropped tin can is quite spooky, banging against a tree trunk just off the path as you walk round the lake in the dark, as is waking up on The Meadow swim at Taverham with a horse halfway inside the bivvy; its head, breathing and snuffling right next to mine. A mate also got woken up there by a fox coming inside his bivvy at night. I've had the occasional 'ghostly' experience, but not really been scared by them. Dave Moxon and I back in the 1980's were night fishing for tench, carp and bream, our brollies pushed together and a plastic screen over the top to keep damp off, when around 1am a figure walked past us. The path had no access except at either end, river on one side, lake on the other so we looked all the way along and found no-one there. If it was human it must have run along the path in the dark with no torch!

Any elderberry branches hanging over the lake I would think would provide food for the fish. I have used them for roach on the river, started off fishing maggot, but feeding hemp and elderberry, then fishing hemp, then eventually switching to elderberries. I have had some nice nets of roach with the occasional chub doing that. Adding them to any loose feed, carp and other fish will eat them at the right time of the year, so potentially putting a hair of elderberries would work.

I've never used couscous, although I did read an article about using it to bait up with to prebait with to 'spread' the boilies smell around, mixing boilies and couscous together. To be honest it seems like extra effort that I can't be bothered with.

I have a couple of brolly systems: TFG Oval brolly and overwrap, which has been promoted to single days and winter pike fishing. The other I have bought is the all singing and dancing Rod Hutchinson Cabrio Hybrid Brolly system. https://rodhutchinson.co.uk/product/hybrid-brolly-system-htb017b-htb017e/ I bought it because I fancied a new system, not because the TFG was on its last legs or anything. With the extension I have room to sit my chair in front of the bedchair rather than sitting the rear of the chair on the bedchair. It is still quick to set up.

Never tried olives. I think I would probably end up eating them, although I'm now wondering how I would keep my feta cheese cool as that goes well with olives wrapped in a slice of proper ham...

That says something to me! If Yonny had some bad ones from Monster, and yours 'aren't right', a bit vinegary, (even if delivery was delayed) personally I would avoid Monster Particles. When it comes to ready prepared particles, those in the containers by Dynamite, I have found to be the best, as they are actually cooked in the container I believe. As Yonny says, preparing your own gets best results and you know what they are like. I normally do all my own particles, I can experiment with soaks and solutions, but to be honest, in most cases particles are most attractive and need no extras than soak and boil/simmer. Adding chilli, garlic or whatever rarely makes them any better than the standard. Tigers are a soak for 24hour minimum, and then boil for around 30mins.

The bottom bait and snowman rigs rigs were identical, only the pop-up rigs were shorter. The rigs were like the pictured combi-rig, or coated braid. I could actually swap a bottom bait rig to a snowman rig. I don't know if you have seen my sliding ring rig? A sliding ring on the hookshank, with the hair tied to the ring, so I could tie on the hair and use the same rig for either. It gave me the option of changing hair length as well to suit my 'rules' about where I was hooking fish: If I am hooking fish hooked dead centre of the bottom lip the hair and rig length is right.If I am hooking fish at the back of the mouth, the hair and rig is too long.If I am losing fish to hookpulls, nothing on after indication of a run, or hooking right at the very front of the lip, then the hair and rig is too short. Everything was hooked perfectly. My lost fish (on pop-ups) were actually down to hooklink snapping after being chafed on blocks on the bottom. Looking at that, I have not changed my rigs for over 12 years, what worked then, still works now. Its weird. I basically had a rod on each at all times as I never knew which one would produce at any session, until by the bridge I stopped, after 3 sessions, fishing snowman rigs as it didn't produce and fished only bottom baits and the pop-up. It was also the spot where I could bait up by hand directly over my hookbaits, tipping my bait off the bridge. The other locations were Spomb loaded, plus the stringer attached to the hook. In any session, it was only one rod that produced, with one exception by the bridge where I lost a fish on the pop-up and landed 3 on the bottom baits.

Yes Mate. Just each session I caught there was a preference for one or the other. By the bridge was 5 fish caught on bottom baits in 2 sessions, then next session, same area was pop-ups for 2 fish, the only fish that were caught on pop-ups. Snowman baits did not work there. Further up towards the nature reserve was all on snowman baits, and one of the bays was snowman bait. On occasions I 'swapped' rods to the catching spot, so trying bottom baits where I had caught on snowman etc, nothing for the rest of the night. Put it back to how it was for the next night, catch fish again. Quite strange that up by the nature reserve as the bottom was clean, no silt. By the bridge, nothing on snowman, again clean bottom as it is a funnel, although the occasional concrete block. Up in the bays, silty bottom, and fish were caught on the snowman, no other presentation.

Most definitely, soak and boil definitely increases the attraction. No need for sugar.

If I put any particle in in the winter, it is normally well soaked pigeon conditioner, hemp and sweetcorn. I don't know why, I tend to avoid larger particles like maize, black eyes, maples etc, especially since maize is apparently such a good winter feed.

On the reservoir I had one rod on a pop-up, one on a snowman and one with a standard double bottom bait. Each session I caught, it was always a particular presentation that caught, despite putting one of the others on the same spot. So if I caught on a double bottom bait, that is the only thing that caught on that spot, even though I would swap rods and try another. The snowman and bottom bait rods were fished at the same distance, at either side of the bed of bait. My beds or baiting situation was chicken corn or hemp or the two mixed with boilies over the top, fished with stringers.

I tried braid for spodding, really didn't get on with it. I never stuck a weed rake on mono though, I used my marker rod for a small Breakaway lead which has braid with an Amnesia shockleader. Saying that, I have also miscast with my fishing rods with an ordinary lead on mono and pulled it back through a patch of thick weed on a major gravel bar and had that give way.

Carp will pick up and spit out even definite foods, I have watched it happen with maggots, bloodworm, sweetcorn, boilies. Sometimes they come back and take them again, sometimes they leave them. We choose foods by taste, carp don't have that recognition. What tastes good to us is not always what carp want, and what they like, I'm positive I don't think tastes nice; worms, maggots, slugs... Add to that your hook, if it behaves differently from the free baits, carp (and other fish) will reject the bait. Carp and chub are specialists in the identification of hookbait. To some extent the more free bait, the less chance of them identifying the hookbait, or more correctly the pre-occupation they feed with less wariness.

Interesting one this. Carp will eat animal matter, bloodworm, maggots, worms and slugs etc, they can easily be digested, and are a viable food source. In theory, meat and fish would also be good protein sources, however I think from memory carp and other cyprinids lack the enzymes to digest meat in its whole form. They can only utilise 'surface' nutrition. It gets excreted as most things do, a 'squidgy' mess. Carp have been caught on dead fish, squid, steak, liver etc; almost every year a pike angler has a carp pick up and get hooked on deadbaits. One of the best baits going years ago at Savay was a mix of liquidised squid and liver, stiffened with semolina, then boiled. It produced numbers of fish, and still works. I can't remember which bait company it was, but instead of using eggs was using liquidised wet fish with a bird food base. The bait caught plenty of fish, but could not be kept on the bank for very long, there was no shelf life version. A long while ago back in this thread I mentioned liquidising maggots and casters and putting them in baits. I was trying to give a natural amino acid profile while having the resistance to small fish. Again, it worked, but got time consuming. I think as I understand it, Once a meat or fish is processed, either liquidising or dried and processed into a meal, then it can be utilised by the carp. This also makes making boilies easier, we can work out a decent bait containing everything the fish need, vitamins and minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. This brings us onto Fred Wilton The easiest way is to quote from Bait Evolution Fred believed that carp, like any wild creature, given the choice over time, would show a distinct preference for a food source that offered it the perfect balanced diet fulfilling all or most of it’s nutritional needs. Given the choice of a food source that is nutritionally nearly perfect against various much less nutritional food sources, the carp would show more and more preference for the nutritionally perfect food source, if it was applied to a lake consistently over a period of time. Flavours were only added to the baits as a ‘label’ and not as the primary attraction source. The base mix is what the fish wanted and the flavour simply allowed the carp to identify the food source and differentiate it from other food.

I won't join mainline to a leader with a loop to loop knot, I think that a proper leader knot is tidier and stronger. What knot I use is determined by the thickness of the lines being joined. If they are a similar diameter it will be a water knot or uni knot to uni knot, if the leader is thicker than the mainline it will be a shockleader knot; overhand knot in the leader, then uni knot through and down the leader, wet and pull tight. I have actually broken the hook when it stuck in rocks on the lakebed rather than my Amnesia leader cracking off! I did use TFG clear looped leaders for a while, they have a fused loop, even with them I would uni knot through and down the loop. Using large rubber beads I was sure if I smashed off, the rig and beads could be ejected. I do think that if you have to use a leader, that a helicopter set-up where the beads and rig can be ejected (never the lead) is safer than a lead clip. If you do use a lead clip then the lead MUST be able to be ejected if you smash up.

I know a lot of waters have not been producing many fish because of the hot weather we had for so long. Simple answer is walk and look for fish, put bait in, and keep an eye on it. I would be baiting up with pellets or Vitalin, even sweetcorn, then walking round and doing the same in a number of spots, and keep looking at them regularly through the day, maybe eventually dropping a hookbait in on the lift float. That technique has worked for me on plenty of waters, from heavily fished lakes, to lakes that are hardly fished.

Maize is tough, soak it for 24 hours, in water and the flavours, boil for about 20 minutes, it will still be hard, so a bait drill is handy before putting it on a baiting needle. You don't need the flavour, but anything is worth trying... I would be fishing for those Muskies and Northern pike in the northern states. I would suggest giving @buzzbomb our American moderator a message, he can probably help you far better with American style carp fishing and ideas than I can.

Indeed, that elastic through the method feeder could leave a fish trailing hook, and feeder if the mainline snapped, and aggressive takes could easily snap you up. Years ago I used to put a length of soft tubing over the hooklink swivel with a braid hooklink. Before the cast stretch the tubing down the hooklink, and allow it to retract. It would pull the hooklink back inside. On a take the hooklink would extend, an elasticated, or extending rig.