salokcinnodrog

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.

In that case if it is the mechanism, my playing around after a couple of casts is why I don't get a bad one. May be that just juggling the mechanism to get a 'better fit' sorts it out. I don't know why, but I do seem to have a number of springs from various things that have ended up in my tackle box, so if I have bent or broken a spring I can replace it.

Spods do take longer to empty than Spombs, you have to let the spod 'drift' to be sure it has emptied, whereas the Spomb drops the load pretty much on impact. Also load a Spomb with a scoop so you can keep bits out of the nose, but a spod can be catch and dunk into bucket. Something else is, if you have a spod with tape over the holes, or no holes at all, you can add liquids in with your particles, whereas a Spomb that liquid drains. I do mix boilies into my particles and put them in together in the Spomb. The boilies sometimes even go in the day before I go fishing... I have found though, that boilies for some reason tend to stick in a spod, they jam themselves in against each other. I do use both the spod and the Spomb, although the Spomb does get the most use. I have not had a bad Spomb, but I do tend to make sure I get the locking mechanism sorted, either tightening or loosening by turning the pin around in the nose. @yonny, do you think the bad Spombs could be from bent or twisted stem to the swivel? or is it from locking mechanism? Oh, do make sure you add a Spomb float. I unpin it and have trimmed some pike deadbait poppers to fit in the tail inside rather than outside.

Very true, and I knew it was almost impossible for me to be fishing over anyone elses bait. Added to that I know it can take 2 days for the carp to come onto bait. So the hemp could well have been eaten by roach, the few tigers and boilies would have been the only things left.

I did put in a bit of bait at the start last week, a total of a gallon of hemp, around 2kg of boilies and then cast out stringer every day on the spot for 4 days. That works... I only had three carp, two 17's and a 21, but that is on a fairly lightly fished reservoir. I think NS fisheries Nunnery get the angler to do a session on the 'easy' lake to assess them, then if pass they can fish the syndicate lakes when approved.

Aye that is true. I think the 'pile it in' videos or DVD's gave a very false picture of fishing. Every angler wants to be fishing on their own bait so stick a few kilos in. On most occasions you don't need loads of bait, especially on heavily fished waters. In the heat wave we have had carp aren't normally going to be eating loads of food, especially in the heat of the day.

That sounds like a mare! I had a rough one this week myself. I had my ticket revoked on Alton after Eastern European anglers cast lures over my lines two nights on the trot. I went to have a word and they had no landing nets or unhooking mats. I was not impressed and gave them a mouthful after one got a bit rude. My mouthful is get fired up big time. As I went to pull away off site, a Range Rover ignored the fact I had pulled past parked two cars at the side of the road and carried on down the road leaving me nowhere to go. He pulled the "i'm further down the road, you should back up" so I made my point, and when he got rude, again I fired off, local residents complained to the fishery manager. I hadn't even parked in the road, I had unloaded, put my car in the proper car park, then when I left put my gear by the gate, got my car and loaded up. When I got home I got a phonecall telling me my ticket was cancelled. A long letter has gone to Anglian Water Fishery's headquarters! While Alton was closed after we were allowed to fish again when lockdown was eased I had a couple of trips on Essex Carp Syndicates Day ticket lake at Great Baddow. It does Google, and they are on FB.

Get your sewing needle out! A tiny rig ring on the knot less knot hair. Thread the needle through the worm and put them onto dental floss or fine mono. Then a double overhand knot onto the rig ring. If you want them popped up, a dog biscuit (or if allowed, a Cork ball) on the hair as well

A couple of Interesting thoughts on this; Years ago Mike Wilson was convinced that the different metals on the end tackle created an electrical field. Steel hook, copper or steel on the lead. Basically from my limited understanding, the dissimilar metals with an electrolyte like water between them create a tiny electrical and magnetic field. Mike Wilson was so convinced, he was playing about creating weights made of glass. There are more posts on this that I could or even should have quoted, unfortunately as I'm trying to keep it relevant on (page 1), and pushing the + symbol would quote every post complete, I can't add them in. The resetting rigs is an important point, but the more we can create a comfortable feeding situation, where the fish are actively feeding, then with a rig that is ejected, the same or another fish can carry on feeding, and take the rig again, hopefully at some point being hooked. An 'inefficient' rig on comfortably feeding fish can still hook them, whereas an efficient rig with non feeding fish probably or possibly won't. In effect the carp have to take the hookbait in either scenario.

@yonny, I think that a few anglers did know that they were getting done; it was the reason for development of rigs, obviously from the hair rig, sliding hair, D-rig even tubing on the hook and on. I remember reading articles or chapters by Ken Townley, Kevin Nash, Rob Maylin, and obviously Rod Hutchinson on watching rigs being ejected. I think the Korda DVD's put it to every angler rather than just the few who got above the rigs in the water and were able to watch the fish. Years ago on here in a thread I made the point, I don't think about rig mechanics, maybe I automatically assess and correct what is going wrong from my own observations. I do think that pop-up rigs behave very differently to bottom bait rigs. Many or even most pop-up rigs automatically reset, bottom bait rigs may not. The other thing at the moment, I have not been using a hair made from the continuation of the knotless knot on most waters. Most of my rigs have come on to having a sliding ring on the hook shank. I believe it was Rob Maylin who coined the term sliding or revolving rigs, that hair on the rig ring is exactly that. The reasons behind it: I can change the hair length to suit the fishing. I can fish bottom or snowman baits on the same rig. The sliding ring does reset. The sliding ring does not immediately give a 'fixed' pivot point. The fraction of the second extra time in the mouth as the ring slides up the shank before the baits pivot back on blowing. It may or may not be relevant, strangely I have not watched it in the water😖 What I do know is that from the first time I used it in 2008 on Brackens Pool, Nazeing, it produced fish, more fish to my rods than many who fished more time than I did. I wouldn't like to claim it was all rig as I was fishing very differently to most other anglers, using a fair amount of boilies when most were just fishing over a few.