salokcinnodrog

Never had one give way, I can actually also tie it on trace wire!

Rapala knot for me, works on braids, coated braids and Amnesia: https://www.animatedknots.com/rapala/index.php

I know how long it takes to roll a 1 egg mix of specialised flavoured pop-up or bottom baits. That is extortionate! (

This is a mate of mines Facebook post and happened very local to me. My view has always been don't use a bivvy heater, get decent clothing and sleeping bag

While I agree, there are some carp that will not move over bait until it is 'safe'. I have watched fish, on lakes and on a river, leave baits alone until they had been in the water for 2 days, this included 'washed out' boilies. On the river sweetcorn would not get touched by carp until it had turned dirty, normally 2 days. I have also seen carp leave baited rigs alone for that period of time, other anglers have also written about it. I caught a couple of rarely caught carp from Nazeing by leaving my hookbaits in place for 2 days until I had a take. The left hand rod I recast and checked every day, and had three or four carp to 20lb, but the right hand rod produced just one take from a 30lb carp. Yes, I agree, sometimes you do have to go searching, but disturbance can spook fish as well.

As long as I can, preferably 3 or more days.

27 acres is not necessarily Big Pit Time, on my 60 acre water I caught a lot of fish on 10000 size Baitrunners with 2.75lb rods. I knew I could only cast 90metres maximum with them using 15lb line, but it made me look for fish and I caught as many as those blasting to the horizon. Adding Big Pit reels added another 30metres! As for rods, the longer rods give you greater distance casting.

I used to use one myself a few years ago. For longer distances they do need to be steady and on a tripod. You also need a fixed reference point. They do not work targetting a leave or rush, but do on a tree trunk or target board. There is a range limit on building site style laser finders, mine was only good to 120metres.

Because silkweed often catches on the barb itself😉 To be honest I tend to use a low pop-up over silkweed, just high enough to keep the hook away from the strands and detritus. You want a pop-up that will lift the hook upright, and you don't want to use too much weight as a counterbalance or it will get dragged down again into it. I hate to say it, but this is exactly the right place for a 'chod' or silt rig, or a standard pendant set up with a coated or uncoated braid hooklink. In winter carp can stay holed up in a particular area. It may be near dead weed, snags, natural food, drop-off features like gravel bars or plateau, and is NOT always the deepest water.

Just thinking of another one, on of all days a Friday the 13th. I had been doing fire extinguisher servicing calls around Sudbury and Halstead area, and turned up a single track road. As I drove up the road a female driver coming the other way drove past the passing place and continued coming, forcing me in the van up onto the verge as I had nowhere else to go. As the van tilted the side of the van scraped across the cars roof, heavily denting my van. I managed to swap insurance details etc, and then went to my next call at a veterinary practice in the area before finishing up and driving back to the company office in Wymondham. I then had to switch all my existing stock and tools into a spare van, along with my weekly top-up. From Wymondham I then drove back to Ipswich, put my fishing gear in the van, and drove via a customer call on the A120 to Nazeing. When I arrived at Nazeing I was shattered, it was about 10pm, I had been up since about 6 that morning driving and doing customer calls as well as stock swap. Somehow I managed to get set up, thank heavens for Fox EasyDome, bivvy up in minutes. By 11.30 I was set and sorted and just crashed out when I had a proper screamer. I can't remember the fight, but I can remember the 28lb common at the end of it. This was the last picture I took on 35mm film, so this is the scanned copy of a print. Later that same night I had a 23lb common, which I was sadly so tired I didn't photograph.

Tell me about it! 2 daughters, one son and a granddaughter for me. Another one for you, that also involves Bruce, my first fish from Ardleigh. I had seen a group of males getting ready in the margins on the other side of the stream, none of the females were there, so I took a chuck with a pineapple pop-up and had my first fish from the reservoir. I called Bruce on his mobile to come and do some pics, and as he was there and we were celebrating and chatting after the pics I had the battle scarred mirror in my original post give a proper take from out in the middle. The bottom pic is a favourite of mine, and comes with a story. I had set up in Antz on Brackens, but lost 2 fish as they came charging towards me and then into the snags to my left. As the angler in Bridge had packed up I moved in there and baited the same spot with a number of large stringers, and when I say large... Within 10 minutes of the last of those loads of those beasts going in I had one of the most sought after fish in the pool, the 2 tone Linear at 28. Over the next two days after topping up with bait by stringer I had another two 20's. Sadly the pic of the 28 is half in shadow, but the fish itself.

The fully scaled came on the night after the London Bombings. My mate Bruce was on the train when the bomb went off, about 2metres away from it. The poor lady in front of him RIP. I actually caught another fish that night a 23.8, and Bruce was my regular photographer. He would always come down to do my pictures, no matter where he was *. I had tried phoning him to get him to cone down and his phone just went straight to voicemail, which never happened. After phoning other mates to find out how he was my mate Al came down to take pics. *The river 28 I had had to work late Thursday setting up the bars at Ipswich Town Hall and Corn Exchange for a function Friday night, so when Bruce drove up to Taverham, I couldn't go. My alternative was to go down to the river for a few hours Friday. The take happened as I was getting ready to pack up, in fact I had dismantled the landing net. Bruce packed up at Taverham and made it back to Ipswich in a hour to do the photographs. When I first joined Earith I had done a blank not knowing the lake, but the second session Bruce and I walked round looking properly. We set up on the causeway between Pats and Virginia with the rods into Virginia. Before dark I managed to land my first fish from the lake, a beautiful double figure common, which was photographed at the same time as Bruce had a take. Later that evening just as it was getting dark, I managed to hook and land a 24lb mirror. Another Earith session, middle of February, around 1am a real screamer resulted in my first ever 25lb common, and at the time I guess it must have been my second biggest fish. The syndicate owner Ian Jones came down to do the pictures in the night about 10minutes after the phonecall. I had just expected it to switch to answerphone, but he promised to come down.

Done it

To be honest, I couldn't just pick one, there are too many with memories: 28lb, from a river, at the time a pb, caught in a 3 hour trip. My first 30, or the 3 biggest 20's from the reservoir, all weighing 24.12

Doesn't always work that way though.😉 On Earith, with one exception, over a gravel bar with big depth changes, putting particles in on a flatter area of lakebed attracted tench and bream and they would not move away, or the carp would not come in. On Ardleigh, usually loads of groundbait and particles was bream, with maybe a carp if you were lucky, although if carp got there first you could catch one or two. Saying that 12 bream in a 'work overnighter' hoping for a carp was not fun. I did only once have a double figure carp when bream were feeding, although John Wilson (RIP) managed bream with a decent carp in a Go Fishing episode from there. Even on the river, I found carp would leave sweetcorn alone for a few days, until it started to go dirty grey. Tench and bream would munch it on introduction if in the area, but carp (whose patrol route I had noted) would ignore it at first until it was dirty. To be honest, a lot of it is knowing the water, and how the fish react.

Almost every lake sees particles, hemp, tigers and maize, which to be fair are brilliant baits. They catch fish, but can attract silvers, even the supposedly bream proof tigers. I have lost count of the tench and bream I have caught on tigers! Particle beds are good for attracting fish full stop, but on occasions, I have found bream and tench get onto them so heavily that carp can't get a look in to feed themselves. I have caught more big fish over just boilies.

I know Gladwell's did Crafty Catcher overruns or mishapes, the freezer bait is exactly the same as the shelf life. I would get a bag or box of 'mixed' come up to the shop then either bag them into kilo or 2kg bags, or stand separating them into whichever they were, King Prawn, Black Cherry, Sea Salt and Crab Meat, or even the Ringers hookers, then bag and sell them. You may find the occasional different bait in there as we weren't perfect at sorting them, especially standing while serving customers. (Crafty Catcher factory make the Ringers Match boilies, as well as a few other shops own baits)

Glycerine, glycerol is a preservative used in loads of bait soaks and glugs to stop them going off. It is, I think an attractor in its own right, which is why I prefer glycerol based flavours. Tigers I save a few in glass 'sample bottles', with RH Megaspice and brown sugar dissolved in glycerol, glycerol in a shot of coca cola, or glycerol with any other thick dip. I actually struggle using tigers and peanuts as bait, I have a tendency to eat them after soaking and boiling...😱😖😉😆

I wish I could manage a pic of a kingfisher! On the river last week I had a kingfisher perched in the tree above my rods, reach for camera and it was gone. I think carp fishing was the top of fishing when they were few and far between. Now they are 'just another'. I think we have had the discussion before about what tackle is available, it is mostly carp gear. It is often harder and more expensive to buy other coarse gear, and at the same time from clubs, to day tickets, most waters are stocked with carp. Obviously because of that people will start carp fishing.

I must admit I think that an 'apprenticeship' in other species is useful before moving into carp. I fished (and fish for) for silver fish, chub, bream, tench, roach and pike as well as carp. As Kev says, some of what I learnt about feeding for other species is relevant to carp fishing, even if it helps me avoid other species! If you can feed effectively then you are likely to catch more. @Dannygooner, my local rivers have also been empty, although I think there are additional reasons, otters, EE's and the ability to get to them. The access for the spots I have been fishing is a mile away from the villages, yet the EE's have been there, least I think that from the beer cans that have been left... I absolutely love a lot of being outside, sunrises, sunsets, the kingfishers, which I often see, even though apparently there aren't many around according to Countryfile after they tried spotting them in the Lea Valley. Today was this, no more than an arms length away. I reached for my camera and he came closer.

At night I normally slip into my trainers, or in winter, often my combat boots, it is easier than trying to get my feet into fishing boots, having feet stuck halfway down the boot as I try to get to a take, or even somehow managing to get them on the wrong feet.😖 During the day though I wear a pair of TFG Extreme boots, somehow TFG ran out of stock of the plain green ones, so for the same price sent me the Realtree or camouflage pattern. https://www.totalfishinggear.co.uk/shop.cfm/tfg-clothing/boots/39/4528 When I walk to the swim or around the lake I will wear my trainers or combat boots, depending on how wet it is. Trainers ok in summer, but rainy autumn and winters can be a bit cold and muddy around the lake, so on go the combat boots. Mine have a lace up front, but also a zip down side, so at night I can slide into them easily. The worst thing for getting cold feet is them getting sweaty and wet. If they sweat, then the damp gets into your socks, making them cold later. So my advice is when you get to your swim, change your socks, even your boots, especially if the weather is cold.

You are welcome. Something for you, the float can be quite handy as rowing, sailing or even barges and general motorboats try to avoid the float, however racing canoeists go over the darn things, no care or looking where they are going. If it is up to halfway over you push them away to the far side on a canal.

I think that 'pile it in' approach is used by a lot of anglers everywhere, no matter what type of lake they are fishing. Not every angler looks at the situation they are fishing in, it seems many follow the media advertised method rather than think about how a lake needs to be approached.

That is why you put the lock part of the cable tie facing up away from your hand. Drennan Boilie pult with smaller pouch

That first paragraph sounds like 'The Korda approach'...😖😅😆