salokcinnodrog

I don't like stink nets, for the simple reason that they can keep the net wet while in storage, and water (and other dirt) can accumulate at the bottom. They are ok for transporting gear home at the end of the day, but the net then needs a good clean and dry at home. Putting the cleaned net back into a stink bag then risks taking nasties onto a fishery. A new landing net mesh was around £18 last time I got one, and I got a Tackle Box EZ net mesh http://www.tacklebox.co.uk/landing-equipment/landing-nets/tb-replacement-ez-mesh-42-inch-olive-green.html I actually think a lot of anglers buy a whole new landing net rather than just replace the mesh when small holes join and become a bigger whole that it is no longer possible to repair. (Mine has been 'sewn' back together a few times)

There are some good books by Tim Paisley, some educational like To Catch a Carp and Big Carp, but with some session chapters, as well as his Tales From the Bivvy, and More from the Bivvy.

Landing net I would be looking Fox Warrior 42inch. Weigh slings are cheap, around £7-15, NGT, Korum, even TFG all do decent ones. Unhooking mat, even TFG Banshee or Hardcore Safety Mat which can double up as a carry all. One thing I will say, the big unhooking cradles can be a pain to carry long distance!

Sadly 50mm butt rings are a current fashion that most of us simply don't need, like, to be honest 3.25lb test curve rods. Unless you can really push a rod to its limit and maximum cast, then even with Big Pits, 50mm rings are a waste of time. In fact, in some cases, they can make your casting worse, dependant on how the line comes off the reels. My SP's and NG's both had 40mm butt rings, and with both and Big Pits, I could cast over 100 metres. I used Shimano 10000 size baitrunners on the NG's and due to line capacity and lay, I could only hit 90metres! No need for a 50mm butt ring on that i'm sure. Personally I would go with 40mm butt rings, but as said that is my choice.

A day with the rods and Sky on the river. Hard work today, although a dead roach on the float paternoster produced a nice looking fella. Lip hooked on the top single again.

I usually use 3 rods, dependant on rules obviously. Even on a 2 rod water I have a 3rd rod set up ready. It means I can reel one in, attach a fresh PVA bag to the dry spare rod and cast at showing fish, or to the feature and then sort out the reeled in rod at my leisure. A bulk spool of line is usually about right for 3 reels if they are loaded correctly with backing if needed. As for hooks and materials etc, I buy a spool, buy packets, so have plenty of rigs made up. The licence cost is down to you, but for the cost of it, its worth it.

Once I have made the balls, I take the softest, and add a little more base mix and work it in before rolling into sausages. While you can use a bait gun, I prefer a table as I found with homemade baits, the glossy finish rolls better on the Rolaball, and some gunned baits can float. From the sausages, I then put them onto the Rolaball, roll into balls, and then drop them into some base mix to stop them sticking together while boiling. I boil these baits for 1minute 30seconds, before tipping them onto a tea towel to dry. Once dry they can be bagged and frozen, or totally air dried.

I felt that it was time for a new Stickied basic bait making thread so here it is, although it covers a couple of posts due to picture size. Even though I have most of my bait made for me, I still like to experiment at times, tweaking purchased boilie base mixes, or making baits for specific waters. There are a few simple rules to follow, with a couple of exceptions; add liquids to your eggs, and powders to your base mix. The mix I have made is as follows: 100grams Liver powder 100grams Robin Red 200grams Semolina 100grams Ground Rice 200grams Full Fat Soya Flour 200grams Maize Meal 100grams Calcium Caseinate While it is not the greatest perfect balanced mix, it does work and can be played with. This makes a kilo of base mix, I use these ratios simply for ease First break 4 eggs into a bucket or bowl. Add any flavours, liquid attractors, or essential oils to the eggs and beat well. I also add ground eggshell, Betaine or Green Lipped Mussel powder to the eggs. In this case I have added 2ml RH Megaspice and 1ml of Garlic Oil. To the beaten eggs gradually add your base mix, either your own or a bought proprietary mix, stir and mix with a fork until it becomes stiff, then work it in by hand. I then mix it in until I can make fist size balls, slightly too soft to roll.

Different things on different waters. I used to bailiff a fishery, although I would not want to say I was a good or bad bailiff, although I know I upset some people as I was very strict on dangerous fishing, litter in the swim. To be honest those were the only things I kicked off or banned anglers for. The bailiffs on the Lea Valley waters I fish will if time allows stop and chat, drink your tea, have a chin wag. Of the anglers on the lake, I haven't seen one pulling any sneakies, they mostly clean up etc, so the bailiffs to them are polite, rude and in tune. To the poachers, be they Eastern Europeans or whatever,mthey give short thrift. My local club water, which I no longer fish, I had a run in with a bailiff when there was no-one else on the lake. I was fishing water directly in front of me, but was also accessible from another swim. He didn't like my fishing that feature and got quite rude. If anyone else had turned up, I would quite happily have reeled in. However this particular bailiff didn't care about his mates drinking to excess, being loud or fishing past the end of the island etc, so I complained about him to the club.

£200? Seriously you can get a TFG Oval brolly and overwrap for less than that. It is what I use myself. This year I have used just the brolly for overnighters as it has storm sides, but I also take the overwrap for extra protection if it rains. I have also used it in winter when pike fishing. There is plenty of room in there for bedchair, with space behind it for equipment, and space in front by door to get in and out.

Strangely enough I never got on with the clear Sensor. It doesn't knot as easily as the brown/green version, and it is not as supple.

Sorry I have not fished it, my only knowledge is from Tim Paisley's articles and book chapters on it. It can be hired by anglers or fished on a day ticket, then there is a winter syndicate from memory. The fish can be seen, but can be very cute and almost uncatchable at times. An otter fence has been built around it, protecting the lake and stock ponds, and there is a long term ongoing stocking programme that Mr. Paisley has set up with friends and the owners. The lake is very full of history and memories for him.

Because no one makes a Garlic Spice pop-up. I found it a very effective combination on a lot of waters. I have used them on supposed runs waters to my season ticket lake, and for me they outfish other bought pop-ups. I still have various bought flavours and try them, but the Garlic Spice catch more.

I promised I would do an article type write up on making my pop-ups so here it is: I mix 25% of each semolina, full fat soya flour, ground rice and cork dust, or use a ready prepared pop-up mix. If you mix the ingredients, you do need that much cork dust to get them to popup. For 1 egg I add 2.5ml of Garlic Oil, 2.5ml of RH Megaspice, 2.5ml of Glycerine and 15ml of Solar Marine 17 liquid, along with 2.5ml of Dr. Oetker food colouring, and give it a good whisk. I add the powder and mix well until I have a very stiff mix for rolling. I roll it using a rolling table into sausages and long table into balls. I drop the balls into a bucket with a little of the powder to stop them sticking together. Once my pan of water is boiling I put the pop-ups in for 1minute and 30seconds. It makes no difference boiling for any longer and you actually boil out the flavour. I then sieve them out onto a tea towel to dry for 24 hours before putting into bait tubs.

Sorry but for the cost of line I will usually replace it 2 or 3 times a year. I use or have used various lines over the years, and the best for my purposes cost less than £20, in most cases £10. Daiwa Sensor, which due to fishing near weed and snags would get changed every 3 months, the line was still good, but I would not take a chance after fish have taken me through lily beds and roots, which can be be covered in snails and mussels. The same with Gardner Pro. Both of those cost around £9.99. If you want a casting line, then that would definitely get changed regularly, the force of a cast can be brutal on knots, even with shockleaders. I don't use an out and out casting line since Shimano Catana was taken off the market. For my co-polymer fluoro coated hopefully low visibility line, I get a season out of them, but at around £20 a pop P-line Floroclear does not cast as well as more supple mono's.

Would that no boats rule cover placing baits by boat, whereas you could go out to unsnag a fish in a boat? A local club had the rule of absolutely 'no livebaits', until the pike anglers carefully pointed out maggots and worms are live baits...

Abebooks might be worth a look. Kevin Maddocks Carp Fever, Rod Hutchinson The Carp Strikes Back, Tim Paisley Tales From The Bivvy, More from The Bivvy. There are plenty available, but prices on Abe change up and down

I knew the lake quite well, in fact I'd actually run it for a couple of years. I knew that most anglers had gone to a boilie only approach, and were being quite sparing with freebies, because the carp were taking a couple of days to move onto beds of boilies. I had seen how the carp with small particle beds were picking and ignoring hookbaits, even sweetcorn was being left. If we/I had blanked it would have been recorded. A couple of years later try the same and it did take two or three days for carp to come onto it.

Years ago at Taverham a mate and I absolutely filled it in with 10kilos of hemp, a couple of kilos of pellets and a few kilos of boilies for an overnight session. The lake had been fishing out of sorts, probably the main reason we did it. The anglers opposite were taking the mickey that we had totally killed it. By the morning we were shattered, I think it was 10 double figure carp each, and I was blanking on one rod being fished on hemp boilies (Total Hemp mix), the fishmeal baits were taken in minutes. When they came round in the morning the complaint was we had kept them up all night with the noises of buzzers and camera flashes. The strange thing was my blanking on the Hemp Mix boilies over hemp, yet the fishmeals caught. The fishmeal had a fair dosage of salmon oil in them, which on Taverham was a feeding trigger. Baits without salmon oil could be totally ignored! I do find piling it in is a killer on most occasions, especially on short sessions less than a couple of days, but as above, there are exceptions.

Correction, some of those baits were are or are available in Shelf life version, as DreamLake Specials, available via order at Dream Lake or direct from Mainline. Ted in a Shed, funny comment😖 I used to use a bait company who originally had a good reputation, as a rolling company, then as a bait maker themselves. Their own baits were actually very good, producing a lot of fish for me. Some good 20's out of Ardleigh, then some decent 30's from Nazeing. Unfortunately they then decided to 'destroy' other companies baits by cutting them with cheaper ingredients, in the process destroying their own reputation. Ted in a Shed can produce a very good bait, I know I can; actually a fairly simple mix of Maize Meal, Semolina, Full Fat Soya Flour, Ground rice, Liver Powder, Robin Red. That is probably actually a better bait than Tails Up Protavit Liver. In many cases that is how bait companies are formed, a guy working from his own, or even his parents garage (😉😆), then getting into it 'Big Bill' time, becoming Nutrabaits or somesuch. I think that at times, even though carp eat our baits, even eat everyday, at times they just concentrate on natural foods. The baits will be sat on the lakebed for days. However, I think the four day approach of freezer baits, the release of enzymes is more attractive than the 'instant' attraction of shelf lifes. I would really like to compare a baited area vs others of shelf life mixed with freezers, and freezer against shelf lifes, it might make for interesting comparison as to favourite. Then with any bait we have flavours, is it attractive instantly, or long term? Overdosing flavours in baits can make them instant, but can blow the bait long term. A low level flavour (or flavour/essential oil combination) can keep the bait going long term, and there are some very attractive combinations. Shelf lifes might be more instantly attractive because of slightly higher flavour levels, but I bet those shelf lifes are not long term baits. In a freezer bait, the looser constituency may allow the flavour level to leach out until it becomes attractive, at which point it may be long term acceptable. Washed out baits anyone...

I paired Delkim ST's with the Att dongles and receiver a few years ago. Had no problems with them together although with the length of my sessions I can go through dongle batteries, so it is worth always having spares with you.

I can think of a couple of lakes around Ipswich that fish are still taking floaters, Bromeswell, Melton, possibly the park lake... It can work even in the depths of winter on some lakes, just try it. I have found bread is a better floater bait in autumn and winter than hard dog biscuits, maybe because it is softer and the energy reduced to crunch the baits? Saying that the big Bakers rectangular biscuits in the complete make a good hookbait as they are softer, but the size can be offputting.

It is possible to fish a pop-up very close to the bottom, matching free baits, in fact that was the original D-rig. You don't have to fish a pop-up two or three inchess off the lakebed. Critically balancing the bait makes it behave like a freebie. Putting it in a mesh or bag with a load of chops etc as the fish suck the whole lot goes in in one mouthful. Strangely I have not done at all well on white pop-ups, I have tried them, chocolate cream, coconut creme, and caught zip. I have caught on fluoro orange, flouro pink, yellow, green, brown or red, yet I can't catch on a white one.

I think I was first using shelf lifes back in the late 1980's, Richworths Tutti-frutti, Honey Yucatan, Salmon Supreme etc. They did produce best with just a stringer or as a single, but they are NOT food source baits at all, basically attractor baits. As kids, we could not afford to pile them in anyway, a bag had to last a few weeks! In the tail end of the 1980's I started making my own, Chappie dog food, Pond Pellets for koi, all ground down or mixed with semolina and Casein. The results of heavy baiting with them produced lots more but those baits would not keep fresh. I mentioned the Brian Skoyles article, 'The Four Day Approach', I can't remember whether it was a Nutrabaits 'Bait' annual, or Carpworld, but he would on longer sessions put a large amount of his food freezer baits in on arrival. On the fourth day the enzymes were kicking out attracting big time. I have used the approach myself, on Taverham when it had switched off and I hadn't been down for a few weeks. Quite literally on my fourth day as I was packing up the fish started coming, I had four in my last 30minutes, catch, recast, catch recast, other rod, catch recast until I did have to go. It was Trigga being sold as a shelf life that I think was the first food source bait, or it may have been Crafty Catcher King Prawn, either way, the instant attraction was better than freezer baits of the same recipe, albeit the shelf life did have a slight different make-up. Now as I said I have seen how shelf life baits are the same as freezer versions, and how they are stabilised, or preserved. The instant attraction is ongoing, the baits are usually hard, and do not break down as fast as freezer baits. The freezer version I still think is a better long term bait, despite using both in the same recipe, but that is most definitely not saying the shelf life won't.

I'm sat here by the lake with a thought or 2 running through my head. Shelf lifes are more instantly attractive than freezer baits, but freezer baits on day three seem to offer more natural attraction as the enzymes kick in or out. Years ago Brian Skoyles wrote an article about it, and Gary Bayes has mentioned the instant attraction of shelf lifes vs freezer. To me shelf lifes are better in small quantities, even food baits, a tiny percentage of the freebies mixed with freezer baits, or as a stringer of baits around the hookbait. The hookbait itself can be a shelfie, but you do not want massive amounts of shelf life freebies.