salokcinnodrog

Sorry I couldn't be more positive about it. I don't like putting down products without adequate reason, but Shimano Aero line just didn't work for me, and I can't be dealing with using dodgy gear.

I kept my wife happy, so we split up...😖😱 Don't leave any unpackaged PVA in oily pellets, it will slow down the dissolve times, and if left long term, can actually prevent dissolving totally. Obviously keep your PVA dry, so my advice is always keep it in sealable plastic bags or containers. You may find different manufacturers or brands of PVA have different dissolve times.

I fished a water where putting bait out by catapult or spod was banned, every free bait had to be put in by PVA mesh, bags or stringers. A number of times I was casting PVA's full for 30 minutes or so to get bait around my hookbait, be that stringers etc, and a number of times I had takes within minutes of the last cast of my hookbait and stringer. Stringers as large as 30 boilies! Century AK47's had a 2.75 tc I think, two tip sections, a 1.75 and a 2.75 that fitted one butt. Quite an old design now! With heavy bags you may find a gentle lob is better than a full on whack cast, and as said it may pay to drop down a lead size or two.

I have caught 2 8lb commons that were companions of a big mirror that was in my local park lake. One was a short dumpy fish, the other long and lean. They seemed to test every bait before the big mirror, which was rarely caught, almost 'sacrificing' themselves to spook it away.

Sorry, I split the moon phase section out of the Rotary letter and bite times, because it interests me, causes confusion, works and then doesn't work. I know a few years ago now Tim Paisley wrote about big fish being caught on particular moon phases; I think he worked out that Lee Jackson caught Two Tone from Coningbrook on the same moon phase as other big fish were caught around the country. I know that the gravitational pull of the moon creates 2 high tides every 24hours and 51minutes, a lunar day, not an earth day. It is this time as to why high tide times change from day to day. What I don't understand is the spring and neap part of it, why spring tides are higher than 'normal' tides, I think it is to do with the particular phases of the moon, as the moon cannot change its gravity, it is to do with how close it comes to earth. From all of my big fish very few dates come to mind, apart from 2 fish, one a 33lb mirror caught on the 6th December and my river 28 simply because it was date stamped, so sadly I can't confirm or deny moon phases. I know Simon Crow 'pooh poohs' the moon phase theory, because I recently reread Tim Paisley's 'More From The Bivvy', and it is referenced against a chapter in there.

Looks like I am buying up a number of Spombs then. I have used the Fox once or twice, and handed it back to the owner very quickly, grabbed a spod from my tackle bag and went back to using that. Add to that when I was in the tackle shop, we had a large number of Fox Impact Spods brought back broken, pins, hinges and doors that wouldn't stay shut. It also means that likely the Fox Impact will get taken off the market. Fox are owned by someone else, nothing to do with the Fox family anymore, think it is a Korean company. Something else just came to mind, if Spomb didn't have the money to defend it's patents against Dot Spod, then with Fox's backing there is a large amount of money now available. Fox vs Nash...

Only problem is I can't see the black topped one, so it is sat waiting for a tip top of blaze orange paint. I find my marker rod invaluable. On Brackens I could be looking for exact spots on a feature, and the marker float gives me something to aim at with bait, spod or Spomb. (Or massive stringers) I also find, while I can do Yonny's method of counting the lead down, (roughly a metre per second), using a marker float on a link, I can find clearer patches in weed. If I just cast and count, I may not know exactly where the weed starts and finishes as I can't see it, whereas carefully dragging it back I can feel the clear or clearer spots, and then count the float up and down. I have lost count of the fish I have caught after baiting up to my marker. I can do 'wraps', or mark my line, but sometimes on a large inland sea, the marker float is extremely useful, especially if as I did on Earith, you map out the whole lake with exact depths. This week, the marker float served another purpose, it kept idiot sailing boats and safety boat from going over my line❗️😉 To be honest, I have been using a marker rod and spod rod since the 1990's, and they are both a necessity to me.

Shimano Aero, used it for testing a couple of years ago, discovered how easily it broke, took it off the reel and binned it.

Yonny, Mike Wilson and The Baiting Pyramid, he did it long term from memory, continually feeding and using maize, but it does work on shorter spells. Match anglers regularly feed, feed, fish, feed and keep feeding and checking/fishing a spot until the bigger fish move in.

It is not the first one I have killed like that😖😅😳

As good advice as that is, I do actually aim at my marker float, so need to use both spod and marker, hence my preference.

And standard green is the brightest. My last ones are around 20years old, and still bright enough to see at night, but I replaced them with Solar ones just to fit my IPRO heads.

Personally I have found I can feel features better with my marker rod with braid and a mono shockleader. I tried using a spod rod years ago on Ardleigh, but to get any feel on the lakebed I had to use 5oz leads. That and retrieving a spod meant the braid wore a groove in my tip and butt ring; since then I only ever use mono with a shockleader on my spod rod. I am putting loaded medium Spombs over 100metres, ironically further than I can now cast with my 2.75lb Marker rod as it has softened over the years. I have also used a 2.5lb fishing rod in the long distant past, but with the advent of braid, which I do not fish with due to my concerns on my waters of needing a leader to prevent damage to fish, I came to get a proper marker rod. I will say that with the increased size and buoyancy of modern marker floats, you need a larger lead. My found Korda marker float requires at least 4oz to feel the lakebed, as the float is so buoyant, compared to the 3oz of my last ESP Mini Marker, which I could see at range until I smashed it with a cast actually hitting it. Other large marker floats are the same, although if you can buy a decent bottom end pike float, it is a whole lot cheaper than carp taxed 'proper' marker floats. Personal choice is a designed marker rod, spod rod and my fishing rods.

I know what you are saying, but when nutritional need is fulfilled they can stop eating and go elsewhere to 'chill'.

There is a chapter in Rod Hutchinson's The Carp Strikes Back called 'Doing a Fred', where he made some orange size boilies in an attempt to avoid smaller carp. Go as big as you can, I've used 2 20mm baits on a hair and still caught carp only just reaching double figures, but at the same time, I have also gone down in size to 10mm baits and caught big carp over 20lb. Double or even treble your baits on the hair, maybe 2 or 3 20mm boilies on the hair (Albert Romp and the Greedy Pig rig) instead of singles. The other thing is you may find the larger carp avoid feeding with smaller carp, or stick to particular areas. It could pay to feed off the smaller carp, continually baiting one spot until they are full up and move off. The bigger carp may then move in, and pick up your 'oversize' hookbait, or you may need to find the areas the larger carp frequent if they stick to 'their' areas.

I have a few mates who have had the carp in their ponds breed and produce numbers of small fish, both koi and standard carp. I know darn well 'overstock' has been used to 'seed' rivers and lakes as well. A local koi supplier bought some koi into his business, not knowing they had been imported from Israel, the result in a hot summer, his own koi pond was found to contain KHV. Israel farms carp for one purpose only, kosher fish as they cannot according to their religion eat fish with no scales or fins, for food. Europe is alive with various viruses, diseases and parasites, yet illegally and legally, we continue to get fish from mainland Europe.

Andy, Please forgive me for making assumptions, but from the posts of yours I have read, you are an angler who watches, looks, understands and comes to sensible conclusions, and are interested in the history. You don't appear to be a 'catch at all costs' angler, but obviously you want to catch, if possible from a normal water. Sadly many modern anglers don't have the same ethics as you show, they don't care for the history or the fish, just treating them as numbers.

Cor! I can honestly go back some time with my Carp rods. As a 'yoof', I remember a twin tip ledger rod being used for carp, brilliant for carp to double figures and big tench, then I bought a Daiwa Specimen rod. My next purchase was a pair of 2.5lb North Westerns, which were built by John Wilson, used for carp and pike until one was stolen along with some of my other gear from my shed. I must have kept one in my room, which is why that wasn't stolen. The next set were Century Armalite Mk.l's in 2.25lb. I rebuilt these myself going down to 5 rings plus tip, and learnt to cast with Abu Cardinals, then Shimano Baitrunner 4000's to over 120yards with 8lb Sylcast line and shockleaders. I loved those rods until they were traded in. From that I went to Armalite Mk.ll's in 2.75lb, again I rebuilt them to my spec's and paired them with 6010's, the same size reel, just new numbering, sadly another set of rods that were stolen. When I bought my Century 2.75lb SP's I started with 6010's, but soon switched to Shimano Aerlex's. Another set of rods I loved, for casting and playing fish on. I seriously wish I didn't sell them to a mate when I bought my Century NG's, which I had built for me to my specifications at Century, with the ball rest on the butt, which became standard on all NG's. The NG's are not a long distance casting rod, although 100metres is possible. I did have a set of 3 FMJ's, a beast of a casting rod, 3-5oz casting weight, but seriously heavy for fish playing. I still own the NG's, but eventually got a set of Rod Hutchinson The Ones in 3.25lb for long casting on the Lagoons. I am not so keen on them strangely, although they are growing on me. Gaz mentions surface fishing, I had a Daiwa Pro Specialist 11.6 1.5lb rod for that, lovely rod, but after I stupidly broke the tip I have bought a Shakespeare Barbel rod which gets used for that as well as chub and roach fishing.

For years I have a specific Marker rod, albeit my original Marker rod was a North Western 2.5lb carp rod, one of a pair that wasn't nicked. When we were allowed to use 3 rods at Taverham I put this rod into carp fishing alongside my Armalites (mk.l's). My Century M1 2.75lb Test curve marker rod, I have kept specifically as a marker rod, mainly because it is the only rod I have that is equipped with braid on the reel. Saying that, after what must be 10years it is getting soft, and I am now struggling to hit 100metres with it. It is probably not helped by the Korda Marker floats needing such a big lead to feel the bottom; 3.5-4oz compared to 3oz maximum with an ESP Mini marker. The Korda float is so big, and buoyant it lifts any lighter lead than that. I have noticed my marker casting distances decrease over the past few years. I reckon the M1 will get pressed into service as another fishing rod for floaters on the lake for carp with a controller. Guess that means I'll have to buy a new marker rod😖😱😳😉

I have had a couple of 5's. One from The Wensum and one from The Gipping. I haven't seen a Gipping 5 for a few years, the numbers of fish and weight seems to have dropped, and I think our furry friends are partly to blame.

Gipping Mate. Total tackle, rod, reel and landing net, a bucket of dog biscuits, small tackle carry with hooklink material and a couple of packs of hooks, and my scales and sling.

From what I can gather it was legit and above board. Jeremy Evans (Jemsue) I think has more detail on his FB page (on my friends list if you aren't), and the posts he has made about it. I have made that point for ages about getting fish from only clean stock, be that your own breeding programme or certified fish farms. After some of the shenanigans with some fish farms or suppliers though, I would double check their integrity totally. I know some who were buying infected fish from abroad, then bringing them into UK and dropping them in lakes, complete with apparent Section 30's.

I always understood that fish that survived KHV were carriers themselves, and could infect other fish. I think To get rid of KHV totally from a water it has to be drained, the bottom limed and allowed to stand fallow, and can't be restocked for 2 years. This allowing fish movement from a water that was even suspected of having KHV in the past is just plain stupid, and shows how easy it to transfer disease from water to water. That is infected fish from 10years ago, not just a year or so! It is not hard to look at past records of KHV outbreaks, probably most of them are on EA website, or even here, (😉😅)

2 hours, time for A bit of jungle stalking with freelined dog biscuits for a couple of 3lb chub

This may interest you: I have saved it as a pic, I do know though it can be read, or correctly, my tired eyes were able to focus on it