salokcinnodrog

I was mooching and found this:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/CtSFibru45ifMqBD/

I was mooching and found this:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/CtSFibru45ifMqBD/

Came up on mine this week also
genius yet so simple
 

You have to live in Holbrook to fish it.

This morning's uneven indicators after a carp around 10pm last night and a small tench around 2am.

A decent westerly yesterday, and I was able to keep my rods tips underwater.
Brilliant session!

Hopefully people can understand why we had to be a little covert about it now it is booked now so all fine. We've assembled a crack team of carp.com members ready to take on the challenge 

https://tacklebox.co.uk/starting-carping/rods-en-2/tackle-box-darent-valley-specimen-rod-11ft-3lb/
Not used them myself but people seem to think these are good value for money. 

i did stumble on these after i posted, but gonna wait till early new year and make do with the rods on the go for now

In my opinion it wouldn't matter what colour the green zing pop ups were that dynamite made, that flavour is one of the best winter flavours ever made in my opinion.  I used to roll my own in orange and caught some good fish on it. Another mate would roll his in white or red and caught. Great flavour. Not sure if it's still available,  it was released several years ago by a couple of companies.  

Pink is officially the best alternative colour pop up, as voted by carp.com. 

I can add still more and from this year on the syndicate a 4 day session.
It started off well with a 22lb fish the first night, then I had a 27, 24, a 21, 29, and a 26 over the trip.
Then another session where I equalled my largest carp with a 33, and on the same trip an 18lb Linear, which went in this year at 10.8.
 

I've got a big choice from various sessions:
4 winter carp just after the lake thawed in February on Nazeing, 20, 26, 26 and 17lb
2 Ardleigh carp on the day of the London bombings, a 23.6 and 24.12, both fully scaled mirrors, but the overnight session was not as important as my Mate who was on the tube that day, thank heavens he survived.
A 3 hour session on the river that gave me a 28lb pb at the time.
Multiple 20lb fish from Brackens Pool a couple of times, from Earith Virginia Lake, and even from the 475acre Alton reservoir.
 
 

Nearly forgot the first fish of the year from the carp.Com social, was good spending some quality time with @commonly and @dalej2014
I did have to move and be antisocial but it paid off 😂
Might be worth starting to plan next year's soon ? 

I can add still more and from this year on the syndicate a 4 day session.
It started off well with a 22lb fish the first night, then I had a 27, 24, a 21, 29, and a 26 over the trip.
Then another session where I equalled my largest carp with a 33, and on the same trip an 18lb Linear, which went in this year at 10.8.
 

I’ve several memorable sessions, one of my favourites being when I blanked! 
 
my son wanted to catch his first pike, but the rain was biblical and everywhere was flooded and the consistency of paint. Still, the boy was keen, so we headed out to a little known and fished section of the royal military canal (basically where it first begins) 
the rain was torrential and we were both head to toe in gortex, the water level was very high and the water was like hot chocolate and my confidence was rock bottom. My boy, with all youthful confidence was up for it, so we took a light lure rod each and went for a wander. It was a wet, windy day and every other cast ended up snagged so I ended up spending most of my session pulling his spinner free from streamer weed for the boy. 
 
after several miles of soggy slogging, I gave up and turned around to head for home. I stopped to talk to an old country gent who was in the process of telling me how mad we were and how hopeless pike fishing was in the conditions (as if I needed reminding) when my son snagged again. He called me for help, I told him to wind down, point the rod straight at the snag and walk backwards until the spinner cut through the weed. This the boy did, only the snag pulled back! He had hooked a pike! 
 
thinking it was only a small jack, I wandered down to give him a hand, this fish was running strongly downstream, so I told him to walk off after it. Once he got over the top of it, he brought it to the surface where an absolute unit appeared! I soiled my pants and told him to give it line, set the net up and generally went into a right old state of excited panic! My son gave me a withering look and told me to calm down! We eventually slipped it in the net where we were presented with my boys first pike… 

Other memorable session would be last year when I was unable to get any time in for night sessions, I had a little girl at home and had returned to the ambulance service, so time was at a premium so a few quick day sessions were all I managed. 
 
my dad was float fishing at my local club water and wifey suggested I join him and do a quick overnighter, so I dragged the gear out the shed and headed down. I set up and cast out, not really putting any thought into it, just 3 rods with pva bags on a known spot with a few kg of hemp over the top, I sat and chatted to the old man for a few hours until he headed home, gifting me a few pints of maggots. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, so just filled the pva bags with maggots and put them back out. 
 
it then lashed it down and I retired to bed, at about 1am, the middle rod tore off! After a 30min battle, I netted a lovely common… at over 40lb, it was a right result 

I've pretty much just enjoyed all my sessions this year. They've all been pretty memorable even the blank where I snapped my rod and caught a pike was good but first time on a new lake and I got to catch a new 31lber which I got to name snowball has to be right up there. 
But this one also, I worked so hard whilst being ill including a move to get on the fish it's a special one to me 

And some I caught with the kids in a mega summer session



And how could I miss out my daughters first 20lber 

Been a great year, hopefully more to come. 

I find the Met Office consistently under estimates the temperature .
Don't dis Carol tho' or I'll have to give you a slap , Nick .
😁
 

My floater fishing and stalking rod for years was a 9ft Browning spinning rod, and I found it brilliant. Seems weird as it had no test curve rating, I think it was 30-50grams casting weight,  sadly it was stolen.
Most of my fishing is on big waters, where long casts may be required and I know that I can cast a lot further with a 12ft than a 10ft rod. In fact I don't think that I have fished a water less than 45acres since 2010, other than occasional day trips to Bromeswell, and there I prefer to use my specialist rods as I'm not going to fish for carp just reaching double figures with 2.75 or 3.25lb rods.
Even feeder fishing with a 10ft specialist rod, I am casting shorter than the exact same make in 12ft, although to be fair on the river that's not a problem.

A day on the Chelmer, MkIV Avon and Adcock Stanton pin... only a coupla little 'uns though

Nash tackle started a trend for shorter rods.
Fine for smaller waters but on big lakes where you need big casts...