salokcinnodrog

I tried that last weekend, setting up in the shade of a big elm tree, and blanked.
Last year I created a bivvy spot right under the willows and again, the fish seemed to avoid the area. 
On both occasions the fish caught were in the brightest and sunniest spots.
 
I would say that I should have moved, but with Sky I refused as I would much rather she was comfortable as possible, and unless I tell her will lay in the sun all day and overheat.

I went to club lake today, was gonna stay most of day but packed up about 1pm it was too hot and no bites and no sign of fish, i got sunburnt last week and when i felt the sun starting to rake over the coals thats when i left, gonna leave the fishing till things cool down a bit

I tried that last weekend, setting up in the shade of a big elm tree, and blanked.
Last year I created a bivvy spot right under the willows and again, the fish seemed to avoid the area. 
On both occasions the fish caught were in the brightest and sunniest spots.
 
I would say that I should have moved, but with Sky I refused as I would much rather she was comfortable as possible, and unless I tell her will lay in the sun all day and overheat.

For my late July trip to Belgium I've just bought the Nash Tarp, so we have some shade in the daytime and 2 of the Wolf Fans for the bivvies which seem to work well.
I also got the Aqua Pioneer 150, to go alongside my Ultralite, justified by saying it's for my son on this trip but really it's for me in winter when you want a slightly bigger shelter for the additional stuff taken. 😂👍

Damn these fish they just don't care about an angler's comfort ! .
Good on you for putting Sky's needs first . 
😃

I tried that last weekend, setting up in the shade of a big elm tree, and blanked.
Last year I created a bivvy spot right under the willows and again, the fish seemed to avoid the area. 
On both occasions the fish caught were in the brightest and sunniest spots.
 
I would say that I should have moved, but with Sky I refused as I would much rather she was comfortable as possible, and unless I tell her will lay in the sun all day and overheat.

I was out on Friday evening from about 6 on my local lake (old deep clay quarry) with nothing to show. It was funny listening to and watching the teenage kids in one of the posh houses opposite having a party. Once they started swimming and diving into the lake it was game over, but I kept on for another hour before reeling in.
Back out again early doors 6.30am this morning. Previously bites have dried up by 9. I had 2 strange aborted takes where the bobbins pulled tight to the alarms and then stopped around 9. Once it got to 10, I though it was too late, but thought I was planning to go until lunch, so let's give it a while longer.
11AM and my right hand rod screamed off. A nice little 12lb 12oz lightly scaled mirror. That was a nice surprise for the time, but I noticed it was overcast so that may have played into it.
30 mins later and the right hand rod was off again. A 12lb 14oz zip linear this time. As I was bent over returning the fish, my left hand rod screamed into life. After releasing the fish, I went to pick up my other rod, then remembered my net was still broken down, so left it to run for a bit whilst I sorted that out. The run slowed to a stop then sped away again by the time I could get to my rod.
I tightened down the clutch and pulled into it and could feel a much stronger pull back. After a 10 minute fight, I managed to get it in the net and could see it was a much bigger fish. I secured the net with a bankstick whilst I refreshed my bucket and prepared everything.
A lovely long lean 25lb 4oz fully scaled mirror. It's about the size of the largest fish in the lake. I'm not sure if it's the 'big one' or if that's a common, but I'm more than happy. I returned it as soon as I had finished with everything and then sat down deciding I'd had my fill and the fishing gods had been more than generous. That and the fact I had other things to do this afternoon.
Overall, even though it started out quiet, it was a really good session.

Ah , Zombie Sheep Lake ,and now they are coming mob handed 😱 .

I split my fishing between day only fishing and then the more hard core 48 hour sessions on bigger waters. The bigger waters haven't really happened this year but it seems that most people were struggling so not too despondent, especially with the 2 heatwaves we have had this year.
Yesterday I went to my local days only park lake. It's a 2 rod limit and I started at 10:30 and you have be off by 21:30. I caught 22 fish including a 17, 18, 19 and 21-5. It was so stupid, I struggled to find time to eat my sandwiches! At 21:00 I sent the boat out for the last time. I had just dropped the second one and the first was away which was the 21 so I opened the bail arm on the second and left it on the pod. When I picked it up about 10 minutes later, I knew that a fish would be on!  One time I was clipping on the bobbin and the line was ripped from my fingers. The previous trip I had 14 but the biggest was only a 16 and the 2 trips before that I had 8 and 9 including a 20.
You could be forgiven for thinking it's massively overstocked but I don't think that's the case. I've been fishing it for about 15 years and 2 or 3 fish is a good result and my previous highest tally was 9. I've blanked more times than I care to remember and it can be a bit moody at times.
The water is pretty murky and so it's difficult to gauge what is happening but it can't last forever and so it's a case of making hay while the sun shines.
 

Thank you, baited up late last night, strange atmosphere there at night, its right next to where a young couple got shot riding a motorbike trying to flee the DDR  the observation tower still stands today!

One from the weekend after the heatwave.

I absolutely hate dropping the lead.
Despite the theories of reducing the risk of picking up weed, and empty lead clips catches up weed. An zipp or distance inline lead will actually travel through picking up less weed than a lead clip.
Again, littering is an issue, just because you can't see it does not mean it is acceptable. 
I know, stand on the bank of his lake, just throwing leads in. That is exactly what you are doing dropping the lead on every take.

Therein are many problems within business and fishing, the need to make money.
I've had run-ins in the past with Simon Pomeroy over someone using a huge single hook for pike fishing. He doesn't like people disagreeing with him!
I have tried Stonze, in various sizes and they cast like a bag of spanners, more wobble than Jessica Rabbit.
For short range fishing, fine.
For the potential camouflage aspect, fine.
For any distance, yuck.
Pushing Dropping the lead was another business invention, the more leads you drop, the more you sell...
The original reason for the invention of the Lead Clip was the ease of removing the lead at the end of the session, or changing lead size during the session! It provided a way of being able to fish semi-fixed without attaching tubing over the hooklink swivel, to hold a lead bead in place. Instead of buying 2 items you bought 1.
I hate dropping the lead; in most cases there is no need, even in weedy waters.
I have fished very weedy waters, and never found the need to drop the lead. Personally I used to use Zipp (Distance) shaped 1oz to 3oz inline leads in weed, and had few problems. As long as the lead has no shoulder, no weed catching. Your hook catches more on the retrieve.
Gawd, imagine trying to play a fish through weed with a Stonze inline or not!
That's not to say I don't lose leads; a snap-off thanks to pike or swan swimming through the line, an occasional quick clip and the lead pinging off the clip during the fight. 
However, there is an environmental issue, both as @greekskii says from microplastics, and the amount of lead in various waters, lost or 'dumped' tackle. 
Dumping the lead is really decriminalised littering, pollution,  I do recall something about fishing weights being lead was raised in the EU Parliament. We are not just thinking freshwater fishing here, we have to include sea fishing, both beach, boat and commercial as all use lead weights. There is potential for a ban, and even though we are no longer part of the European Union.
 
 
 
 

Water depth and oxygen levels in relation to stress will be an issue in shallow lakes.
The mostly deeper lakes on the main continent are not as likely to cause as much stress. Oxygen is not as big an issue in the depths of lakes as it is in shallow waters.
Fish can fight themselves almost to death in warm water, and take ages to recover.
 
In theory, yes. Yet every year adults as well as children die in lakes and rivers. A no swimming lake just outside Norwich, a number of deaths related to swimming in hot weather. 
 

Water depth and oxygen levels in relation to stress will be an issue in shallow lakes.
The mostly deeper lakes on the main continent are not as likely to cause as much stress. Oxygen is not as big an issue in the depths of lakes as it is in shallow waters.
Fish can fight themselves almost to death in warm water, and take ages to recover.
 
In theory, yes. Yet every year adults as well as children die in lakes and rivers. A no swimming lake just outside Norwich, a number of deaths related to swimming in hot weather. 
 

i know i will get shot down for this but i am not a fan of dropping the lead every time. 
yes there is a cost implication here as they are not cheap but most importantly for me it cant be great leaving all these leads behind on the lake beds.  Yes i know they are made of safe materials these days but every angler dropping a lead on every take just sounds overkill to me.  

Result! I'm delighted for you.
Ian.

Just got permission from the farmer while i was looking round the lake, 80 euros for a year! he said no body has ever asked him before  I am buzzing

That's me as well, it is easier to change batteries than recharge them on the bank. I already carry 3 powerbanks as low phone signal kills battery life faster. At the worst I can pop to the local shops and buy a set of square batteries to get me through.
 
 
Rechargeable batteries have a limited life, heat destroys them, cold they don't work so well, and don't charge either. Hot weather can literally cook them off.
 

for me the language, but i remember the first week of the test 11 people failed out of about 50. and they were ofcourse native germans

I was very interested in Rod Hutchinson's writings on flavours, and his Ultraspice and Megaspice regularly appeared (along with Chocolate Malt) and someone else mentioned Garlic oil as an attractor so I combined the spice flavours with a Garlic and soya bean oil used in bird feeds as it was supposedly an appetite stimulant.
It was not for allicin,  but simply because they were good attractors in their own right and work well combined. 
The additional benefits regarding digestion and health were a beneficial 'side effect'.

Rod Hutchinson and Ken Townley have both made the point, coat a stone in a sweet flavour and it will be picked up, it is down to the rig whether you hook it or not.
Carp don't have hands, to inspect an item physically they have to take it into their mouth.
An item may taste like food, that can possibly be tested before they eat it, but to physically check hardness, they have to suck it in, or pick it up.
A hard food item has to be taken to the back of the mouth to be crushed by the pharyngeal teeth, where smaller or softer items are often passed straight through the mouth, no additional crushing; although how a carp can consume a whole swan mussel and pass it through and out, and the flesh in the shell is eaten I don't know.
Constant sucking and blowing, intake and ejection whether the food is attached to hook or not. No end of videos on YouTube or whatever channel you watch on showing that, be it boilies, maggots, sweetcorn or other particles.
I have mentioned the 'super' high attract pop-ups, there are some attractors or flavours that almost force the take; N-butyric acid was one, Bromelain, (look up pineapple-n-butyric as a pop-up), but there are other attractors that at higher than standard levels will work in attractor baits, or in low levels in food baits. Incidentally, the high attractor level may cause the low level food bait to fail or blow. The attractor becomes a source of danger, and while carp don't think, continued hooking on the same flavour will get them to avoid it, for a period of time or permanently, or to inspect it carefully, at which point we have to look at the rigs again.
Other attractors, may be a mix of enzymes or amino acids, could be flavours, chemical or natural, could even be something as simple as sweeteners like sacharrin. Sacharrin did cause cancers in tests on animals, but in the low levels we use, have not been considered a risk in humans.
I have mentioned an attractor blend I love, Garlic Spice. Stinks, but catches.
 

Never heard of them!
 
Not being funny, but 'getting good press'; advertising now is more dissipated as social media takes over. 
I used to be very up with knowing bait companies, but when even long time companies are falling by the wayside.
 
I keep making this point, if you have a cake of 30centimetres across, with 5 companies taking a piece, each has a decent slice.
Now the same cake with 10 companies taking a piece, the slice is smaller.
That is what is happening to the tackle and bait trade.