kevtaylor

My spaniels seem to mark the perimeter of the swim and I think that deters most, they deffo will not come in the bivvy. Whilst dogless I had one eat through the side of the ridgemonkey porch - with an open front (dumb creature), thankfully it was the only bivvy I've ever hated so not bothered! It has to be the amount of bait and food about on day tickets. 👎

Drennan twin tip, my mates got 2 of these - look mint 👍

I bought a new dog because of rats at fishing, having them climbing up my spod rod in the doorway and running all over the bivvy was the final straw at Bluebell lakes. I'd never experienced that level of rat infestation there before because of my previous dog largely keeping them away. I keep all bait in buckets outside the bivvy. They've damaged cars there eating wires and getting into the vehicle for food/bait. Not seen one on my syndi in 3 years!

There's a video online of a guy who's batteries exploded in the van on the way fishing, scary. I'd started changing mine in the garden due to the risk, so the bag seems like a must for storage and charging.

I use lead clips all the time and will continue quite happily, I can see some danger but happy to live with that as I fish heavy gear and fish sensibly. If we were that concerned we'd use lower bs hooklinks than the line regardless like match anglers. Snapped line springs back into a birdsnest, so even the running rig potentially tangles and tethers.

Just ordered a fireproof charging bag (Amazon) for my fishing batteries, big enough to store them in too. Too many horror stories, should have bought one long ago.

Sorry don't know about these specifically but for what it's worth I've got the old Micron M and MX from years back and they all work great. Then bought the dream alarm 'Delkims' and they were unreliable so back to Fox - currently using MX+ - great so far. I wouldn't have any concerns if I were you - you'll not see many bad reviews of Fox alarms as far as I'm aware if any.

Hi Ian, Yes my mate flies to Parco, Italy - think he takes 20k of boilies in a case and pays for the additional suitcase, reel, tackle box, clothes in one, bait the other! Beats driving hands down 👍

They do make good putty, I know I know sorry man - I feel dirty, gonna go shower! Was the excitement of being at my first angling show. I'll never do it again - the shame 😭🤣

Good luck mate 🤞

Cheers mate - I'll have a look 👍

It's only light hearted fun mate 😂

I did rig trials in Dec taking my stiff hinge pop-up rig and adapting (longer/straighter) for bottom baits and wafters. I got 3 takes on it, all drop backs which indicated to me that they were the bigger fish (proper Kingy fish always do this) but all shook the rig before I connected. Whilst this was disappointing I feel that the rig actually worked OK hooking the fish in the first place, they always come towards you and shake it free anyway (barbless) so really the problem was the semi fixed lead. I clocked this and changed over to running set-ups but no more takes to prove the theory. In a recent video Myles Gibson was trying a very similar rig. Probably going to be Dec again before I come off the pop-ups and onto wafters and continue the experiment again.

I don't know families are over rated 🤣

Put your shades on if pushing through undergrowth or climbing trees, you don't want to have something go in your eye during a trip 👍 Can you tell I'm accident prone yet? 🤣

For me it's the things I forget like: mug, frying pan, leads although I have all except frying pan spare in the car now and gotta remember to put the spare mug back in the car from last trip. Also forgot my sling and mat at Bluebell but luckily borrowed one off Trev the bailiff 👍 Have I lost a fish due to not checking the line - maybe I imagine, must have happened at some point. Stupid things: stepping into 2inch of water just past the reeds, ended up sinking upto my shoulders in silt - very very scary, never go in without a prodding stick, falling in several times - head first once whilst reaching to clip backleads on, climbing a tree in waders - never do this the grip isn't there and never climb a tree whilst on a lake alone and over the water - I literally could have fallen and hit my head and noone would have known until the next day at the earliest.

Aqua do 3 nice mats, one rolls up small, one has a recess that prob acts like sides and ones a mat/sling. Cotswold do a nice one too but with prices in the 90 - 150 bracket might give it a miss as what I've got is in decent condition still, I'd be buying for the sake of buying which is not like me 🤣

That's brilliant - bro's ended up attacking each others swims 🤣 It's one thing moaning about others and getting on with it, plotting their downfall all week is likely to lead to mental health probs! You should write a book, I bet you've got some great memories 👍

Love it, syndicate life is serious business lol 👍 I've heard of people soaping out of bounds or snags to get them out but not attacks on peoples favourite swims - that is savage 🤣

I think it's a case of I've made the effort to get here, it's going in regardless, they wont hear anyway. I let them know I'm here with the head torch etc.

You can actually fish behind the snag, I wanted to do it but didn't know how people would react if caught. But now Joe Morgan's done it on video - game on. 💪

This takes me onto another scenario lol So on that end point I noticed a bait boat come out from the bay on my left to a snag bush late at night. several trips. This happened 2 weekends running. Mass prebaiting 40 yards from someone? Discuss...

Have it! 🤣

Yeah of course I could have gone round, didn't know at that stage how busy it would get or which were fished swims, both opposite were overgrown before the path mowing started 🤷‍♂️ When you're on a point it seems like you've got it all, in fact you've only got half way across and that doesn't feel like the one. I guess all this shows is how great late winter/early spring is coz you can do what you want and how that freedom goes come May and that barely anyone asks where you're fishing before plotting up.

It is tricky mate because in this case I'm fishing out of the norm areas/angles on a quiet lake early spring, then it gets busier. 🤷‍♂️ So the next part of this tale is a move to the bottom point, again quiet, this time I'm facing 2 swims in a bay, in front of the right swim I find a lovely spot and that's the only spot I'm finding. 2 rods on that and some spodding, following week same again and I have one, following week I wake up and someone's setting up opposite - I quickly reel in and cannot fish again - same scenario. Now this guy could have been baiting there being local, fished it the previous year or found the clearing from my baiting and capture - who knows but again no asking where I'm fishing and I had to move on/start again.