kevtaylor

Yep Ben said you're gonna capsize us lol He's not happy in the massive boat on the pike ressies either tbh 😄

View OF the bivvy doors - this is camp from the last trip, thankfully the trees left side of the swim covered us from mid morning until 7pm. We moved the Nash tarp and used as a wall to block the early morning sun - worked a treat. 👍

This is something that bothers me always has and something that came up on a recent Korda Podcast where Dovey of all people admitted to doing it all the time. To me this is pure noddy! Re-casting at dusk, what is that about?!?! Was taught early on you get the rods set and leave them ready for the key bite times with no disturbance i.e dawn and evening into dusk. So on what planet does it make sense to reel in during bite time, cause commotion and smash the lead back out for no reason whatsoever? We find a spot were happy with, cast accurately, use rigs we know present and reliable bait that stays as it should, it washes out (ages) along with the freebies and can stay out for the duration of your trip, unless you suspect something has got away with it. Why would anyone re-cast at key times when you should be sitting on your hands - it's beyond me tbh - smacks of not being confident with all of your previous steps so doubts have set in, if not that why would you want a fresh hookbait that now looks alien to the rest? Stupidity IMO

Went back to Belgium Carp Arena Lilly Pool late July-Aug and was regretting the booking in the run up with the extreme heat forecasts. First day set up camp and got my son fishing and he got off the mark with 2 x 30s within the first 12 or so hours so all pressure was off. Sunday I got my rods sorted and didnt take long to get off the mark too with another low 30. The heat midweek killed the action but we got a couple late on in the week. We ended up with 7 for me including the biggest in the lake and 4 for my son. Mega week for me practicing boat skills to drop rigs, bait up and play a few that became weeded up, my son loved the bait boat and wasnt keen on the actual boat as he felt unsafe with me moving all over the place trying to help him hand line fish out of the weed etc. Tactics were my low pop-up rigs, match the hatch baits and small scatterings of boilies which seemed to work well considering the conditions. No night bites which seemed odd but great, all fish came between first light upto 10pm with 7am - 10am the most productive. Will go back coz I love the boating element and a lake exclusive.

Is that you Ollie? 🤪

Tru dat, didn't give them an inch to hide lol

Last week in Belgium, rods far and wide on a lake booking between me and my son.

Gets me when on a pretty quiet lake a new arrival will choose to go right next to you or bang opposite - I mean really?!?! I've been doing this fishing lark for a long time now so if I want to go down a particular end of the lake but find it to be busy down there I go the other end instead of fitting in and spoiling it for those already present. I'm not desperate to catch these days and it usually works that the pressure pushes them away anyway. 🤷‍♂️

Hi Caprini, welcome to the forum, hope you find it useful 👍

No mate, just wading to cast and thought a picture would be good. 👍

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. 😂👍

I went Saturday 6pm to Monday morning 9am and yes it's too hot for me so made sure I started in a swim with shade and some breeze, problem was I saw fish opposite in a swim with less breeze and much less shade but had to move. It's a long day waiting for dawn bite times and too hot to snooze in the daytime but I did have 2 takes around 8am before leaving so worth the effort. I'm not going this weekend too hot but the weekend after I will do at least Saturday night to Sunday morning as the weather is cooling off. If you're on a lake worth surface fishing then you could catch all day as long as you're confortable. I have bought myself the Korda sun protection shirt (long sleeved/high neck) which means I dont have to worry about sun cream and some super lightweight combats/shorts from Fortis which were both ideal, oh and a sun hat ESP, drink lots of water. Up at Trentview a few years back we sat in the water on our chairs most of the day to keep cool, which was lovely. As an ex-ginger the heat isn't my thing at all and it does put me off.

Went on my syndi Saturday evening to Monday morning, started on one side of the lake but moved Sunday morning to one of the bays opposite after seeing a few show amongst the kelp beds. Had a small common Monday morning with only the rods left to pack up, then whilst dealing with that one the right hander busted off with a better fish that I lost giving it the beans trying to stop it reaching snags. Nice to get a birthday fish 👍

Most epic sight I've had in carp fishing was seeing the big girl down welly chasing spawning tench around the lake, she looked angry and stayed within feet of the tench they couldn't shake her off. If not the spawn she was eating the tench anyway lol

No dogs, unless you're surname is Lane apparently. He didn't like me pointing that out, and no I didn't make the waiting list lol No baiting poles WTF weird

How it's done!!! well in big man ♥️

Superb start to the year mate - well in 👌

Welcome to my world, had concussion twice last year smashing the back of my head on the car door frame whilst loading the kit. Given myself a perforated ear drum doing it on the last occasion. Spend 3 days on the bank wondering why I felt funny 🙃👎

Yeah you do struggle to completely drain, especially if it's cold. Was considering one of those adaptors to drain one into another tbh

Legend - well in mate 😎👍