ouchthathurt

Part 3 is on YouTube now

He also said if you’re too drunk to cast, chuck them in the edge! Lol! The man was a legend, RIP the late great Rod Hutchinson

Maybe it’s time to retire the blue cheese flavour then? Lol! Ah yes, the premier range is awesome, yet I’ve been using premier base mixes, oils and additives since 1997 so I would say that! Aminos, Aminos 2000 and matrix bases are my favourites, with added robin red, the cream stimulant and betaine. I’ve a marked preference for meat/fish flavours over fruit flavours with these bases, although premier peach melba on the aminos base is a sure fire classic. I roll all my own bait, pop ups, bottom baits, dumbbells, chops etc, I haven’t used a shop brought bait in god knows when.

Well I’ve managed to get another bottle from the nutrabaits clearance line on their website. How about flavour “shelf life’s?” I’ve still got a bottle of richworth blue cheese flavour I brought in the late 90s, which I still use, I’ve got about 1/3 left and it still works, still produces fish. Yet I’ve got a much more modern flavour that is about 1yr old and it’s lost all its scent. I started using the UTCS smoked ham flavour from nutrabaits after I could no longer get hold of the richworth boiled ham flavour anymore. i think the Hutchinson shellfish sense appeals seem different to the older versions although I may be wrong.

I do wonder how much the 3rd lockdown is affecting the fishing this time of year, one of my local waters usually sees anglers and rigs and baits all year around which usually keeps them a bit more active during the colder months. Many leads hitting the water keeping them on the move, bait going in regularly to keep them feeding and supplying energy that can keep them active. (I’m of the opinion that carp will keep looking for food and stay more active during the winter as long as a regular food supply exists) but with lockdown, this same lake is not seeing anglers from one day to the next (even in winter there are usually between 6-12 anglers on this lake, since lockdown, I’ve seen maybe 1-2 max) with this lack of pressure and next to no bait going in, the lake has totally shut down making it more difficult than it otherwise usually would be.

On a slightly different note, I saw on the nutrabaits website that the UTCS smoked ham flavour is being discontinued... 😫 not sure why though.

That’s the question isn’t it? How much food can a carp expect to find in gravel as opposed to silt or weed or to a lesser extent clay? How much is fishing on gravel because it’s actually better than the other substrates? Or is it because it’s “convenient” for the angler? You get exact rig presentation, the “donk” feels awesome, the tap of gravel is addictive... yet are we as anglers more reliant on creating a feature on a gravel spot through the application of bait, how much have anglers educated carp over the years to feed on gravel by processions of anglers baiting up known gravel patches? Gravel obviously produces many takes, so that would suggest that carp must be finding some types of foodstuffs, natural and bait in the gravel to be aware of this surface being a potential food source.

That’s what it’s all about mate

I would prefer the larger of the two reels, I find them more versatile. You can use large reels in the margins yet smaller reels are less suited to long range work. I’ve got fox 12000 reels that I can use from 0-130yrds without any issues.

Gotta get a snow carp pic mate!

Tight lines mate

I’ve just spent a few (blank) hours on the local pond, I was using soft unvisited braid as hooklinks but after they came back tangled on two casts in a row, (I luckily reeled them straight back in as I wasn’t happy with the casts) I switched over to fluro hooklinks, fished combi rig style (using the soft braid hooklinks cut down and tied to the fluro) no bites, yet no tangles either. Checking them in the edge they looked good too, although it probably doesn’t really emulate what it was doing over in the actual spots!

I’ve not actually used my marker rod for quite a while, I took the handle off the reel so it doesn’t get damaged in the hold-all. (The spod rod comes out even less!) I will get them out if I feel the need too, but it’s not often - this could just be down to knowing the waters I’m on currently. I fished a pit that was a flooded fold in the ground that in WW2 made up a large anti aircraft gun emplacement/early warning site built to protect the nearby Lydd Aerodrome (I think) it has deep gravelly margins that gives way to silt and seems pretty featureless, besides several concrete bases/towers that sit proud of the water surface. Yet there is an old road that stretches from one tower to open water. When you run the marker rod over it, you can feel the lead bump over one kerb and then over the other. It’s a good place for a bite, I’ve had the majority of my takes from there, yet a lot of the other anglers all fish on the gravel. In my experience, placing a bait in the silt just beyond the gravel produces the larger fish too.

Or a dog sled??

I’ve found I’ve struggled with motivation since the start of the 3rd lockdown. I’ve got some time off from the ambulance and thought I’d be raring to go, I think the fact I can’t night fish is probably having a negative impact on my motivation. My water does not fish brilliantly during the day, but there again, I’ll catch naff all sat on the sofa at home! I only made bait yesterday because the darling wife insisted I made some as my bait draw in the freezer is totally empty. I’ve been walking my waters most days and was finding carp most days, especially in the smaller water all shoaled up and looking catchable, but the last few days they’ve drifted away from there, although they wouldn’t have gone far I reckon. If the rain holds off tomorrow, I will get the rods dusted off for a few hours, after all I’ll regret it if I don’t!

Well I’ve rolled the bait... may get the rods out on Friday...

There’s an idea!

Does anyone remember a time when you just walked into a swim and thought “I’ll cast one over there, one to the far margin and one under that bush” (or similar) and “fish the swim” as opposed to finding “the spot” as such? on my local water, I can stand in a swim and the other anglers will say “9 wraps casting toward the left hand side of the dam” or “18 wraps toward the water tower” or “cast on the bank and place the rig 12” from the 3rd set of rushes from the dam wall” and everyone drops into the swim and casts to exactly those spots. A procession of anglers all placing their rigs in the same place. I’ve always thought that if you fish the same spots you can only catch the same as everyone else. when I stand in a given swim, i know that at “9 wraps (or whatever) cast at the dam is “the” spot, yet I can’t ignore the snaggy margins either side of me, plus there’s a lot of unfished water that’s being ignored by 90% of other anglers. on my second water, it’s a small intimate place with (admittedly very inviting) far margins that are an easy cast, nice overhanging trees and bushes. Everyone casts tight to the far bank, yet I get more takes fishing right under my rod tips. One night I had 13 carp under my rod tips, yet the one rod fished to the far margin (just in case) only produced one carp at dawn - which was a repeat capture - I had caught it 8hrs before... under the left hand rod tip! whilst fishing the known spots can and obviously do produce fish, I think that doing things differently suits me better.

Very true Elmo. Keep us posted on how you get on bash.

Many thanks mate, I’m very much a leadcore/unleaded leader kinda guy, but my club has banned leaders of any kind after a few anglers night fished up to snags with loose clutches... (they weren’t using leaders though) the carp got tethered and leaders (as well as night fishing in the aforementioned swim) got banned. I use the nash tungsten tubing mainly which I can thread dry but wet it’s a nightmare!

Simple question, can pole elastic threaders be used to thread rig tubing? I have a rig tubing threader but it’s a bit short and can be a pain to use. I’ve seen pole elastic threaders for sale and wonder if they will do the same thing?

Are pole elastic threaders the same as the Gardner tubing threader things? I was thinking of getting a pole elastic threader as the tubing threaders are a bit short for my liking. I take it a pole threader will do the job with tubing?

I still use stiff D rigs now and then, dependant on the situation. I used to use amnesia/Fluro/stiff links religiously a fair few years ago, as on my lake everyone was using braids, so I tied up some amnesia rigs just to be different... caught a 29lber that night, a PB at the time so I fished on with them full of confidence. wind the clock forward 22+yrs and the thought of using a fluro/amnesia/stiff link can make me wonder about it “not sitting properly” etc... and I find myself leaning towards a coated braid again. 20odd years ago I didn’t give it a second thought, it went out, I caught fish on it happy happy. ive got so many different braids and fluros and other hook link materials (about 15 different types in my tacklebox, if not more...) that I’m probably in very real danger of disappearing up my own rectum...

Pretty much mate, this time of year I used to use PVA bags in the areas already described. It’s a tricky lake, but the rewards are in there.

I once bet on a greyhound whilst out on the razzle in Catterick... his name was lightning... he came last. I’ve never bothered since!