ouchthathurt

I’ve always used floss as the “hair” on the slip d, then tied the hair stop on with a couple of granny knots then blobbed with a lighter. I then remove that bait and hair stop and discard it, then turn the floss loop so the blob is half way down the loop, then rebait, so the blob ends up in the centre of the boilie, then hair stop as normal. I do this because when I bait up, then give the bait a quick sniff, I can smell the melting/burning smell left from the blobbing process, but by replacing the bait and positioning the blob in the middle of the bait, this is eradicated. Extremely fussy I know! But it makes me feel happier! yet when I lasso and blob a pop up using floss, I can’t do that, and catch perfectly well, so the “blobbing burnt smell” can’t be that off putting… 🙄

Welcome to the forum buddy 👍

Just brought a bag of haiths robin red, betaine powder, vitamin powder, belachan powder, full fat GLM powder and krill powder to knock up my cork ball pop ups. now just need to buy the cork balls! 🙄

Just brought a new Steve Neville buzzer to replace a buzzer with a cracked case, it arrived a few days ago - but didn’t work! I took the back off and saw that one of the contacts hadn’t been soldered! To be fair, the company I brought it off replaced it immediately, no questions asked - it’s a manufacturing fault that they couldn’t foresee so can’t blame them really, my new, er, new alarm should be here tomorrow. why didn’t I just not send the alarm off for a replacement case? Good question! I’ll do that too… £30 to repair. I’ve also got a neville that drains the battery in under an hour, it must be shorting out somewhere, £20 to fix that. Speculate £50 and I’ll have 5 good as new Neville alarms.

Awoken up this morning by a cockerel at the old estate lake I’m doing the winter on

I got this new book adrift by Gaz Fareham for Christmas, I’m about 1/2 way through and it’s a very enjoyable read. Anyone else read it?

It’s one of my all time favourite books, along with tiger bay by rob maylin

last nights session on an old estate lake

Also get the marker leads with grippers and drag the spot, then reel in smartly, it should pick up leaves and give you some idea.

I’ve got great faith in maggots when it’s cold, I’ve been very lucky with my autumn/winter captures whilst using maggots in the past, so I’ll keep them in mind once the water temps drop.

A few hours out this morning, had a brace of small commons but nice to be out

Better to be over the hill then buried under it!

Morning all, so I’ve finally hit the big 40 this week and the wife and family have clubbed together to pay for a fishing trip to France (so I can tick it off the bucket list!) I’m looking at provisional dates in either June or October 2024. Preferably a long weekend, although id happily do a week, having a toddler at home, id feel bad disappearing for 7 days. im looking for drive and survive lake recommendations for a France first timer, preferably close to Calais as I’m travelling alone and am not massively experienced in driving on the continent, that offer long weekend packages, (but will “reluctantly” consider a week package!) that’s suitable for a France novice! I was looking at Vallee lakes, lake 1, if anyone’s got any feedback on this venue, id be grateful! many thanks

All i want is a pair that won’t rip and bear my backside to the world… 🙄

Local tackle shops, AR tackle, Hastings angling centre or Sues cabin in Rye. I rarely buy online unless I’m struggling to find it locally. You don’t get the chat or local knowledge, you can’t get the gossip or tap up the local grapevine online like you can in a decent tackle shop

Off out tonight for an overnight sesh, I couldn’t decide where to go, so left it to fate - I flipped a coin! Lol! Fingers crossed that it pays off.

I’m probably going against the grain here, but each to their own! I am not a fan of delks, I had a set for a good while, and I brought 4 of them, 1 of which needed replacing under warranty very quickly as it packed up in the rain, so I ended up with 5, as the original was also returned (nice touch) of those 5, the replacement plus two others packed up in the rain, I fixed it in the end myself by spraying them all with WD40 and wiping off the excess then leaving them to dry, which did stop the problem for a while, also I’m a simple soul, all the sensitivity, tone, volume etc was just too much adjustment for me, I could never get the tone “just right” very silly complaint I know, but that’s just me. The delks went to my son, who loved them, and fair enough, they are good alarms, he’s moved onto fox mini microns, I still carry the delks as a back up set of alarms just in case… but I’ve always been a huge Steve neville fan, so I would always go back to them… mind you, of the 8 I’ve owned, one packed up after the battery would drain within 10mins of being switched on - it needs to get repaired, two of the “original” alarms cracked at the base - so it’s horses for courses really, the others are all going strong - yes battery replacement is a pain, and they have 3 settings, quiet, loud and off! But I love them and the sound of a screaming neville is awesome. their not without their issues, I’ve missed a run when the line dropped behind the roller, and I’ve had lightweight bobbins jam against the roller and stop it spinning which effectively silences the alarm - changing to mini swingers solved this issue. the only fox alarms I’ve liked are the mini microns, I’m not a fan of the other fox alarms - I don’t like the shape, simple as that, I had micron m and mx alarms in the past and they did the job just fine. I’m a fox fan though, my rods, reels, and most of my terminal tackle are all fox gear. I’ve used nash siren alarms, and still do in my travelling kit, but they have a fiddly on off switch, I’m picky like that. quite simply, we all have our favourites, gear we use and trust to do the job, if you like it and it works for you, that’s all that matters in the end

I have always used the lightest bobbin I could get away with, using the ESP white bobbins with Steve Neville buzzers, however recently I’ve noticed that on several runs, I’ve had the bobbin jam in the roller on the buzzer which silences the alarm as the roller couldn’t spin, so I swapped them out for a set of new direction mini swingers, with an adjustable weight, they do the job nicely, as the arm stops the bobbin reaching the roller

Looks good lads, best of luck to you all

Most recent purchase are rigmorale free fall braided tubing in 1m lengths.

Well this session is going better than expected… the lakes flooded, it’s lashing it down and I’ve just landed a new park lake and club record… 🤯🤯🤯

Rods out for an overnighter on the park lake, it’s been fishing poorly recently after missing a run on the last 2 sessions because of the little bobbins jamming in the buzzer roller, I’ve got a set of teeny tiny swingers, keeping the bobbin nicely away from the roller!

What puts me off some waters is this business of having to prebook a lake and swim prior to arrival, a local complex near me that I used to hold a season ticket does this and it put me right off. I want to be able to arrive at a venue, look around the available lakes and swims and choose a spot based on fish location, weather conditions, watercraft etc, not prebook a lake & swim in advance, it might be a carp desert when I get there! they also banned leadcore but not lead free leaders, as the lead “seeps out and affects the water” so the lead in the lead core is dangerous, but the 3oz lump at the end of the rig is fine? they’ve now opened a farm shop, restaurant, fishing pods, glamping and little new age hippy shops all over the place… not my type of place at all!

And to think, this is supposed to be a relaxing, leisurely pursuit!