ouchthathurt

I’ve just got some stocking fillers for the boy, got a kg of candy nut crunch readymades for a fiver, a pair of fox mini microns for £30 with batteries, half a dozen ESP ready tied hair rigs - mates rates, half a dozen leads, a spool of esp line that should get him going.

I only live a 5min drive from the coast, I’ve got a great bass beach 10mins away, a harbour, shingle beaches, a pier, lots of options. I’m extremely fortunate in that respect. the bass I’ve taken so far

Not a Christmas list for me, but my boy wants a carp set up he can use back home, as he can only carp fish while he’s with me. He has to travel by bus/walking etc, so I just got him a pair of Leeda rouge 9ft 2.75 tc carp rods and a pair of 6000 shimano baitrunners 2nd hand for £40, they are immaculate and I’m secretly thinking of keeping them for myself!

I’m hoping to get out tomorrow for a few hours piking, so long as this mild spell helps and the lake isn’t frozen!

I’ve only got a few hours Sunday to get the rods out, so I’m going to target pike. Hopefully my venues don’t have a lid on them!

It’s started snowing in East Sussex

-2 in East Sussex with a sharp overnight frost, no snow yet but it’s forecast for tomorrow. Got the log fire roaring!

The first ever boilies I brought were a company called “freebies bait products” they did a savoury bait that smelt of bacon. Next were richworth tutti fruitti, strawberry jam and banana ester boilies. They also did a ginger boilie that was pretty good. My first basemix was carp company fruit frenzy basemix with RH mixed herbs flavour, with salmon oil and fruit factor 6 (if I remember correctly) I remember getting the mainline grange basemix too. Then I moved onto premier aminos GLM basemix in 97 and haven’t looked back. Still using premier aminos and/or matrix to this day.

Welcome buddy

Welcome buddy

Many thanks all, mum and baby are both doing very well 👌

Many thanks guys, much appreciated 😁

At 02:10am I bagged a new PB at the weight of 6lb 9oz. A new baby! Wifey gave birth to a perfect little girl last night 😁😁

Takes all sorts Elmo!

One of my waters fishes it’s nuts off when the water flows over the banks. I might have to pop down early doors Sunday!

That’s was my mate! I posted that ages ago. His username was Lizardking on here going back years ago now, 2003-4. He did indeed jack it in and become a fluff chucker

Welcome to the forum pal

Welcome to the forum buddy and enjoy your retirement!

Lesser spotted dogfish! 🙄

Bass carp barbel

Funnily enough, I’ve started using solid bags again on a new days only water I’m playing around on. I’ve been using the fox system which works really well, can make lovely tight bags. I tied up a load with home made Polaris pop ups flavoured with a slight dash of cherry flavour and then soaked in different goos, one batch being orange goo and one in the red factor (I think it’s called) goo both bright coloured and smell lovely and fruity. One thing I noticed when leaving the pop ups in the ready made bags was that sitting in the pellet mix, the baits became dehydrated and shrank ever so slightly, which affected their buoyancy and as I was lassoing them on with floss, they would fall off! Hair rigging them solved this problem as well as over weighting the pop up to take in the effect of the dehydration of the baits. I never worried about the baits going off, when I had left over bait - I make all my own baits at home - I never refreeze baits - I used to either use them to prebait before heading for home, or I’d chuck them in a bucket of pellet. They would dry out, become rock hard but not go off. Then they would end up in my spod mix next session. ive found that if I make the bags up on the morning of the session, rigging and balancing each pop up before dropping the entire rig in some groundbait to dry it off, before making up the bags, they would be fine for a day or so but leaving them in the air tight bait bucket for a week or more, the pellet would dehydrate the pop up - not an issue per say if you overweight them, but then they will take in water once submerged, making them heavier which could lead to them being too overweighted, if that makes sense! if you’re planning on using a bottom bait, then this wouldn’t be a problem, the boilie would just dehydrate, shrink and harden off on the hair of left for a while in a pretied bag of pellet, which wouldn’t bother me unduly. Or you could tie up a load with a couple of drilled out larger pellets as hookbaits? Or a single 21mm halibut pellet? They won’t be effected sitting in a pva bag of pellets for ages! Obviously, drilled pellets won’t last long as a hookbait though, I’d only give them 30-40mins initially until I could get a bead on how quickly they were softening up and dissolving. When pellet fishing with pellet hookbaits years ago, (mid 90s) I’d take a jam jar, fill it with lake water, then bait a spare rig with pellet hookbaits, then drop it in the jar as I cast out, then when they softened up, I’d reel in and rebait! - very few pellet pecking roach in my jam jar though, so probably not very accurate!

Welcome buddy