ouchthathurt

Great, thanks mate! I’ll give him a shout when I next need to replace my basemix supplies. The “regular” matrix is doing the business anyway, I could always add the RR separately if I felt I need it, but I’ve not noticed a difference in catch rates between the matrix and matrix RR. I firmly believe that a high quality basemix, fished well will always do the business. They get better the more you use them, Ive been feeding about 2-3kg every weekend (with the odd one missed) using about 1.5kg over 3 rods (including hookbaits and stringers) then depositing the rest in other known carpy haunts as I leave. it’s a small venue with very little in the way of nuisance fish (lots of little perch and a few big eels) with a respectable head of commons to 31lb, I can practically cast into every corner of the lake from the mid point swim, so ladling in 10kg every trip would be counterproductive I think.

Smallest fish in the lake!

Zombie sheep back to haunt me! managed to catch one though (carp not sheep - they’re too fast! 😳)

in fact I’m at zombie sheep lake right now! 😁😁

On the first night I ever fished it, never seen the place before, just took a punt on the ticket as it was cheap, £40 a year. it was a wild and windy night and I really wasn’t feeling it, the place was full of sheep, being located slap bang in the middle of a sheep farm. As it was getting dark, I saw a white mass floating in and coming to rest under the rod tips, sticking a torch on it, I saw it was a dead sheep! I retired to my carp cot in disgust, at dawn I was going home! Next morning I woke up and remembered the dead sheep, rolled over to face the lake and as I opened my eyes, there was a loud “baaaaa!” and there was a sheep staring at me through the bivvy door. I nearly jumped through the roof. The dead sheep had gone so I naturally assumed the sheep in the bivvy door must have been a zombie sheep come back from the dead… I didn’t return for 8 months then fell in love with the place, I call it that as it’s a small venue which is ignored by the majority, so I don’t reveal the real name of the place so it’s called zombie sheep lake!

Congratulations on the pb mate, lovely fish 👍

What’s wrong with the old carrier bag in the bait bucket routine?? 🙄

Well I do occasionally… one or two of my swims are lined with ballast, which after a wet winter set to concrete, so no sticks will get in there! I used cygnet sticks in the past, now I’ve got some stainless but I forget which make, but they were around £12 a stick, they’ve lasted ages. I’ve had cheap sticks in the past, but it is a wasted expense. Buy cheap buy twice. If I want to make a pilot hole, I’ll use either a threaded bivvy peg or a storm stick, they seem to work out quite well.

I use a pod

I only use a 50” oval brolly, if it’s needed, I haven’t used my proper bivvy in years. I asked a few fisheries why they don’t allow tents etc, their reply was simple, it came down to insurance - they are not running a campsite their insurance apparently won’t allow tents. How true that it is and what the legal difference between a blue tent and a green bivvy is, I couldn’t say!

I do a lot of margin fishing, and dependant on substrate I will use either bottom baits (90%) of the time, or a really low lying pop up, usually on a spinner rig if it’s a bit choddy. My go to rig choice would be a bottom bait, with half a dozen boilies or broken baits around it, I want something that is discreet and only a mouthful for a carp. On my waters, everyone, (me included and I bet most carp anglers) take their old baits off the hair on the recast and chuck them in the edge, carp are aware of this and will ghost the margins looking for these. That’s what I’m trying to replicate, I’ll happily fish a single bottom bait in the margins, especially if I have seen carp visiting the same place. To my mind, a big pva bag with a blatant pop up would be too obvious, but every water is different!

all set up for another overnighter on zombie sheep lake

I’ve been a die hard premier baits user since 1997 and have so much confidence in them, to the point if I’m not fishing a home made premier bait on the end, my confidence levels drop. I can’t fault the service from premier, in all the years I’ve been ordering bait, I’ve never had a duff batch. The matrix is the base I’m on now, it’s awesome stuff.

matrix plus matrix (the one I got - not the matrix plus as previously stated) the RR mixes seem to have gone.

You may well be right mate, I had it in my head that it was called matrix RR, but I got the matrix plus anyway, now merrily feeding it into my target lake, only a few kg a trip, but a good bait pays dividends!

I’ve had sonik rods 12ft admittedly and I had the butt eye inserts drop out on 2, I’m using fox torque 12ft rods now and they are bulletproof, can’t fault the build quality at all. I did turn a 12ft into a 10ft by accident… I stood on the tip!

I just ordered my basemix from premier baits and the price remained the same. It was a month ago mind, I’m pretty sure I used to be able to get an Robin Red version of my base, but it wasn’t in the range this time round. (Unless I imagined it!)

Good luck mate

Woke up this morning on my new target for the year to find the carp fairy had visited in the night, I found a deeper and a spod bobbing about in the margins… the lad opposite had cast out both and snapped the braid! Both were returned to their rightful owner after his mate came round to collect them. 🙄

If using backleads, I tend to go for the lightest flying backleads I can get away with

here you go mate, for Felixstowe

Few to tempt you with nick 😉

The magical day is here once again, June 16th, two of my tickets kick off today, a small lake and the rivers are open, anyone out hitting the rivers? I’ve got one in mind with a good head of carp, but the tides look good for bass this weekend and the lake is newly open, but is likely to be rather busy so what to do…

Back in dear old Blighty, after sunning my buns with wifey in Malta, basking in 30c heat and snorkelling every day watching mullet, bream, moray eels et al… now packing the work bag, what a difference a day makes! The time away helped me realise that I’m in the wrong job!

I used Diawa cross cast 5000x reels, I’ve got 4 of them, 2 are on my boys rods, ones on a spod rod and one is a spare. They held up to my hamfisted efforts to knack them, I broke one when in a proper strop while snagged up, wrenching for a break, diawa replaced it no questions asked. My boy uses them with no issues at all. I’ve got the fox EOS 12000 reels and I absolutely love them.