newmarket

👍🏻 Ta mate I hope I can catch a few like I’ve seen in your pics .

From what I can tell mate , the only thing different between the two is the handles and they ain’t too sturdy are they ? I was having a little play this afternoon and tbh it’s opened up a whole can of worms . The extra Voyager/Camolite bags available as extras could well make redundant the hold-all/rucksacks I already have … decisions decisions ….

For next time 🤣

Well I’d been away from the scene for about 6 years and you’ll tell from some of my posts since I came back to the forum exactly how excited I was to get back in the game . Ive invested quite a few quid upgrading certain stuff and replacing other stuff that has gone walkies over the years , more stuff in fact than I’d realised . I had gear in the loft , some in the shed and plenty in the spare room and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t keep the stuff I was taking down to a bare minimum…and it wasn’t really organised at all ..all mixed up , the old & new and a bit chaotic . My plan was to spend the week before organising things so that when I got in from work on Friday afternoon I could throw my gear into the wife’s motor and off for the weekend. Things didn’t exactly go to plan…. Unfortunately work has been pretty demanding recently , particularly the few days leading up to my fishing , and I was having to work 12 hr shifts , getting home at 6.30pm eating , washing up , getting done family stuff that has to be done and getting into bed by 9 for a 0345 alarm which , quite frankly, meant that my fishing gear remained exactly where it was . Now on the Friday I’d managed to wangle an early finish (2pm) and I was going to get all my gear together and be off to the lake for tea time and giving myself plenty of time to get set up for the night but one thing led to another and by the time I arrived at the lake and I’d had a walk round it was virtually 8pm . I’d had to plonk myself in the only swim left available by the time I’d arrived , it was the tightest swim I’d ever found myself in in 50 years of fishing , I had a new (to me) RH Cabrio brolly that I’d never set up before (restrictions on space at home) and it would be dark within the hour . What was I to do ? I rang Nick 🤣 who I knew had the same brolly. He kindly talked me through it and I managed to get the shelter up and my 3 rods set up before it got dark and then my problems started to pile up . My swim was not only as tight as a gnats bottom but the ground was a kind of broken tarmac/gravelly type of surface and single banksticks , my preferred option were just not happening so I had to use my pod . I detest using it for reasons that will be revealed shortly . The battery in one of my alarms was as dead as a dodo and as I reefed around in the dark looking for my spare batteries I discovered I’d got the wrong ones . I needed LR1’s and I’d mistakenly brought some G11a’s . I was exhausted already and wasn’t watching the rod all night so I decided to just use the 2 rods and review the situation at first light . I made up a couple of small pva sticks , a mixture of B5/Black snail stick mix , attached them to a couple of basic knotless knotted rigs , Black snail bottom bait on one and a RH snail wafter on the other with just a couple of handfuls of Black snail and B5 16 millers loosely around them . Fishing room was tight as it was , I wasn’t going to start leading around in the dark with so many other Anglers in close proximity , the corner of the lake I was stuck in had another Angler on the opposite bank approx 80 yards directly in front so the margins it would be at least till the morrow. I also baited up a third line under a willow tree close by in preparation for the morning when a 3rd rod may go out. All was quiet through the night but I awoke at 4.30 am to see a few fish showing in my albeit lightly baited area where my Snail wafter wafted . I decided to leave that area alone for obvious reasons , baited up my other spot and launched my now available 3rd rod onto the margin area that I’d baited up a few hours earlier . It was very hot during the day , nothing showing even in the upper layers and even if they were a ridiculous no floaters no zigs ruling was in operation and tbh I was a bit stuck for what to try . I had been cleaned out by tufties on the 2 baited areas , I’d noticed a succession of Coots etc diving and helping themselves to my Black Snail boilies … so much for Black boilies making themselves difficult for the bird life to find 🙄. As the sun went down and the temperature cooled a tad I considered pulling in my other rod , the one with the single snail wafter hookbait . Before I could pick the rod up the fox alarm squealed and I was into a fish, a fish which appeared to give me a proper battle , admittedly I was a bit out of practice, 6 years and all that , and indeed it turned into a battle . I landed it ok but not before it had wiped out both my other rods and the Pod in the process . Then it hit me . Id been rushing around so much prior to the session that I’d completely forgotten to make any sort of Photo provisions . Good job it wasn’t a personal biggest fish or anything . So I just unhooked it in the net , took a quick pic with my phone and returned it to the water . I now had the job of resetting up for the night the two rods I would have out during the night , no easy task in the dark for an old shortsighted arthritic codger with the ‘ump 😄. As I say it was dark so after untangling the rods and pod … did I mention I hate rod pods ?…I baited up both rods with a Hutchy Naturalz snail wafter and fired out about half a kilo of Black Snail and B5 freebies over each . An hour later the same rod as before kicked off , this time it felt to be a bigger fish , plodding around in the margins until it saw my landing net , the sight of which made it shoot off into the middle of the lake . Then everything went solid . I thought the fish may have found some sanctuary in a weed bed I was unaware of but then I remembered . Where this area of the lake is very narrow , there’s a wooden sign bang in the middle reminding the local numpties not to cast beyond this point etc . Anyway , this fish had swam around this post/sign and obviously spat the barbless hook (another silly rule imo) at which point I had to pull for a break 😡 SO , after tackling up AGAIN and casting out I decided I’d better get my head down as I couldn’t see the swim producing again after all the commotion but within the hour (2am by now) the same rod was off again . It WAS a bigger fish this time , I never weighed it as I was too busy picking my other rod and the pod out of the water 😡as this one had again caused carnage . It wouldn’t have been fair to the fish to retain it anyway though it was well over 20lb in my guesstimation. I released it straight away , threw my tangled rods down in self disgust and went to bed . The following daybreak I tackled all 3 rods up again and continued fishing . I wasn’t happy with the drop on one of my rods so I retrieved it , feeling resistance whilst I was doing it . I reeled in a length of leadcore with a “ safety” clip which appeared to be glued together . Indeed I was unable to separate the components . I enclose a photo of it below and handed it to the bailiff later on . Idiots eh ? Anyway it peed down with rain for the rest of the day . My Mrs came to pick me up mid afternoon and it took me an hour and a quarter to get all my gear back the 300 yards to the car . Why you ask ? Because my Fox explorer deluxe barrow that I’d received a few days previously was still sat in its box at home where I’d not had time to put it together 🙄. so all in all , it was good to finally get some alone time back on the bank , I have to call it a success as such due to the nice 2 fish I did manage to catch but an absolute disaster in other ways . Things I learnt ? I need to be a lot more organised. Take a look at the mess in the pics lol , I can’t be rushing around like that again … mistakes get made , important items get forgotten and it makes it all hard work when it’s supposed to be fun. I need to find somewhere quieter to fish , somewhere a bit more exclusive . I’m only able to fish at weekends and I need to find somewhere quieter to fish somewhere I may get a choice of location instead of being forced to fish where I can . I learnt that my new CTX rods are a dream to use compared to my Berkley’s and I thought THEY were lovely . Im impressed with my RH Cabrio brolly system , SO much room I really am pleasantly surprised . I never saw fit to use the wrap , there wasn’t enough room to get it out of the bag let alone fit it but once I finally get the brolly extension I’ll be living the life on the bank 🤣 I learned that carp like RH Naturalz wafters and I learned that very slack lines , light running leads and simple rigs still work and I must have been doing something right as not a lot else was caught from what I could tell . If you’ve got this far , thanks for reading , hope it’s not been a waste of your time so thanks for humouring me . It really felt like I was a beginner all over again at times but I’m sure it’ll be better next time if I’m better organised . Need somewhere better to fish 🙄

Personally I can’t see the point . Whether it’s put out there by hand or catapult or Spod , A hungry Carp will eat pretty much anything and plenty of it . I think Hookbait and location are far more important , but that’s just me .

“ I was born under the hotel end “ . Good memories of Northampton 👍🏻

A Naturalz Wafter , the Snail one , produced a mid double for me this afternoon Nick . Over a small bed of Black Snail & B5 freebies . I think it’s something a bit different they haven’t seen before , especially here.

I feel the same way about Total Fishing Tackle at the moment mate . Im not much of a particles man tbh as I find Boilies produce the Carp rather than the Bream … at least where I have to fish .

Chilli/Cheese Sausages and well done bacon for me from the griddle straight brioche buns . Breakfast lunch & dinner 😊

Interesting. Food for thought indeed

That is all very clever gentlemen, I thank you all very much I’ll have to have a practice over the next couple of days, my fig 8 knotting isn’t too clever 🤣 Nick , yours is very interesting as it can incorporate the marker float as well , I’ll be having a go at that soon , I don’t think I have what sounds like Sea/Pike swivels , I’ll have to have a butchers in me box & see what I have lying around 👍🏻

I can’t even picture that ? A knot at the end of a knot ?

I recently got myself one of those Sonik Vader Spod/Marker rods and I want to have it set up so that I can just unclip (for example) the marker lead and clip on a small Spod or Spomb if I want to . how would you do this ? I obviously have Braid on the reel but also , should I have some sort of leader ? I wouldn’t be casting more than 50 or 60 yards under most circumstances…

Well due to lack of local turn-up-and-fish options locally I’m being pretty much forced to fish here , at least for now. Looks like the weather for the next week is going to be bright and on the warm side so how would you all get around these restrictions ? fish 3 ft long pop-ups ?

Hurts me to say it cos old habits die hard but this is good stuff. Reading this thread the other day reminded me that I have a cotteril of PVA stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day since 2016 and that I need to test it . Nothing too elaborate, I was only concerned if the PVA actually melted or not . My son is a wannabe junior Geologist and has a lovely collection of stones and Geodes that I used , purely to get the Bags & mesh to the bottom of the sink asap . The Korda string and especially the tape as above is still perfect . Most of the Solid bags and Tubes melted ok apart from the knots that did come away from the main body of the bags but I noticed the Gardner tubes in particular and some others ( I had many different brands) left a almost silver shiny coating on the bottom of the sink in and around the stones . It was a couple of millimetres deep at a guess and really stood out . Most of the bags also left a sticky residue on their contents , still sticky even after drying thoroughly with a tea towel . Nearly all of my mesh old AND new is fine though the knots on the old stuff took considerably longer to disappear. Ive thrown all my old solid bags in the bin and this year I’ll only be using small mesh bags & sticks . The PVAProducts mesh , narrow & wide , is still excellent quality I’m glad to say so another recent purchase I’m delighted with. As a side note , I had quite a few different branded tubes of mesh pva , all varying in size age but funnily enough only one or two plungers . The ONLY tube that fitted the Korda plunger was the Korda tube . Most of the others are virtually universal , all doing the job to varying degrees within a few mm on each different tube/plunger. The Korda plunger only fitted the Korda tube and there is no size on the packaging , just “narrow”. Thought it worth mentioning.

I was going to say , the information superhighway is full of em . No worries mate , was just trying to help 👍🏻

Are you having trouble getting hold then ?

Is it these Steve ?

Cheers Stevey , hope you’re well 😉

I’m predictable I know but I think my Emcast Evo’s are the doggies 😊

Yes , thank you but the swivels ? what’s all that about ? Is the idea that the bait is flossed to the swivel or does the swivel get poked inside the hook bait ? Yes im that thick . And what do the people that do use them hope to achieve ? Do they think it gives the bait more movement or something ?

Question for you all . Multi-rig . why do you , and more importantly how would anybody want to , attach their bait with/on a micro swivel ?

How you getting on with this Elmo ? Im having problems deciding between the Compact and the Galaxy tbh , having trouble deciding which will be easier for my back and for storage …. Im not sure I can see the difference and the Trakker website ain’t much help 🙄

….and I in turn turn to an old Ron Thompson Avon/Barbel type rod in , I think , a 1.75 tc in conjunction with Drennan double strength line , 8lb max if memory serves .

Let that be lesson 4 anybody else having similar problems in the future eh 🙄 They don’t mention THAT in the tutorials do they ?