yonny

Most apps and services use the same weather stations so for the most part they're all the same in terms of accuracy. I believe Met Office invite civilians to submit data from their personal weather stations to add to the data set. No idea if it makes a difference or not. I've used all sorts over the years but now just go by the BBC. Let's face it, the weather here can change at the drop of a hat so no-one can really have massive confidence in the longer range data.

Managed to get out for an overnighter on Friday. A little syndi water I joined last year. I managed a night in September and lost one in the weed which was a bit rubbish. Not had the chance to fish it again until Friday so I was buzzing to be back. Anyway..... it was quite busy when I turned up. Managed to find the carp pretty quickly, shoaled up in front of a swim that was taken 👎. Closest I could get was a swim down the way which was v tricky to get to. Loads of mud and puddles 6 inches deep meant that not many were prepared to fish it. On go the waders and I manage to get my barrow there eventually. The swim itself was underwater so it wasn't the most comfortable session. Found a spot for the brolly back behind some trees which was muddy but doable. The swim was weedy as anything but managed to find a couple of little spots. Choddy but clear enough for a pop-up. The rods went out nicely and I put 2 spods over each rod. Not much happened in the day but I saw enough signs to think the night would give me a chance. Popped a couple more spods over each spot ready for the evening ahead and settled down for the night. Sometime in the night I started to get liners on the right hand spot so was pretty confident of a bite. Couple of hours later off it went and a nice little mirror ended up in the net just before first light. A lovely little fully scaled thing. Thirty mins later the liners started on the left hand rod so I was expecting another but it just didn't materialise. Disappointing but hey, I'd just caught my first from the water so can't complain. Showed the kipper pic to the syndi group and no-one recognised it. One chap said he might have had it on opening night in the 2015 season (!) so it looks like it's a rare'n. Not a biggun but a very, very pretty fish. Not sure when I can get back now which is a shame as I really like the place despite all the mud!

Cotswold. All day.

Different concepts with completely different objectives mate. If you want your baits to last, or become rock hard, air drying is the one. If you want to boost them, just coat them as soon as they're out of the freezer (they will absorb liquids as they thaw). You can of course air dry then rehydrate with liquids if you want to completely saturate them (to prevent them from soaking up silty substrates for example) but it's a lot of faff. Under normal circumstances you don't need to do either imo, and when bites get harder to come by on boiled baits I'd sooner switch to something else entirely rather than attempt to make them more attractive using little tricks.

This is the logical solution👆

I think it's an advantage!

Managed to get hold of a set of original Daiwa GS3000 Whisker's. Convinced myself I'd sell the SS3000's to fund the purchase but obviously that's just not going to happen😅

Test it mate! Just tie it onto something and start puling.

Not used either but in my experience ESP are a million miles ahead of Nash in terms of quality, for all products. That said, for that kind of money you can get a Chris Brown landing net. Hand made in the UK and on another level of quality to any mass produced stuff. Landing Nets - Chris Brown Products (cbproducts.co.uk)

Well done Kev👍

I just use floss and blob it with a lighter..... unless birds are a problem in which case I use floss and a hair stop with 4 overhand knots! Not sure why yours will be coming undone. Try floss instead of the hair braid. The braid could be slipping.

Yup

Not necessarily. You can tie a knot below the chod to keep the lead away from the rig. As long as the top bead can move, it's safe.

How big? Frameys' advice is spot on. On big waters I tend to find they're much easier to catch than on on small waters. The hard bit is finding them.

Bags take away the opportunity for tangles so I tend to use super supple braided rigs. Nothing fancy, I try to stay away from all the metalwork (e.g. spinner) that I'd use if was casting without a bag.

Use a brown pop up and trim it down until it sits perfectly. You're dead right that overly buoyant hook baits will be ignored if they sit too high in the surface film. By trimming down a pop up you can get it just right and the hook bait will last for hours. I certainly wouldn't be inserting cork into mixers as they'll still fall apart pretty quickly. As long as the hook bait sits ok in the surface film and you have them feeding properly, you'll get bites. 👍

@jh92 tbh most of the really well protected mats with sides pack down pretty big. If you're desperate to save space there are a couple of smaller/lighter options such as the Fox Easy Mat, and there are some even cheaper rip-off versions of it (think NGT and Shakespeare offer them). Worth a look but ultimately a bigger/bulkier mat will offer more protection.

Several years ago I bought a big Nash cradle with a metal frame. I set it up in the front room when it arrived, then packed it back down, and sent it back. Did not look at all safe to me.

This is the one. Decent.👆

This👆👆👆 Wrap sticks cannot give you line twist unless you're taking line off the clutch👍

Coincidence. I just bought a pair this week too (the salopettes). I went for the Sungpak Torrent Extreme jacket instead of the Tundra jacket. Really like Snugpak stuff and tbf if they did waterproof salopettes I'd have got them too. Impressed with the Tundras though I have to say.

You can sell the infinity spool for 40 and make a profit. Result 🤣

Good lad. Those old Daiwa reels are absolutely bomb proof. I picked up a set of Emblem Pro's (the fishing version of the old Emblem Spod Reel) for a couple of hundred quid to use on one specific water due to their silly long retrieve. I use them for 90% of my fishing now despite having several other sets worth much, much more!

They're basically a cheaper version of the Infinity BR's, which are essentially the bait runner version of the old 5000 tourneys. I had the infinitys for ages, and still use the tournaments. Absolutely awesome reels. They'll be bombproof fella 👍👍👍

Not in Lincs by any chance is it?