yonny

Of course!!

As some of you know I've inherited a koi pond after the purchase of a new home. It's not your average garden pond... in fact it's pushing 7000 gallons. Quite an installation I tell thee. It holds 16 koi to nearly 30lb, and 1 albino grass carp which is also a biggun. I'm considering doing a diary of sorts on here to document my journey keeping koi. I'd talk about the set up, any changes, and more importantly the kippers and their condition and growth. Obviously I know a thing or 2 about carp but I'm a complete newbie to ponds so it could be interesting to share in the fun of it all, as well as the blood, sweat and tears that are bound to manifest!

https://www.facebook.com/share/19dC17gyV4/

Bear in mind it'll likely mean less bites..... if you have the time to wait for the ones that matter that's great. If not - you could be screwing yourself over. I don't measure, I just do it by eye. I guess I'm talking about the bottom of the pop up to the deck/substrate.

Another great example 👍

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19Umg4Z88Z/

Great example 👍

It depends on the angling situation tbh. If I'm boilie fishing, or fishing to open water, I tend to go with 15 or 16 mm. If I'm fishing over bits, or in the margins/shallow water, I tend to drop to 13 mm. It'll also depend on what I'm fishing for. On a campaign for a biggun I like to use bigger baits. Nowadays it seems it's all overnighters so I just want a bite - for that I like smaller, brighter hookbaits. There's loas of reasons I might choose 13 over 16 and vice versa.... all depends on the specific situation. Same with colour.

In my opinion you will absolutely increase your average weights by using pop ups. The higher you fish them off the deck, the higher your average weights will climb, and it's purely down to the mechanics of how fish of different sizes approach baits. If you whack a pop up 3 inches off the deck you'll hook fewer small carp as it just looks alien to them. Bigguns can't even tell as they're approaching from above due to their sheer size. Just my opinion of course..... I have a mate that fished the same waters as me for 5 years. Great angler. His average, every year, was significantly smaller than mine, and he caught just as many fish if not more. Only difference is he fished bottom baits where I used pop ups. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not..... During my most focussed campaign after 1 particular fish, I increased the height of my pop up rigs significantly to avoid smaller fish. I landed 16 fish after that modification with an average of over 30 lb, and then the biggun. Normal average on this water was mid 20, my smallest fish was 25. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not..... You might sacrifice bites with big blatant pop ups but when the bite comes it's normally one that matters. My first piece of advice to anyone looking to target big fish would be to use blatant pop up rigs. You'll still catch smaller carp, and you'll still catch tench/bream, but imo frequency will be reduced.

Absolutely awesome kipper Kev. People underestimate how hard it can be getting everything right on that place. What a result. Buzzing for you mate.

The move itself was fine, but the build up was a nightmare. We were supposed to exchange on the Thursday, complete on the Friday, move on the Saturday. The exchange failed to materialise so it was all down to the Friday. At 16:30 on the Friday we had a call to say our buyers lender wouldn't release funds so the sale was off. Great! The solicitors and estate agents agreed to stay on late and at 17:50 we heard it was all done. Very lucky!

Well chatting about fishing is about as close as I'm getting at the moment. Not been in more than 2 months due to the house move, which finally took place last week. Still loads of unpacking to do but the move itself went ok. Managing to partially scratch the itch by sorting out the koi pond ready for winter. I'm doing my best to get the water quality as good as possible ready for the drop in temps. Seems to be working. It's looking crystal clear and the carp are certainly acting very happy. Some real bigguns in there, it's absolutely awesome. At some point I'll get some pics up on here.

There's a few proper buffs on here that will be able to give you real feedback. I think it looks ok but I'm no expert!

Defo a sexy looking mix but I'd personally go lower on the spice. The Kingfisher Red will be largely paprika so the base mix is heavy on spice before you've even started. Maybe go with the AA HNV Superseed if you want to add your own spice mix at higher levels?

When I was 19 a v large water near me came up for sale at 40k. I pleaded with the bank to lend me the money and of course they just laughed at me. Ten years later it was sold again for more than a million. I still haven't forgiven the bank 🤣

Ages ago I decided to calculate my annual spend on carp fishing. I took into account tickets (of which I had a few back then), bait, tackle, petrol, France trip etc etc.... I had to stop counting the figure got so high. It was eye watering. I decided I didn't want to know! 100%😅

That sounds insane!!!

They'll go for the easiest target for maximum reward so the birdlife may well be doing you a favour mate. Interestingly, at Denton you'd tend to only get a couple of carp taken in winter as they're all sat in the middle 250 yards from the nearest bank - difficult for Mr Otter to take. Then, in spring when carp start to gather for spawning in the shallows the otters would be back and you'd see a flurry of kills. Easy pickings innit. The issue where you are is the island on the big lake..... the bailiffs used to go over there and find corpse after corpse after corpse 😔. Not sure if they still check?

Dunno mate. The Denton biggun finally got eaten last winter after years managing to deal with their annual onslaught. It was a tricky carp and I honestly thought it had learned to deal with them. Alas, no carp is safe.

Otters.

My thoughts exactly. Rather wait a few more months for a quality product that lasts, than buy a mk1 that needs replacing with a mk2 in the first year.

Sorry to hear that @salokcinnodrog. I hope he pulls through. Those waits @ A&E you refer to in your FB post are horrendous. A very close friend of mine had a stroke last week. He was taken to hospital and dumped in A&E for 12 hours before receiving any treatment. It's completely unacceptable.

Gardner said they'll be out in 2025 so they could still be a couple of months away.

Great session @ouchthathurt!

Conditions were next level by me last night.... had me standing by the window wishing I was on the bank!