yonny

I find fishing locked up leads to better hook holds tbh mate. Are you losing them in the weed? Or are they just dropping off? I have honestly never had an issue with hooks blunting on gravel (and I've been using sharpened hooks for many, many years. I would suspect your hooks are being damaged during the fight which is completely normal imo.

Imo silt is the most forgiving substrate you can get. You can chuck most rigs in it and you'll be fine. You should avoid the rocks imo, there is no natural food there (unless there are crays about). Get a rig on/in the silt buddy.

Sometimes they just happen, we can't land them all. That said, you do seem to be having an abnormal ratio of losses. Defo worth a try mate. What is key to you is what the hook holds were like on the fish you landed. they should be able to tell you a great deal. Did you have a look?

Best of luck to you elmo 🤞👍

Heavy duty grip seal bags for me, my work are kind enough to provide me with an endless supply 😉😅

Imo any pop up that wont hold up a size 8 should be going straight in the bin!

They'll be awful mate👎 Take it very, very easy if you use them for fishing and hook one👍

Always mate💪

Mine isn't going as well as I'd hoped. We're still seeing serious issues with algae, the fish aint acting themselves. Despite that the naturals have exploded this year (last week I bought 17 x caddis back on one hook bait 😲). There's too many tench/bream to bait with naturals so that's out of the question. I'm putting hardly any boilie in my mix as I'm not convinced my spot is being visited with any regularity and I don't want the spot going sour. Instead I'm just putting bits in that can be cleared up by anything. Conditions are improving which will help no end but the weeks are ticking by and my campaign will be over before I know it. Such is life. Must try harder.

Always pays to have a plan B buddy.

I think that's Eric from the Ellis vids?

Likewise mate👍

Will do mate. I only got 10k to cover me until I can get hold of some Trent gear tbh.

Funnily enough I just bought some boiled baits off them as the Trent Baits lads were on holiday. I went for the HNV Pro. Looks ok.

Fair play elmo. If you're confident in the spot and these could ruin that, bin them👍

Was a bit of a long shot mate. I think it's game over. They'll still be ok for pre-baiting purposes imo. Overrated imo. Too much rubbish in fizzy pop. You just need a bit of sugar to kick-start those natural processes.

To clarify, when I say they were v poor, I mean compared to what you can do yourself. They were usable. Agree, all the Dynamite Frenzied range is great. But it wants to be - it costs 5 to 10 times more than most prepared particle suppliers.

Worth a go I guess elmo. I bought some from Monster last year. They were really poor. You're better off doing them yourself imo mate. Same with all particles.

That's really interesting. I can only think that relates to the substrate AND the feeding situation (as the bridge area switched from BB's to PU's)?

1,000,000%

The cool box method is pants compared to proper prep mate. Soak, boil, simmer. You'll be able to turn the pan on it's side and it'll not fall out it's so gloopy👍

It should gloop up itself during cooking if prepared correctly. Soak for 24, boil, then simmer for half an hour👍

This is more important than any hypothetical stuff imo. Logic and fact beats theory all day👍

Did you catch on all 3 (pop-up, snowman, double bottom bait) over the course of the campaign Nick?

Not used one in years! On the rare occasion I need to use a bottom bait I'll use a hardened hook bait. Likewise. I can almost guarantee the length of the rig has nothing to do with your catching/not catching buddy. This is not a problem imo. The rig (assuming it is capable of presenting effectively) is not as important as many think imo.