yonny

There's plenty of alternatives to putty and yours looks like an acceptable solution, but I'd be asking why it's disappearing in the first place. Are you fishing rivers with big flow? Wind on a lake shouldn't be enough to remove putty. Are there crayfish in the waters you fish?

Believe it or not I can possibly beat that 😅 I have a full size faux taxidermy carving of the ex record carp, Two Tone, fully mounted in mahogany case. The centrepiece of my fishing room. There's a funny story that comes with it too. I came across it on ebay. It was advertised as a carving so clearly not the actual stuffed fish. I bought it, knowing full well it wasn't real, for the fishing room and thought I'd see if I could find some info on it. I posted it on the old Anglers Forum but no-one could tell me anything about it. But, the Anglers Mail got in touch and asked to do an article on it. Me being me, I told them I don't really want to be in a magazine, and turned them down. So rather than just leave it.... they made a story up. They published an article, using the picture I'd posted on the Anglers Forum, that said the buyer had purchased it thinking it was the real thing i.e. the actual stuffed Two-Tone. The cheeky gits. Naturally, I went back to them and called them scum of the earth A) for making the story up, and B) for stealing my photo. Needless to say they never replied. This was maybe 10 years ago but the story was still available online not long ago. I just Googled it and found the image but the link no longer works.

I got a Korda Spring Bow net delivered last week. I have a thing about real decent nets and have inadvertently amassed a bit of a collection. It drives the Mrs mad. A pal of mine showed me his Spring Bow a while back and I was well impressed so I've had a search set up on fleabay/marketplace for a while. The right deal finally came up so it's now racked up with the various Dymags and Chris Brown nets in the fishing room, much to the Mrs' annoyance. I'll use it on my next session out of principle and then decide if it replaces the Dymag mk2 I tend to use most of the time.

Agreed. I'd not even noticed the swivel on the leader on until you mentioned it! Absolutely shocking set-up.

Tail rubber jammed on. User error imo.

Worth having a look at the Rat Bag - it's an air-drying bag made from light chainmail with a velcro opening. Completely rodent proof. They used to be sold by a small independent company in 2 sizes - I got both and they're absolutely brilliant. A little while back OMC bought the firm out and started selling them as an OMC branded product. I'm not sure if OMC still do them (can't see them on the website) but there's certainly still stock available online if you Google 'OMC Rat Bag'.

Me too. On the water I'm fishing there's no way you'd be able to fish a running rig. If the fish takes lines on the take you're halfway to losing it already such is the severity of the weed.

Used Fox alarms for 25 years. Switched to Delkim for a season but that didn't last long as all of them suffered with water ingress issue in the first winter. Back to the Fox's.... still going strong.

Yeah nothing from OMC allowed onsite 😆

This. The safest set-up is the one that gets the fish in the net without problems.

Well as purchases go they don't come much more exciting than a new home and a return to my beloved Nene Valley. Carpy in more ways than one; I'll be 3 miles way from the Valley itself and there's also koi to 30lb+ swimming around in the back garden! Offer was accepted on Friday so now I just pray that nothing goes wrong and we're not waiting too long.

Proper savage that mate. It's just fishing!

Even more tricky. Was fishing from that swim an option?

Tricky one that mate. I think if the choice was fish the spot or walk away, I'd have just fished it in front of the guy. I don't think it's fair to ask him to move, but maybe when he saw your lines were cutting the bay off, he may have decided to move himself anyway. Sure it gives the spot away, but it's better than having to walk away imo. Very frustrating. I'd fully expect him to pop round and ask where your lines were in that situation. Poor show.

Managed to get over to the syndi this week. Tough going but I managed to get on them eventually. Spotted 3 of the bigguns so was pretty excited. Had to wait until an hour before home to get the bite..... a little fully about 10 lb 🤣. Chucked it back without a pic. Just on pack up I got another take.... lost it in the weed🤦‍♂️. Such is life. Roll on next month for more punishment.

That would be my first port of call. Find a proper, clean spot, near some carp. Fill it in, present over it. There's 200 carp in there. There's a massive hit to be had somehow.

Take what you will from this. You might say that the bailiff should not be ignored, after all they know the water as well as anyone. On the flip side, doing what others suggest takes away from what really matters which is figuring the place out. I have to say that not using a rig because it's in vouge is completely illogical. By all means try to be different, but if you're going to avoid using a rig at least have a good reason for it. This makes it even more important to find them. Chopping and changing isn't likely get you anywhere until you understand what your problem is. There are a million things you could change but it could take months to find the right one. Your best piece of tackle is your eyes. You need to be changing what you do based on what you observe, not just a whim or a hunch. You've not mentioned on this thread if you've been on feeding fish on your sessions. That's the first thing that matters. You have a half decent starting point in that you know what doesn't work i.e. what you've been doing. To be honest, based on what you've said so far, I strongly suggest that finding a few spots is all you need to do. A good spot can turn a difficult lake into an easy one so you just need to know where they are.

You're doing something wrong mate - you just need to figure out what it is. You mentioned earlier in the thread you were chodding it. Have you considered getting down there for a day and marking up properly i.e. find proper, clean, fed-on spots? They're just carp mate, they are catchable, you're just missing a piece of the puzzle.

Only time I'll recast at bite time is if I know I should have had a take, but it's not happened. I love to see this personally! I make sure to have any spodding/baiting done in the early afternoon. If everyone else starts doing the same in the evening I just chuckle as the fish are pushed to the only quiet spot on the lake i.e. in front of me! It's not uncommon for me to bait up then go on a wander or chat with other members. As long as the rods are clipped up ready to go I'm happy to keep the swim free of lines for a while.

So basically, syndicate anglers that see no benefit from license funds are now covering the cost of the EA checking the licenses of syndicate anglers that see no benefit from license funds!!!!! I always get my license and have zero problems with the price when I'm fishing open access waters - clubs for example. However, in the last 20 years I've fished several syndicates and none of them have benefited from any reinvested license funds. No benefit at all. £50+ then seems expensive!

Awesome @kevtaylor.

Tank aerials 😅

That's a good point Elmo. My beast rods (Trebuchet Lite ( 13ft 3.75)) are out-and-out casting tools but they're nothing like the broomsticks of old. The tip recovers mega quick on the cast but they do maintain some playability. Obviously it can't compare to playing a carp on a 2.75 but they're nowhere near as bad as I expected when I bought them. First season using them I ended up playing a 30+ common on a zig with 8lb hook-link. I absolutely pooped it on the take, but they dealt with it easy. Modern rods are miles ahead of where they used to be.

125m is nearly 140 yards. I would suggest that if you're hitting that comfortably with a 2.75 then you are a way above average caster. You need to bear in mind that not everyone can cast that far. It doesn't make them some kind of fashion victim. I myself fish distance a lot but I'm not scared to admit I'm not as good a caster as I'd like. At 140's I'd be looking to use my 3.75's. I wouldn't even use my 3.25's, let alone 2.75's. It's about using the right tools for the job. While I agree on the short rod thing, I don't buy the high TC comments. It makes sense that the 90% of anglers who can only afford or only want one set of rods get a set that can do anything and a set that can do anything has a high TC. Regardless of that, all the of the great blank manufacturers (Harrison, Free Spirit, Century) offer low TC blanks for those that want them. Of course it might be more time consuming getting a set built but what's the point in ordering custom rods and having them built with off-the-shelf components that every man in a shed has in stock. Not true mate. You have these to start with: Harrison Torrix 12' 2.5 Harrison Accurix 12' 2.5 Harrison / Mark Tunley Dark Carbon 12' 2.5 Century Armalite mk3 12' 2.25 Century Stealth 12' 2.5 Freesprit Hi-S 12' 2.5 Freesprit CTX 12' 2.5 Freesprit E Class 12' 2.5 Of course they're buying in the parts after receiving the order. Most of your custom rod builders are a bloke with a fancy shed and they certainly don't have an accounts department. Even Roger Hurst (the UK manufacturer for Free Spirit standard/factory builds) works out of a shed with a couple of young lasses helping out. For sure he'll have standard Free Spirit components in stock but if you want standard components why would you be getting a custom rod instead of a factory build? As mentioned by everyone else.... great quality, poor service. I had a pal that ended up cancelling his order it was that bad. Tbf most of the custom builders are in the same boat.... overloaded with orders, not enough resources. That's no excuse for poor communication though. I sent a set in to a very reputable builder for re-build a couple of year ago.... it took nearly a year to get them back (!) but they were great when I finally got them.

Lines and lead are fine but you need a longer shock-leader. I'd go at least 4m longer. Not sure why you'd use the smaller carp rod set up?