yonny

Rules are rules when it comes to fisheries. You accept them or you don't fish imo. If you have no paper license you'd make sure to take your phone if the rules are you need to show the license surely? Just turn it off if you don't want calls. This makes no sense to me at all mate. If the fishery requires you have a license why not just show it to them? Awkward sod 🤣

From a commercial perspective this is all the more reason not to ask to see licenses! No one wants to turn customers away innit.

First is always the hardest bro 😃

For 50/60 yards I'd just use 50 lb braid straight through.

I'd think that would be considered a zig. How deep is the lake? You might be forced to just try your best in the shallowest areas.

Lovely @Its-grim-up-north!

REEL TECH based in March, Cambridge. Great service at a VERY good price. You'll find them on FB.

Why not just get them serviced? They don't make them like they used to mate.

@commonly has he been back on?? Gutted I missed him if so lol.

I know the one, he's a lunatic lol. Although it has to be said good fun to watch for a couple of days as he self destructs!

Thanks guys!

Great pic 👏👏 Looking forward to taking my boy when he's a little older. In other news, as of yesterday I have a daughter 😀

The beauty of having a good clear out is you can put all the pots through the dishwasher and have a massive stash of pots ready to start filling with various pop ups and glugs again......🤣

Yes, he's still a mod as far as I know. Hardly ever see him on here now.

Those Scopex Strawberry baits have caught me some very, very rare carp @Highy. No idea what it is about them but always good for the rare ones. The Scopex/Cream are good too. Expensive meal for a mouse!!!

They're the best none cork ball pop ups for buoyancy by a mile imo mate. In days gone I've had them in the test tank so long the hooks are rusting away and still popped up. They have food value too, a proper attractor package, not just flavoured pop up mix like most firms do. Decent.

The KLS? I've had them for a while, he was kind enough to chuck a tub in with an order before they were widely available last year. They look the nuts but I've just not had the chance to use them yet. Absolutely no doubt they'll be great.

My pop ups tend to be treated with a few bits so I can always keep adding to them to freshen them up and keep them pumping. Assuming you're not using anything that can go off, two years is nothing imo. It does pay to have a clear out every now and again though. It's too easy to end up with pots of unused pop ups everywhere.

None of this stuff matters if you're not on fish. Have you been on them? In my experience carp are not too hard to catch once you've found them. The tricky bit is finding them, especially on a canal. If I was you I'd not even be unzipping the rod bag until I'd seen carp.

Well you can't just tease us like that and hope to get away with it 🤣🤣 Is this top secret or are you willing to tell us more?

1- A decent pop up rig (I use spinners and hinges depending on the substrate). 2 - A decent bottom bait rig (I use a simple D rig). 3 - Zigs.

I think a lot of guys tried to replace angling with buying tackle during lockdown. It was the only fix we could get 🤣 So on a completely unrelated theme, when is someone gonna release a carbon barrow? It'd cost a fortune no doubt, but I'd be first in the queue to buy that one!

Funnily enough my only "big" purchase last year was to have my small water rods rebuilt. Water was starting to get in under the whipping resin. 180 quid all in and they'll last another 15 years easy. They're irreplaceable and the next best thing would cost north of £1500 so 180 notes very well spent.

Tbh I'm way past all this. It's why you don't see me on the Latest Purchase thread. I've been fishing way too long to see any need for short rods or buckets with trays. There really isn't that much tackle that genuinely influences your ability to catch carp imo. You need rods that can reach the area you want to fish, line that can deal with the topography of your chosen water, a very sharp hook, and a half decent bait. The rest is all just "stuff".... none of it really matters. The way I see it the cheapest way to set yourself up is do some research and get the ABSOLUTE BEST gear for your type of angling, regardless of cost, and stick with it for many years. That might sound silly to some but saving up and spending a fortune on the best gear once is cheaper than upgrading poorer gear over and over again for 10 or 15 or 20 years (I learned this the expensive way). You'll find if you have the absolute best gear, you very rarely come across anything that's a genuine upgrade. I'll often go 2 or 3 years without any significant purchases. A few quid here and there on hooks, line and bait. Job done. I'm genuinely not really tempted by all the gear sitting in tackle shops, it's just dross that will empty your bank account.

Congratulations @ouchthathurt.