yonny

Cracking conditions for this time of year mate.... best of luck. Nothing other than we're one step closer to Spring !!!!

So, to clarify, it is different to Aquatexx then mate? Or are you saying you're not sure?

My word Nick, that fish is banging mate.

For sure Vik. If we're being brutally honest I think when water temps are this low we'll all struggle for a bite regardless of venue lol.... Our pits have a lid on too.

Imo estate lakes respond more quickly to temps due to lack of depth. Talking generally here obviously. If I wanted to catch a fish and I had the choice of a small estate lake with a hundred fish in it, or a 30 acre 20 ft deep pit with 100 fish in it, I know which I would choose. Its not the pit lol....

I've had several Impact Spods and the mechanism on the front has, in general, been miles better than the Spombs I've owned. I must have been lucky. Both the Impact Spod and the Spombs are inconsistent. Good ones are good and poor ones are useless but I find the Impact Spod is more consistent than the Spomb since the pin problem was fixed. For general use (filling and chucking) I reckon the Impact Spod is best. However, a decent Spomb is better than the Fox one while a poor Spomb is much, much worse. The retrieve on the Fox is very poor compared to the Spomb and can be quite hard work until you suss out the method for getting them to the top quickly. I had a couple of DOT Spods imported from Slovenia. These load, fly, and retrieve as good as or better than both the Impact Spod and the Spomb, but the capacity is rubbish.... it holds half what the others do. I think a real decent Spomb is the best of the lot, but I find you need to buy 3 or 4 to get a real decent one (one that stays closed for every cast yet opens every time when you hit the clip). Pretty much all of the Impact Spods are now half decent (i.e. stay closed on the cast and open every time) so you only need to buy one. If you don't mind spending hours spodding due to capacity issues the DOT Spod is the one - flawless performance, but it takes ages spodding out tiny handfuls a time.... I do think it's time Spomb re-designed their offering - with the lessons learned from the original Spomb and Impact Spod it should be very easy for them to bring out something very consistent that loads, closes, casts, flies, opens and retrieves well.

They're part of the same group that own Tackle Discounts - basically it's a bloke from Oxford and a couple of Chinese guys that pay the Factory's in China to use all the materials/tooling from the bigger brands and sell direct to the consumer online for a fraction of the price. It's a great business model you have to admit it, but I know they got in trouble with Aqua recently for selling the F&L branded so similarly, not sure what the conclusion of that little episode was though.

Yes, they changed the pin. They stay in one piece now.

I stand corrected. I thought they just used the "heritage" of the Aqua name to justify the extra cost (which has taken a battering recently due to Cyprinus lol).

Fair play, I've not seen them myself bud, took my info from reviews on another forum. Aqua and Trakker are the same company. Pretty sure their Aquatex has been identical for at least 5 years now?

I am led to believe they are the same thing lads. Same factory, same production line, same bivvy, different badge. They do the Aqua Fast n Light MKII for 95 quid delivered with a different badge and slightly poorer storm poles - it's 300 quid from Aqua!!!!

The temps tonight/tomoz morning are savage mate, -5 around that area. They'll all be solid this time tomorrow. Bit of rain forecast for Wednesday, that might be your best hope for a thaw.

Correct. They're not even copies, they're the real thing but with a different badge.

I doff my cap to you sir.

Love it @chillfactor. Go on my son.

It was only an overnighter on Friday for me bud. Thank God lol.... Got some cracking sunrise shots....

No you're not mate. I'd tell the EA.... for the sake of other fisheries!

-8 is the coldest temp ive ever been on the bank in. My water butt froze solid. I'll not be doing that again.

Nah. They have just bought a system version out (called the esp hideout) but it' an extra 3 kg which i cant be doing with.

http://www.esp-carpgear.com/viewProduct.php?id=313

Looks like we're in for a fantastic sunrise @greekskii.... beautiful morning here, if a little chilly.

You'e having a laugh lol.....

Yes. Its pretty much the same thing but takes half the time to set-up/take down, and it's much lighter. I love it.

Yes. Although im beginning to regret selling the armo lol

At least the milk never goes off....