fruit_bat

I used to use a length of 30lb Amnesia with the lead tied on to one end, slide one or two two cork balls on the other end and then tie a John roberts run ring on. I used to use a 12" boom for this. Oh and use a big bead on your main line. Hope that helps.

Carp being carp will visit the margins as on any other lake, its more a case of when on such a big water! I would be tempted to use maize and groats. Pellets won't last long enouhg due to how quick they break down unlike maize and attention from silver fish. You don't know how long it is before visit's so I would treat it like a river to start with. Bait up a few likely spots regular and look for signs of feeding fish or better still fish! Even if you see them don't fish for them straight away I would look to give it a month or two before stickig a hook in amongst your freebies so they gain a bit of confidence. Kev

Longleat is the only one I can think of, if thats of any use to you. Kev

I have read all of the books mentioned in this thread and thoroughly enjoyed them all. I found they kept me engrossed in the story and all had some nice twists and turns. A writer has a team of people including an editor who make demands of the writer in order to sell books. Pretty ure Dan Brown could write a book making more of the language but would it sell? Simple fact is these books are written to sell as many copies as possible, Dan Brown and his team are bloody good at it and long may it continue as I need a new book for the summer holidays Kev

Hi all I had a trip to Beckford lakes which is between Cheltenham and Evesham not expecting much to be honest given the weather. This is a newly opened fishery to the public and work is still on going to the lakes. There is a syndicate lake and a match lake, the Match lake is available for night fishing but you need to phone and book first. Fordes tackle in Pershore is the place for tickets and bookings and George is the man to speak to. Well onto the fishing. I took my 11 year old daugther with me for a 24 hours session on the Match lake and we arrived around 4pm on Saturday. Had a walk around the lake and eventually choose a spot based on easy access to the water. I didn't want to worry about her falling in the lake for the next 24 hours. I finally got her setup with a 3m Whip and a pint of maggots, She was straight into the silver fish and pulling them out like a pro. Might add I did try for twenty minutes and didn't get a bite so I went off sulking to setup the bivvy and carp rods Anyways it was quite hot I did finally get everything sorted by about 7pm. I put out 3 rods out, all on different methods, surface fishing, zig rig and a bottom bait. I eventually got my first run on the bottom bait so I decided to get the marker rod out and have a cast about. I soon found a gravel bar around 30 yards out. I proceeded to spod a couple of kg's of spod mix and scatter a few boiles out for the evening ahead. So I was all sorted for around 8pm and by midnight I had had enough I really was knackered having banked around 30+ carp in 4 hours. The fish were all between and 4lb and 10lb. My daughter netted most of the fish and banked a few herself. I quickly resorted to only using two rods as I was getting multiple takes. Having two fish on at once was enough but with 3 it was getting a bit silly Given these fish were only 4 - 10lb they fought like tigers, and were all like new pennies. I must have had every flavour of carp that swims fully scaled, linears, leathers and commons a plenty. It was fantastic fun and reminded me of the good old days in the 70's when I first started carp fishing. Most of the fish had never seen a hook before so I kept everything simple, so light leads, running rigs and basic hook links, no need for slack lines and every take was a screamer. I dind' think there was any need to educate them too soon with complicated rigs and slack lines By midnight I had reeled all the rods in so I could have a rest and get a good nights sleep. We eventually got up around 8am and i started with the same tactics as the previous night. Spodded out a few more kg's of mix and scattered some more boilies around the general area. I wasn't really expecting to get much as the sun was up and the carp were cruisng on the top. How wrong could I be and I ended up with another 20+ carp by 2pm when I finally reeled the rods in and packed up! I was knackered. During all of this my daugher was still pulling the silver fish out one after another and nearly had her fist water skiing lesson when she hooked a carp on the whip. 20 mins later she had an 8lb mirror in the net. So all in all we had fantastic time, the guys running the lake looked after us and Dave came round regular to make sure we were ok. Cheers guy's Oh and I never had a single fish off the top! If anyone wants more info on the lake I hope no one minds me adding the link below http://www.fisheries.co.uk/beckford/index.htm Will I be going back? hell yeah I just joined the syndicate Kev