gidneyboy

Alright mate have a look at this place http://www.carpruns.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=1 Bley lake is stunning, 11 acres with 8 swims and around 300 fish up to mid 50's maybe a little bigger to have a dabble at. It's not uncommon to catch 40/50 fish in a week, my last week there i had 21 fish to 46lb 9oz plus 75lb and 61lb cats as well, and i did not really have many fish in front of me. Top rod for that week had 40+ fish to just under 50lb. Tony the owner is a top bloke and and is always on hand to give great advice. He runs tours including travel there and back and i think he will do food as well if needed every other week. There's a nice social area with decent showers etc, Tony will normally do at least couple bbq's a week and also will do any shopping you need daily and deliver it to your swim. Well worth a look.

I used to be a member of VAC a few years ago before they obtained Moor Mill pits, but i did fish Moor Mill as well. Smallford A great looking deep lake (30 foot in places),with lots of bays, bars and other features. Stock wise it has a good head of carp, with 1 or 2 at the right time will go low 30's. Also a couple of mid 20 cats in there that the club try to keep hush as they have no licence for them, but i did here a rumour they are trying to give these to a water in Bedfordshire. It does get busy in the summer months with quite a few noddies as well as the tight group of carp anglers on there, but a very nice place to be. Moor Mill There a 4 fishable lakes on The Mill, The leather pit, The Island Pit, The School pit and The Pike Pit. When it was run by the LAA security was a problem but i am told this has largly been sorted out now. The Leather Pit A tough water of around 7 acres, stuffed full of weed with only around 12 carp to target, including the famous Toadless, the 2nd biggest leather in the country. Toadless tends to get caught no more than 2 or 3 times a year and she used to be like clockwork getting caught April/May and August/September time. Most of the other carp average around the mid 20's with the odd one going a little bigger, but to catch any carp is an acheivment. It also has some huge tench 12lb+ and a couple of shoals of huge bream 17lb+ The Island Pit A great looking lake, again it is full of weed and as the name suggests it has numerous little islands. Vac stocked it few years ago with around 100 carp up to mid doubles from one of there noddie waters where they had grown too big. It also still holds some big originals, i know of a 38lb common caught around 3 or 4 years ago but again the regulars don't let on too much about the big one's and rightly so. The School pit A small shallow lake at the very far end of the complex, again full of weed. Not a lot of carp in there but i do know of a high 20's two tone mirror that used to get caught from there every now and then. Whether it is still there who knows? The Pike Pit I don't really know too much about this one. It used to be a good pike water but i have never heard of any decent carp being caught. I have been told there is some good tench in there but i cannot confirm that. Hope it helps mate.

Spoke to one of the regulars on the deep a week or so ago. The odd mid double stockie getting caught at the moment but not a lot else. Bait wise them fish will eat anything, from what i hear Dynamites squid and octopus catches a good few and in the summer it's well worth fishing with particles. The fish don't really react well to big beds of bait so a little and often approach is the way to go, unless they are really having it. As for the theft side of things, I have not heard of anything like that happening on the deep for nearly 2 years, but i don't fish there a lot so i might not get to hear about everything. The regulars are a fairly tight bunch down there now and keep quite a close eye on things, so most days and nights you will normally find at least one of them on there fishing. It you are going to target the deep then it would be a good idea to get in with the regulars like Rob, Noel (the mad paddy)and Dave the baliff. All nice enough blokes but be prepaired to have your ear chewed off cause them blokes can talk lol. It is easy to spot Rob and dave as they have satellite dishes on a poles outside their bivvy's and in the winter dirty great big gas bottles outside to. In the summer the place is always packed, and you will have to get lucky to get on any of the so called hot swims from the pipe down to premier. I always find if there are lots of lines in the water then the swim to fish is isolation in the far corner, especially if the wind is blowing into that corner. I would fish 1 rod tight to the bush at about 100yards on the back bank. There are also a couple of nice gravel spots to the left (roughly in line with the far end of the island) and out about 20-30 yards that seem to be on a patrol route in the summer that are well worth finding. I have caught numerous fish off these patches and all of them have come between an hour before and an hour after dawn. One of the better ones from the gravel patches i was on about. 28lb 12oz One other thing don't put your rods too close to water as the water level can go up 2 or 3 feet overnight if they are pumping in, and you could well wake up with your alarms under water. Seen it happen more than once Hope it helps mate and good luck

Absolutly no need to glue a splice, infact glueing a splice actually weakens it. The glue stops the outer skin of the splice tightening around the inner piece as it should, thus weakening the splice.

Don't believe all you were told about where the water was going mate:wink: I know what was really going on and it was a mixture of a couple of things and to be honest i am a little stumped to how they have recovered so well considing what the real reason was. It will be interesting to see what happens when we have another good summer I had better leave it there! As for the web site it has been off line now for 6 months or more so not sure what is happening there.

Not one of my favorite waters, but i do fish the deep lake a few times a year, mainly for the cats and a social with 3 or 4 mates who target the deep lake all year round. I have got 4 nights planned on there at the end of the week. The water levels are the best they have been for years on all three lakes. I have not heard any reports on how the farm lake is fishing. The match lake fished it's pants off a few weekends ago apparently with plenty of fish to mid twenties being caught. On the deep lake the stockies have been on the munch for a month or so now with plenty of fish to the low twenties being caught but only from certain areas. The bigger fish are just starting to show now. My mate had a 31lb 7oz common last weekend and i have heard of another one or two high twenties low thirties being caught. The cats have not started to show yet as far as i am aware but hopefully they will wake up for the weekend

They are Bowmans lakes mate, changed their name a couple of years back now.

Sorry chris but i would not use the korda maggot clip even if i was paid to. I did once buy a packet and they got chucked into the bin within a few mins of opening the pack. Presentaion in my oppinion is not a patch on other methods of fishing the medusa and certainly not easier to make. The most disturbing thing about them i feel they could be incredibally unsafe and would cause untold damage to a fish if one was to open during the fight.

I would pay to see you attempt this. Call me stupid but i just cant see how it can be done. Tony how much do you wanna pay me? If i want a medusa popped up or to zig rig with a medusa then this is how i go about it but with varring sizes of rig foam rather than a polyball ,depending on how bouyant i need it to be. Takes no longer than sticking them to a cork ball and i find that i have a lot more confidense knowing there is no glue anywhere near my rig. If i don't need it popped up then it is just as many maggots that i can fit onto some baitfloss then tied to a d-ring.

It's going to be tough this time of year on just about every water in the country, even for experianced anglers. As for waters near Bedfordshire you could always try Pixies Mere which is just outside Berkhamsted, so not too far from scum town. Sorry as a Watford fan i can't bring myself to type that town! www.pixiesmere.co.uk It is a great looking lake of about 4 acres which is stuffed full of features and it does produce fish during the winter months. Stock wise it has a very large head of 10+ mirror, commons and ghosties with a good head of 20's to back them up. Last year it had another 5 fish between 25lb and 30lb stocked. If you look at the map on the web site then the swims that always seem to produce fish are pegs 14-17 down near the cottage, 35-37 the point swims and my personal favorites specially this time of the year, pegs 25- 27 the deep hole swims. All in all a very nice lake with some great fish in thats not to hard to winkle the odd fish or two out of at this time of year, providing you put the effort in. Hope it helps

Well if by chance a lake was being feed by fresh tap water then the fish and other wildlife would be dead from the effects of chlorine and other chemicals long before any lead poisoning could even start to have an effect. The rare occations i use a semi-fix lead, personally i would much rather loose a few leads and know that if i ever loose my end gear for what ever reason, then there would be good chance the lead will eject and in turn lessen the chances of tethering a fish.

There will be no consequences at all. Lead is stable in water, it wont pollute it unless you add other chemicals to the water so that the lead can be chemically broken down. People only started suffering from lead poisoning from drinking water once the water companys started adding chlorine and fluoride to our drinking water which in turn made lead pipes chemically unstable. The only way leads could be a danger is if any wildlife was to ingest some, but I cant see many ducks eating the size leads most modern carp anglers use.

Totally agree Tony. After all the hype about the korda maggot clips when they came out i went out a brought a packet, i took one look at them on the bank and binned them. I have got to say that i think they are the most over rated piece of end tackle that has been released in years. The gage of the wire is far too thick, the presentation is total pants, they are over priced and not to mention the damage one could cause if it happened to come undone while a fish is hooked. Zander go down the bait floss route it is cheaper, the presentation is far better and a lot safer.

If used correctly ie. in combi rigs and in the right situation then i have found it phenomenal stuff. I found the most effective way of fishing it was with about 20mm of either silkworm or merlin as the 2nd part of the combi. It was this set up that i used almost exclusively during the season just gone on my target water and i am sure that it has been that little extra edge that helped me become top rod by quite a long way. Nearly every bite was a screamer (which is unusual on this lake) and the hook holds that i experianced were all rock solid, quite possibly the most consistant hook holds i have ever had in over 25 years of carp fishing. Just one other little tip and that is to camo it up a little with a marker pen that matches the lake bed which you are fishing.

Korda seem to have a problem making safe rig components at the moment. I read on another forum that the their new safety clips wont release a lead unless you modify them first.

Save money, get better presention and a safer rig, just use bait floss and attach to a small rig ring or just to the loop of the hair.

I have only fished it twice so can't give you too much info but what i do know is that it is not a lake for the faint hearted. If you are going to fish it then it is a lake that demands a lot of time and effort but if you are prepaired to put the effort in then the rewards are definatly there. Stock wise i don't think that anybody really knows what it really holds but all i can say is that both the fish i have seen caught have been 30's and i have watched a couple of huge fish that i would say were at least mid 40's with their heads down at the far end of the lake where you are not aloud to fish. If you don't mind a lot of blanks but with the possibility of a very big uncaught fish or two then it is well worth a look. If only i lived down that way and i could devote the time to it i feel it needs then it would deffinatly be my target water.

At 65 feet which is just about 20m any bouyant object will be 3 times less bouyant than at the surface.

If you use leadcore then when you splice it save the bits of lead wire and tightly wrap these around you rig where you want the putty then mould the putty around the coiled lead wire. Not only does it mean you use less putty but it also helps to keep the putty locked in the correct place on your rig. Oh and remember that if you are fishing in water around 8 to 10 feet deep then you bait will be around 1/3 less bouyant due to water pressure than at the surface so you would get away with using a 1/3 less putty.

Painting all of a hook except the point with tipex can certainly help with surface fishing in the right conditions but as for bottom baits i cannot really see how it would help. If you really are concerned about concealing your hook then why not give the hook masks a go that enterprise make?