elmoputney

Good luck mate, hope you catch a few.

Always there camping, never catches anything either, most of the water out there has pads just under the surface and is pretty unfishable. Back in the rat/wasp den now, wasps have stopped being so mental and settled into building the nest, even one of the rats went out early today because of the noisy neighbours (Not me BTW)

Wasp Exile rod shot.

Struggles pah! If I don't catch the biggun after this , there is no carp god. Lost 2 to cut offs, bivvied up next to a rats nest, caught a 12oz rudd on a zig, managed to get the extra night, went to the shops, was having a look round the lake, when I came back thousands of wasps are flying round the same rat tree. I've taken a rod, net, mat and the hand of god baiting pole and I'm currently perched on a boat. If it wasn't fishing I would have quit, but it beats a day at work so I will enjoy it anyway. There is still time for my luck to change.

My latest rooblinos arrived today it's a 2000 sized reel that I bought to go on my old browning match rod, cos t me a small fortune £7 smooth as anything though lovely little reel.

If you like a wide gape have a look at the ESP Claw Hammer, lovely hooks and sharp out the packet too.

Have you ever tried the spliceable hooklinks you can get ? They might be a good alternative to braid.

Satay sauce is basically thinnned down peanut butter, probably thinned down with fish sauce or soy and coconut milk or something, I like eating it too much to waste it on fish though 😂

I went through that too when I restarted. I've had about 5 sets of rods in the last 6 or 7 years, sonik, wychwood, daiwa, sonik, free spirit, In my opinion you are best off just buying the set you really want now and save yourself going through loads of cheap rods. I had 10ft 3lb soniks and within about 6 months of use they had gone a bit soft. Also the weather is now turning in your favour, just stick at it, find the fish, bait them and you will catch them,

I saw those cheap on ebay recently.

Cork handles always seem to get damaged in my experience. Too easy to take a chunk out of them or they go out of shape after sitting in butt grips or whatever.

I have never used them but someone told me they were decent for the money, probably better than all the soniks etc in that price bracket. For £85 you could get some free spirit helicals, which will be decent.

Phwooar nice reels matey 😉

Also gemini booms are good, but I'm like you with your bait, they are a lot more expensive to use, and the length is fixed so if you need to adjust you are stuck.

Krimps can be very useful, it's up to you if you want to use them or not but they do have some great uses. I am sure you have tried them for more than just booms though, they are great for making shorter chods and hinge rigs, because you don't need to knot them you can easily control the height and make them much shorter than knotting. And let's be honest trying to knot 25lb mouth trap nicely can be a right chore. Not with krimps 👍

I've bought 2 shimano reels since my return to fishing and I've not been happy with either of them. Like you say the quality has dropped. I wouldn't buy another one tbh. I'm okuma all the way now tbh, great reels for the money the 8k is a great big pit reel, smooth, great line lay the drag is perfect and they handle anything I throw at them. They are the epitome of Elmo Proof. I was looking at the new versions of the big bomber spod reel last night the 8000 has a 128cm retrieve, if and when the rooblinos let's me down I will probably upgrade to one of these, then I can clean up the aerlex put the dodgy S clip back in and someone will still pay me loads for it, because it's shimano 😂

Check out temu, I just picked up this bad boy for £22.96 I've been waiting for the right deal on this for ages and they knocked off £11 for me. And it's got lid ice packs.

Excuse my ignorance but. What is that???

Wow😍 😍😍😍 that is next level, congrats Mr Guns that is a mega stunning beauty. Well done Yonny for making it happen too it would have been criminal not to share this one 😏 good luck for the rest of the trip 👍

You can always tell when someone is lying, proving it can be tougher, surely they walk each lake once a day? Would be it be too hard to print out all the bookings on the complex and check them daily?

Good luck matey, hope it's a memorable one.

Kind of like a Chelsea smile???? It's why I stopped using uncoated braid, it happened to me. Now I've got the double beep shock rig I can use any rig I want with a mesh bag, usually a spinner tbh 😉if it ain't broke and all that.

I can't help thinking supple uncoated braid causes damage, especially if you have a big lead swinging about 4 inches from the fishes face, but yeah most fish on my syndicate with mouth damage came from when the lake used to be a match lake, we are now trying to catch them ones and retire them to another pond.

Yeah I dont doubt it won't be perfect, just really an experiment to see whether a £20 reel will be up to the job, if its OK I will use it, if it annoys me I haven't really lost much and will swap back to the aerlex or buy an okuma or something.