elmoputney

You could try soaking a coated one in water and see if the smell goes into the water or stays on the hook, is it a sort of boozy or marker pen type smell?

I think it is targeted advertising, so it depends on what you look at normally on your browser, although mine Is showing something scientific at the minute so it's got that wrong 😂 You will have to let us know how it works, it looks good on the blurb and that I've seen

Okumas are brilliant reels tbh, I use 8k although they might be a little bulky for you,but the inc6000 do get a lot of good write ups, @B B has some I believe, he likes nice reels, I don't think you would go far wrong with a set of those tbh

I ended up recently deciding to just make up a load of leaders and I now have 8 bags with plastic dumbell wafters ready to rip for when I next get out,the yellow thing has extra spare leaders on, the only thing I may change for summer when the weed is up is to make them drop off leaders with another ring on the swivel, I did buy an ngt case just for solid bag fishing though Everything solid bag in one place (apart from pellet mix ) hooks, braid, leaders, scissors, bait stops, needle, pva bags, pva tape, I'm also going for a hookbait / liquid pouch this year with a couple of goos/Liquids and a few types of hookbaits in so I can goo up the bags when making them on the bank, I was meant to be fishing yesterday but someone in my family always seems to be ill with sonething or t'other at the moment, It's giving me time to over think though so every cloud lol

My MIL swears she doesn't need glasses and yet the font on her phone is set to massive 😂 I treated myself just before Xmas to a cygnet megapult it's a big boy with a big pouch, I saw one in the new handy tackle shop near my mums new house and had to have it, I also bought some more innovate pop ups and a glug 😂

I need some more new bait 😀 the mice have been in my bag, the only pop ups they took from about 10 pots were the proper job KLS, 😢 If you haven't used these they have been my go too ever since I got them, it was always the one to go first, they haven't managed to get in my bins yet though the little pricks which is lucky I guess 🤔

For me the reason is the same, I would rather sit at home and make 20 or so, than keep tying them on the bank all the time spent tying bags is time I'm not watching the water, plus if a bag goes without a bite in a couple of hours I will assume its a single hookbait and lose confidence it's still presented, the amount of quick bites I've had on bags seems to justify that logic, and people can't be bothered to do that, so it's an edge in itself

Good idea, I like the gemini stuff tbh, the booms make rigs nice and neat, they seem to have some good products, the hooks aren't bad either, pretty sharp out the pack, I just prefer a more supple leader that will go with the contours of the lake

Thanks tablecloth ala dunelm it's exotic 😂 No the knot would be fine no different to any other I don't think I use the gemini tidy stems and they fit a fox lead which has a 5.75mm bore with the insert removed so it should always free the lead on a break, maybe it could be neatened with a short length of silicone or tubing to cover the loop and knot might be OK but that would need to be the same thickness as the stem so the lead didn't catch on it, as Charlie said gemini do connectors, i couldn't find one that may just neaten it up a treat

No annoyingly I hadn't because I think it works a treat now I've done it 🤔 That makes bag fishing as simple as it can be in my book what do you reckon?

I did try those already but I found the using them a bit of a faff tbh, i like simple lol

Dear guys. When wanting to use solid bags one of the things that puts me off is the need to use lots of leaders to switch them quickly,they tangle and get knotted when in storage, I have a load of bag stems which I could easily prep but would it be bad to use a splice able leadfree leader with a big loop at one end, so I could just loop to loop the bag stem rather than loop to looping the bag and leader on, thus needing less leaders and an easy change solution? I will try and make one later so I can try it, but I just want a quick change solution and I found the tubing doesn't seem to work as it always seems to slide up the line

I couldn't resist buying those hair raisers at the top they smelt lovely squid and octopus fruit and black pepper,banarama hairaisers and choco malt jaffa pop ups, well happy with my bait collection, proper carp anglers, proper baits, reaper nut mix smells and tastes great, not heavily flavoured quite soft mmmm😋 the fix is a little firmer but looks like a proper red fishmeal and has a nice low level peachy flavour, all shelf life too, 😳 I think I did well, hopefully I can catch some nice fish on them now and if I need bait in a rush I can just pop in the car and get some, happy days

I've been through some phases lol, I would've used the original company I used as Nick did, because I had caught quite a few using them before but when I returned to fishing they were no more, I went through a few baits and couldn't settle,probably me not the bait but then I had 3 good years with retro and would have stuck with them but sadly that wasn't to be, now I am going local and trying innovate, I did quite a lot of research and had a chat with them, it's always a bit of a gamble but they seem to have a good local following and from looking through social media, there baits have caught some decent carp and I also mean tough to catch local carp too, including some of St Ives prized residents, they list a lot of the ingredients I like to have in a bait and time and results will tell but on paper the baits sound decent they have been around for a while and they steam baits rather than boil them, which I also like the idea of, hopefully the results will follow, but I do have the Elmo factor which doesn't help 😂

Having a sale is probably quite a good tactic in getting people to switch to your bait company tbh, a couple of weeks of discounted bait will boost sales get rid of old stock, boost turnover and hopefully get you some new long term customers, if they choose to cut quality then they are probably doing themselves a disservice as they won't be as likely to retain new customers,

Well I've bitten the bullet and ordered 40kg from innovate baits, bit of a gamble but they do seem to catch some good fish, I had a few messages with them and they seemed decent enough, and I will go and collect it so I can find out some more when I pick it up 20kg of reaper nut mix +20kg of the fix Plus some bananarama hell raisers and some chocolate orange pop ups, Worked out at £5.56 a Kilo with black Friday discount usually £6.95 if buying 20kg, I don't like to pay above £7 a kilo tbh, so that suits me and should last at least til summer 😳

The rudd would eat 10mm boilies where I fish, they are like bream on steroids 😀

Thanks,I think I will stay with the pair of them and see what happens, I tend to mix my hookbaits around about a lot anyway it's rare I put them all on the same bait

I've been looking at innovate baits again and they have 20% off means I could get 40kg of bait and 2 tubs of smart looking hookbaits for £232, which I think is a bit of a bargain at present, but which one or ones Fishmeal vs nut bait, they do some awesome sounding fishmeals tbh, 3 that I could probably use quite happily, I'm leaning towards 2 the fix The Fix is perhaps the ultimate red fish meal. Containing nearly 40% of various fish meals including solubles and Antarctic Krill, with Oyster shell and Kelp meal to aid digestion, we have given the base mix a kick with a generous helping of Chilli powder and have also used Asafoetida as a natural stimulant. The liquid food and flavour package includes a soluble fish extract and Salmon oil with a lovely Peach flavour and rounded off with a pungent Garlic oil, making it super attractive even in the coldest water.A firm favourite with some of the guys working in the factory, The Fix certainly has that X factor!q And squid 2t Not much of an introduction needed for the legendary Squid-2T, it was the first steamed carp bait put together by Steve Slater over 14 years ago and to this day is still the most popular in the 365 Range. Still dominating the same waters where it was first introduced back in the day, the Squid-2T has built a reputation as one of the best carp food baits of all time!It is difficult to put a label on the base mix, however with nearly 20 dry mix ingredients ranging from fish meals including Krill and soluble variants, purified blood powder, Robin Red, WPC, Yeasts and our awesome 3 sweet spice mix with Spirulina which is classed as a super food within itself. The liquid package includes our special Ethyl Squid and Ester Tutti Frutti coupled with a pure Black Pepper oil. Add Minamino to this and you have perhaps the most digestible carp bait available today! Does anyone actually mix 2 baits regularly or should I just pick 1 the fix and go for it?

Yes was very sad, I just hope it all works out for him, I never met him but had some good chats with him and we shared some ideas and he made me some special concoctions the last bait he made me was going to be our little secret for a while,as we both felt it was a great tweak and a bit special, and it did work too, but yes great angler, he seems to be loving the barbel fishing these days, and he's caught some mahoosive monster chub recently too, As for me I'm sure I will find another boilie that will work, but I will miss having the chats and doing the tinkerings , that's the bit I will find hardest to replace, that's what made it that bit special, all his baits I used caught first time out as well, put in the right spot they couldn't resist them, made me look like I knew what I was doing 😀

Thanks for the recommendation, I don't have to use a shelf life tbh, it's just for ease really, will take a look at the game again, I did get another recommendation for handcraft baits as well which I had looked at before also, quite like the sound of those too lol, too much choice, I did look at trent baits too I probably would go with them but the only thing is they dont take PayPal, I quite like to bulk buy and then pay it off in installments lol, just means I get a better deal usually and can spread the cost without getting rumbled 😀, and disposable income is fast becoming a thing of the past at the moment I did also look at baitworks again as they have a 20%off sale at the moment 🤯

I can't imagine him raving

Thanks guys, I have used blakes a couple of times for pellets and particles and they have always been good, delivery time wise and the products have been good, I would have no concerns with them being reliable either, and I can get 10%off from being a cyp member I quite like the idea of innovate baits because they are steamed and they seem to include a lot of good ingredients, Dark spell by rollin intrigues me because its made using loads of hydrolysate by products although it's freezer only and I quite fancy having a go with shelf life this year so I can just keep some in the car for baiting up and ease of use etc

Its hard enough getting line through tubing let alone trying to get Leadcore through it, really not sure what the point is unless Leadcore is banned and he is trying to pull a stroke, I thought helisafes are designed to sit at the end of the leader? I think lead clips do lose the lead if the tail rubber isnt pushed on too tight, I always use saliva to lubricate it before I push the rail rubber on, it's true they don't always eject but normally they will if used correctly,

I think the best rod I had the most fun with was my 9ft ledger rod (leeda) it was great for freelining dog biscuits and did most other stuff too but caught me loads of pb's up to 17lb, I had a nice quiver tip rod before that one but my mate was swinging it about and the tip went out into the middle of a lake at Emberton Park 😂