mtibbit

If it turns out you don't like it I'll give you £350 for all your gear?

The 24lb12oz "Bellies" fish!

I also broke my PB twice in one session but on a lesser scale. I went up to 22lb exactly then 24lb12oz in the space of two hours. 22lb (only photos were on mat because I was on my own and nobody was around!): 24lb12oz - Check out the gut on that!: I definitely need practice in holding the fish in a way that makes it look bigger as I've seen a photo of the fish caught last year at the same weight and it looks way bigger. The fact that I'm six foot four probably doesn't help. The lighting isn't great either but I'll bear that in mind for next time.

What a beautiful morning! I decided to move onto open water as it is much more shallow and I had my first fish at 4 this morning. 22lb common which smashed my PB. Two hours later, same rod, I've got a 24lb12oz mirror in the net! Got good photos of the mirror as I had someone to help but common pictures are just on the mat which was devastating at the time but not so much now. I will post pictures when I get back either tonight or tomorrow! Buzzing!!

Looks absolutely amazing, good angling!

Moisten the knot and use a tool to pull it tight. I use Korda Pullas but I'm sure there are other tools capable of doing the job out there.

It's difficult to get to the margins because the water level is currently very high so there are trees either side of the swims in the water. Apprently it will go down so just got to wait for that. I've got my eye on a different swim for the next time I go as the margins are more accessible but there was somebody on it for the whole 48hours this weekend (although they blanked as well ) It's definitely the hardest water I've ever fished, not going to give up though!

48 hours of pure blank... I had a screaming run at around 2a.m on the second night, rushed out of my tent only to strike into thin air. I checked the rig and it was fine so god knows what happened... I was devastated! This place is a head bake! I've done some marking around and most of the lake is between 9 and 15 feet deep unless you cast very, very tight to the reeds. I spoke to a few other anglers who have found it exceptionally difficult this year and everyone thinks it is down to the fact that the water hasn't warmed up enough yet due to the winter and the fact that the nights are still very cold. I'm thinking about going to a runs water next weekend to get a bend in my rod, get it out of my system then come back to this place after a couple of weeks in the hope that it's warmed up a bit.

Thanks Kev, some good points to consider. I'm looking forward to getting on there this afternoon to begin my first 48hour session. I will marker until I find somewhere I want to cast to and then I'm going to put out a little pop-up with a couple of pop-up corn and then spod over the top. I made a random, horrible spod mix out of maize, response pellets, halibut pellets, chilli hemp, tiger nuts, chopped active8 boilies and scopex pellets... Something's got to work

Yep, I got a little leather Chub fingerstall for a couple of quid. Feels like braid could quite easily cut through it but at least it'll just limit the damage to severe flesh wound rather than an amputation. To prevent anything like that happening you have to do the drag up really tight, right??

I've already put on the braid so I'm guessing a shockleader won't make a lot of difference. I'll just see how it goes... if it snaps, it snaps! Thanks for the help guys.

So you're saying the line snaps? I think somebody needs to write a Carp Jargon dictionary for people like me So what could I do to decrease the chances of this happening? I do have some 45lb shockleader but I didn't know whether it was worth using on 40lb braid mainline.

What does that actually mean? The spod literally cracks and comes off?

Random, yet Spod related question. Is 40lb braid (mainline, no leader) sufficient for a Korda Skyliner full of, say, hemp? I think the casting weight would be around 5oz.

Blanked again last weekend, just no activity. The weather is beginning to warm up though so hopefully they'll start feeding soon. Just ordered myself a marker rod so this weekend's session I'll be learning how to use that, it seems fairly straightforward but may take a while to get used to feeling down the lead etc.