emmcee

Exactly, if you know where to look or think outside the box you can make your bait totally different to the norm and its a huge edge . The bait firms pretty much use Tiger nut , be that flour or meal and peanut meal, be that blanched or roasted and yet there are so many more nut varieties out there.

BL was the one who renamed the long linear to bernies, just because he caught it and astra to astra max. My mate had the long linear 5 times but not once did want to rename it haha. The other angler was a yateley angler that obviously wanted to be "known".

When I was on dinton one particular angler wanted to name every fish it seemed and some of the names were ludicrous. An example of some of the names, Rudd mouthed linear, two sides (all Carp have 2 sides🙄), the bay fish (because he caught it from the car park bay), heart tail (haven't they nearly all got tails that are heart shaped in some way). Then he would add extra names to already named fish. On dinton if you caught a new 40lber you got to name it. A mate of mine caught one but he wasn't fussed about naming it but it ended up being named after his nickname which was sid. Sid was then called sid the pig by this other angler as it put on 1lb by its next capture, it's a carp for god sake. He wasn't the first angler to add extra names to already named fish mind. A fish called The long linear became Bernies linear, astra became astra max, not that I called them that, I stuck to their original names. I think half of it is to name a carp for the sake of it as that angler wants to be known for naming a carp 🙄. There's never going to be another Mary, Black mirror, shoulders, Heather, bazil etc , just stick to mirror, common and leather. Though now I do sea fishing I get to name a fair few of my fish , they are either called lunch or dinner .

If I had to chose a swim solely on the map alone then it would be peg 4 . Any south westerly wind will blow from your right to left in to the bay in front of pegs 1, 2 and 3 so any fish following the wind will potentially pass through your swim and if they back off the wind then they will come back through your swim potentially. You'll be on the back of any northerly/easterly winds (cold winds) which the fish tend not to follow but there is always an exception to that rule and any rule for that matter, always have an open mind. You also have a choice of water depths from the shallowest water to the deepest, just a matter of finding the magic depth. You can also see a good chunk of water so if you see any signs and the swims are free you can move.

When I made my own bait, I used an old landing net mesh instead of a basket in my burco.

Totally get what your saying there with you can be different by rolling your own. Though you can still use fishmeal, nut bait etc and still be different. The bait my mate designed used a few of the ingredients used in other nut baits but the process in making the bait would 100% not have been used by bait manufacturers due to the aggro of preparing it the way he did and the time it took to prepare properly and that was his edge. The lucky few who got to roll his bait absolutely rinsed lakes with it, some of which were hard lakes , though that bait at times made them look easy.

I recall one year when I switched baits in January, it also coincided with a change of lakes as well i might add. Ditched my fishmeal that I'd been catching on on the first lake to try a bait my mate had designed which was a milk/nut bait. It wasn't an ordinary milk/nut bait mind being really high in milk protein and the nuts used will 100% not be used in any nut bait on the open market , it was a nightmare to roll and the process of mixing/rolling it was long winded. I ended up preparing it one evening and rolling the next evening. So started baiting up in January onwards. Didn't catch for a month or so but when they switched on coming out of there winter slumber I caught plenty and wasnt far off top rod even though i only fished 3 months til the end of the season. So my advice is, if you think you can knock up a decent milk/nut bait then go for that.

Especially when "tarsals" are bones found in your feet 🙄.

Still might be worth an email to someone or a letter so you can stay anonymous if you want.

Why don't you speak to the lake owners or something and tell them you feel like you're being bullied, victimised by their new bailiff. Shouldn't want to leave a lake you love for those reasons , that's just rubbish.

Can't comment on the Alpaca socks but I do have merino wool socks and think they are excellent.

Well I had no luck on the bass front, mainly because the whiting and dogfish were on the bait in minutes. Always next time.

100% agree with pan fried bass or cod fillet. I couldn't believe the taste difference from fish I'd caught to shop brought/ chip shop fish. Also plaice is one of my faves. Hopefully bag myself a nice bass this evening 🤞.

I used to use the "K" paddle with my mixer, i found it mixed it together faster. I thought the dough hook was useless, though I guess it depends on how sticky your mix is. Mine wasn't sticky at all.

Had the same on Tuesday myself along with 3 work colleagues. One mate did a covid test and it was positive so guessing we've all got it and you've got the symptoms we've had. Get a test done.

The duck feeding area on Dinton pastures Black Swan lake would often do bites. After the public had gone you'd see a carpet of bread crumbs on the lake bed but in the morning it looked like a hoover had been through there, not a crumb in sight. Personally I'd avoid the pva bags to start with if heading straight to duck feeding area, instead I'd flick out a single with a light lead or a choddy. You don't want to spook any carp with a large splash from a bag as they maybe feeding still on the previous days bread etc. But as Yonny rightly says, on a day session it's all about finding them first. If they're not showing there will still be little signs. These could be small swirls on the surface, the odd bubble hitting the surface in a certain area or the more obvious signs of big fizzers or coloured water.

This is what I use now, especially handy when handling spiny, toothy critters from the sea. Though you do get some odd looks when you shout "shoot" and your on your own holding a fish🤣.

I see they also sell Geoff kemps pink zing, if I was still carp fishing I'd buy a gallon of that stuff. An absolutely belting flavour and in the right bait you'd need new batteries for your alarms as it's a flier. I used to get a copy of it years ago from a shop in Belgium and I'd blend it with 2 other flavours to make it last and then I'd send it to premier to have it rolled in my bait, myself and my mates caught shed loads on it. Whether it's exactly the same along with the green zing I'd not be sure as some chemicals are not allowed or used anymore due to EU laws etc or so I was told. Lots of flavours have changed over the years in fact and base mixes for that matter, not that any of the relevant companies would disclose such things. Its making me think i might have to dust my carp rods off 🤣.

In my opinion it wouldn't matter what colour the green zing pop ups were that dynamite made, that flavour is one of the best winter flavours ever made in my opinion. I used to roll my own in orange and caught some good fish on it. Another mate would roll his in white or red and caught. Great flavour. Not sure if it's still available, it was released several years ago by a couple of companies.

I used predominantly yellow pop ups in probably 75% of all my fishing so if I was going to catch then chances are it would be on a yellow so it maintained my confidence in that colour. I would also change the shade of yellow throughout the year , always starting with sweetcorn yellow in spring and towards autumn it would be washed out yellow with half the flavour levels . Plus I predominantly fished weedy waters and yellow seemed to be the one on all those waters. In winter and into early spring I'd often switch to orange , white or match the hatch as the yellows wouldn't be as effective in winter for some reason. My mate seemed to think their eyesight was affected in the colder months and his go to was white so I tried it and caught a few so like anything if catch on something a few times it gives you confidence and that's a big part of fishing. That and being on the fish in the first place.

The sad thing is some people will buy them no matter how much and yet so easy to make your own. Must admit I used the shot on the hook rig years ago but never noticed a real edge with it. They'll soon be an underwater film with this rig getting spat out or it will get banned for some reason or another.

That's what I use, bargain.

If you don't set your clutch properly then you will lose your rod. As finchey said the initial run is insane.

Nice hound mate. I had my pb Friday night at 11lb 06oz and as you say the power difference with a double figure hound is something else compared to a single and the singles are like torpedoes.