emmcee

Sounds like you've got them rocking with 3 fish last night. I wouldn't be slowing it down. If you can't fish then fair enough but try and keep the bait going in. It's only going to get better at this time of year.

Were you a "nun on the run"?

Yes it is👍

As for tigers, look up "whitetigerfishing". Not the cheapest but by far the best tigers you will ever use. 😉

Loads of anglers doing well on it. Nigel will do well on any bait in all fairness.

I know a few people on this, they rate it very highly. In fact one of my older fishing mates has always made his own bait. He got to know the fella at Blake's and last year took some as an alternative bait to france. He was top rod for the week, all on Blake's and not a single one on his bait. He's always slated readymade bait but he now uses Blake's. That for me is high praise from this fella. If for whatever reason I stopped using prem it would be who I'd use.

I've simply screwed some screws into a 4oz lead before. That worked just fine as well. 50lb braid straight through and you're in business

Or I use a cable tie to stop the wires tripping out. They do the job perfectly, and without added carp tax.

I have 4 or 5 turns on the reel no more for my leader..

Oh right, day sessions are bit different. Its knowing when and how to adapt to situations. I'd certainly adapt if I was doing days. Good angling. 👍

That's fair enough mate. I've conditioned fish on a number of occasions. They visit when the bait is going in. My fear would be that the fish visit, clean me out and then only get the occasional visitor. Where as I feel they visit in numbers when the initial baiting up happens. On a lake years ago, Rodney Meadow to be exact. I was pre-baiting with just boilies. On the 5th prebaiting session there was a big group of fish in one of the areas I was baiting. My mate said not to bait there as it will spook them. I flicked in one bait, up came a carp and took it on the drop. I proceeded to feed 5kg of 18mm baits that evening, they didnt budge but scoffed the lot. Since witnessing that it doesn't bother me baiting heavy on fish, especially if they have been conditioned to finding bait there at that time.

One thing I would suggest if you can do it is to have one of your pre-baiting nights on a night you actually fish on. This way you can condition the fish to arrive on a given day, preferably on a day you're likely to be there.

Not so easy to throw a single daphne at a carp though is it if that's what they are munching on. Yes you can fill a boilie with daphne meal if you can get it but it's a round ball not a tiny plankton so nothing like what they are eating if it is daphne. Get a boilie that attracts the lakes naturals to it and you can certainly get yourself more bites.

Good angling. The thing is if it takes 2hrs or 10hrs, as anglers we shouldn't set up until we find them. On my old lake a very well known angler turned up for a session, he arrived at just gone 9am but didn't set up until gone 2am the next morning. He walked that lake all day until he saw enough to go on. He was there for 48hrs just like me, but no doubt he put a lot more effort in to find them. By 5am he had one. I've been guilty of it in the past, too keen to just set up and crack a beer after a week at work. Then blank and say to myself fish weren't having it. Easy to blame something or someone else. As for preconceived ideas, they are sometimes the kiss of death. The carp will tell us where to go not where we think we should go..

That something you were doing right was you were on the fish and they were feeding fish. Much easier to get kn them if they're giving you signs. Good result. 👍

I've found being confident when gambling can bite you on the butt. I was super confident for a horse on friday and one yesterday, oh dear how wrong was I. Don't get me wrong , I never bet more than I can afford to lose but seeing that I've not worked since March 23rd and my boss still has no work for me , i need to be more careful.

I go into every session confident I'll catch. I go onto every new lake confident that I will catch, Be that a syndicate lake, club water or day ticket. Of course you don't catch everytime and the reason for that 99% of the time is down to the fact you're not on fish. Be that because the lake is rammed and you can't move, the fish are too far out etc or you can't be bothered to move onto them. I know my bait works, I know my rigs work and most importantly I know my watercraft and if on a syndicate lake the knowledge I have of it will put me on fish. If they want to feed I will catch. I know we are all in varying stages of carp angling but when I see threads like " I'm trying this or trying that this week " I just roll my eyes. Ive got news, There is no wonder rig, there is no wonder bait. Keep things simple, spend more time finding fish and less time chopping and changing rigs and bait and your catch rate will go up. Rigs - multi rig, ronnie rig, chod rig and a wafter/bottom bait rig. That's it on rigs, I use 4. Bait - anything premier baits for me, 100% confident. My spod mix, hemp, corn , *********, and ********* ****. 🤣 Put the rigs with the bait and if I give 100% to a lake I'm going to rip apart. Big headed no, confident, you bet.

It's that simple. 👍

And as hard as it to admit sometimes that's the truth. I've been there, we've probably all been there at some point. Its bait, it's this, it's that, when its us.

Can't you spend a day or 2 just plumbing swims? My first task on any new lake is to plumb swims. Obviously not all but ones that cover areas of the lake so if the fish are there you can hopefully drop into said swim, wrap the rods up and drop onto spots with minimal fuss and disturbance. So when you turn up it's a matter of just finding the fish and not then raking or plumbing swims. Obviously if you can't get into one of your plumbed swims then a bit of work will need doing. If your lake is small enough then do every swim or a spare evening plumb swims you've not done. I know all this takes time but it saves time in the long run.

100% mate.

I only say that as the first time I went out on to dinton in a boat to retrieve a fish opened my eyes considerably. The picture I had in my head couldn't have been further from what I saw. To such an extent that I started to change the way I fished even though I was catching and obviously doing it right already.

It will either give you ideas or absolutely fry your brain.

It might be due to being plugged into clay, sand, silt or in between/on gravel. Absolutely no issue with it at all. I cast out and leave it, never pull back after casting as when you pull it after casting like you do you could easily drag the hook into debris or into gravel and damage the hook point. Cast it in and tighten up to it, that's it.

Try looking up a sea fishing rig called "the pully rig". When a fish is hooked on this rig, the weight/ pull of the fish brings the lead up away from the bottom. You will have to have a little play about with your inline feeder to adapt it but it should help lift your lead away from the bottom when you play a fish.