emmcee

I'd say some of the fish are deformed because some of the people fishing the lake have no idea about fish care. The other reason is I expect the owner brought a job lot of stunted fish.

Like I would do in any other pond weed, find a clear spot and fish into that. I've found of all the pond weeds , elodea (Canadian pond weed) is the one that will uproot/break up when fish get into it. As long as your tackle /line etc is upto the job of course .

Do you have any flavours already? Or are you starting from scratch?

Never be afraid to move. Numerous times I've moved after catching fish. Most times its paid off but there will always be that time when you should have stayed. I recall one time on my old syndicate and I'd had 3 fish one morning. The wind turned and as soon as it did I was packing away. Another member questioned why move after 3 fish and I just said i know the fish will move. He wanted to know where I was going as his gear was on his Barrow, naturally I said nothing. He said, well I'll jump in here then when you move, I just laughed and moved. I got to the swim I wanted, cast my 3 rods. Half hour later I saw the first fish show about 70/80 yds away to my right. I had 3 fish in the following 2hrs. The other bloke set up in my swim and blanked. You can't catch if the fish arent in front of you, it's that simple.

Can't beat a few extra bits and bobs, got a few in mine. Infact I've been piling the bait in my current lake and my mate who is on the bait with me has had 2 40's in the last 2 weekend's. Both fish at their highest recorded weights. Well chuffed for him. They certainly know there stuff at prem '

The 'G' seems to be doing a lot fish, tony told me he's had lots and lots of feed back from anglers with 'G' in their bait and it's doing the business. Actually had my bait made with some in it, sadly not going to get to use it for a while due to family circumstances.

Same as mate. Been using them about 20yrs myself and not a single negative against them. I know when I'm on the lake if I'm not catching then the chances are it's my fault and the bait will be the last reason I'm not catching.

I've got the straight harrison stick and the diem stick. Harrison one is naff in my opinion (not sure if they do a curved one now?). As for the diem one, I found mine to have ridges internally which in my opinion lead to baits splitting. If you want a carbon stick then my mate has the century one and swears by it. He fished a lake in france and was getting 20mm baits 140yds to an Island (it was still most of the time with occasional light winds aiding him). He also has I think a Frank Warwick stick (ACA stick) which he also rates highly.

I used to fish with john on my old syndicate, nice fella. His bait is more orientated towards the European market, don't hear much about it over here, well at least I certainly haven't.

Exactly, no different to a bucket of hemp. A lot of individual food items but can be polished off in minutes by a group of hungry carp.

A gallon of maggots is nothing really. Add into the equation perch, roach, tench and bream and it soon goes. Some will be scoffed on the drop by silvers etc. And I dread to think how fast a 20,30 or 40lb carp can demolish a gallon of maggots. In reality a 10kg bag of boilie laid out on the floor isn't a lot of bait, especially if you have half a dozen 20's or bigger munching.

Exactly how I've used them in the past, normally a gallon straight in and then top up as and when. And spot on, when the fishing is tough it's one of the best methods there is.

Well best of luck with it.

Each to their own. Though as it is spodded out, it will fill the water column, which yes may well pull the fish down to your spot. But the attractor liquid might be lighter than water and not even get to the bottom. I maybe wrong, but I'm guessing you have oil in your bottle, which floats . Just a thought

So Why do you need to add to it? The best way to use particle is as nature intended. Boil it and just let the natural oils and sugars etc do their stuff. You could end up pouring a bottle of repellent over it. Worth the risk?

Is your spod mix particle?

Is it any form of boilie that doesn't work? Maybe try chops, crumb, dumbells instead of round balls. Put that lot in with a bit of hemp to get them munching, you'll have them. Before you know it just boilie will work, nice little edge you've got then.

As for a minimum, some is better than none in opinion. In fact, Whatever you can afford is your answer on the minimum. I'd spend as much time looking as possible before applying bait. Get to know the carp's favoured areas and build up a pattern. Only then I personally would start to bait up. You may only find that 1 area or 2 are where the fish spend more time so instead of bsiting loads of spots you only bait a couple but its where the fish visit regularly. But on those kind of waters the carp are often missing for days so I'd be putting as much in as you can each time as by the time the carp come across it the birds, other fish could have wiped it out.

I've used the fox armour point range. They are good hooks and very sharp. Only beaked point one i used was the chod type hook from that range. All the rest I used were straight points but all very good hooks. Regarding the kranks, size 4 or 2's . Don't go any smaller, apparently they bend out. Never had this problem with the size 4's though.

Any hook pattern with a beaked point if you think you may have to slacken off, but then that still doesn't guarantee the hook won't get spat. My current lake is barbless. I had a fish last year and I went to unhook it in the net. Absolutely buried, I couldn't remove the hook no matter what. Went to get my forceps and returned to the net to find said hook and rig lying in the bottom of the net. I think what you need is to somehow shed the bait on s run as that's how I believe the fish rid the hook itself. By sucking and blowing the baited hair in and out of somehow dislodged the hook. Hook was a korda krank by the way.

I've never had a problem with it.

Exactly as yonny says. Also I wouldn't use them when fishing over bars, gullies, plateaus etc.

Absolutely spot on mate. 👍 Each to their own on how they fish, where they fish, what they fish for etc but like you @yonny, it's all about doing it for yourself and hearing that alarm sound . What a buzz. As for all this tech, so you find the spot ,you find the fish, it still doesn't mean you will catch.

I've got a custom built stevie Neville F/O stainless pod, weighs a ton. Though the stability is spot on. Can really put my drags on tight knowing the pod isn't moving. That said I rarely use the thing because it is so heavy, other than if I know I won't get bank sticks in. My preference is for cork screws bank sticks as they are so much lighter.

Cracking session so far, fair play. Nice looking lake.