emmcee

I think the randoms are £35 for 10kg if my memory serves me right

as has been said, premier baits randoms. excellent for pre-baiting

you have a few lakes on hayling island, think one is called Synah. also the lakes up the A27 at Chichester. never fished them but know people that have.

cheers, had that fish 3 times in total from my time on dinton. 32lb, 42lb and 44lb. sadly no longer with us. funny thing about that chapter in the book, some of what is written isnt correct but thats another story

yes mate that is me. that was when i had my really good winter. jim who wrote the chapter took the pictures that morning, didnt know he had put it into the piece until he told me and kit was printed. not that im bothered.

i've read numerous carp books and without a doubt Micky Grays first book is the best i've read by a mile. had me in stitches and at a point a lump in my throat and knowing some of the anglers mentioned within i know its not been air brushed. what is written is exactly what happened and knowing and having fished a long side some top anglers and read their books some are not quite true to their word.

Fruity flavour combined with an essential oil. That's a winner. An ethyl alcohol based flavour preferably as it's a thin liquid and better for leakage. My current flavour for winter is premier baits tropical fruit. It's very thin and has superb leakage.

If you know your stuff you will know not all nuts are nuts 😉

Well my current bait choice is a custom rolled bait by premier baits. I've been using it now for well over 10 yrs , more like 15yrs but I have also rolled a bit of my own in that time. Mainly milk protein for winter fishing when I do it or a nut bait that my mate designed that was and is doing very very well. I've rolled these different baits not because I felt that the premier bait wasn't good enough but because I knew the other baits were being used to good effect on the waters I was fishing so if it ain't broke don't fix it. As for particle, I do use it but only when I feel I need to. This will mainly be after spawning and if I'm on a new water. The particle mix I use had once again been designed by a mate. When I first got told about it he told me to bait up with it in advance as the fish take a while to get on it. I thought he was full of nonsense so started baiting a snag tree on a new water so I could see the reaction. He wasn't wrong. First bucket load took 4 days to be eaten, could clearly see it hadn't been touched until the 4th day. This went on until after a couple of weeks they were smashing it up as soon as it went in. It's a simple mix pretty much with only 3 particles, ooops I meant 4 and the 4th one is the one that does the business. Works extremely well where nuts are banned, and yet you won't find a single nut in the mix. I've had bailiffs root through the bucket before now and they don't find a single nut either and yet over a quarter of the bucket is nut. A very clever mix but sadly can't say what it is or I'll have to k**l you 😂

Weekends on there are 10 times worse. I feel your pain. I'll have to try and get down and introduce myself when I'm free.

What peg you in mate? Black or white?

One of my mates switched to this in the spring of this year and he's not looked back, banking fish to 49lb. The bait he was on, in my opinion was miles better quality but he couldn't catch on it while others that were on it caught numerous fish but his confidence was gone with that bait so decided to change to hydro k. End of the day it's made by bowers who's knows his bait, it will be good. 9 times out of 10 though it's the angler that's no good and not the bait.

Personally I would always use a shockleader. 45lb quicksilver is always my chosen shockleader.

How come you've left the dark side and gone on to white? Treb' lites are my next rod, custom built, luvvly jubbly.

How come you got rid of your harrison's? They are in my opinion the best all round rod. I've got their chimeras and they can smack a lead a big distance and yet be a good action under the rod tip. I wouldn't buy any other rod apart from harrison.

Geoff is the brains behind god knows how many baits that are out there, all under different names, urban bait, perfection groundbait and so on. His lot roll most of it as well as his own abs ( activ bait solutions ). I don't know for sure but I think urban baits nutcracker is the same mix as perfection groundbaits chocolate orange albeit different flavours. Chances are any fishmeal baits he does for these companies will be based on his original " aminos" with or without Robin red etc with the odd tweak here and there. I dread to think how much fishmeal that man uses/ sells in a week, it will be in the 10's of tonnes if not more.

His bait is made by Geoff bowers, maybe he wants to go the whole hog and do the lot himself. Must cost a fair few quid to get firstly the premises and then all the machinery etc to make the bait. Hobart mixers, the extruders, the heat sealer for the bags, the sign written bags, pots for this and that, ingredients etc etc etc. The list is endless.

Thanks BC, as you have rightly said not much can be added to what has already been said. Personally I have only used in line leads (both normal and drop off style) , lead clips and helicopter. I use in lines only when I'm stalking and lowering baits onto a spot and these will mainly be flat pear etc so as to not be to in your face on the lake bed. I used to use them for my everyday fishing when in first started carp fishing but did get a lot of tangles, but then I can tangle a choddy so it's not surprising. Lead clips I use for pretty much 95% of my fishing. This is whether I'm on a clean bottom or not. That said most of the lakes I fish are very weedy and dropping the lead is for me essential. Now I know mates who have fished lakes that allow boats have witnessed there rigs/leads being 30 or 40 yds away from there original spots due to fish picking up the rig and dropping it again. One mate stopped using lead clips altogether after seeing this but another mate just switched lead size. As he was rowing his baits out he went from your normal 3 - 4 Oz leads to 10oz leads and simply ripped his lake apart. On my old lake nearly everyone used 3 - 4 Oz leads and you was often being done. So I switched to 1oz leads and started turning the usual single / double bleep on the alarms to full blown runs. I belive this to be down to the fact that animals get used to or get round things by learning just like us. Nearly every man and his dog used 3 or 4 Oz leads on that lake and I firmly believe the carp got used to dealing with the weight of the lead and using it to eject the rig. Helicopter style I only use when chod fishing which I must admit is nowhere near as much as I used to. So for me it's not so much the lead system that can let you down but the weight of the lead. Always try and be that different person who uses a lighter or heavier lead than everyone else and you'll see an increase in takes. I won't nominate anyone but if anyone can offer more advice then im sure we would all like to hear.

Every year since I started "proper" carp fishing i have always had the same week off to fish. The week in question is the week of the autumn equinox. I'm pretty sure it's when the daylight hours are the same as the hours of darkness, a signal to not just the carp but nature in general to get ready for the coming winter. This occurs around the 22nd or 23rd of September. I read an article by dave lane about the week in question and recall he stated it was a big fish week. I recall in my own fishing that the week in question was most definitely a big fish week. On the odd occasion I've been lucky enough to bank one myself but nearly always big fish were caught around the lake I've been on at the time and most definitely the carp mags are normally full of big fish captures around that week. Now I've heard of the harvest moon and one of my mates calls it the 40's moon. It's a fascinating subject but one I'm sure we may never understand.

I've just been chatting to a fella on my "no publicity " water and we got on to bite times and moon phases, especially after last night's blood moon and he said he was told to look at the tides. I did look at him strangely but he said it's surprising how many fish he caught were during the high tide. Now obviously high tide is the best time to sea fish, and hour before and an hour after being the most productive. Now I said about the fact we are miles from the sea and just along the south coast alone the tide varies a lot, in some cases hours different between the various ports/ beaches etc but he said as the lake was just outside London relative speaking he took the thames tide as his gauge and over the coarse of a few years he saw that he had many more bites around high tide than any other time. Now the moon affects the tides with its gravitational pull so would it have any affect on any lake? The bloke has certainly got me thinking.

They can roll bigger baits than that if you ask nicely 😉

I thought I had found the recipe for success on my old lake regarding moon phase. I had the majority of my fish especially from September onwards on or around ( 3-4 days) either side of a new moon. I recall one autumn/winter on there when 9 out of 10 bites came on a new moon and always in the hours of darkness. I found out another angler was also getting a few bites so asked him whether they had been on the new moon. He said all his had come on or around a full moon and yet I couldn't buy a bite on that moon phase. Whether that was due to me fishing shallowish water and he the deeper water. At the end of the day I've found that being on the fish is the biggest influence on getting a bite, what time that bite comes is anyone's guess but you certainly won't get one if you're not on them. That is stating the obvious but it's shocking how many anglers blame everything other than themselves for blanking. Another thing that helps with getting bites is confidence. You go fishing lacking confidence and chances are you've blanked before you've even got to the lake. I know I've been there in the past.

It certainly doesn't look good for us if the general public are looking in and something needs to be said/done about it. As you've said any decent sized fish should be weighed instantly and returned. I think the biggest fish i ever put in a keepnet was a 5lb tench and that was donkeys years ago, I dislike the sacking of carp and only do it to get camera ready/ wait for someone to do my pics but then it's only for minimal time. The only peace of mind I get is, i know that I and most other carp anglers do their best to treat the carp with a lot more respect than the match boys. The majority of us carry spray's / ointments etc to put on hook holds/ cuts etc and those that don't shouldn't be allowed onto a lake in my opinion and if they are the fishery / bailiffs need to look at themselves.

Korda curve shank, size 4. You won't regret it. 😉

Use your eyes, the only fish finder you will ever need 😉