emmcee

100% agree on location being the most important factor, combined with a little bit of luck and your onto a winner.

I'd say your chosen level is a good starting point. I know the profile plus range of flavours are very potent and can be overloaded but not sure on the response range.

If its a proper milk protein bait then you shouldn't need added "goodies", the milks will be doing everything you need on their own. And when I say proper milk, you're looking at £15 - £20 per kg to know it's half decent at todays prices of ingredients. Anything less than that then it's bulked out with calf milk replacer etc which is a good ingredient but nothing compared to the casein's, lactalbumin's and whey pro's out there.

Other than when I rolled my own the only flavour I had in my bait for the last 10yrs or so was black pepper essential oil. All freebies had recommended levels (6 drops per 6 eggs) and all hookbaits had half levels. We found making the hookbait over flavoured was the wrong way to go. Infact after a season i had my freebies made with half levels, always got to have an edge . Absolutely devastating flavour on its own in my opinion.

🤯😳😱 I wouldn't know what to take if I had that lot. Few hundred quids worth in there I imagine (hope you your missus doesn't read that bit) 🤣

Was it Terry Eustace (gold label tackle) that did these? Think I've got a few packs hidden away somewhere thinking that is what hook was used for the 360 rig.

This is how I take line off my reels now. I know then that I'm taking off a pretty precise amount say 200yds. I then know what amount of line I have left on a bulk spool etc.

Exactly this⬆️. If you can't find them though then maybe start baiting up a spot regularly and hope they come to you. That will take time , effort and of course a few quid for bait but the rewards might just be worth it In the long run.

Use wrap sticks if you have them if not 2 bank sticks pushed in the ground a rod length apart. Reel onto a rod , tie one end to one of the sticks and keep wrapping until all line is off.

Lucky you, its a beautiful part of the country along with the Jurassic coast in my opinion. A good spot for photography, wildlife and fishing

I see quite a lot of reports regarding rays from the Mersey. Bit of a trek for me that though. And as you say, it's all about enjoying yourself and I wasn't really, just going through the motions as it were. I've got a new spring in my step so all good.

This was my view yesterday morning after sleeping in my van after an evening on the beach. The sun rising over keyhaven with the the isle of wight to the right.

I'm good thanks stevo . Yes I've got the sea fishing bug good and proper. I didn't fish for carp at all last year and that for me is rarer than rocking horse poop but i didn't miss it. The year before that I only went because of travel restrictions etc during covid as I'm 90mins from my nearest beach. I've not renewed my syndicate lake ticket this year but I have kept hold of one ticket as its a proper history water that's had its highs through the 80's and 90's ,though been through a low the last 15 - 20 years but its been slowly restocked over the last 5 - 10 yrs with a few different strains of carp mainly in single figures that are now doing 20's and low 30's and I reckon it will be doing 40's before too long. I've got a couple of social sessions planned on there this year to have catch ups with mates but sea fishing is for me at this moment in time. The never really knowing what's on the end of your line is huge buzz for me. Different species are about through the seasons and if you're lucky you can eat a few and it doesn't get any fresher than that. Plus working out tides, features, watercraft in the sea is a whole new ball game and a challenge which carp fishing for me had become stale and boring. Also, if you know the stock of the lake then you know pretty much know what you're going to catch, no real mystery to it anymore. Hope you're well mate.

100% agree about the bed. By far the best one I've had. Not that I fish for carp nowadays which is lucky as I get an amazing night's kip when I use it camping.

It's OK seeing that it's pretty much all the same. It's when I see pots of this and that, bags of this and that from every known bait company, that's when in my opinion its too much. Just stick to one bait, maybe a few different colours of hookbait but that's it.

On my old lake they were banned and yet my particle mix was full of them, yet when the bailiff checked the bucket, he couldn't see any. There is always a way 😉

They used to do these years ago and they were so oily. So for me personally I'd wait for the water to warm up a bit first. First time I used the dynamite peanuts was on an 11 acre lake on a windy spring day. I was on the back of the wind and my 2 handfuls of nuts literally flattend the entire lake due to the oil. Once the fish get on them though they can be devastating.

The last time I took baileys with me fishing in winter I drank it all in my coffees. Never did get round to using it as a glug.

Marmite thinned down with fish sauce😉

Sorry to split hairs here, but are you saying for 30yrs you concentrated more on rigs than location? Surely Location is 99% of the puzzle, for me it is anyway. The last 1% is putting a bait in front of them that they will eat, attached to a rig that works. As everyone knows, if you aren't on the fish , then you can't catch the fish.

Dental floss for me. Tie it around your pop up and then tie to ring. Keeps your pop up much more buoyant if you don't pierce it.

I once told a mate loads of my spots on my old lake. For the life of him he couldn't find anything in any of the swims I told him about. Only when he asked me what length my rods were did we realise what was going on. He uses 12ft and mine were 12ft 6in 😂

Well they are double DD's, or bigger 😂

This rod builder doesn't gain anything from slating daiwa though. And as I've stated , He is a rod builder, not a rod maker. He mainly builds on Harrison blanks and forgive me if I'm wrong but I think Harrison's know what constitutes an excellent rod blank, especially seeing that they make them for all disciplines in our sport.

I'm guessing he means he brought the blank and built the rod to his own spec'. Everyone's choice/opinion will differ on every subject. All my carp rods have been and are custom built. First set were century and since then all have been Harrison blanks. A mate of mine once asked this rod builder if he would strip and rebuild a set of daiwa magnum tapers, the rod builder said he wouldn't use daiwa rods to grow runner beans let alone fish with Haha. But that's his opinion and plenty of anglers would say otherwise.