emmcee

Xc weather or "Windy app". But as has been said, the weather can change at the drop of a hat so none are 100% accurate in my opinion.  

a  mad rush after work /school for me and the daughter, made it for a night out on the bank last night, just about set up before dark.Forgot loo roll, cutlery and her little rod, Lovely looking swim, blanked like a good un till 10am then moved here for a bit

blanked till lunch time,put rods out back in the other swim, had hot dogs, packed away everything then back to this swim where we tried hard, cast to showing fish and did everything we could,we blanked all the way home too.n
Nothing to show for it but a nice time was had,
 

Blackpool sunset tonight. We went for the hounds and rays but only doggys tonight. 

Thanks mate, it was a nightmare having to start again, I didn’t realise how much money I had in my gear until I added it all up after it was gone. 

Cracking fish mate and sorry about your gear. Some proper #%#%& out there. Good to see you back at it though. 

Think you were unlucky with your bed. As has been said the solar range are top notch in my opinion.  I've had several beds from different manufacturers (fox, Nash sleep system plus others) but my solar bed is head and shoulders above anything I've had before in my opinion.  I sleep better on that than I do my bed at home 🤣. 

My first session since getting my gear stolen in December and having to buy it all again. I felt rusty but I managed to get a couple on the bank. 

Xc weather or "Windy app". But as has been said, the weather can change at the drop of a hat so none are 100% accurate in my opinion.  

Managed to get out for an overnighter on Friday. A little syndi water I joined last year. I managed a night in September and lost one in the weed which was a bit rubbish. Not had the chance to fish it again until Friday so I was buzzing to be back.
Anyway..... it was quite busy when I turned up. Managed to find the carp pretty quickly, shoaled up in front of a swim that was taken 👎. Closest I could get was a swim down the way which was v tricky to get to. Loads of mud and puddles 6 inches deep meant that not many were prepared to fish it. On go the waders and I manage to get my barrow there eventually. The swim itself was underwater so it wasn't the most comfortable session. Found a spot for the brolly back behind some trees which was muddy but doable.
The swim was weedy as anything but managed to find a couple of little spots. Choddy but clear enough for a pop-up. The rods went out nicely and I put 2 spods over each rod. Not much happened in the day but I saw enough signs to think the night would give me a chance. Popped a couple more spods over each spot ready for the evening ahead and settled down for the night. Sometime in the night I started to get liners on the right hand spot so was pretty confident of a bite. Couple of hours later off it went and a nice little mirror ended up in the net just before first light. A lovely little fully scaled thing.
Thirty mins later the liners started on the left hand rod so I was expecting another but it just didn't materialise. Disappointing but hey, I'd just caught my first from the water so can't complain.
Showed the kipper pic to the syndi group and no-one recognised it. One chap said he might have had it on opening night in the 2015 season (!) so it looks like it's a rare'n. Not a biggun but a very, very pretty fish.
Not sure when I can get back now which is a shame as I really like the place despite all the mud!

 

Well I'd go no bigger than 15mm for your pop up. I never went shorter than 1.5 inches and no longer than 3 inches for my chods and yes I'd say the bream are to busy with their heads in the silt/,bottom. 

Decided to try and fish one of the new lakes on the complex this year, first time out had a walk round and found the motherload of the fish all tucked away and chilling had to barrow through a swamp and lots of flooded pathways but when my rod ripped off this morning I knew it was worth it, what I realised pretty quickly though was it felt pretty heavy, when I saw it I knew it was quite heavy, I chucked my other rod in the reeds and made sure I wasn't going to lose it by playing it as delicately as I could, I needn't have worried it was nailed on the ever faithful spinner rig, as I sit here contemplating what just happened I've realised I still haven't had a proper cuppa yet today so kettle on and chill time. 31lb not bad for a first night on a new lake 😊

@emmcee Cheers. Made some chods up at around 1.5 - 2 inches the other week. Was trying to tie them off @ around a inch but they always grew as I tried to tie the swivel off. Probs using the wrong knot(3 turn grinner).

Well I'd go no bigger than 15mm for your pop up. I never went shorter than 1.5 inches and no longer than 3 inches for my chods and yes I'd say the bream are to busy with their heads in the silt/,bottom. 

Personally I never used a pop up bigger than 15mm on my chod, in fact usually a very buoyant 12mm but I'd still feed my normal boilie irrelevant of size of them. 
I'd certainly try and find weed that's a foot or more tall which in my experience the bream are less likely to feed on. That said, if the bream are the predominant species it may well be a very hard task to avoid them no matter what you use. 
Just remembered a mate who went over to double 22mm baits to avoid a load of single figured stockies that got put into the lake we fished. He totally avoided them and though his catch rate dropped a lot he only caught  the better fish. 

Personally I never used a pop up bigger than 15mm on my chod, in fact usually a very buoyant 12mm but I'd still feed my normal boilie irrelevant of size of them. 
I'd certainly try and find weed that's a foot or more tall which in my experience the bream are less likely to feed on. That said, if the bream are the predominant species it may well be a very hard task to avoid them no matter what you use. 
Just remembered a mate who went over to double 22mm baits to avoid a load of single figured stockies that got put into the lake we fished. He totally avoided them and though his catch rate dropped a lot he only caught  the better fish. 

As Nick rightly says, there is no rig that is bream proof.
That said, I can honestly say that I've never caught a bream on a chod rig, tench yes but not bream. Obviously not saying you won't catch bream on them but for some reason I never did and I used them a lot and on waters that held large shoals of big bream . 
Also as has been said above, what you feed and how will determine if bream become a pain. I know a few angler's that only use 22mm / 24mm baits and hardly if ever get bream problems.  

As Nick rightly says, there is no rig that is bream proof.
That said, I can honestly say that I've never caught a bream on a chod rig, tench yes but not bream. Obviously not saying you won't catch bream on them but for some reason I never did and I used them a lot and on waters that held large shoals of big bream . 
Also as has been said above, what you feed and how will determine if bream become a pain. I know a few angler's that only use 22mm / 24mm baits and hardly if ever get bream problems.  

As Nick rightly says, there is no rig that is bream proof.
That said, I can honestly say that I've never caught a bream on a chod rig, tench yes but not bream. Obviously not saying you won't catch bream on them but for some reason I never did and I used them a lot and on waters that held large shoals of big bream . 
Also as has been said above, what you feed and how will determine if bream become a pain. I know a few angler's that only use 22mm / 24mm baits and hardly if ever get bream problems.  

Finally had a fish,  Long winter on low stocked day ticket water. Boom Boom

Here we go again, I'm trying to delete and ban all again

My mate has proper told me off for giving everything away to people who wouldn't give info back the other way, and he is right.  I just want to share the joy help them have a good trip too but it comes back to bite you.  I've hade some mega trips over the years, gave it all away then couldn't get back in the swim again all year and noticed everyone suddenly baiting on mass - so I'm being watched and copied and the tactic stops working.
I kept the sling hidden in the water all trip, dried through the last night, put the mat upside down behind the bivvy like it was drying from the rain, banks sticks straight out the water from holding the net, tripod and scales away, it's a proper job that I'm not used too - bit stressful too, not me at all, but gotta do what I've gotta do - we're chasing the same targets at the end of the day!
I got point blank lied to last spring where captures were all Tench aparently, so they can expect me to be catching the odd Tench too.  Got one saved on my phone for quick access just in case they ask to see a pic of said Tench. 🤣

Great advice that 👆 do your own thing 

All of my fish at Ardleigh Reservoir were caught at around 40-50metres maximum. One was caught at about 20metres when I saw fish moving around an inlet so cast a bait where I saw them.
Even on Alton I don't think I cast more than 70metres.
 

When I first fished a big pit I set my stall out and fished at 40yds or less for 90% of my fishing, especially when seeing most anglers casting as far as they could. I also concentrated on the bays on this particular lake as the fishing was comfortable for me and more into my style. Im not someone who likes to fish as far they can so I only ever launched baits to the horizon if that's where the fish were. 
Don't get sucked into what you see everyone else doing. 
And the obvious one is location, location, location.  Also Write down where you see them , the wind direction,  weather, the atmospheric pressure (in my opinion  and my findings were these factors play a bigger part on larger pits than smaller ones)all these will help you get  a picture of the fish are up to.