crusian

This is another session that seemed to start out badly for various reasons.
I got to the lake to discover someone in the swim I had been baiting up, no major problems as there is 45acres of lake, so I chose a swim opposite, albeit over 150metres away, so not going to interfere.
A pallet had blown in and drifted up the lake into the margins, so I attempted to pull it out. As I did so a rotten piece broke and the pallet fell down my leg, with a nail ripping a brand new pair of combat trousers from thigh to shin, and giving me a couple of cuts on my thigh. 
I already knew that I had left my coffee and sugar at home, so after changing into clean trousers I took a trip to the shop in Botesdale for some antiseptic and coffee and sugar.
Last night I had ducks taking off and flying through the right hand lines twice, on the second occasion for some reason my middle white Ipro indicator body broke in two, so I had to bodge a repair.
This morning just drinking coffee and the male swan swan through the right hand line, getting tangled in the process and eventually smashing me up.
I re-rigged and was sat with just two rods in the water, thinking I'd recast after walking Sky round.
Another coffee and the left hand rod screamed off, this was a better result on the  reverse combi-rig and 12mm pop-up when I landed a 26lb mirror. 
That puts a smile on the face!
 

Ive just moved onto the shrimp after a conversation with @yonny (dont have the time to amke my own this year), good start as i managed to catch one first time out, has a very distinct smell to it (think possible SSA & Monster Crab combo/Nash Cajun Prawn as the lead smell/flavour.)

Frozen is better but the shelfies are decent. A little firmer so brilliant for sticking at very long range. At normal range I'd go frozen every time.

Here we go again 🙄 🤣
Friday I made it back to the syndicate lake, and was surprised to find someone else fishing, but no problem on 45acres.
 Easy swim choice, back to the previous area, which just happened to be where Andy had moved out of.
Left hand rod, 40metres, small MC pop-up and a PVA bag of pellets. 
Middle rod, LT snowman at 50metres, a stringer over around 200 throwing sticked boilies.
Right hand, over the bucket of garlic birdfood particles which with the wind was easy.
I'd just finished Spombing and the left hand rod bleeped, pulled out of the clip, and I discovered a numpty pike of around 3 or 4lb. I got it into the margins and just grabbed the line to lift it out, at which point it unhooked itself and bit through the mainline, losing a lead in the silt.
The rest of the night passed quietly.
Saturday, I walked Sky round, again, no reason to move, no signs, no shows.
About 1am heading into Sunday I was woken up by a decent run on the middle rod, but as I picked it up it didn't feel right, line taken against the freespool, and as I tightened it just broke off. I don't know if the male swan had swam through the line and smashed me, or if it was a take. I do know that setting up again, fresh run ring, 3oz lead and rig is not easy in the freezing air at 1am!
Monday, around midnight, the swan did the middle rod, swimming through the line, causing another recast in the frost. 
As I reeled in this morning I am positive that both pick-ups were the swan as my line looks badly twisted and kinked. 
Reality, could do without it...
 
 

I can relate to topic,
Think my best carp fishing days were in the mid / late 90's, without boring people to death with nostalgic memories, but my early Horseshoe days were something never to be forgotten.
After that, things changed, couldn't do it anymore, a very long drive and work and family stuff meant I gave up and sold my ticket., did a lot of day ticket fishing in and around Sussex, and a few club lakes too, then the noddy carp anglers arrived en mass, all the argos gear with no idea, no manners or respect.
Had a great spell with pole fishing on a certain sussex venue that had lots of crucians in their front lake.
Then moved on to find a few Dorset and Kernow venues that were relativily undiscoverd back in the day.
What I am trying to say is, don't loose the feeling, at my age, can't go as much as I ever used to, but still have a Sussex club water I can think will do me.
My one regret is that I have never caught a Barbel!
Sorry for a bit of a rant 
 

There was a frost this morning! 
I got woken up to an occurrence at around 5.30, thick mist across the lake and a frost on the ground.
 
Let's hope that the forecast weather wakes a few fish up.
 

0
 

Looking at the forecast we'll be seeing 15C+ starting tomorrow for the foreseeable. Hovering around 17/18 for the coming weeks.
IT'S HERE LADS!
In a strange twist of fate, it's fallen perfectly for me. I have a few days planned this week. Fingers crossed I can get on them.
Good luck for the season guys.

Aren't a lot of us now showing our age , Jules , except Elmo of course who just gets more adonis like 😁 .

Hi Framey .
I've recently used the small  Plumb-Ezee ( with a dumpy pear ! ) and it certainly pops up to the surface locked to the depth it has found .
However , it seems that it will still come to the surface even if it lands in the middle of a weedbed . What I did notice though was that sometimes when it surfaced bubbles erupted around it , so maybe that's where the weed is ? . 
I'll have a twiddle , then it should be just the job .
😃  

Went to local lake yesterday just for afternoon managed one carp just an 8lb 40z, lovely scaly mirror, jesus i really am looking like an "old codger" these days 

Just check it before your next trip, shelf life particles usually stay OK for a while. 

Now very. You will need to freeze it otherwise it will turn into a stinking mouldy mess.

What's the day???

The first image is a wind up, unfortunately the second isn't! I would just like to thank the pair of clowns on Big Hayes last year for the inspiration!

I’ve recently started taking a pair of flood lights with me. They are absolutely brilliant as they provide a nice even light that makes tying rigs or cooking a meal dead easy and no more faffing about with head torches. I’ve got a 3kW portable power station with LiFePO4 batteries that will provide enough juice to run them for at least two full winter nights.
The picture below is me on the right and my mate is in the next swim. He’s a bit of a wimp and only went for some cheap lower powered lights. The photo was taken by another mate who was fishing the far bank but I think he’s a bit jealous as he said it was like fishing at an airport! It will make landing fish after dark pretty easy but I haven’t actually needed it yet, the fish on my lake seem to have shut up shop since I’ve been trying it out.

This first picture is where I had my bivvy to take the picture of the swans.
I mentioned bird flu in the original post, it looks like it has hit again. The lake is down to 7 swans, 3 of which look like yearling cygnets from one of the dominant pairs. 
The lack of numbers has meant that the dominant males are not so aggressive and not such a pain in the rectum.

 
And a couple of pictures from the last two sessions, taken in the same swim on the other side of the lake.
Just to the left of the picture on the far side is the copse that Sky and I were using for shade.

So onto another session at the syndicate lake from Sunday through to Wednesday.
I arrived around 3pm Sunday afternoon amidst a mix of South Westerly winds, rain shower and yuck.
Syndicate rules permit putting the shelter up and putting tackle inside before taking the car down to the car park, so that is what I did. Car down to car park, and give Sky a walk back to the swim, followed by getting 3 rods clipped up and baited. Left hand rod 40metres, a 12mm purple Monster Crab pop-up and a small bag of micro pellets, middle rod, a 'greedy pig' snowman of 2x 12mm bottom baits topped with a couple of tiny Spiced Garlic pop-ups and a stringer at 50metres, and the right hand rod was a Monster Crab pop-up core.
 
I know it's early, but I've been putting a bucket of particles in on one rod on arrival, to prebait and to try to wean a particular fish that I have never seen eat bait. This fish is a big uncaught common, that I reckon makes a 42lb common look small, added to the mix this time was a couple of pints of red maggots.
Spombing out 40metres was not fun, the Spomb was on target with hardly any effort, but retrieving it was fun, and trying to catch the Spomb in the wind...
Sunday night I spent much of the night awake listening to the wind shake the bivvy.
No joy, and even the coots, tufties and swans left me alone.
Monday the wind switched more westerly, with a touch of north. After a walk around with Sky, fish searching and putting the sheep's electric fence back up there was no reason to move. Sorted the rods out, sticking to the same formula. A really quiet afternoon, but around 10pm the tufties moved in, and with the laser pen the little gits would spook and then come back. At 1am, I got a few bleeps and watched the indicator move up and down, so picked up the rod, and landed a tufty. 
Expectations, and reality...
 

Could always dull it down with a sharpie coloured pen.

Just my opinion? Use a standard size 8 swivel. Ok, so PTFE has the lowest coefficient of friction known to man but we're asked to believe that this helps with rig alignment when this relatively small device is lying amongst whatever detritus is in the area of the landed rig. The PTFE thing is more a marketing ploy than a mechanical advantage.
Once again, just my opinion.
Ian.
 
 

Mine usually involve not checking wind direction before setting up the bivvy, (not this week despite nearly losing bivvy), but include leaving tackle box at home more than once, discovering I'd left rucksack at home after an 80mile drive and once leaving my rods at the reservoir as I packed and loaded car up in the dark.

I used to fish one trotting rod for pike and got to the river and couldn't find the rod. A 60 mile round trip found it propped up at the rear of the house against a wall. Well, it was dark when I set out!
Another  time I had 2 conoflex  barbel rods but they were slightly different. I picked up a top and bottom piece and when I got there, discovered they were from different rods and wouldn't fit together! Just drove home and sulked but after that, always kept the rods made up and held together with bands.

When I first started carp fishing, I bought my first set of bite alarms.  They were wired to a receiver as that's all I could afford.  Anyway... I got a run in the middle of the night and the receiver blurted out the tune to jingle bells.

You can get castable weed rakes 😉 

I've just ordered the small version of the Plumb-Ezzee , Framey . Looking at the video it could solve the problem I sometimes have with Polaris floats when my mono has gone crinkly and the float jams . Or I could just use braid .

After not going carp fishing since August due to having personal issues to deal with regarding my dad I managed to get a couple of trips on the bank this month.
Last week was Wednesday to Friday. I got to the lake, and fancied an area towards the shallower east end of the lake. I did have an angler on the opposite bank slightly to my left, so I made sure I wouldn't interfere with his fishing, and got myself set up. 
Sorting out my dinner I realised I had left my cutlery set at home, no major issue as I had a fork in the spares pocket of my food ruckbag. It did mean that I had to gauge 2 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee though.
The more important issue was the bucket of birdfood to get the ducks and swans to clear some weed if the carp didn't eat it, and worse Sky's food bowl.
I was in the sleeping bag for 8pm, but awake listening for fish. A few crashed between Dave and I between 8 and 10pm when I eventually fell asleep while the frost was forming. Sky refused to come in the bivvy, and slept outdoors.
Thursday was a walk around looking, but nothing made me want to move. That night was most definitely warmer, but nothing crashed, so Friday saw a slow pack up with a blank.
 
I wasn't intending to fish again for a week, but Sunday I got back to the empty lake, complete with garlic soaked birdfood particles. I hadn't forgotten anything this week, set myself up in the same swim, although checked the wind forecast to the 3nights and had the back of the bivvy facing North West. 
Two quiet days, despite searching and walking around the lake with Sky on Monday and Tuesday. The only action I saw was the swans, tufties and coots mooching around the particles, although they never picked up a hookbait
Tuesday night, just after dinner Sky decided to come in the bivvy, so I knew that the rain and wind forecast was coming that night. Around 8 I crashed out for a couple of hours, but at 10 got woken up to the short bivvy pegs being pulled out of the soft ground by the wind getting up to 50mph. Sky was sitting on the umbrella skirt/groundsheet join, so it didn't blow away, but it was close!
I got out my long pegs and bank sticks, and went out to swap pegs and push them in at least 50cm. Managed to get sorted, but stayed awake until 1am, when I realised that my 20year old Aqua rod holdall had been blown away, and is likely to have sunk. 
This morning was a bit of a pig to pack away, my mix of banksticks, tent pegs were difficult to pull out, and obviously trying to juggle loose rods, landing nets, slings and throwing stick into the car.
The sad part is that the historical black poplar has finally given in to old age and nature.
Expectations or hopes were a fish, reality was a near disaster.