smufter

But does anybody else think that if he'd been "on" his rods, he wouldn't have got smashed in the weed???????

It was mate.... I thanked God I come fishing. I'd have missed all of that otherwise

On a 24 at the moment, woken up about 1.30am by an alarm going off, came to nothing. Sat back in the darkness, lit up a smoke and just spent an hour looking up at the night sky. No light pollution, thousands of stars twinkling in the heavens with the remnants of the recent meteor shower zipping across in all directions. Worth the cost of the ticket alone.

Off out later today for a 24. Plan is to fish tight to the pads during daylight hours, when it gets dark I'll bring the middle rod in, and fish open water a bit closer in with the other two. I don't wake from my sleep easily so if I do get a run in the night I will hopefully have a bit longer to come to my senses and get on the rod. Plus carp get a bit braver during the hours of darkness don't they???? 😉

If you watch it in the hope of learning anything about fishing, you are going to be disappointed. If you watch it for what it is, two mates sharing a pastime and talking rollocks, then you'll enjoy it. Especially if you are a fan of Paul & Bob. I personally enjoy it, so does the wife. It's light entertainment. It lets her see a side of fishing that she doesn't normally see........... the camaraderie between two mates. Glad to hear that there's going to be a second series. I'd love them to go to France for a weeks carping, and be filmed. Now that would be fun!! It's a "Yes" from us.

I'm off out later on a 24. Gave my tub of Cell Wafters a few squirts of the "Coconut Blitz" yesterday afternoon, they smell absolutely gorgeous this morning, good enough to eat in fact. This particular spray has quite a thick consistency, a bit like golden syrup, (it doesn't so much spray, more like dribbles out!). If nothing else it will have them acting like wafters, rather than pop ups (as they tend to do, even with a size 4 attached lol!!) One of those on one rod, Crofties Coconuts on the other two. I'd be surprised if I don't clean up.......😀😀😀😉😉

I've tried digitals and couldn't get on with them. Been using RH dials for the past 3 years or more and had no problem with them whatsoever. OK they're bigger than digi's but they sit at the bottom of my bag, don't weigh too much and read perfectly every time.

The sprays I have are not too watery, in fact they are quite thick and sticky. I know if I spray some on my hands it takes quite a bit of time for the smell to disappear. I have sprayed them on bait before, wafters and pop ups, but haven't noticed any increase in interest at all.

That's what I thought Yonny. As I say, I tend to spray some on my hands just to mask any smell of nicotine that sort of thing. As the Tesco Ad says................ "every little helps" 😉

A useful addition to your tackle bag, or snake oil?? Not talking about "glugs" here, but the actual flavoured/scented sprays for single hookbaits. I have a couple of different "flavours" in my bag, ("coconut blitz" and "white chocolate"). I tend to use them by spraying them on my hands after I've had a cigarette or eaten something particularly pungent to try to help mask any unwanted smells when baiting up. Do you reckon they help with "boosting" a baits attraction though??? Surely they are going to wash off within 5 minutes of being in the water??

My shelter of choice is my Wychwood MHR 60" brolly. Plenty of room for what I take with me on an overnighter. Don't bother with wraps and suchlike as I only tend to fish overnighters between April and September so it's never cold enough to need them. I purchased a Quest two man bivvy for our trip to France this year. Luckily I took my Wychwood as well, because the Quest is really a 1.5 man rather than a two. Plenty of room inside it if you are on your own, but I'd hate to share it with somebody, even my daughter lol!

Horrible things mate.... ended up getting shot after one session. They worked, but there is a reason they are so cheap. Chocolate build quality. I'd say avoid. I ended up spending a bit more and went for a set of JRC radarCX's in the end. Much better. Love 'em. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-JRC-Radar-CX-3-1-Carp-Fishing-Bite-Alarm-Set-Blue-With-Case-1411118-/142883676242?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10

Worst thing I've ever done was selling those old FreeSpirits. Won't make the same mistake twice

Thanks! Not the best picture but a lovely conditioned mirror at 20 on the nose. Put up a right scrap thanks to the massive rudder

Boom!!!

Had to swap my day off this week so out tomorrow. New rods getting their first trip out. How I'd love to christen one.........

Usually a great line, my all time favourite. But this particular spool was playing up, hence why I took it off. The Asso is performing just as well by the way.

Typical Fluorocarbon......

Note to self....... do not let your finger hover too close to the "buy it now" button when viewing sets of rods available on 0% finance. 3 x TS's now on their way to me. 😱😱😱

I'm thinking of going back to my Smallwaters from next week. I really miss using them. So light, and more accurate to cast with.

I much prefer 11' rods to the more "usual" 12 footers. That's fine, until you start looking around to buy some! Not many manufacturers offer this length so you're limited on choice. My current everyday rods are Shimano Tribal Velocities in 2.75 flavour. Not a bad rod for the money. I had to buy mine from abroad as no UK store had the 11 footers in stock at the time. Ended up costing me about £85.00 each I think. As I say, they are an "ok" rod, although slightly heavier than my previous Chub Outkast "Smallwater" rods. The only reason I stepped up to the Velocities is because the lake I now fish has a few more snags to contend with and I guess I wanted the extra backbone the higher test curve gives me just in case of difficulties. The best rods I have ever owned, without question, were a set of FreeSpirit TS 2.75's. These were absolutely fantastic, almost as light as my Chubs and had a lovely fish playing action. I stupidly sold them when I ran into a few financial difficulties a few years ago and have regretted it ever since. If I could afford it I would buy another set of these in a heartbeat but I just cannot justify spending nearly £800.00 on rods. If a set of three came up second hand though, I would seriously consider splashing out.

Could you elaborate please???

Tried one of these the other day. The meat and onion stayed put, but the lettuce kept coming off the hair....

Did that a few times Chris, but it was still a right royal pain in the butt when you needed to re-bait, or alter your rigs in any way. Most uncomfortable I've been on the bank for ages

Got back yesterday evening around 8, absolutely shattered after the long day travelling. A really good week, spoiled (for me at least) when I went down with a severe, (and I do mean severe), stomach bug around Thursday lunchtime. I don't know whether it was due to dehydration, (my wife is always telling me I don't drink enough water/fluids), or the steak I had for lunch the previous day in Chateau Gontier, (served up somewhat "rarer" than I normally enjoy), but I was laid low from Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning, feeling like death warmed up. Without painting too vivid a picture, lets just say I had to throw away a pair of jeans, pants, socks and shoes, it was that bad. Felt as weak as a kitten for the remainder of the day, and Friday, spending almost 24 hours in the bivvy sleeping. This holiday highlighted the problems of going on a fishing holiday during the height of Summer. Blisteringly hot, too hot. And the swim we were in didn't help at all. Eddy, (the owner of Genesis), had kindly reserved swim 1 for us, as this was the closest to the amenities, (toilets and showers etc.) for Lydia. A thoughtful touch, and one that was very much appreciated at the time of booking. But after setting up base camp and spending the 1st evening there the problems became apparent. The sun was in our faces from early afternoon, until darkness. It really was blinding. And this, combined with the July heat made life under canvas very uncomfortable indeed. We put up with it for two days, but it became apparent that we had to move to find some more shade, so I ventured down the far end of the lake and found that swim 5 offered us the solution. And because what little prevailing breeze there was blowing down that way, we found that the fish were congregating down that end. Loads of big carp just cruising around on the surface. We couldn't be bothered to up sticks completely and move everything down there, after all, the evenings weren't a problem for actually sleeping and swim 1, despite the heat of the day, was very roomy and comfortable, but we decided to move all of the actual fishing gear down there and fish swim 5 for the remainder of the week, returning to swim 1 just to sleep. This proved to be a wise decision as this was were the bigger fish came from. Lydia finally caught one that smashed her previous personal best, a 31lb Mirror. I caught a couple of low twenties before succumbing to the aforementioned stomach bug. That afternoon I had boated my rigs out to a recommended spot and almost immediately had a take. I was too weak by this time to even want to fish so Lydia lifted into it and landed a 27.5lb Mirror. This was followed up fairly quickly by another one, tipping the scales at 26.5. I felt a little better by yesterday morning, so was up at 1st light to try to winkle out one or two before we packed to head off home, managing a small Mirror at around 12lb (didn't bother to weigh it). Nothing else from then on, so as I say, loaded up the car and headed off around 10.30am. So all in all, a mixed report. Lovely fishery, lovely setting, some lovely fish. Eddy looked after us well, his cooking was 1st class and his knowledge of the lake second to none. He was there if needed, but left us to our own devices all week, which is the sign of a good bailiff as far as I am concerned. Would I go back??? Yes, definitely. But NOT in July, and definitely NOT in swim 1 if the weather was too hot!! Pics to follow. Rob