smufter

Definitely a Frenchie mate. Lovely dog. Roxy is his name!

I've just introduced a mate of mine to White Cottage, and he has a Frenchie as a bivvy buddy. He bought him along for a 72 hour session the other week, what an absolute corker of a dog. So well behaved, superb temperament and great character. Steve, our bailiff, has a beautiful Collie named Jess. She's a right character, always wanting you to throw sticks for her, and if you do it the once, she won't leave you alone! She can hear a sausage roll being unwrapped from 300 yards away too!! I'd love a dog to take with me, but with the wife and I both working full time it rules it out for a few more years.

Not a lot been coming out at White Cottage over the last week or so. I reckon they are going to get "jiggy" this week-end which will put paid to my planned visit with my daughter next week. 😟

Thanks for your interest Lenny but see above. I won't be booking it due to the owners wanting over £1,000.00 deposit to "pencil" us in for a month or two.

I purchased a cheap pair of Diem boots from Sports Direct. They have proven to be totally waterproof on my long walks through wet grass to the furthest swim on my lake and are fairly comfortable. For the price, I can recommend them.... https://www.sportsdirect.com/diem-waterproof-mens-shoes-140191?colcode=14019105

Thanks for letting me know mate, but I don't think I'll be booking this now, purely based on the deposit they are asking for just to "hold" the week. I've asked if they will take a smaller deposit for the time being as a sign of good faith, but they want the whole £1,050.00 which I'm not prepared to shell out this far in advance. Most places I know would "pencil" a name in for a few weeks/couple of months to give you a proper chance to organise things, especially this far ahead of a planned trip. A lot can happen in two years!!

I would do mate, but the venue are pushing for a 50% deposit to reserve asap, despite the fact we are two years away! So £1,050.00 required immediately, which is putting me off a little if I'm honest. I have booked Lake Beauregard for myself and five mates from White Cottage for July 2019. Despite all six of us being prepared to pay the deposit when I booked it (November last year) the owner said he doesn't want it until a year before the trip, which has given us plenty of time to arrange things and we've got a meeting planned for 23rd June when I can collect the monies. And he only wants £100.00 per person, not 50% of the holiday cost.

58 now!

Well I've got 4 definites so far, including myself That's NOT including anybody that has commented on here by the way

Doh! Forgot mate. Let me know how you get on fella

I've also got one other who PM'd me from here interested and a couple of mates of mine. Despite the lake advertising the fact that they can take 9 on a lake exclusive, after emailing the owners I reckon 8 would be better to give ourselves a little more room. So that works out at £263.75 each. The week I am talking about is from Saturday 9th May (2020!!). I have asked the owners to "reserve" that week for me for a couple of months to confirm names and pull in the required deposit (50%). Rob

Where you off to Chris????

Not this week mate. I'm pacing myself

Well they arrived this morning!!! That was quick! They are smaller than anticipated (which is good) and they stink of maggots (which is bad when you open them up in the showroom!!). Wish me luck lads, these little soldiers are going in on Monday night

They also offer "orb" boilie bottom baits..... Bit different, and I would imagine harder to eject.

Nope. A bit murky and a load (and I do mean a LOAD) of leaf litter on the bottom. Lighter baits have always worked well at the Cottage. You can't get much lighter than those jobbies lol! For £6.99 I haven't wasted a lot if they don't work. Got to be worth popping one out on my "sleeper" rod, you never know!

You talked me into it. Had the last pot @ £6.99 delivered. Got the white ones too.........maggot flavour. You never know, do you????? On your head be it if I blank though.

blooming hell! I thought you were going to give me a rollocking

I was joking Geezer! I've ordered some "Ting Tongs".......supposed to be the Mutts.

Let's hear it for the "fat maggot" pop ups...........................................

Just ordered a tub of the "creme de la creme" of pop ups.

Funnily enough, Jerry (my mate) came round to my swim on Tuesday and we had a good chat. We got talking about pop ups, and I showed him my rig. He confirmed that he is fishing almost exactly the same as me, and had his pop up about 4" off the deck, same as me! Only difference was that he was using a pink pop up whereas mine was a deeper red (Plan b's natural colour lol!). As said, the fish have got to be in front of me to be interested, so I guess they weren't lol! I will persevere with them, just might change the colour over to something more visible like pink, white or possibly yellow. I know my presentation is right.... it's just finding the fish.

Well tried your suggestion yesterday Yonny, raised the pop up to 4". Still nothing..... Mate of mine who has just joined White Cottage had a 30lb carp on Monday, his first visit. On a pop up!!

Bait ordered and paid for......

Have never owned any Greys rods, but HAVE owned some FreeSpirit 11' TS's. Without a shadow of doubt the best rods I have ever handled. I stupidly sold them after needing to raise some money for other things and it's my one big regret, fishing wise. If I had the money I would buy some more in a heartbeat, they were that good. But I don't so I won't lol!!