jh92

Sorry didn't read the post correctly 🤣

I won't be happy until I'm out of someone else's rule and working for myself again. It sucks being a number but it's paying the bills while I get myself and a plan together 👍

I'm still using gear from my first setup my dad kitted me out with roughly 20 years ago. Still using the nash monster carp hold all. The shimano biomasters were my first set of pit reels my dad got me, theyve took a beating over the years and got retired earlier this year. These still feel mechanically sound, they could do with the bail arms replacing because they've sagged. Wychwood rod hold all 3 up 3 down got donated to a fishing charity last year. Still plenty of life in it, but would say its more suited to baitrunners than big pits. Had a trakker a lite which was my first bivvy last around 10+ years but gave it to a young angler on a local pond as he could do with a better one 👍 My dad is a bit of a tackle collector and usually kept the stuff I out grew. He's still got the first carp rod I ever had, a Ron Thompson rod and reel combo, both still living 🤣 My dad is actually using my old shimano baitrunners and fox warrior 2.75tc carp rods 👍 Wychwood 5 season sleeping back, bought with my first set up and still going strong, gave it to my mate who is just getting into the sport and it still gets used every time he's out 👍 I really need to get into my shed at some point and have a sort out, I've got some really old stuff buried in there, when I do I will post my findings 🤣

They've been hot on it this year, when I got to the res the other month something was saying to me to check my license, which I did and had to renew. Couple hours later these two ea officers came round donning stab proof vests, handcuffs and what I think were battons 🤣🤣 I had to ask out of curiosity if all that gear is needed, apparently there's been a rise in attacks against officers and they need it to protect themselves. I was pretty shocked about that tbh 🤣

I seen a rig by Darrell peck called the multi combi rig which I thought I'd try myself. My choice of materials were: Korda boom for the boom section Esp anchor braid for the soft section Korda size 6 curve shank Korda medium kicker Nash bait screw. I use an albright knot to tie the two materials together. I rarely fish popups but when bites were hard to get on the bottom baits, I've fired this rig out and it's produced a few fish. The hook holds have been nailed in the bottom lip every time 👍 It's my goto for presenting pop ups at the moment. I've tried the Ronnie spinner rig but I struggle to get a bite on it, it's probably down to me setting it up wrong but I can't seem to get it to work 🤷‍♂️🤣

Does your bivvy have flaps on the outskirts of it? Once the bivvy is set up I place the groundsheet in while tucking the flaps under the sheet. Also I try not to set up in a dip, as if you have driving rain in the door, it might cause it to collect and pool. I try to work out when I'm on the bank which way the wind is coming from and have my door offset from the wind when setting up. Try not to have anything touching the inside of the bivvy as it will pull water in 👍

As I've found out, gotta up the gear or there's no point, I've laid out 1500 on a roller, I'm still in the middle of setting up, dough mixer next on the list. My bottle neck at the moment is boiling the baits. My machine can do 100kg a day, but boiling is taking for ever. I'm gonna go down the route of boiling instead of steaming, gonna try a burco with a cage, if that fails I'm gonna get some single ring burners and a some big pots. I will get there eventually 👍🤣 Once being able to mass produce I've got some people lined up who wants to buy so should be good to go 👍

Could see into next week with that thing 🤣🤣

Just had this beaut at 28lb 4oz 👍

I wouldn't be without my radio 🤣 I quite happily just sit there making rigs, watching the water/rods with the radio going in the background lol. This session has been a bit nuts, I've been working the spot since I got here, putting out 10 spombs after every fish (had around 18 I think) its been a lot work but very rewarding, but it's enjoyable, kind of got into a bit of a rhythm, got some music going while I bait up lol. I just wanna point out I'm not being a yobbo belting out music disturbing everyone, I'm on 90 acres of water and hundreds of yards from anyone with a small radio basically following me from the bivvy to where i bait up🤣

I like adding tinned milk like condensed milk and evaporated milk. The juices from cooked hemp create a nice flat spot too 👍

Another double this morning, I was gonna go home today but everything is damp, it's cold and I just cba packing everything up so gonna do another night, got 2 - 3kg left so should be good for a few more bites 👍 rods are in, gonna get over the shop get a few bits etc 👍

There's not much to report really, after the 24 this morning I've had countless doubles, I think im on 16 or 17 fish 🤣 I showed an angler the 33 I caught and he said its called "black spot" and is the one of the best looking commons in the res 👍

I use the same water it's soaked in mate 👍the color afterwards is all the juices/oils etc, when I prep my particle to freeze I drain all the particles and put the liquid in a bottle to freeze as well, then when defrosting ill add it back 👍

It's going off this morning, 3 fish on the bank already, two low doubles and this 24lb 8oz common 🤙 I've just took a screen shot of it cos the file is 10mb 👍

All the best with your recovery pal, sounds awful.

Put the rods back out this morning with a few spombs of bait and the right hand rod went off within minutes 👍🤣 low double, tried taking some pics but it wouldn't stay still 😬🤣

Over the moon lads 💪 gonna do another 24hr today, there's rain forecast and the bivvy is still wet, they give a sunny day tomorrow so makes sense to pack up then 🤣 dropped down to two rods, got 5kg of bait left so it's all good 👍

Thanks bud, it was a great buzz 👍

I've just had the best fight of my life, fish was kiting down the res from 100 yards out, it was a long slow plod towards me until about 40 yards, started going again, got it back to about 20 yards and it just went off, the rod went in half with it just charging off, it kept doing this for about 15 20 minutes, every time I gained some it just took off again, I didn't want to tighten the clutch anymore at risk of losing it and the rod was already going in half 🤣. I eventually got it into the net and straight away knew it was a chunk 🤣 33lb on the nose!!! Guys i am absolutely buzzing, my adrenaline is going and my hands are still shaking 👍🤣 I do have some photos on the dslr too, they came out acceptable to me but still can't get the focus correct. But it don't matter tbh I'm happy with my phone photos and can look back on them 👍👍👍👍 fish has destroyed me 🤣🤣🤣 In the middle of the fight my second rod went off, then the third at the same time. Once the fish was in the sling I lifted into the second rod and connected to a fish, starting getting it back but it Bumped off, so drops that rod and lifts into the 3rd rod and landed a little common about 10lb All rods are out the water and I feel done in🤣 might have a chill tonight then get rods back out early with a fresh lot of bait 👍

25lb 👍 had this fish last session (one i posted for the first fish of the month) Bailiff took the photo so didn't set it up on the intervalometer and tripod, the focus isn't good but I don't mind, it made it onto the bank 👊

Just been having a look mate, there's no facial recognition but the focus mode is on af-a, I'm gonna try it on 'af-s' and see if it helps, apparently when using af-a, it can focus on the face more than anything. Trial abd error I suppose 🤣

another one on the bank bringing it up to 6 fish 👍

I have that app as well, I'm sure it doesn't take pictures the same as using the built in camera app, like the quality is set on max but it doesn't seem as good as the standard camera photos 🤔

Well had a stocky brace the net so perfect excuse to use the camera Next time I think if I lower the camera a bit it will be level with the fish bringing it into focus better 👍 @yonny thanks for your advice mate I think I'll be taking some decent shots in the future 👍