jh92

Starting to wonder if my day ticket lake has had it. There were reports of otter kills a few years ago (unfenced) anyway, I've noticed over the last 2 years catch rates have dropped, but also the number of people fishing has dropped. On a weekend if you wasn't here by 6am you wouldn't get a swim, people would be queuing outside the gates waiting for it to open. In the winter on a weekend the lake would be half full easily. anyway, I would say the last 5 or so times I've been here this summer it has been practically empty with 2 maybe 3 people fishing. Theres something going on I reckon 🤔

Frozen meals, if I cook a stir fry, stew etc at home I'll freeze it in a plastic tub and take it fishing with me, put it in a sauce pan on really low heat and raise the heat once its not a solid block anymore, maybe and a teaspoon of water. if not, cups of tea and biscuits as snacks, Poridge for breakfast and pot noodle for dinner. I used to cook proper meals on the bank but the washing up drove me mad lol

I've decided to make 2 rigs a day until all my braid/hooks have gone. I should have enough rigs for a while then lol.

Annoying ain't it mate, don't take long to pack an extra plastic bag for all your rubbish. I take my dog with me on most sessions and I'm always finding rigs. We came close with a rig baited with 2 fake bits of corn, but luckily she didn't eat it lol. Good news is I've sold my car and got a van yesterday. Can fish out the back of it. Buzzin 😁👍

Just been and got a loop tyer, gonna give it a go 👍👍

Cheers for the replies lads, I'm not very keen on the shop bought ones either, but that said when I was a kid I used to fish with them and didn't have many problems. One problem with the coated braid is stripping the correct length and then tying the loop knot at the bottom and not loosing too much on the tag end, it's never the same length and drives me nuts lol I'm wondering if I could get away with with that iq 2 fluoro for rigs, I've also got uncoated braid, that might be worth a shot. I'm gonna check the tackle box and see what I've got 👍

I've kind of lost the buzz recently and find tying rigs a tedious task. I'm fishing the river at the moment so bottom baits are a must really. My current rig is a knotless knot with coated braid stripped down by the hair, with a small bit of shrink tubing on the shank to keep the hair next to the hook. It's the stripping the braid to the correct length and shrinking the tubing over a kettle that's making me not want to tie the rigs up in advance.. Any ideas how I can tie bottom bait rig even easier? Any suggestions welcome 👍👍

At the end of the day mate if you wanna sit in the bush and fish over a bed of bait, wait for one to come a long or cast at showing fish at 100 yards and call it stalking then awesome, that is stalking for you. What i classed as stalking is what stalking is for me 👍 as long as we are all having fun and getting a buzz that’s all that really matters 👍👍

Not sure, there’s not much info on the place really so I’ll probably give swlakes trust a ring and ask them. theres a nice big island at the back of the res, using a boat to get to it and fish from there seems a good idea lol

Putting the bait basically on the fishes nose is stalking for me. find a fish on the surface, cast a bit of bread flake floater or w/e just past the fish then retrieve it back slowly until in range of the fish then hopefully it will nail it lol.

Sadly didn’t get to do any fishing, my dog ran into a boggy patch head first and got covered head to toe in [censored], so had to get her back, washed and dried 😂😂 Out of the 30 acres of water there’s only a handful of spots to fish from, the rest is inaccessible because of how steep the banks were. I baited a spot with a kilo of krill boilies, probably peeing in the wind but gonna go back tomorrow after work and fish over them for a few hours and give the lure rod a go. stunning res though, there’s a few old quarry pits around it too so will be checking them out as well 👍

I’m off to a 30 acre trout res with the pooch this morning, no idea if there’s any carp in there but going to look for them. Any tips on trying to locate them would be awesome 👍 also got the dropshot rod in the boot just in case I want to try for a trout or w/e else is in there 👌

I've got them in 3lb and they are nice rods mate. Personally if I was your friend I'd get a set 2.75lb rods for general all rounders. They will be fine casting pva bags unless he is whacking them out. Years ago I remember 2.5 - 2.75lb tc rods were best all rounders but now I've seen a trend in heavier tc rods being the norm.. Whatever floats your boat I suppose lol

Isn’t that what a fishing umbrella is mate? Not sure if I get what you mean lol It’s not green mate you won’t catch!!

No idea mate I don’t follow the sport at all, all i was getting at was footballers get paid a ridiculous amount to play football while people who graft, put their life’s on the line, save people’s lives all earn peanuts compared to them and it doesn’t seem fair at all. i don’t blame the footballers though, id do the same if I could lol

Man gets paid 660k a week to kick a football while low/middle class people go out and work silly hours to provide for their families and still struggle to put food on the table. totally wrong if you ask me.

Can’t help but notice you’ve got a nice collection of lures there...what lures/brands do you use? I’ve got my rod/reel/braid/leader sorted but now it’s the end tackle lol

Got myself a shimano sienna 1000, nice little reel, feels nice on the rod 👍

Ask on the other carp forum mate there’s more members so you’ll probably get more replies 👍👍

I’ve decided on getting this rod here https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/shakespeare-agility-lrf-rod?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_py228jh4gIVCLTtCh2gOQcEEAQYASABEgJdV_D_BwE The 0.5 - 7g 6ft one, just looking for a reel now lol. I’m gonna check out the ones you’ve said 👍

I’m gonna go to the tackle shop today and see what they got, hopefully they can set me up with a deal lol

I take my dog with me so I give the swim a good go over picking up rigs and discarded line before we fish. Fires me right up when you see 20ft of mono just chucked to the side when it takes a few seconds to wrap it up and put in a bag. I would say in the last 3 sessions I’ve picked up a couple rigs and over 100ft of mono from different places. I salvage everything I can from my rigs and have started to do it to the ones I find aswell lol

Will do mate, just after something cheap to play with really lol

I left maize soaking for about 2 weeks and it was the best looking maize I’ve seen.. about 3 times the size and would squish in between your fingers, I boiled it and completely ruined the batch, it blown basically all the kernels so no good for a rig. I do wonder if you soak it for long enough, do you really need to boil it?

Can anyone recommend a cheap drop shot rod reel combo? Not after anything expensive, just something I can use to catch a few perch lol ive got a 7g+ rod but the tip is too stiff for the small lures