greekskii

Looking at these two bream maybe I should have weighed the two slabs I had a couple years back 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️ Unhooked in the water during the wee hours after being plagued by tench and bream but they were bigger than those by far!

The most important part of carp fishing, or any fishing really, you need to be where the fish are. Finding the fish and fishing for them where they are is always key. You also need to think about presentation, are your rigs effective or not? What’s the bottom like? no point fishing a bottom bait in dense weed. baiting approach - smashing a spod over fish that move off the noise is pointless. Maybe a catapult or throwing stick to introduce bait. Some waters they will be attracted to a spomb, others it’s the kiss of death and they’ll not come back. How much bait you use, unless the fish are really having it off feeding id always start off with a little. You can’t take out what you’ve put in as the saying goes. This needs to be based around stock levels and other species too. Venue choice, chose somewhere with high stocking levels so you have a chance of catching more regularly as you’ll be able to learn quicker all aspects of carp fishing.

Carp couture or urban carp collective I think have a number of women anglers on their books and so do specific womens clothing. Get on instagram and send a few messages out to the female anglers, I am sure they'd be more than happy to have a chat with you, as will most anglers to be fair. Majority are friendly unless they are grumpy about blanking!!

If you want larger quantities so you can prep and freeze I have used these this year. Good quality plus you can get splits and premium nuts too. I personally went for the standards but I think I’ll go premium next time just for the larger size. https://www.gardenwildlifedirect.co.uk/bird-straight-foods/peanuts.html if carpmachine was still on here he would be telling you to buy the Red Peanuts. They are meant to be much better however they are much more expensive.

defo reignited the river bug for me, especially as I was a bit lost for a target water this year. Funnily enough a mate just told me he used to live 500m from the public section a few years ago...imagine having those carp under your nose but never seeing them!!

I don’t think there will be mate. They went on sale about 2 weeks before lockdown didn’t they? I saw these at the big one stoneleigh and they are quite impressive to be fair. Shelter you don’t need storm poles and it weighs 4kg less.

for me the best bit of carp fishing writing I have ever read is a chapter in Subsurface Journal 2. The Edges of Places by Matt Beddows. I have read a lot of angling books and this chapter actually does something that none of the others do. I could read it back to back a few times a day and still be captivated by the words. This chapter stoked my interest to fish a quarry I had known about for a while but not looked around and I read it 4/5 times a year to keep my fire burning for all my angling. I would very much recommend getting a copy of SSJ2 (if you can find one for a good price) just for this chapter alone!

brilliant Yonny

problem is most of the releases are illegal!! there is 1 licensed rehab centre in the UK which is allowed up to 20 releases a year...they released only 7 in 2018... the figures for it will be publicly available or obtainable through an FOI request.

I can imagine it is pretty difficult to put a figure on it as they have such large territories and sightings aren't that commonplace. An otter seen in one place could be seen a few kilometres away the next day but if there are no distinguishing features how do you identify it's the same one or a different one? I'd say that the do-gooders dont want to even guess numbers as the need to release them and rehab them will be gone due to how many there are. Better for them there are no numbers so there can be no argument for or against them.

not according to Dave Webb.... he says it's too risky to chip them all as they don't respond well to the anaesthetic. If they were chipped then they'd be easy to track and get numbers and distributions...even evidence they visit your fishery and are causing the damage!

put it this way, there is no known numbers for otters, or even population estimate. How can something which could actually be in excess be deemed as endangered still?? I tell the people I work with that love otters that the so called 'its only nature' route is not true, as they are rehabilitated and released instead of being left to die...that is not natural... there is no argument to it which makes me chuckle when they try. If you find a dying animal then nature intends for it to die!! It happens with every animal, including humans. i.e. without prolonging life with complex surgery and drugs there wouldn't be a failing medical service (I still blame the Government for not funding it properly). Too many otters = no birds, fish, frogs, etc. too many lions = no gazelles. too many cows = no long grass in the field.

bit stupid to do it in front of people!! again, totally get the reasoning. I have zero respect for Dave Webb after speaking to him at length and him confirming to me that otter releases, although not condoned by the UKWOT still happen and release sites have never been recorded or selected on potential impact to fishery businesses, and the bit that made me lose his respect further, is that he doesnt support changing the release system. As much as he says he wants to help fisheries, he doesnt, he is against them and couldnt give a monkeys. The way he casually says a 30k fence is worth it for a fishery as if they have that kind of dough knocking about spare. He's an idiot and I really really hope a judge somewhere, one day, allows a fishery owner who cannot erect fencing for whatever reason to shoot otters just to see the look on his face.

Northants syndis, which ones have you enquired about?

100%. It’s similar to Felmersham. I’d love to turn the clock back a decade and fish some these places before the otters hit them!

Storton's pit. epic looking place isn't it. Old drag lined pit, hence the bars. I'd be surprised if much is left due to the otter being there the last few years but I bet there was some special ones in there at one point, probably still a few.

Just had a rough measure of the entire park...comes close the 67 acres...think there may be a wire crossed there. Entire park is the 67 acres with a 35 acres res. in the middle. That makes more sense.

+/- a very small amount where I have put markers slightly off...

Also its 35 acres (measured on two area calculator tools) not the 67 acres as stated on the facebook page. How he's almost doubled the surface area of the lake I do not know.

I thought that was their initial plan, a 1-2-3 rod license options. I have this debate loads with an angling group I sit on. It's often mentioned rod license income is down, I remind them that they reduced the price for 3 rods, and although it's slightly increased on 2 rods there is still a loss of a couple quid. That adds up. It's not the sole reason sales/figures are down but it contributes. When you think its £9 cheaper to have a 3 rod license than it was before to buy two 2 rod licenses, now think of the number of carp anglers in the country (assuming they all buy licenses) and add it up. There's a HUGE loss straight away.

It is a stupid thing that you cant, lesson learnt though so just get a 3 rod license next time round. In the meantime really assess if 3 rods is required, dont just fish 3 for the sake of it. There are plenty of times I havent put my 3rd rod out because the swim is a bit tight, a lack of spots to fish, fish in the swim already and I dont want to disturb them, etc.

But if your line snaps this set up is not at all safe for the fish, which is what the OP was asking. Heli/chod set up is safest as long as your top bead comes free and the swivel of the hooklink can pass over whatever you used to stop the bead then a fish would just be left with the rig in its mouth. Running rigs you leave the line but no lead, same with drop off lead clips or inlines. Anything not dropping the lead is not safe for the fish and IMO irresponsible angling.

Can’t get any more simple and versatile than a multi rig bud. Can be used with bottom baits/wafter/pop ups without changing the hook, or you can change the hook pattern if you want. being able to change the hook without cutting it off means there’s no excuse to not have a sharp hook on either. there is various connotations, I have used a stiff hinge multi rig for a few years, more complex to tie and tbh I have no idea if it’s made a difference to hooking ratio but I’ve caught enough to be happy that it has!

both the maggi and squid brand fish sauce have high salt content. I found when using the fish sauce heavily (it's just 77% anchovy extract, 20% salt & 3% sugar) it actually preserved the baits longer on the bank once absorbed. Maggi is mainly because it is a savoury liquid based on hydrolysed wheat proteins which means there is a fair bit of MSG & DI in it. MSG is sodium and glutamate (a naturally occurring amino acid), a taste enhancer. Hydrolysed Wheat is basically MSG (or glutamic acid) so the same thing as you can buy from DNA baits and others as a glug, however in Maggi it's in another form, thinned and combined with savoury flavourings and salt & sugar. I also like to powder my hookbaits sometimes, a cheap bag of spirulina from Aldi's health food section, liver powder & cocoa powder have all worked for me in the past. Another incredible glug is marmite, either direct dip a hookbait or thin with warm water to make a glug.

I always like a bit of something extra on my baits or hookbaits. It's a confidence thing and I only use something I know adds to the bait not just for the sake of it. Squid brand fish sauce, maggi seasoning & baileys are my go to glugs. I did get some shrimp liquid last year which was very good as glug but totally overpowering of everything else, smells like fertiliser it's that concentrated. Much better in a bait than on it to be honest so I'm swapping it for some liver powder with my bait man