greekskii

best bet is to get on the phone to Garry at custom reels or South West Customs

agreed, cant fine tune the clutch anywhere near as easily!

My plans are seeing my make a massive change in my fishing. I am going to focus on a forgotten quarry which is miles from anywhere so days only, I'll also be heading to a number of other club/free days only places when access to the quarry isn't the best or the weather dictates. The quarry has wildly steep banks and is a good mile or so walk + through dense hedging to access it so its minimal kit with no brolly, I am looking at a tarp though. I MAY get back on the river depending on how spring goes on the quarry and other places. A few social weekends dotted in will keep me in touch with night fishing though. Winter I have no clue...to be honest I'm already looking ahead to 2021! On a personal level I need to shift my every increasing 'dad bod' so healthy eating and some more exercise. I also want to get back in to writing my blog, I think it's been almost a year now since my last post. I have 4 in the drafts ready to type up but have not been able to find the motivation since early 2019. Hopefully I can reignite the spark as it's a great diary of events for me, as well as a hopefully enjoyable read for others.

1g of salt per Litre is what it is. One teaspoon of salt weighs around 5.5g. Let’s get very rough here, it’s the same as putting just less than half a teaspoon of salt in a 2L bottle of water.

I dont think even the scientists know about salt turnover and replenishment. I think you'd be looking at small amounts at any one time. I did look it up with my research but what's out there is very minimal to be perfectly honest! My guess is that the more active a carp is, means the more salt it needs? Research out there suggest that things like caddisfly, mayfly, etc larvaes are not tolerant of salinity at all whereas shrimps, snails, etc. actually can tolerate it. This study actually found that at low salinity levels and at over 8ppt all freshwater inverts sampled had higher mortalities however at levels between 1.5 - 2.2ppt there was no more moralities than at freshwater. Again the tests are done with salt water, not salt laid bare on the ground. I am with you and think that a large deposit of salt crystals laid direct on the lake bed will basically burn it and create a dead zone.

I’d say a vast majority of lakes are freshwater. Definition being 0ppt. Freshwater Fish have a naturally high salt concentration in their body. The salt wants to transfer over to the weaker solution, that being freshwater as it has no salt in it. Freshwater fish tend to lose salt and absorb water. This is why they have efficient kidneys which can excrete water very quickly. Sources of salt for freshwater fish are mainly reabsorbing it from their urea before it’s excreted, clay & food items. I would assume that it is not necessarily sodium chloride that is required, more so just sodium in general to maintain the sodium:potassium balance required for osmosis.

Freshwater is 0ppt. Sea water is around 32/34ppt. Anything over 2ppt I found had significant negative impact. I agree, the danger is not to carp. It’s to the invertebrates and plants and the rest. I don’t think the consensus has been that salt will damage carp, I thinks it’s always been that it’s the smaller organisms which will be affected. I look at it this way. If someone is hung up on if a bit of salt kills off a 30cm square bit of the lakebed then don’t try and put a bit of metal in a fish’s face and drag it out of the water so it can’t breathe just for your own enjoyment. There’s a fine line in there somewhere I guess. In my opinion, and my career is river ecology and restoration, anglers look after the environment more than any other user leisure or commercial user of the rivers.

basically there around midway there was a plateau which pretty much eradicated any significant undertow as it was a few feet raised. Amazing debris trap and prolific fishing on the base of either side after a strong wind in the respective direction. You are right about opposite sides, I just assumed it as common knowledge. A SW wind would blow toward the 'bottom' end of the pit, undertow travelling toward the 'top end' before hitting the plateau and losing steam and vice versa for a NE wind.

Just a few things; 1. Totally agree with Yonny, carp require salt, it's a key part of osmosis so if they can access it much easier they will. My dissertation concluded that a salinity of 2ppt actually provided better feed conversion and growth rates in juvenile carp at least. My conclusion was that there was less energy being utilised processing small levels of sodium for osmosis and other regulatory processes. The chemical balance of the carp was much easier for them to maintain, hence more energy for other processes. 2. 1000kgs of salt is A LOT. A tonne. and it would all have to be put in at the same time, distributed evenly across the waterbody to kill off the entire lake bed. It's unrealistic. What happens is small spots get a bit of salt, they are fed on by whatever fish or bird species and then re-colonised if not having another dose of salty bait regularly. Food for thought - a 5 acre lake with an average depth of 1.5m would require over 12,000kg of salt to take it above a 2ppt salinity level. 6000m3 is roughly 6million litres. That level is based on my findings, which I do not say are gospel but its the best I have to my knowledge. 3. Again, I dont think anyone puts a 2kg salt lick on a spot. It's crushed up and introduced in smaller quantities over a spaced out time. Water movement and topography will distribute it. Example, I fished an 880m long pit which had a SW or NE wind blow the length of it. In strong winds a 350-400m undertow was common, normal winds 100-150m. Salt granules wont stay in situ for long when you take in to account water movement, fish and bird activity and also topography. I feel like you are investigating extremes, not real angling situations but as you said you will be doing it and it'll be interesting to see what you find, as long as you introduce the salt how anglers do, not in a big block of salt! Interesting stuff though and good on you for doing some experiments and things. Personally I dont not think that it makes much difference at all to the environment of a lake in the ways that it is used. I don't agree in block input of it like you said as I agree that it will just kill everything off. Just to touch on the groundwater thing as you say you dont quite understand it. Basically every piece of land has it's level on the water table, hence why lakes are normally in river valleys as the water table level is low so they naturally fill up. As groundwater level (aquifers) diminish during drier periods the water in the lakes will be drawn down through the ground as the water level drops. Gravity. As groundwater levels rise in wetter periods the lakes recharge.

In the UK it’s illegal to put even dead crayfish back in to the water. Unless it’s been processed and heat treated, I.e. crayfish meal or a liquid of some form. Pretty hefty fine to go with it if caught and I believe a potential prison sentence if you are very unlucky! I believe that there is crayfish flavourings out there that can be used for bait. Try and get in contact with a liquid flavouring manufacturer.

uh oh found this. Not as cheap as the £4 own brand originals in all supermarkets but probably much nicer to drink! https://www.aldi.co.uk/caramel-%26-hazelnut-cream-liqueur/p/021155325502900#product-reviews

not just hookbaits, I defrost my freebies with a good dose of it!! Havent been this winter though in favour of other liquids, which have not worked as of yet so probably time to get down to aldi or lidl. I do wish they made a cheap flavoured baileys. Can't bring myself to spend £15 on the chocolate luxe baileys just to put on boilies!

tea or coffee for the most part. bottle of baileys maybe in the van to add to coffee or neat. Brandy maybe if I'm feeling extra special.

I look at the situation, half the rules these days go against fish safety. Take the estate lake for instance, maximum size 8 barbless hooks. Loads of snags and pads present and the fish fight hard. No wonder a lot of them have awful mouth damage. A size 8 tears out much easier than a size 4. I ignored the barbless & hook size rule. I only lost 4 fish due to proper hook pulls (2 of which were snagged up in the undercut island roots, 1 bend the hook out and the other seemingly bounced out). I lost a bunch at the start of the season but they bounced out quickly and I figured out why and adapted my approach to stop it happening. Fish safety wise I feel I did much less damage on hook pulls & captures than size 8 barbless hooks would have done.

agreed, but I suppose many angles will abide by the rules because they read them. I wont lie, I dont follow the rules if I think they are stupid. I am confident in how I fish with leaders and barbed hooks to know I am not using them stupidly (why the rule is in place) and endangering fish.

I think it’s meant to be carpy to kiss fish. but being carpy is sitting on the floor in your bivvy next to a perfectly good bedchair and sleeping bag.

I think i've only done it once, like the quickest of pecks on the top of the head. But it was a fish I cherised and was in a moment of pure elation. Tbh, its not like they are sticking their tongues down their throats is it, and in most pictures you cant actually see them properly kissing it, I bet the is a few mm of gap you dont see.

I've seen vids of carp cruising around with backs out the water from this weekend in the sunshine. It aint winter yet!!

if you are bang in to tech then the new direction alarms are good. bluetooth to phone controls and all sorts.

just seems like instead of the glossy finish the x wrap has a matt finish. the pictures dont even show it that well as its all photoshoot stuff, not on the bank/in someones hands photos.

shame theres no picture of the matt finish. I'd be keen to see one

never heard of one, may not have been a CTX as a different blank would mean its not the same rod?

Freespirit CTX is an exceptional rod. I know loads of guys using them. I would but the styling is not for me. Abbreviated handles and the x-wrap design on the blank puts me off.

Re-freezing doesn’t give them any life but it keeps them going. Perfectly fine as long as you understand that every day thawed is a day off it’s life. Ask any bait maker and they will tell you this.

Normally overnight delivery. Boilies are fine to be re-frozen.