B.C.

I've used chum mixers as pop ups, 2ft off bottom (it wasn't called zig fishing in ye olde days)…… Me and a mate had a few through the winter like this, but you can't really leave them out for more than an hour or so as they swell and go soft and the coots will take them.....

Have you had a go with them yet?...… What they like buddy?

Nice one mate, gives me 20 mins to shoot up there and check them out 🙂

Sounds familiar 🙂

My local is a diamond, I try to get most of my smaller bits off him... I don't mind paying a bit extra for a bag of Gardner nuggets that he sells...£5 lasts me a season... Proper Alladins cave, too.... And you get treated like a person and not just an order number...…. I've never had to take / send anything back. Which is more than I can say for most on-line places...…. I'll be popping in tomorrow for a top up on a few bits...….. Sorry to hear about the way your local is run @cyborx , he doesn't deserve you custom by the sounds.

Yes... save your £12-£15...…. They are quite a chunky, heavy item to have in your tackle box, especially when you won't use them much.... I bought mine to attach choddies quicker (in theory)… But tbh, when you got cold fingers and the light ain't great, it's probably easier to tie them.... I've spilt a few krimps and crimped them badly too in some cases...…..

They are pretty much the same buddy...….. I bought the Korda version a while back (Although it is just gathering dust now)……. They sting you on the price of the krimps, but even with their own krimps, they can sometimes slip in the pliers and not crush down properly. So, with that in mind, if you do purchase some crimping pliers, you can get the same quality and size krimps on line for much cheaper.

Running your own business takes up all your energy and 99% of your time. No matter what trade...…. In most cases it affects everything else in your life, family time, your own time and especially hobby time...…. At some point , you have to make a decision as to whether it's worth it, you can't have your cake and eat it...…… He's probably kicking himself for not starting up his bait business 10 or 15 years ago, a younger man with more energy ……. Having said that, one thing he has managed to achieve, in a relatively short space of time, is a well known brand, and probably, also, learned a great deal about the bait trade. So he's in a much better place than when he started...… Lots of bait companies come and go over the years..... Do we need more big hitters in the bait industry? Can the market accommodate them? Shimano are set to launch their bait range soon and they have some serious marketing power, so they will be taking a slice of the pie..... When supply out weighs demand, there is usually a price drop somewhere along the line (we shall see)….. Trouble with a price drop on bait is that the quality is immediately scrutinised..... I'm not a big fan of bait companies in general, I can't help thinking that corners are cut to aid profits...…. There aren't that many bait secrets and the info out there to roll a decent bait is readily available to anyone wishing to roll their own bait, as is the equipment to make life easier, compared to ten years ago. I've noticed an up turn in home made bait rollers...… Small groups of lads clubbing together...… Yes, there is time and effort involved, but that can be said about fishing in general. So, perhaps supplying base mix ingredients is something Tel could do as a side line. It would bring the cost of his own down, by buying in larger bulk.

Two sets of books no doubt lol....

So , now we know that they are trying to raise funds to grow the company...…….. Wonder where that will start coming from...…… Probably a new bait, made out of sh1te and marketed as the next best thing...... He's got balls for going on there, but a big gamble imo…….. Looks like, imo, that they are desperate for cash in order to grow. If an investor can't be found to help them grow, then the only place that the money will come from is the punters pockets, Not anymore apparently...……..

Not sure mate, someone posted it on a group I follow...…. I'm just interested, as the Dragons will normally grill them for figures.. Mark up etc...…. Be interesting to see what they claim their costings are, might throw a spanner at some of the big name bait companies.... Or, could be a complete wally...… We shall see...🙂

There's a guy on Dragons Den tonight, trying to find investors for his carp bait company...… Might be interesting to see how he pitches himself, and what he can offer , that you can't do for yourself...…….. Shows the price hike imo, on some commercial baits... Enough to pay off investors and still make money..... Be interesting to hear what figures he spouts and what sort of reception he gets from the Dragons...…….

Doesn't sound that bad to me 🙂

I remember biting one once to try and make it glow better...Big mistake.... Looked like radio-active gravy had splashed on my chin...….. Sometimes we attached them to floats, too. Boy, did they play tricks with your eyes on any ripple, even just a rod length out...….

Good for you for testing them Davey, wise move.. Should last you a while that lot......

And I bet you've kept hold of all of them...….. I've always used white ones, just for the visual aspect..... Good point mate.... Blimey , the LED' s on my old Fox alarms, no need for iso's or head torch most of the time.... I have to half cover them with leccy tape, they are so bright when my eyes have adjusted to night vision... Jeeze, if two went off together, I'd probably get a fake tan...……..🙂

Same...…. Gonna give that running rig set up a go on the slack lining, after your post on the rotary mate. I was fishing locked up when the weed was thicker, but can get away with a bit of line being taken now on any clearer spots.....

These look like the complete "all rounder" to me and I was tempted to get these last Season, ahead of joining a larger water..... Couldn't agree more David.... … I've stuck with standard bobbins for years, with ball clip attachments , Matrix Dinky Hot Heads, to be precise. They are quite weighty for their size and with the chain and I'm just so used to using them that I've found it difficult to come away from this kind of set up...……… I did try some Korda stows about a year back, but it was like a bad dream lol. Being as I like to use the line clip on my rods, I found that my mainline would keep coming free from the bobbin whenever I tried to clip the line to the blank...…. So I ditched them and went back to my old bobbins, and just bought some different head attachments for £5, to give me the same kind of indication as the stows or Fox slicks, if I felt I needed them.. (Still in the packet).. TBH though, I'm not into all this mega subtle indication, I may be missing a trick here, but when you've got Rudd and other small stuff bouncing off your mainline then I think you get false indication all day long...……… A bobbin or hanger, for me, has one main function and that is to weight the mainline onto your bite alarm, with the right amount of weight, so that your line won't skip over the buzzer , but isn't so heavy, that it prevents indication all together...… I pay much more attention to the hooking potential of rigs and rely on them to do their job...……… I can see the need for swinger arms in windy conditions and springers to help negate undertow ……. Lets be honest, if you are fishing through the night, you won't be watching your bobbins and if I want to stare at something in day light, it will most likely be my rod tips or where my line enters the water and that will most probably be after a single bleep on the buzzer, or if I've caught some line/rod tip movement out the corner of my eye...….. These are just my views based on short to medium range fishing... I suspect those of you fishing at range will have some interesting points to share...…… My trusty old buzzers do all the work for me as long as they are set correctly and the line is weighted properly they will give me some indication with just a couple of mm of line movement or a slight pluck on the line. Isotopes in bobbins?...….. We've all got them...but why...? lol. (Oh yeah, they look pretty)… 🙂 I have to say, that I can't remember the last time I hooked a fish without the rod hooping round, due to my margin fishing. So , realistically for me atm, my bobbins are just there to weight the line onto the roller wheel and help me pick up on any liners, hopefully a pre-curser to that rod hooping round.....

Not sure if you are allowed to move swims either...……. From what I've heard..... I suppose you've got West Stow, or else head out Cambs way...…….. Or Alton, for a good nights kip 🙂

Sorry to hear your predicament mate...…. Finding a place I feel comfortable fishing, I find a real ball ache, and thought I'd ticked that box...… I do have the little local lake, which tbf is a little gem of a lake, but wanted to fish somewhere a bit bigger in size for a change …… Definitely mate, if I can get in quick for a night ticket, Boreham is on the list...… I only have day access atm, with Braxted in mind..... The night permits get snapped up pretty quickly and there are probably long term members that get preference ( which you would expect, even though it's meant to be first come first served). I'll put the application in , the minute they go on sale and hope for the best...….

I was due out today on my Syndicate, for the first time since joining earlier in the year.... Then, disaster..... We got messages last night to say the place is off limits for a bit.... Massive DO crash means a few fish have been lost, including at least one 30plus so far...….. The EA are on it and aerators have been deployed.... Double figure bream and worryingly eels, too, have also perished, which would point towards a DO crash more than some kind of virus, I guess? I thought eels where quite hardy in low oxygen situations...…….. This place is quite open at 30acres, so does get a bit of ripple even in these current conditions...… But after the Summer we've had and temps still high, weed dying off and the odd algae pocket, and water levels dropped, and recent air pressure troughs, it's not at all surprising, none the less, not the sort of news you want to hear...…… I can't help thinking that it was on the cards and perhaps some forward thinking from the lake management was needed.... (Although, it's always easy to comment in hind sight)………….. Really not sure what to do about this ticket...… I joined full of enthusiasm early Spring when the banks were empty. I've put off fishing it through the Summer due to the numbers (which I never thought would be an issue). There seems to be rules for some and not others, the most productive areas are well and truly stitched up (the lake owner does 7 night sessions on a regular)…… Some swims get closed off, the only reason I can see this for, is so that certain other swims get more water...…. There are some lovely fish present to ounces under 40lb, however, there is also an ornamental strain, which you can see in some of the mid twenties, something else I wasn't told about on my initial walk about...….. Might just wipe my mouth and cut my losses on this place. Something doesn't feel quite right. And with a bit of truth bending going on, not sure we'll really get to know what is still swimming about. Seems weird the place being off limits , when people have volunteered to help out...…... So, in the mean time, I'm going to try and get started on a couple of club lakes and carry on with the local water I've been dabbling on, whilst browsing a few places for next season, may have to go a bit further a field... "Still Searching".... As one certain angler might put it....lol.... Although not specifically for fish, but somewhere that feels right.....🙂

Result.... Nice one mate..... Like I say, just give me a couple weeks notice and fit it in around your own schedule...….. Cheers buddy 😁

I'd be up for it mate, it's not far from me as you know...…….. TBH though, late Autumn/early winter would suit me as I have a few commitments in between. I think it's got a bit of winter form too...… Not sure what the joining fee is these days, used to be £50 when Bev's did them... Also, does the joining fee last a year from purchase or season to season? If it's a year from purchase, I could prob' swallow that up with a couple more visits in the Spring...….. Time wise I'm pretty flexible being local, but would need a couple of weeks notice...…… I'll leave it to you and whoever else wants in...…...🙂

I've been looking at these since your post mate and wanted to ask a couple of questions please...…. Firstly, can you get away with a size 8 swivel?, I've got loads, but the Fox YT vid suggests a size 7...… And also, does the buffer bead , alone, provide enough anti tangle properties for your rig, in your opinion? Or are you using a bit of silicon or anti tangle sleeve as well?... 🙂

Apart from Ginge……… Lol.