New purchases

[kevtaylor]

52 minutes ago, jh92 said:

Anyone use a separate holdall/bag for their cooking stuff? Thinking about getting a large coolbag so it can carry everything for cooking? 

Cool bags are rubbish, you need a cool box - Check IGLOO but there are others.

[salokcinnodrog]

2 hours ago, jh92 said:

Anyone use a separate holdall/bag for their cooking stuff? Thinking about getting a large coolbag so it can carry everything for cooking? 

 

1 hour ago, kevtaylor said:

Cool bags are rubbish, you need a cool box - Check IGLOO but there are others.

I'll second @kevtaylor 's comment. I use a cool bag for my pike and sea fishing bait. Frozen fish will thaw out within a couple of hours, unless the actual air temperature is close to freezing.

I have the original Korum ruckbag, with the silver insulated liner for food, powerbanks and a few odds and sods. A chopping board fits flat in the main compartment. Everything is boxed in Tupperware or Ice cream containers apart from the two cans of Magners currently in there.

My stove, Bialetti, gas, plate and pans go into my main rucksack and get tidily sorted under the bedchair when I'm fishing, while I keep an emergency stove in the car.

Yes it is a pain to have a separate bag, but if I have to barrow my gear, no matter what, it is two trips, or if I unload behind the swim from the car, it makes no difference.

[B B]

3 hours ago, kevtaylor said:

Cool bags are rubbish,

Bit strong lads 

All I want from a cool bag is to keep the food and bait fresh and liquids cool for 48hrs and with the room for the gas and stove with a small ridge monkey and bits and bobs. 
And it does it in the heat of summer no problems….All in one bag. 

[framey]

Problem with cool bags is you need the ice blocks and they don’t stay frozen long enough to help any.

possibly keep frozen for a couple of hours.

better is to use a bottle of water from the freezer and then you can get about a day out of it.

[elmoputney]

32 minutes ago, framey said:

Problem with cool bags is you need the ice blocks and they don’t stay frozen long enough to help any.

possibly keep frozen for a couple of hours.

better is to use a bottle of water from the freezer and then you can get about a day out of it.

Just remember to not use a full bottle in the freezer or it will split when you freeze it 😏🙄😳

I did that with one of those metal water bottles it really tore it a new one. 😱

 

[kevtaylor]

2 hours ago, B B said:

Bit strong lads 

All I want from a cool bag is to keep the food and bait fresh and liquids cool for 48hrs and with the room for the gas and stove with a small ridge monkey and bits and bobs. 
And it does it in the heat of summer no problems….All in one bag. 

Cool boxes are many times better than bags IMO

[jh92]

19 hours ago, kevtaylor said:

Cool bags are rubbish, you need a cool box - Check IGLOO but there are others.

Yeah I got you mate, the cool bag I've got at the moment will keep a frozen meal frozen for about half a day and by night time it has pretty much thawed out but don't trust anything after that lol. I mainly want it for storage, just so I can keep all my cookware stuff in it, and some grub for the day. I don't need it to keep meals frozen for days as I have a tescos that's a 5 minute walk from the bank, so normally do a shop in there each day while doing a lap of the lake 👍🤣

[kevtaylor]

59 minutes ago, jh92 said:

Yeah I got you mate, the cool bag I've got at the moment will keep a frozen meal frozen for about half a day and by night time it has pretty much thawed out but don't trust anything after that lol. I mainly want it for storage, just so I can keep all my cookware stuff in it, and some grub for the day. I don't need it to keep meals frozen for days as I have a tescos that's a 5 minute walk from the bank, so normally do a shop in there each day while doing a lap of the lake 👍🤣

My Carp Porter front bag is silver padded lined but like you say they don't keep anything cold for long, I've tried a few of those, in summer this is a prob if you want to eat fresh meats etc.  The OGLOO brand are good and not too expensive, I've actually got 3 lol - one being giant for foreign trips, used once.  We cant be popping to and from the lake to shops coz our track is notoriously bad, once in - you're in for the duration if you value your car  

[jh92]

2 hours ago, kevtaylor said:

My Carp Porter front bag is silver padded lined but like you say they don't keep anything cold for long, I've tried a few of those, in summer this is a prob if you want to eat fresh meats etc.  The OGLOO brand are good and not too expensive, I've actually got 3 lol - one being giant for foreign trips, used once.  We cant be popping to and from the lake to shops coz our track is notoriously bad, once in - you're in for the duration if you value your car  

I will check them out for the summer mate, something like that would come in handy on the ressies 👍

For now I've opted for the korda compac dark camo xl cool bag, just to match the rest of my kit 👍🤣 seems like I can get all my cooking stuff in it, brew kit stuff and some food for the day 👍

When I ordered the 45l rucksack I imagined it to be big, safe to say its not as big as I thought and keeping the ridgemonkey armoury tackle box in there is gonna take up a lot of room, so I've ordered the korda basix tackle box just to store the essentials which also has a little rig board, will keep the armoury under the car seat so if I run short on the water I can restock from there 👍

[ouchthathurt]

On 18/03/2025 at 14:20, ouchthathurt said:

Just brought 2kg of Robin red direct from Haiths, 100 10mm cork balls, some belachan flavour and maple flavour time to start knocking up the pop ups and bait for the next few months 👍🏻

50 belachan pop ups and 50 maple pop ups rolled onto 10mm cork balls. 
 

the belachan is evil smelling… the wife wouldn’t let me air dry them in the house! 

[Golden Paws]

Finally took the plunge and ordered a Trakker Tempest RS 150 bivvy and the skull cap to go with it. I've got an older trakker with the pram hood style and it's such a faff to get it up and down. I have preferred to use a brolly system for years but it was a bit cramped and it did suffer from condensation if I had to have it zipped up.

 

[jh92]

24 minutes ago, Golden Paws said:

Finally took the plunge and ordered a Trakker Tempest RS 150 bivvy and the skull cap to go with it. I've got an older trakker with the pram hood style and it's such a faff to get it up and down. I have preferred to use a brolly system for years but it was a bit cramped and it did suffer from condensation if I had to have it zipped up.

 

Very nice mate, I think the 150 has a lot of room in it, I seen one a while back and even with the bedchair tucked to the back there was a lot of room in the front 👍

Years ago me and my dad bought the fox royale bivvies with the pram hoods, they were an absolute nightmare to put up and even worse to take down. Safe to say we sold them after a couple sessions 🤣

[Golden Paws]

Thanks for that. It was a toss up between the 100 and 150 but decided to go large! The 200 is definitely a 2 man and just too big for one angler.

[dalej2014]

Stocking up for spring. 20kg of squido boilies. A bulk spool of Fluoroshield in 0.4, another chod it tool and a castable thermometer. Also trying out some new Fjuka Sensate wrapped boilies and thick liquid. Oh, and some rock salt. Started baiting yesterday, so the campaign has begun...

Edited Monday at 21:55 by dalej2014

[jh92]

Just bought a 48hr ticket to a runs water that stocks carp and catfish, never been before but really want to tick a catfish off the list for this year 👍