Minimising to Essentials

[Roughtor]

3 minutes ago, yonny said:

Me too.... I bought a Pioneer Ultralight last year.... not used it once.... it's just sitting there.

Like you I chase the weight. I'm always looking to save a few grams here or there (in fact I just bought a titanium cup for silly money (🤦‍♂️).... that's how anal about weight I am). I have several shelters but I always use either the mk1 Tempest Brolly or mk1 Lo Pro.. just because they're light. I still have an original Supa Brolly kicking about somewhere... also mega light.

One thing that winds me up.... as new versions are released (Tempest mk2 and RS, Lo Pro mk2 etc etc) they ALWAYS put on weight. Thicker material etc. I hate that!

Yeah  it's funny ,because I've pretty much got all my kit 'down ' as they say ,but bivvys oh ,no ...no...far too much overthinking goes on in the darkness. ..

 

Mind you I do like the look of the lo pros . I'm currently switching tween various MHr and a Tacklebox long top ...lake depending 😂 

 

[Roughtor]

And .....lol,I did once go down the rabbit hole of bedchairs ,like ditching them and using a Helinox or Onetigress 'cot'...and when younger even kipping on the floor to save a second trip ...( not anymore)

 

I'm off over the road in a mo to check my neighbours fishery for him,later if I can find this pic of when I got into tarpology ,was minimal ........and daaaaaamp..ha,ha..!

 

 

Edited April 8 by Roughtor

[jh92]

My mate who's fishing the canal at the moment has gone a bit mad about stripping his gear back, he's removed his kettle for a metal cup that he can use on a stove 🤣 

Is it about the weight on the barrow for you guys or the space it takes up? For me it's not so much the weight of things, but the amount of stuff I take and how long it takes to pack away lol.

@Roughtor my old bed chair and sleeping bag weighed around 49kg if I remember correctly 🤣

[yonny]

1 hour ago, jh92 said:

Is it about the weight on the barrow for you guys or the space it takes up?

Both.... I still look at my gear and think "how have I got so much stuff with me?"!

[kevtaylor]

1 hour ago, jh92 said:

@Roughtor my old bed chair and sleeping bag weighed around 49kg if I remember correctly 🤣

What heavier than the Ridgemonkey Std 1 Man bivvy - never lol

Just put my back out thinking about it 😂

[kevtaylor]

29 minutes ago, yonny said:

Both.... I still look at my gear and think "how have I got so much stuff with me?"!

Thin it right down and be clever and carpy OR buy a power barrow and take more 🤣🙃

[jh92]

3 hours ago, yonny said:

Both.... I still look at my gear and think "how have I got so much stuff with me?"!

I find half the problem is if you don't take it, you end up needing it 🤣

I've scaled back quite a bit but looking at my kit I probably lose the guest chair and power bank, but I prefer sitting on the chair during the day and like to have power just incase the phone or camera dies lol. My aim is one barrow load comfortably, if it takes more I need to scale it back again 👍🤣

3 hours ago, kevtaylor said:

What heavier than the Ridgemonkey Std 1 Man bivvy - never lol

Just put my back out thinking about it 😂

I can't be dealing with small bedchairs, tried it in the past and it's torture on long sessions 🤣 I'm currently using the nash ss4 wideboy sleep system and find it the dogs lol, not sure on the weight but I'd say probably 35 - 40kg 🤣

Interesting though, when I pack up tomorrow I might get the scales out and weigh bits of kit see what the total is on a barrow load lol

1 hour ago, elmoputney said:

It's the £££££££ they are putting on the moment that get me nearly a grand nowadays, mental money for a tent and you still need extras with most. 

I buy most of my stuff second hand mate, the price of new bivvies are insane 🤣 got quite lucky a couple years back and got a nash hide xl with door and groundsheet for 170, only been used for camping twice lol. It's trashed now tho 🤣

 

[framey]

Im sure A lot of people just don’t know how to load a barrow properly 

do the good thing and get the weight over the wheel end and then stick 3 20l buckets of bait on the back end lol

pull your arms out of their sockets lol

[Roughtor]

6 hours ago, jh92 said:

My mate who's fishing the canal at the moment has gone a bit mad about stripping his gear back, he's removed his kettle for a metal cup that he can use on a stove 🤣 

Is it about the weight on the barrow for you guys or the space it takes up? For me it's not so much the weight of things, but the amount of stuff I take and how long it takes to pack away lol.

@Roughtor my old bed chair and sleeping bag weighed around 49kg if I remember correctly 🤣

For me it's everything, not only weight but speed of set up ,drying off kit at home ,carrying it in my now much smaller car ,I have to know where it all is ,so I can just add bait ,bit of food ...and bye bye wife til tomorrow...

 

Here's a pic of myself fishing a mega water ,just tarping it under a 58 pattern poncho tarp ,which make great barrow covers n all ,walked over a mile  ,over big stone walls etc 

[salokcinnodrog]

22 hours ago, jh92 said:

Is it about the weight on the barrow for you guys or the space it takes up? For me it's not so much the weight of things, but the amount of stuff I take and how long it takes to pack away lol.

I don't think that the weight is the problem, nor the packing away time. I can't do with sleeping on Ravishing Rachel, sorry the airbed anymore, it's too low, not that my bedchair is particularly high, but I can't get up from the floor easily. Comfort and space.

I can do without the porch extension, but with it does mean I can sit on my chair when it's raining and keep dry.

 

No matter what when carp fishing it is guaranteed to be 2 barrow loads, Sky has a bucket of food and a couple of stuffed hooves for daytime chewing.

 

17 hours ago, jh92 said:

buy most of my stuff second hand mate, the price of new bivvies are insane 🤣 got quite lucky a couple years back and got a nash hide xl with door and groundsheet for 170, only been used for camping twice lol. It's trashed now tho 🤣

 

I got really lucky years ago, someone put a Nash Hurricane Outlaw Bivvy dome and overwrap on ebay and I picked it up for £10 including carriage, they made a spelling mistake on the listing, 'bivy', so no-one else bid on it. That lasted years, in fact I still have it, and that's been through a few storms. It's only my preference for an umbrella that made me switch from it. When I was homeless, it was home!

 

[Roughtor]

10 hours ago, jh92 said:

My mate who's fishing the canal at the moment has gone a bit mad about stripping his gear back, he's removed his kettle for a metal cup that he can use on a stove 🤣 

Is it about the weight on the barrow for you guys or the space it takes up? For me it's not so much the weight of things, but the amount of stuff I take and how long it takes to pack away lol.

@Roughtor my old bed chair and sleeping bag weighed around 49kg if I remember correctly 🤣

I knew I had a pic somewhere of my minimal carp / survival stove and water set up ,show your mate ,bud and see what he thinks ...or suggest to him look on the bushcraft forums, now these guys are all about minimal ,stick stoves ,cooking on slate the lot ...

[jh92]

22 hours ago, Roughtor said:

For me it's everything, not only weight but speed of set up ,drying off kit at home ,carrying it in my now much smaller car ,I have to know where it all is ,so I can just add bait ,bit of food ...and bye bye wife til tomorrow...

 

Here's a pic of myself fishing a mega water ,just tarping it under a 58 pattern poncho tarp ,which make great barrow covers n all ,walked over a mile  ,over big stone walls etc 

Wicked mate, my favourite places to fish are big open reservoirs, we used to fish upper tamar about 15 years ago, was quite a trek to swims up past the quarry 🤣 I've got a ford focus and it's like a game of tetris getting it all in the back 🤣

20 hours ago, salokcinnodrog said:

I don't think that the weight is the problem, nor the packing away time. I can't do with sleeping on Ravishing Rachel, sorry the airbed anymore, it's too low, not that my bedchair is particularly high, but I can't get up from the floor easily. Comfort and space.

I can do without the porch extension, but with it does mean I can sit on my chair when it's raining and keep dry.

 

No matter what when carp fishing it is guaranteed to be 2 barrow loads, Sky has a bucket of food and a couple of stuffed hooves for daytime chewing.

 

I got really lucky years ago, someone put a Nash Hurricane Outlaw Bivvy dome and overwrap on ebay and I picked it up for £10 including carriage, they made a spelling mistake on the listing, 'bivy', so no-one else bid on it. That lasted years, in fact I still have it, and that's been through a few storms. It's only my preference for an umbrella that made me switch from it. When I was homeless, it was home!

 

Same as that mate, the hide xl was being sold as a 2 man camping tent 🤣

18 hours ago, Roughtor said:

I knew I had a pic somewhere of my minimal carp / survival stove and water set up ,show your mate ,bud and see what he thinks ...or suggest to him look on the bushcraft forums, now these guys are all about minimal ,stick stoves ,cooking on slate the lot ...

Is that a water filter lol I take 10l on all my trips, even for a 24 hour 🤣

[framey]

I bought one of those water straws when you first mentioned them a few years ago.

just haven’t got round to using it yet lol

[salokcinnodrog]

On 08/04/2025 at 08:44, yonny said:

Me too.... I bought a Pioneer Ultralight last year.... not used it once.... it's just sitting there.

Like you I chase the weight. I'm always looking to save a few grams here or there (in fact I just bought a titanium cup for silly money (🤦‍♂️).... that's how anal about weight I am). I have several shelters but I always use either the mk1 Tempest Brolly or mk1 Lo Pro.. just because they're light. I still have an original Supa Brolly kicking about somewhere... also mega light.

One thing that winds me up.... as new versions are released (Tempest mk2 and RS, Lo Pro mk2 etc etc) they ALWAYS put on weight. Thicker material etc. I hate that!

What irritates me is that the mk.2 or 3 is frequently not as good as the mk.1, or is having to fix the faults of the mk.1 as in alarms.

I had the original Fox Easydome, good bivvy, up in a couple of minutes. 

I even got a mk.2, nice, (thanks RichardF),  it actually came with an improvement of an additional rib to push the porch out instead of a couple of clip-on bars as per the mk.1 and the skull cap had better coverage because of that.

Then the mk.3 was awful, they extended the inner dome backwards instead of to the front.

The mk.1 was my goto bivvy on Taverham in the 1990's until it was stolen. The mk.2 was my goto bivvy around 2007 or 2008 for another few years until I split up with Liz and lost it somewhere between housemoves.

 

 

On 01/04/2025 at 18:36, elmoputney said:

I wouldn't not have a decent mat though as much as its massive, on the odd occasion I do catch something I want to know it's well protected. 

Oh I agree with you about mats, the old flat thing and chasing a carp that has slipped off down the bank. The Chub mat I have has high enough sides to stop them sliding out, and unlike the Monster Cabrio mat, I can reach the fish with minimal pain.

[Roughtor]

On 09/04/2025 at 13:44, jh92 said:

Wicked mate, my favourite places to fish are big open reservoirs, we used to fish upper tamar about 15 years ago, was quite a trek to swims up past the quarry 🤣 I've got a ford focus and it's like a game of tetris getting it all in the back 🤣

Same as that mate, the hide xl was being sold as a 2 man camping tent 🤣

Is that a water filter lol I take 10l on all my trips, even for a 24 hour 🤣

Yes ,I got fed up lugging heavy water around ( not heavy water as in making bombs lol )...anyway I got into another hobby ,it'd never take over from my fishing, but that's where my minimalist interest started,its great fun, one thing ,I try to do is remain comfortable, being minimal doesn't mean ,pain lol...xx

 

I took one of the Carp Chronical podcasts chaps for a sess as he lived In the valley nearby ,upto upper Tamar ...I had great fun ,thinning his kit down for a laugh ,...he was absolutely gobsmacked, what I took from his rucksack ...that was very fun..,no carp bay ,that was in ..

 

( a bit of fun ,but with a good end result,no hernia or back problems )..

[salokcinnodrog]

Years ago I was fishing a local park lake, it's free, but I didn't want the locals knowing that I was there. I was arriving after dark, fishing the night and staying  until lunchtime at the latest.

[Roughtor]

19 minutes ago, salokcinnodrog said:

Years ago I was fishing a local park lake, it's free, but I didn't want the locals knowing that I was there. I was arriving after dark, fishing the night and staying  until lunchtime at the latest.

That's proper hard core that is  did you get many in the end 

[salokcinnodrog]

32 minutes ago, Roughtor said:

That's proper hard core that is  did you get many in the end 

Most of the big fish in the lake. I only missed the big mirror that was rarely caught. I did catch the two commons that swam around with it, both 8lb, one short fat and dumpy, the other long and lean. The big mirror was not a boilie eater, it only occasionally came out on sweetcorn, yet the two commons would take boilies, but I never saw the mirror pick one up, and I was no more than a rod length away in that swim.

 

[elmoputney]

I got some new Korum digital scales for my birthday to save some space and weight saved in my rucksack. 

My old scale kit weighed 2lb9oz, not sure what the new ones weigh but I should think I've reduced by 2lb, 

Over the coming weeks I will be continuing to carry less toot with me. 

[jh92]

On 11/04/2025 at 21:49, salokcinnodrog said:

Years ago I was fishing a local park lake, it's free, but I didn't want the locals knowing that I was there. I was arriving after dark, fishing the night and staying  until lunchtime at the latest.

That's a big nope from me 🤣 I know my luck I'd end up having bugs crawl in there with me 🤣🤣

[framey]

Did a social a few years ago for a buddy’s birthday and 2 fished on the ground like that 

1 ended up with the obligatory slug on the face….

🤢

certainly not for me 

especially if it’s a weekend my back would be in bits nowadays

Edited Monday at 15:50 by framey