Leaderboard

If anyone wants to get behind a military charity, can I suggest SSAFA? After the breakdown of my marriage due to PTSD, and having approached a GP for help and being told that I would have to go on a 6-12 month waiting list for initial assessment (a timeframe doubled by the GP then "forgetting" to do the referral - 6 months waiting for an appt that was not gonna arrive) I was found by my parents and brought back to Sussex. They asked H4H for help twice but I was never seen by them. In desperation, (as I was a total mess, been hospitalised twice with pancreatitis due to self medicating with Stella and vodka - been tee total since 2016 - and having had my father find me removing my tow rope form the boot of my car - ideal noose after all) they contacted SSAFA or the soldiers sailors air force association. They spoke to a SSAFA rep who interviewed me the following day, (he was ex parachute regt) he immediately realised I was a danger to myself and referred me to a clinical psychologist privately of which they paid the fees, the day after the referral was sent, (a sunday) the rep collected me from my parents house and drove me to see the psychologist at her own home. I was formally diagnosed with severe untreated PTSD and referred for immediate treatment. I started counselling on the Tuesday. It took a while, but I got there. I even returned to the ambulance service, something I couldn't have done prior to SSAFA's intervention. On the last day of my treatment, the counsellor told me that it was "the first day of the new life" I left, drove to Wales to collect my boys, returned to Sussex and took my boys to a local holiday park 15mins from my house (nothing too taxing - got an awesome carp lake!!) walked into the restaurant and got chatting to a very attractive blonde girl, (terrified she would tell me to get lost - but as a test of confidence it was pretty scary!) After 3yrs and 3 months together the same blonde and I will be getting married next year... There is light at the end of the tunnel. Seeing my son catch his first fish, teaching my other son how to ride a bike, my youngest son catching a PB 28lb+ mirror... A thousand little things that I could have missed had SSAFA not stepped in, along with family friends children and my partner, I thought I was pretty strong, being a blood splattered war fighting medic, but my reluctance to ask for help nearly cost me everything. The fight in getting better was tough, but screw it, don't let the bad uns win! I mean, miss this? No way!

Nicely done muft 😎 Big commons love a tiger nut 😁 Elmo stick at it fella .... look forward to you posting about your pb 🎣😎

"Do you have the intelligence to use one correctly?" I'm sorry, but as far as I can see there is no such thing as use one correctly, there are simply too many hazards around. We have the obvious carbon monoxide poisoning, but also anything falls on a bivvy heater and you can have flames that take hold in seconds. To keep heat in, you will want to shut the door. That increases your risks to start. Then while the heat is on, you may well fall asleep. Is that a sign of carbon monoxide in itself? A stove in the bivvy is a big enough risk in itself. I think every anglers groundsheet probably has melted patches on it from the stove in the foorway and putting a hot pan or kettle on it... The answer is proper clothing, decent sleeping bag. Finally, just as a reminder, and remember I know the guys concerned, it was that local to me: https://www.anglersmail.co.uk/news/bivvy-blaze-horror-81088

I use a Nash indulgence 5 season sleep system and have done nights where the temperatures gone down to -6 and have still been toasty and warm. IMO you’d be better off forking out for a good bedchair and thermals, bivvy heaters are far to risky.

These are proper northerners and they would have used a bath those 2 are Imposters

I'm no expert, from personal experience it can be hard to relate, explain or burden, loved ones with your inner feelings. Yet a perfect stranger, that has no misgivings is a different matter & can be the desired tonic. I'm sure it wasn't personal stevo. Good for you ouchthathurt! Top man.

All said! Now come here little hooks, let's land some carps 😁

I'm normally pretty good when it comes to following rules but I will admit that I'll ignore a barbless hooks rule if I think I can get away with it, particularly on weedy waters. Barbless and weed do not mix, it's madness imo.

Thanks hopefully I can learn from last week's mistakes and take everything required this time 😁

Gardner Mugga. If you want really, really sharp, the Specialist Sharpened Hooks version is as lethal as they get.

No I had to work , Finchey . Also I'm not supposed to lift anything too heavy until after Christmas following an operation , so I may just wonder around with my Deeper Pro and plan a Spring campaign .

Welcome to Carp.com. Don't think that coarse fishing techniques don't catch carp. Regular feeding on the waggler, or feeder rods will catch carp. In fact the groundbait or method feeders with 'more smell' than bait are some of the best methods going to catch carp. The Method was basically just an adapted groundbait (frame) feeder with the line running through the middle rather than clipped on. Getting into winter like now, the fish will shoal and hold up in specific areas, this is all species. If I was fishing PVA bags now, I would be using small bags with tiny pellets as my feed. Overflavoured high attract pop-ups often produce. Fishery choice, if you want to fish for carp all the way through, find a lake which has winter form. No point in blanking all winter, it can be hard enough in summer.

Blank Bruno...but managed another Robin shot on mates rods...

Lol the conga I would have said

Good call mate. As water gets colder it gets denser so the coldest water will be on the deck, particularly in the deepest area. Some believe this is part of the reason the feeding spells are so short - because it's physically uncomfortable for them to feed on the deck due to temps. Obviously zigs can come into their own in this case.

I agree commonly i find it quite hard talking about my feelings to very close loved ones, but i find it much easier talking to somebody that doesnt know me. Please guys dont take it personnaly if people dont talk directly to you i know myself how hard it is sometimes I think as long as you can talk to somebody wether loved ones or strangers will certainly help. Gaz

I’m lucky.... I can pass for the midlands mafia or the possy!!!! 😂

Oh Elmo , what a depressing read 😞. I hope you didn't go home in a bad mood or you might have been told " if you're going to come home in a mood like this you're not going again " 😱 . . You're a bigger man than me , Elmo , I would have probably given up and gone home , or switched to another lake ; I go fishing to relax and get away from any aggravation . Let's hope Yonny / you can sort out a suitable water for next season ; or a Winter ticket somewhere , maybe cheap because there are not too many takers ? . 😊

Make sure you pack up before this big storm hits buddy. I wish I could get out. Hope to wet a line between Xmas and New year. Seems a long way off though 😒

a nice single malt 😀😁

Yeah I do like the look of those ones but haven't got any in stock and I have a good few bank longshanks 😁 They sharpen up quite nicely though and I've got faith in the pattern which helps, I've used them for wafters and snowman rigs and Multi rigs too and every fish I've hooked has been nailed so far,

That's the ones, i wouldn't call them a one fish/cast hook like i have seen written about them, they are definitely sharpened to the max once dull there is no room for a tidy up.

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.

thats it... I'm back proper like👍

15 minute drive from me,been there for years,belting little shop bought loads from there over the past 20years. 😎👍🏼

There are a few little syndicates around, that I think I would like, will just have to see whether I can get on them, I have thought about Earith again but am just going to see what turns up next April now, And there is also the top secret lake to pursue when I can find out who the owner is

Nice one mate, good call.🙂👍

I asked a few seasons ago about the best Bait for commons, guess which Bait was suggested?? I used to always use mainline and always seemed to get decent mirrors!! 🤣

Ahhh I can see a new Torch on the horizon . Just to get revenge on those that will shine their light everywhere over the lake . 😁😀

Did you move Elmo...should just start with rods out...then see how it goes..

good luck buddy

Pinned by Edward Shin Edward Shin 1 year ago (edited) As a disclaimer, I cant stress enough how important it is to make sure you have good ventilation where you use this. Found on the gas version. The first one you need to cut a hole in your bivvy to accommodate the chimney! This similar topic was covered a short while ago; I said then that the risk of Carbon Monoxide poisoning made any flame based heating device was too risky. Every year anglers die because of CO exposure and I think some Companies are being irresponsible even to sell them, whatever 'disclaimers' they attach to them. My message is simply 'don't'. Once you go to sleep and continue to breathe in the fumes all night, it 'locks out' your blood so that Oxygen can't latch on in the normal way and the only consolation is that death is relatively painless.

Any decorating for me gets done Jan/Feb...then come March fishing time but this year no decorating required...jus turn a cupboard into a dishwasher and put in a new brekkie bar...then Summer put a Static like Wooden hut thing over decking for the hot tub/outdoor table n chairs.

I used to use a lot of boilie crumb, chops and boilie bits in my freebaits, winter and summer. Obviously you have the attraction the smaller bits provide, keeping smaller fish and carp picking them up. I rarely used any high oil pellets, switching to carp pellets only in the mix.

Good luck pal...hopefully better than I did...1 fish between 7 yesterday.

Carp often have specific areas they hole up in winter, year after year. It could be silt beds, near gravel bars, natural foods like bloodworm beds, or even next to snags, decaying lily pads or rushes. It is most definitely not always the deepest water, I have seen them in rush beds with only just around 3feet of water above them. They were only visible if you got into the water right next to them, you couldn't see them from any swim, although you could cast to the edge of the rush bed, and catch. In winter I rarely fish with any particles, maybe some very over wet soaked Vitalin as groundbait and nearly all boilie as my feed, although sweetcorn can produce a fish or two. I also reduce my stringers; instead of 5-30 bait stringers, I go to only 1 or 2 (14mm) boilies on a stringer with a single hookbait. One rod nearly always has a hi-viz or hi-attract pop-up as the bait, and I recast this regularly, trying various spots and various baits. The obvious bright yellow Pineapple (in its various forms from different manufacturers) works sometimes, as do others, Monster Squid, Scopex, Plum or my own version pop-up Garlic and Megaspice, which I describe in the Bait Making section. I really don't know what it is, but that mix produces a lot of fish as an individual pop-up, or as part of a food bait mix. Even in winter, the food bait will often work. I have described in the past a session I had years ago on Thwaite. For the first two days the high attract pop-ups produced, then for the rest of the week all takes came to the food bait I had been feeding sparingly since the first day of the trip after no other prebaiting through the year. On Earith back all those years ago I found a swim that produced fish every trip, although because I was catching other people did start fishing it. A little digging around with the marker rod, I found a swim with similar topography at the other end of the island. I went on to catch from here as well. My pre-baiting on here was as I left every week after a two day trip. I put a kilogramme of boilies in as I was leaving. Every take came on my good source bait. Despite trying a few times, the high attract baits did not give a fish. I wish I had known about the Garlic Spice mix then! NOT all takes will come during the day. As much as fish may be caught during daylight, I found some fish still fed at night. I have caught a lot of fish at night, even in winter. My biggest common at the time, from Earith, was caught at around 1am in February. Saying that though, my best winter session 4 fish, over 4 days, just after a thaw, every fish came during daylight. The only reason I fished at night was the distance from home. Earith Winter February 25lb common:

I soaked it for 30 mins and placed it in a plastic cereal container, Ive put new line on hundreds of times but never had this issue. There is a small washer under the spool on both reels. Maybe ill try adding another one.

Sorry Yonny there was no criticism intended of this friendly, experienced and often well informed forum. Perhaps I should have used the term “general consensus in carp fishing” instead. The logic being applied in the raw maize discussion seems to be:- although there is no direct evidence, one can imagine a situation in which expanding maize can harm a fish therefor it is better to err on the side of caution and not use it. To which I say, if that logic holds up, then that logic should be applied consistently. You asked for an example so I suggest the use of salt. Carp cannot exist without salt, so the argument goes that extra salt in bait or in the environment helps to replace that needed by the carp and is therefore attractive to them and beneficial to their health. I can find no evidence of carp in a normal lake suffering from lack of salt. Of course it has to be the right kind of salt and Himalyan rock salt seems to be de rigueur for carp fishing. However, there is plenty of evidence of too much salt being toxic to most forms of life. It is easy to imagine that too much salt can cause harm to a fish but how much is too much? Therefore, using the logic we have already established, we should avoid the use of salt completely.

Example please buddy? The same logic is applied to all particle baits. Then we have boiled baits which unlike particles are highly digestible (assuming you're using a half decent one), and pellet which break-down in minutes. Naturals such as maggot and worm are digestible, only the skins pass through.

Thanks mate - giving Rutland a go - proper noddy business!

I don’t think anyone could knock you for promoting your living,mate. 😂😂😂

don't know what I like more the pike or the bacon and eggs haha nice fish pal

Sorry to know about your losses guys. Hope the best for you and your family 🙏

Nice, remember to squeeze the last bit of air out after filling, they stay warmer longer. ☺️

What I would like to do on one of the lakes you describe is to put out what you concider to be your best bait alongside some raw maize. If I saw with my own eyes that the best bait had gone and the raw maize left then I would be convinced. As you say, I am on waters that are hardly touched by other anglers so I argue that (for me) it is better to spend 25p per kilo than £10 per kilo on bait. I can then afford to prebait as much as I want without breaking the bank and that seems to work for me.

I looked into it very closely buddy but never did it. They're essentially fancy composters. We do have a composter which is absolutely loaded with worms but the mrs won't let me nick them lol.

My condolences to yonny and emmcee, support to itsgrimupnorth.

It's a great forum. Its quiet recently but the members are great. Always good for a debate.

I lost my mam last year mate, she was 55 and full of health. We found out she had a rare brain disease called vcjd. It was a big shock for me at 28 she was my rock even tho I’m married 😀. It was a big eye opener for me tho and I’d like to think I’m more of a man for it happening. I watched my sisters and my dad care for her and seen how strong they were. Basically made me realise we get one life and you don’t realise what’s around the corner. Big reason I got back into carp fishing, I think being alone and getting comfortable with your own thoughts helps a lot