Coarse experiment

Well I went out and got myself some decent ground bait - Dynamite Baits 'Steve Ringer' carp method mix and Sonubaits 'TigerFish', and even bought some standard feeder pellets. Now Ive always stuck to either a fluffy GB mix for feeders, or a stodgy mix for method, but Ive never tried what I always see in the magazines etc, and that's dampened pellets on a flat feeder, so I thought id give it a try chasing carp again locally as I only had a few hours.
Mike couldn't make it so I was alone.

So, I fished from 4pm till 9pm, in the same place, in the same way as the previous trip, but with dampened pellets instead of method mix. The pellets proved to be wonderful to work with. Simple, clean, fast and easy. Fill bait tub, just cover them with water, wait 5 Min's, done. Fantastic. And of course you can flavour them so simply by just adding some liquid flavour to the water. Why on earth hadn't I tried this before ??? The only problem I had was the pellets not 'quite' binding to the flatbed very well, so I had to press some around the flatbed to keep it all on in a kind of ball. I reckon I just need to practice getting the wetness right, plus I was doing it by hand, as Id forgotten to bring the feeder mould I got free off Angling Times - doh !
Well, I pretty much blanked except for one snotty skimmer (on white plastic 10mm boillie).
What happened? Was it just the whimsical fishing fairy? I got a hunch its because the method mix I used last time had fish flakes and salt in it and that really turned the carp on, but tonight was just pellets, so didn't have the same kick to it.

A beautiful evening and very relaxing, but I learnt a lot. I'm thinking of combining the Method with these pellets, and find a happy medium between damp pellet feeder fishing for small stuff and stiffer method balls for carp.
I had loads of knocks and liners, so the fish were there and moving about, but just no takes.
I primarily fished plastic corn, tried a white plastic boillie, then changed to glow corn at night.
I'll definitely be using pellets again, even if used in conjunction with GB. I look forward to trying the other GBs I bought too :-)

On another note, I used the Enterprise Tackle UV light on my glow corn, and can heartily recommend it, as it made them glow like crazy and for longer then a normal torch can, and only took about 15 seconds.

Carp Trip - The Method

Mike and I decided to try a decent baiting approach on our local pond, heavier than we usually do, but more in keeping with what all the experts say, (constant method feeder going in every 20 mins), so I mixed up a batch of Halibut Method Mix from Dragon Carp Direct. This was a 2kg bucket.

However..... I got the distinct impression all was not well. I could see an awful lot of straw and hay and 'bits' in there, and it didn't really smell of anything. Certainly not halibut!

I riddled it, and guess what I found? A huge amount of small plasticy bits, and two 3inch chunks of fiberboard, and it turns out the bits were fragments of formica chipboard surface. Basically, the bucket contained 2 kilos of floor sweepings and dust.

The problem was, I had already added to it a kilo of top quality high oil Dynamite pellets, so I was about to lose more money if I binned it all now, so I ploughed on trying to rescue this bucket of crap.

I added some chili powder and salt, and 3 tins of sardines to try and give it some fish flakes, flavor, and ability to bind together. It didn't work, even with the correct amount of water mixed, and left to soak, it was just like trying to bind sand.

I called mike and got him to bring something along to help bind it all.

We arrived at the lake at 3pm.

Mike had half a bag of decent ground bait, so we mixed that into the bucket, plus the starchy liquid from a tin of sweetcorn. Finally, after about an hour, it 'just' about bound together to be serviceable, but we were NOT happy as our fishing time and money is precious. Ill certainly be asking Dragon Carp some questions and letting Angling times know.

(update on this GB issue here)

Mike focused on setting traps in the margins, and had a 9lb 4oz (on plastic corn) and this 10lb 14oz carp (on double 10mm spicy shrimp).

I settled on regular feeding and fishing towards the back island on the submerged slope.

I had a very small 3lb carp (on corn) that was a perfect common and a couple bream of about 2lb (on spam)

I also had four carp (all on corn). Two about 8lb....

...this lovely leather of about 7lb.

...and this 10lb 4oz

I actually bothered to clip up as I cast to the island, which is something I never usually do, and it worked a treat, allowing me to keep casting till midnight in pitch black, and the carp kept feeding. I had a few missed bites, and a couple lost on the way in, but it was a cracking session.

In the last hour, I tried double plastic corn, (one sinking pink, and one floating glow in the dark, both having been soaked for two years in talin - super sweet liquid). I charged the glow one up and it looked brilliant. I had an aborted take on it, but Ill be trying that again!

Ironically, by the time it got to midnight, the ground bait was FINALLY beginning to bind properly, but that's no good.

Ill report back with the results of my contacting Dragon Carp and Angling Times.

Karls River Trip

Karl recently drove up to a river he loves, and had a great trip catching a nice chub, and his first ever Barbel.

Waterproofing

I thought it was time to reproof all my waterproof clothing and my bivvy for the winter, so I took all my fishing kit to a mates garage last night, and hung it all up, then sprayed the lot.
I used 2 tins of this stuff...
Jack Pyke Waterproof Spray

It uses new nano-technology to proof fabric, so Im looking forward to seeing the results.

Autumn ?

Wow, is it really Autumn already? What happened to summer? Did I blink and miss it?
Its September, so it must be Autumn, so, I suppose with the temp dropping slightly, I could think about doing some early season Piking, but I haven't done half the Tench fishing I wanted to do this year yet!
Oh well, I can still fish for Pike and Roach and Perch etc. Doesn't matter what the season is, there's always something exciting to fish for and blank trying :-)