First chunk that I can actually show caught on the S2 Fizz. Part of a six fish February haul for Royston. Caught over his own homemade freezer baits from a venue that he should not really be banking six from in a February session. Well done mate, good angling.
Dave Little, part of a five fish catch from Woolpack lake 4 earlier this week. Pink S2 on SHR. He's also got one in the sling at the Northey Park syndicate right about now. Well done Dave.
Dave's mid 20 from Northey Park today, pink S2 13mm cc
We are completely up to date with every single order on the website right up until two hours ago.
Me sitting in some poxy hair salon for four hours today in Manila, posting those photos on CarpForum earlier 🫣
We are completely up to date with every single order on the website right up until two hours ago.
Me sitting in some poxy hair salon for four hours today in Manila, posting those photos on CarpForum earlier 🫣
In reply to Post #48
Some absolute corkers on the bank there - Nice. Got me even more looking forward to getting out next week. I have some S2s that have been top and tailing in a pot with some GPBs since November (unintentionally) and smell pretty funky and due an airing
Mate - I don't know how you managed the patience to do all those photos from a mbl.... I was absent from the forums for a few years and coming back they've actually made it more fiddly to post a pic, and thats on a desktop
Some absolute corkers on the bank there - Nice. Got me even more looking forward to getting out next week. I have some S2s that have been top and tailing in a pot with some GPBs since November (unintentionally) and smell pretty funky and due an airing
Mate - I don't know how you managed the patience to do all those photos from a mbl.... I was absent from the forums for a few years and coming back they've actually made it more fiddly to post a pic, and thats on a desktop
Can't wait to try the fizz
In reply to Post #49
It's so easy Andy to post photos once you know how. Just as simple from a mobile as from desktop.
Top of non fishing chat, photography thread, copy the link. Post that, delete the capitals where it says INSERT LINK HERE, then copy & paste the direct link from the photo host. I can do it in seconds now.
This is a nice message from a hauling forum member from yesterday as example. Took me 27 seconds to upload it to photo host and post it on here. I timed it 😂
It's so easy Andy to post photos once you know how. Just as simple from a mobile as from desktop.
Top of non fishing chat, photography thread, copy the link. Post that, delete the capitals where it says INSERT LINK HERE, then copy & paste the direct link from the photo host. I can do it in seconds now.
This is a nice message from a hauling forum member from yesterday as example. Took me 27 seconds to upload it to photo host and post it on here. I timed it 😂
Cheltenham very soon. Below is a post from my personal social media a few days ago. The horse is still 16-1 with bet365 right now, 10's now everywhere else. If you fancy a little wager, that 16's is far to big. The race has since I wrote that below been named after the young jockey who died.
“First race of the festival on the Tuesday. Supreme novices hurdle. William Munney, 16-1 bet365 ante post rules this time. Fav is odds on from Mullins. False price. William Munney put up a performance already last time on certain mid race sectional speed figures that see him winning 8 out of the last 10 supreme novice hurdles.. He's only run three times over hurdles and improving at the right time. If you heard the tragedy of the young Irish jockey who lost his life last week. This was his stable. They won that race together. Same owner same trainer. The first race William Munney is going to attract a lot of money from the Irish for sentimental reasons alone. I've got more than £2k on him to win at prices north of 16-1 already. You should back him é/w in the antepost market. He runs only in the Supreme barring a leg falling off in the next two weeks. He's 12-1 NRNB if you would rather be safe.
He's an incredible bet at 16-1. A pure class horse without doubt 100%. If he jumps and takes to Cheltenham, he's no 10-1 shot whatsoever, let alone 16's. I think he'll beat the odds on favourite who very likely will not handle the occasion”.
“First race of the festival on the Tuesday. Supreme novices hurdle. William Munney, 16-1 bet365 ante post rules this time. Fav is odds on from Mullins. False price. William Munney put up a performance already last time on certain mid race sectional speed figures that see him winning 8 out of the last 10 supreme novice hurdles.. He's only run three times over hurdles and improving at the right time. If you heard the tragedy of the young Irish jockey who lost his life last week. This was his stable. They won that race together. Same owner same trainer. The first race William Munney is going to attract a lot of money from the Irish for sentimental reasons alone. I've got more than £2k on him to win at prices north of 16-1 already. You should back him é/w in the antepost market. He runs only in the Supreme barring a leg falling off in the next two weeks. He's 12-1 NRNB if you would rather be safe.
He's an incredible bet at 16-1. A pure class horse without doubt 100%. If he jumps and takes to Cheltenham, he's no 10-1 shot whatsoever, let alone 16's. I think he'll beat the odds on favourite who very likely will not handle the occasion”.
In reply to Post #51
Took me 27 seconds to upload it to photo host and post it on here. I timed it
Maybe I just need some practice. Better go catch something to put up hadn't I?
on the tip btw
Took me 27 seconds to upload it to photo host and post it on here. I timed it
Maybe I just need some practice. Better go catch something to put up hadn't I?
on the tip btw
In reply to Post #49
Have look at this thread in FAQ's and help section...
Have look at this thread in FAQ's and help section...
In reply to Post #54
Are the cheese barrels also delayed with the fizz mark?
Are the cheese barrels also delayed with the fizz mark?
During the start of the closed season of 2017, I had my one and only session on Burghfield, which resulted in three 40+ and two 30+ mirrors in five nights. I had located the carp at extreme long range before my ticket had started on April 1st. I walked the pit for two months in the freezing cold at night and the early hours of the morning before my ticket even started. Prior planning prevents piss poor performance. Once I found where their winter holding area was, I saw or heard in darkness over two hundred big carp shows in the same area for a month leading up to my ticket starting. I put lashings and lashings of fermenting tiger nut slime out there by the bucket load, soaked into boillie crumb to keep them in the area once they woke up. Carp crave easily converted energy above all else when they wake from their winter slumber. It's one of the specific reasons that our hook baits work so exceptionally well in cold water. Attraction through an easily converted energy source. If you give the fish what they actually crave more than anything else, you will see what is really actually possible in terms of the attraction of a carp. It really worked on there too the tiger slime. Exceptionally well.
You could very easily walk onto somewhere like Burghfield, be overawed. With the attitude that it's going to be really difficult after listening to stories from your hero's. Tie yourself up into knots, and then struggle. Even the best do it. When really in reality, you should be walking onto pits like that, thinking you are going to catch them all with great ease in just five minutes flat. Carp fishing is so easy in reality. You will be told it is super difficult by people who want to make themselves seem far more intelligent than they actually are. On the very last morning of my five nights on Burghfield, I watched the common clear the water three times at long range on the spot, that will remain with me forever. A truly incredible sight. Others saw it too unfortunately. As I was wrapping my kit up, the rod ripped off again. It was a 42lb+ mirror. I have never been more gutted to catch a 40. The entire way in while playing the fish from range, I was absolutely convinced that I was attached to the Burghfield common. That would have made it the ultimate one and only session. Probably for the best for carp fishing itself that I did not catch it anyway. You are not meant to walk onto that place and catch the ultimate chub in five minutes flat. I had that first and only wonderful session, completely ruined by a few sausage members, who clearly did not like what was happening in front of their eyes. One of them had watched it before on Roach Pit and they were determined to stop it from happening again. The absolute childish messages from grown men who had never even met me being sent to the owner and his balliffs were all shown to me. It was so tragic. Best was explaining how life works in the real world to their fweind squeaky. What a monster I am. That's all cut throat carp fishing these days. SHB changed my life, but it ruined my personal carp fishing. Little did I know anyway, that this was to lead to me catching the absolute fish of my dreams within a couple of weeks anyway from elsewhere. Result for me. It was the very first year of a new five day rule on the venue, so I had to leave after five nights. Anyone else in history before me could have stayed as long as they wanted, and they did. The bloke who moved into the swim singing to me about how him and the other normal blokes could never get anywhere near any decent swim due to swim rotations by the chosen ‘few' from the clique. The same ones trying to create chaos as I was starting to smash them. He was promising me that I could return in a couple of days if I let him move in behind me. He was outed from the swim by said members after just twenty four hours. They terrorised the poor old fella all night in the bushes behind him. Told him I was getting banned, he would be getting banned with me. All bull**** I never left my swim once. No one came to see me at any point, apart from the balliff to tell me what was happening in the background after every carp landed. The BBC was caught from the exact spot I banked these fish from I was told, but from a different swim. Three days after I left. It was caught by Scott Lloyd on a single tiger nut, a great capture by the lad at over 60lb. Clearly, that was the end of that for me though. Because of what had happened, I was offered my money back if I wanted it with the promise I could return whenever I wanted. I took it. Getting banged up for a stretch over carp fishing, with idiots who can't even read or write properly and stink of stale piss just ain't worth it in reality. Three 40's along with two others in my one and only session was enough. Free too. Easy lake. The Nursery poaching pit was calling, and the Thames would be open again really soon. Once the river opened everything else would mean nothing anyway.
You could very easily walk onto somewhere like Burghfield, be overawed. With the attitude that it's going to be really difficult after listening to stories from your hero's. Tie yourself up into knots, and then struggle. Even the best do it. When really in reality, you should be walking onto pits like that, thinking you are going to catch them all with great ease in just five minutes flat. Carp fishing is so easy in reality. You will be told it is super difficult by people who want to make themselves seem far more intelligent than they actually are. On the very last morning of my five nights on Burghfield, I watched the common clear the water three times at long range on the spot, that will remain with me forever. A truly incredible sight. Others saw it too unfortunately. As I was wrapping my kit up, the rod ripped off again. It was a 42lb+ mirror. I have never been more gutted to catch a 40. The entire way in while playing the fish from range, I was absolutely convinced that I was attached to the Burghfield common. That would have made it the ultimate one and only session. Probably for the best for carp fishing itself that I did not catch it anyway. You are not meant to walk onto that place and catch the ultimate chub in five minutes flat. I had that first and only wonderful session, completely ruined by a few sausage members, who clearly did not like what was happening in front of their eyes. One of them had watched it before on Roach Pit and they were determined to stop it from happening again. The absolute childish messages from grown men who had never even met me being sent to the owner and his balliffs were all shown to me. It was so tragic. Best was explaining how life works in the real world to their fweind squeaky. What a monster I am. That's all cut throat carp fishing these days. SHB changed my life, but it ruined my personal carp fishing. Little did I know anyway, that this was to lead to me catching the absolute fish of my dreams within a couple of weeks anyway from elsewhere. Result for me. It was the very first year of a new five day rule on the venue, so I had to leave after five nights. Anyone else in history before me could have stayed as long as they wanted, and they did. The bloke who moved into the swim singing to me about how him and the other normal blokes could never get anywhere near any decent swim due to swim rotations by the chosen ‘few' from the clique. The same ones trying to create chaos as I was starting to smash them. He was promising me that I could return in a couple of days if I let him move in behind me. He was outed from the swim by said members after just twenty four hours. They terrorised the poor old fella all night in the bushes behind him. Told him I was getting banned, he would be getting banned with me. All bull**** I never left my swim once. No one came to see me at any point, apart from the balliff to tell me what was happening in the background after every carp landed. The BBC was caught from the exact spot I banked these fish from I was told, but from a different swim. Three days after I left. It was caught by Scott Lloyd on a single tiger nut, a great capture by the lad at over 60lb. Clearly, that was the end of that for me though. Because of what had happened, I was offered my money back if I wanted it with the promise I could return whenever I wanted. I took it. Getting banged up for a stretch over carp fishing, with idiots who can't even read or write properly and stink of stale piss just ain't worth it in reality. Three 40's along with two others in my one and only session was enough. Free too. Easy lake. The Nursery poaching pit was calling, and the Thames would be open again really soon. Once the river opened everything else would mean nothing anyway.
In reply to Post #56
The sister to the Thames fully I caught, that blew up spawn bound and died the year before I fished there. Caught on one of our hook baits.
In reply to Post #58
My first night after the carp arrived, I landed a 21lb common. This first fish was added to the following night by the blow up doll at 42lb+. They were clearly now 'on it'. Every time I went out in the boat to place rigs or bait up I could see the bar was being dug right out. They were digging right down into the gravel in various areas. I would very regularly see the blow up doll, she was so greedy she was always on the spot. One day she had another carp with her. I have been lucky enough to catch and also see some very large UK carp in my time. I have viewed the Machine from Theale swim under my boat at 60lb+. The carp I watched from the boat that day, was far larger than any carp I had ever seen before or since. It had to be in well in excess of 70lb, I would have put it closer to 80lb. It absolutely dwarfed the blow up doll. Easily by 35lb or more. I nearly fell out of the boat. It was the most impressive sight which I had ever seen whilst carp angling. A carp that would have shook carp fishing to the very core if it was ever banked. I could not stop thinking about what I had seen all week at work. It really totally and utterly blew me away. I mentioned it to Cooper who ran Long lake and had fished the Nursery before me. I described the fish to him as having one large scale on its side. Alan showed me a photo of a carp which he had caught from the pit some years previously. It had long been feared dead, or flooded out, because it had only ever been banked once from the Nursery at just over 30lb. Well I had just seen it without any doubts, it was a British record in waiting. Without question the largest carp swimming in the UK, and completely 'unknown'. Things had just become so much more exciting. On a whole another level of exciting! My following trip saw me bank the fish of my dreams. I have caught so many much larger UK carp. But being a lifelong Thames angler, she simply meant everything to me personally. She was literally carved from oak, she had no silly name. She was completely unknown to the masses. She had been caught some twenty five years previously from the lock-cut on the Thames at Sonning at 18lb. I met Jason Bowsher of old Dinton fame briefly while on the pit, and he confirmed the same as I'd been told. She weighed 40lb8oz when I was lucky enough to catch her. My friend Ben who had a Long lake ticket came to help me do some photographs and a little video. As we slipped her back, I never dreamed she would be the very last carp that I would ever catch from the pit. It was June 5th, just eleven days later the river Thames would open and I would be chasing my nemesis again. I caught some absolutely breathtaking carp from the river in 2017, stacks of them, but I never caught my nemesis, who would be dead within six months.
A small syndicate was formed on the Nursery whilst I was away on the river, and after catching the fully, I was not given a ticket that I was previously told I would get. That really hurt. Yateley-boy business. I should never have opened my mouth about what I had seen to anyone. The fully has never been banked again. The single scaled fish which I saw from the boat was never caught. The largest carp I would guess that has ever swam in the UK. I hope and pray that both are still there, even the ugly blow up doll. Plus all of the other very special carp which the lake contained in 2017. But some of the best anglers have fished the lake since my time on the pit, neither the fully or the monster have been seen since. Otters moved onto the pit sometime around 2018. In all likelihood they have taken them both and many of the others. I barely get to fish these days, work has become an all encompassing monster. I often look back on 2017 with so much great joy. When I do get to very rarely go carp fishing these days, it can only be on pits similar to the Nursery. No bitching, no dramas, real fishing, for very few carp. These kind of places are the essence of carp fishing to me. Long may there remain just a few places in the UK, like the Nursery that I knew back in 2017. At a time when syndicate prices have gone through the roof. The best carp in the UK are often swimming around in pits that can be fished for free, by anyone who has the balls.
My first night after the carp arrived, I landed a 21lb common. This first fish was added to the following night by the blow up doll at 42lb+. They were clearly now 'on it'. Every time I went out in the boat to place rigs or bait up I could see the bar was being dug right out. They were digging right down into the gravel in various areas. I would very regularly see the blow up doll, she was so greedy she was always on the spot. One day she had another carp with her. I have been lucky enough to catch and also see some very large UK carp in my time. I have viewed the Machine from Theale swim under my boat at 60lb+. The carp I watched from the boat that day, was far larger than any carp I had ever seen before or since. It had to be in well in excess of 70lb, I would have put it closer to 80lb. It absolutely dwarfed the blow up doll. Easily by 35lb or more. I nearly fell out of the boat. It was the most impressive sight which I had ever seen whilst carp angling. A carp that would have shook carp fishing to the very core if it was ever banked. I could not stop thinking about what I had seen all week at work. It really totally and utterly blew me away. I mentioned it to Cooper who ran Long lake and had fished the Nursery before me. I described the fish to him as having one large scale on its side. Alan showed me a photo of a carp which he had caught from the pit some years previously. It had long been feared dead, or flooded out, because it had only ever been banked once from the Nursery at just over 30lb. Well I had just seen it without any doubts, it was a British record in waiting. Without question the largest carp swimming in the UK, and completely 'unknown'. Things had just become so much more exciting. On a whole another level of exciting! My following trip saw me bank the fish of my dreams. I have caught so many much larger UK carp. But being a lifelong Thames angler, she simply meant everything to me personally. She was literally carved from oak, she had no silly name. She was completely unknown to the masses. She had been caught some twenty five years previously from the lock-cut on the Thames at Sonning at 18lb. I met Jason Bowsher of old Dinton fame briefly while on the pit, and he confirmed the same as I'd been told. She weighed 40lb8oz when I was lucky enough to catch her. My friend Ben who had a Long lake ticket came to help me do some photographs and a little video. As we slipped her back, I never dreamed she would be the very last carp that I would ever catch from the pit. It was June 5th, just eleven days later the river Thames would open and I would be chasing my nemesis again. I caught some absolutely breathtaking carp from the river in 2017, stacks of them, but I never caught my nemesis, who would be dead within six months.
A small syndicate was formed on the Nursery whilst I was away on the river, and after catching the fully, I was not given a ticket that I was previously told I would get. That really hurt. Yateley-boy business. I should never have opened my mouth about what I had seen to anyone. The fully has never been banked again. The single scaled fish which I saw from the boat was never caught. The largest carp I would guess that has ever swam in the UK. I hope and pray that both are still there, even the ugly blow up doll. Plus all of the other very special carp which the lake contained in 2017. But some of the best anglers have fished the lake since my time on the pit, neither the fully or the monster have been seen since. Otters moved onto the pit sometime around 2018. In all likelihood they have taken them both and many of the others. I barely get to fish these days, work has become an all encompassing monster. I often look back on 2017 with so much great joy. When I do get to very rarely go carp fishing these days, it can only be on pits similar to the Nursery. No bitching, no dramas, real fishing, for very few carp. These kind of places are the essence of carp fishing to me. Long may there remain just a few places in the UK, like the Nursery that I knew back in 2017. At a time when syndicate prices have gone through the roof. The best carp in the UK are often swimming around in pits that can be fished for free, by anyone who has the balls.
In reply to Post #59
But I maximised my preparation time. 30kg of particles at a time. Mainly fermented garlic hemp, but also masses and masses of tiger slime and some nut mix freezer baits to hold it down there. During these initial bait ups, I bumped into a tench angler. He had been poaching the pit for a number of years. We quickly struck up a mutual respect. He left me alone, and I left him alone. During our early conversations, I had asked him if he had caught any decent tincas from the pit. He flat out told me there was no big tench in there, that he had never even caught a double. I started to notice bait being eaten, at first not to much, but it was a start. My first night fishing the spot, I banked an 11lb6oz male tench. This is an absolutely montros male tinca. Just ounces off of the largest male tench ever banked in the UK. I chuckled to myself about tincaman, Fair play to him too, I'd do the exact same. If the pit contained male tench of this size, it very likely held a British record female. It was my first glimpse of the potential of the pit. The new ground Lafarge had dug, had created an environment where all the fish in the pit could REALLY flourish on that fresh ground and complete neglect. Any lake is very rich during the first ten years after it is dug. The Nursery fish had come from the Thames via Sonning, into a rich environment, made substantially richer by Lafarge work to extend the pit previously. It was all like the 'perfect storm'. An environment where fish could really flourish on neglect.
Over the next week the pits bream moved onto my area. They stripped quite a bit of weed for me, but ultimately they became a real pain in the backside. I was doing over night trips after work, and being kept up all night by monstrous slabs. I would not be at all surprised if the Nursery also contained a British record bream at the time. I stopped fishing, but carried on baiting. I knew that I would be able to visibly see when the carp eventually got onto the spot. And they very soon did just that. I arrived one evening for a bait up, the moment I got above the bar I could see everything was completely different! It had been absolutely smashed to bits. Every strip of weed was now gone. Large glowing areas clearly dug right out by carp. As I scanned the bar gleefully knowing my work was about to pay off, a 40lb+ mirror glided under the boat. This fish was probably the most ugly carp I had ever seen in my life. Although the pit contained some very beautiful Thames carp, it also, like the river itself these days contained some absolute munters. Fish that had been washed into the river from Oxfordshire day tickets, which had survived in the river and ultimately found their way into the Nursery via Sonning. Simmos, but horrible simmos in the main. The Thames is now full of them, Sonning's big fish are made up of the same type. The one which drifted under my boat that day had been christened 'the blow up doll' due to having and very strangely permanent open disfigured and deformed mouth. Clearly a birth defect. Whatever the cause, boy she was so ugly. But the carp were there, and now it was time to capitalise. Stiff hinge rigs, with pink S2 crushed cork pop ups, with either a fermented tiger, or fermented peanut on top would be the weapons of choice. These would always be fished spread along the bar as single hook baits.
But I maximised my preparation time. 30kg of particles at a time. Mainly fermented garlic hemp, but also masses and masses of tiger slime and some nut mix freezer baits to hold it down there. During these initial bait ups, I bumped into a tench angler. He had been poaching the pit for a number of years. We quickly struck up a mutual respect. He left me alone, and I left him alone. During our early conversations, I had asked him if he had caught any decent tincas from the pit. He flat out told me there was no big tench in there, that he had never even caught a double. I started to notice bait being eaten, at first not to much, but it was a start. My first night fishing the spot, I banked an 11lb6oz male tench. This is an absolutely montros male tinca. Just ounces off of the largest male tench ever banked in the UK. I chuckled to myself about tincaman, Fair play to him too, I'd do the exact same. If the pit contained male tench of this size, it very likely held a British record female. It was my first glimpse of the potential of the pit. The new ground Lafarge had dug, had created an environment where all the fish in the pit could REALLY flourish on that fresh ground and complete neglect. Any lake is very rich during the first ten years after it is dug. The Nursery fish had come from the Thames via Sonning, into a rich environment, made substantially richer by Lafarge work to extend the pit previously. It was all like the 'perfect storm'. An environment where fish could really flourish on neglect.
Over the next week the pits bream moved onto my area. They stripped quite a bit of weed for me, but ultimately they became a real pain in the backside. I was doing over night trips after work, and being kept up all night by monstrous slabs. I would not be at all surprised if the Nursery also contained a British record bream at the time. I stopped fishing, but carried on baiting. I knew that I would be able to visibly see when the carp eventually got onto the spot. And they very soon did just that. I arrived one evening for a bait up, the moment I got above the bar I could see everything was completely different! It had been absolutely smashed to bits. Every strip of weed was now gone. Large glowing areas clearly dug right out by carp. As I scanned the bar gleefully knowing my work was about to pay off, a 40lb+ mirror glided under the boat. This fish was probably the most ugly carp I had ever seen in my life. Although the pit contained some very beautiful Thames carp, it also, like the river itself these days contained some absolute munters. Fish that had been washed into the river from Oxfordshire day tickets, which had survived in the river and ultimately found their way into the Nursery via Sonning. Simmos, but horrible simmos in the main. The Thames is now full of them, Sonning's big fish are made up of the same type. The one which drifted under my boat that day had been christened 'the blow up doll' due to having and very strangely permanent open disfigured and deformed mouth. Clearly a birth defect. Whatever the cause, boy she was so ugly. But the carp were there, and now it was time to capitalise. Stiff hinge rigs, with pink S2 crushed cork pop ups, with either a fermented tiger, or fermented peanut on top would be the weapons of choice. These would always be fished spread along the bar as single hook baits.