In reply to Post #267
Mark, I haven't been on the forum for months and haven't fished more than a couple of days in the last few years, for reasons that I won't go into here, but I have just read this thread start to finish and it is an absolute eye opener with respect to your knowledge of bait and, even more importantly, your understanding of carp behaviour. Thanks for posting invaluable information for us lesser anglers to learn from.

I have two unopened pots of S2 on my desk, they've been there for months, occassionally I give them a sniff, like a druggie really, just a quick hit to remind me. I'm hoping to retire at the end of the year and next year, all things being well, I will do a bit of fishing, just the odd day here and there as I've never been a long session angler but I know that armed with some S2 I'll catch more than my fair share.

Stay well and thanks again.

In reply to Post #1
To be honest these seem like a great idea, keeps all of you dry rather than your legs getting wet if you just sling a coat on and ideal if you're sitting out in rain or just under a brolly rather than having the luxury of a bivvy. Would be ideal for dog walking and fishing, just a green one for me though as I don't really do camo.

In reply to Post #17
I was also a member of a similar club, I caught more than my fair share just fishing day/morning sessions. Travelling light, looking, walking and being prepared. On more than one occasion I had fish within minutes when the lake hadn't produced much for days. The main problem at that time was actually getting on the fish as it was pretty sewn up by 'full timers' usually asleep in their bivvys when I was walking around.

OP there's more than one way to skin a cat!

In reply to Post #249
2288 please

In reply to Post #17
Really quick delivery by Amazon, the units arrived today, I have put two in the garage.
So far the traps have caught 2, hopefully the units will prevent any more coming in.

In reply to Post #107
2288

In reply to Post #1
Oh the irony....I moved all of my tackle and bait into the loft of the garage a few months ago to make room for a new car. I haven't fished in ages but decided to sort out my gear with the intention of doing the odd evening session and then came the problem.....ALL of my tubs of pop ups had been eaten, mouse/rat droppings and pish everywhere. NOT A SINGLE S2 LEFT!!

I've ordered some more S2 and put down half a doxen rat/mouse traps (after one night and the score is now RATS/MICE 0 ; ME 1) but also now also ordered the ultrasonic devices as recommended.

We have 2 dogs and 5 cats so hoping they don't upset the dogs too much (not fussed about the cats tbh!)

I was going to keep the new pots of S2 in the house but the stupid cats often bring live mice/rats in and let them go anyway so this seems a better solution, thanks for the recommendation.

In reply to Post #25
Is most of the damage new and mainly in the smaller fish? The smaller and younger the fish the weaker their mouths will be, with small fish (anything low doubles and smaller) and the gear you are using it's not surprising they are being damaged. Modern carp anglers use way too heavy rods, line and leads in such situations. I would be willing to bet that if you changed to leads under 2oz and 2 lb test curve rods you'd see far less, if any, mouth damage, you'd probably enjoy the fight more too.

A 4 - 5oz lead, bolt rig and tight line is just going to damage weak mouths all day long I'm afraid. Ditch the heavy tactics, even if you don't hook as many fish I'd rather do that than damage all the ones I do catch. I used a rig once that damaged the mouths of a couple of fish I caught, I immediately binned it and haven't ever used it again.

If the lake is silty rather than gravel bottomed this also leads to soft mouthed fish as they are never digging through gravel etc to feed.

It's probably a combination of things but you can certainly adapt your methods and gear to lessen the chances of it happening.

In reply to Post #172
At 36 mins 40 secs Pete's shorts fall down just as the camera cuts . Surprised Kev didn't make anything of that!

In reply to Post #8
The lakes in Battle (Powdermills and Farthings) are probably a good hour and a bit from Worthing, depending on traffic. I don't know about Powdermills but Farthings is a very small syndicate and very much dead men's shoes.......and they tend to live a long time round here!