Mike’s Diary
Hectic but enjoyable!
Posted in Mike’s Diary on 14th August 2011Despite wanting to get my rods out through this extremely busy period for us, it has proved extremely difficult, although I did fish for half a day last week!! In fact, come to think of it I'm so glad I did, because I was on the bank to witness Lee catch his UK pb common of 39lb 2oz and what a stunner it was!
If anyone I know deserves to catch carp it has to be Lee. Few people realise how much effort the lad puts in to roll our boilies to absolute perfection every single day. I know I couldn't do it and he has single handedly rolled somewhere in the region of 12-tons of boilies since the start of the year!! This has a massive minimising effect on his fishing time yet he always has the knack of getting amongst 'em when he gets out. Last year he won Frampton's carp angler of the year award, despite only managing about 12-nights fishing! This year he's only done half of that yet he's still managed a river target fish (32.08) and a new pb common. Credit where it's due.
I even managed to catch one myself during that significant half day session - a plump 17lb 8oz common. Perhaps just enough to keep me seine during this hectic life spell whilst working all the hours God sends back at Essential HQ and building a new house! Talking of which, the roof trusses have now gone on and things are progressing nicely. If all goes to plan I might be able to get the rods out during the latter part of the year. My thanks go out to all those who regularly enquire as to how things are progressing with it all. Some of you have been in the same boat and know how stressful and time consuming it can be, yet the rewards once finished will be fantastic.
And lastly, massive thanks to everyone for their support during these hectic times. 2011 has been our busiest ever year and as usual the baits seem to be smashing lake records and catching personal best's all over the place. Long may it continue......
Corker Pop-Ups
Cork dust pop-ups have a number of advantages over other pop-ups.
1) Made with identical ingredients/attractors to free offerings and send out the same food signals.
2) More durable and less prone to ‘theft’ from nuisance fish, crayfish and birdlife!
3) They can be pierced with a baiting needle without losing buoyancy.
4) Brilliant for ‘snowman’ presentations where you can trim down the corker pop up with scissor blades to achieve the perfect level of buoyancy required.
5) Ease of use.
Top tip for long term buoyancy
When fishing pop-up rigs in deep water for long periods of time or on waters where bird life can be a problem, drill out a cavity in the corker pop up with an 8mm drill bit then plug it with Gardner Tackle’s cylindrical high density rig foam (yellow). Then pierce the corker pop up on to your hook/rig, making sure the baiting needle goes up through the yellow foam first, then secure with boilie stop. I guarantee you that you can leave your pop up out there for 3-days if needed with no loss of buoyancy! Further to this, in the unlikely event that a diving coot or tufty unknowingly pinches your pop up, you are still fishing a nice visual yellow ‘fake’ bait.
