# UNDERWATER - The Manor | Carp Fishing 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V77PG7E-yfM
Translation: zh-CN

[00:00] We are fishing for the biggest fully scaled mirror in the country.
  我们正在钓这个国家最大的全鳞镜鲤。

[00:05] What did I say?
  我说了什么？

[00:07] Yep, that's the one.
  是的，就是它。

[00:09] There's usually an extended intro building the excitement for what's to come,
  通常会有一个加长的开场来营造即将到来的兴奋感，

[00:13] but like the film, we are doing things a bit different this time round.
  但就像电影一样，这次我们做事方式有点不同。

[00:17] Every time I see a glimpse of anything, I'm like, hey!
  每次我看到一点点东西，我都会说，嘿！

[00:19] I'm not sure if we've said it before, but we are on a mission to catch
  我不确定我们以前是否说过，但我们的任务是抓住

[00:22] the biggest fully scaled mirror in the country.
  这个国家最大的全鳞镜鲤。

[00:25] A 60-pound crown jewel, crème de la crème of British carp.
  一颗60磅的皇冠明珠，英国鲤鱼中的极品。

[00:32] Oh my Lord!
  我的天啊！

[00:35] No need to milk this one, that's about as exciting as it's ever going to get.
  不用对此大做文章，这已经是最激动人心的时刻了。

[00:42] I've written down, this is for the editor, for Shaun, we are going to catch it.
  我写下来了，这是给编辑的，给肖恩的，我们要抓住它。

[00:47] I've written this at the beginning. Yeah.
  我一开始就写了。是的。

[00:49] So when it's all done, you can say I said it.
  所以当一切都完成后，你可以说是我说的。

[00:51] Told you, weren't a fluke.
  我告诉过你，不是侥幸。

[00:54] But if we don't catch it, I'll rub that out.
  但如果我们没抓到，我会把它擦掉。

[00:56] Yeah, rip that page out, can't you? Yeah, that's fine.
  是的，撕掉那一页，不是吗？是的，没问题。

[01:00] Location: The Manor.
  地点：庄园。

[01:03] A 5-acre, super weedy, ultra-clear heritage venue
  一个占地5英亩、杂草丛生、极其清澈的传统场地

[01:06] in the heart of the Test Valley.
  位于泰斯特河谷的中心地带。

[01:09] The stock is said to be around 100 carp, but the biggest challenge with small lakes
  据估计，这里的鲤鱼数量约为100条，但小湖泊最大的挑战在于

[01:13] is that these fish are never far away from rigs at any time, so they
  这些鱼在任何时候都离鱼钩不远，所以它们

[01:18] have seen absolutely everything.
  什么都见过。

[01:21] So we really had our work cut out for us.
  所以我们真的有得忙了。

[01:24] I'm going to give you a bit of an update.
  我将给你一个简短的更新。

[01:26] We are about 24 hours in, the camera's been put in.
  我们已经进行了大约24小时，摄像机已经安放好。

[01:31] We've got 2 spots and we're going to wait for fish to come in, feed, clear the bait,
  我们有两个钓点，我们将等待鱼游过来，进食，吃掉诱饵，

[01:35] put more out, and then hopefully we're going to gain the confidence of the fish
  再投放更多诱饵，然后希望我们能获得鱼的信任

[01:39] before we actually start fishing.
  在我们真正开始钓鱼之前。

[01:41] A little bit like you would do floater fishing.
  有点像你做浮漂钓鱼一样。

[01:43] Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean?
  是的，没错。你知道我的意思吗？

[01:44] Get them confident, put a hookbait out, get a bite.
  让它们放松警惕，放一个带钩的诱饵出去，然后咬钩。

[01:47] Yeah.
  是的。

[01:47] Along with the 2 main spots, we had a 3rd spot with a smaller test
  除了两个主要钓点，我们还有一个第三个钓点，上面有一个较小的测试

[01:51] camera on it synced up to a phone.
  摄像头，与手机同步。

[01:53] We were going properly Big Brother on this lake.
  我们在这个湖上搞得像真人秀《老大哥》一样。

[01:56] The big fully had nowhere to hide. Yeah?
  那些大鱼无处可藏。是吧？

[01:59] What's that?
  那是什么？

[02:03] Oh! That's a nice one.
  哦！那是个不错的。

[02:04] Is that one of them commons?
  那是它们中的普通的一个吗？

[02:06] Come on, come on, eat it, drop— Eat, eat, go down.
  来吧，来吧，吃它，放下——吃，吃，下去。

[02:13] It's one of them opposite of commons mirrors.
  它是普通镜子对面的一种。

[02:17] Mirrors. That's what that was.
  镜子。那就是它。

[02:19] As this trip goes on, the notes are gonna get shorter and shorter.
  随着这次旅行的进行，笔记会越来越短。

[02:23] Carpbackground.
  鲤鱼背景。

[02:25] Over the next few days of staring into screens, there were definitely carp background.
  在接下来的几天里盯着屏幕看，确实有鲤鱼背景。

[02:30] So much so, some of us were getting a bit too relaxed.
  以至于我们中的一些人变得有点太放松了。

[02:34] I sharted the other day.
  我前几天拉了。

[02:35] Actually, the other day, pushed a fart out and it—
  实际上，前几天，放了个屁然后它——

[02:40] no!
  不！

[02:50] Fish on the left-hand spot.
  左边的位置有鱼。

[02:54] I think the hardest part of the underwater trips, right at the very outset,
  我认为水下旅行最难的部分，一开始的时候，

[02:58] you're doing them in the spring and you're spending lots of time watching carp cruise past the spot without any thought of dropping down to eat what we're
  你在春天做这些，花很多时间看鲤鱼游过那个地方，却没想过要下来吃我们正在

[03:07] Trying to put in front of them.
  试图把它们放在它们面前。

[03:08] And I guess it hits home why I want to fish zigs so much in the spring.
  我想这让我深刻体会到为什么我如此想在春天钓鱼。

[03:13] They're cruising around, they're using any energy they've got just milling around the lake, not really thinking about eating loads and loads of bait.
  它们在湖里游荡，耗尽了所有精力，并没有真正考虑吃大量的诱饵。

[03:18] And a well-suspended bit of foam would probably catch them, but that's not what we're here to do.
  一块悬浮得很好的泡沫可能会钓到它们，但这并不是我们来这里的目的。

[03:24] This bit of this trip does its best to suck the life out of you, doesn't it, and the confidence, but I'm not going to let it.
  这次旅行的这一部分尽力让你精疲力尽，不是吗？还有信心，但我不会让它发生。

[03:31] No, it's not going to.
  不，它不会。

[03:31] We shall not allow that.
  我们绝不允许那样。

[03:35] History does say though that it takes a long time for them to sit and eat on the spot.
  但历史确实表明，它们需要很长时间才能在原地坐下来吃。

[03:39] So you're sitting there the first few days, it's boring, but you know it's going to take a long time anyway, so you're just going through the motions, aren't you?
  所以你坐在那里，前几天很无聊，但你知道反正需要很长时间，所以你只是在应付差事，不是吗？

[03:46] Every day, up early.
  每天，早起。

[03:49] Slow start.
  缓慢的开始。

[03:50] Slow start, gal.
  缓慢的开始，伙计。

[03:52] We were ticking through what was supposed to be feeding days.
  我们正在度过本应是喂食的日子。

[03:56] I'm not going to lose my mind with this.
  我不会因此而发疯。

[03:58] I'm determined not to.
  我决心不这样做。

[03:59] First using a mix of boilies, pellet, and corn, and then in combo with a special nut mix that Justin, the fishery owner, had started using on the venue.
  首先使用混合了鱼饵、颗粒和玉米的混合物，然后与渔场老板贾斯汀开始在该场地使用的特殊坚果混合物结合使用。

[04:09] Not only did we have underwater cameras at our disposal in these areas, we had drones too.
  我们不仅有水下摄像机可供这些区域使用，我们还有无人机。

[04:12] Let's have a look.
  让我们来看看。

[04:14] Oh yes, there's another one.
  哦是的，还有另一个。

[04:16] There he is.
  他就在那里。

[04:19] We told you we were going Big Brother on its ass.
  我们告诉过你，我们要像老大哥一样盯着它。

[04:21] It's a real big fat wobbler.
  这是一个真正的大胖子。

[04:25] And instead of carp feeding on our spots, they were rinsing the shallows,
  而且鲤鱼没有在我们常钓的区域进食，它们却在浅水区游荡，

[04:29] so much so that we decided that would become one of our main spots.
  以至于我们决定那里将成为我们的主要钓点之一。

[04:33] Kevin, message from Jacko.
  凯文，杰克的消息。

[04:34] He said you look a right in them shorts.
  他说你穿那条短裤看起来很合适。

[04:39] It's always like this the first few days.
  前几天总是这样。

[04:41] It takes a while to settle in and get what we came for, but once we did,
  需要一段时间才能适应并得到我们想要的，但一旦我们做到了，

[04:45] it was like winning the lottery.
  就好像中了彩票一样。

[04:45] Yeah!
  耶！

[04:48] Yes!
  是的！

[04:52] Well done, lads. 16.
  干得好，伙计们。16。

[04:55] Another 2 fish.
  又抓到2条鱼。

[04:56] Mate, there's another one coming in from the right.
  伙计，右边又来了一条。

[04:58] Okay, now we're in.
  好的，我们进来了。

[05:00] You never know that they're going to feed until they actually feed
  你永远不知道它们什么时候会进食，直到它们真的进食

[05:03] in front of this larger camera.
  在这个较大的摄像机前。

[05:04] It's always a worry of ours.
  这总是让我们担心。

[05:06] And there's always so much riding on these trips.
  而且这些旅行总是承载着很多东西。

[05:08] We've got so many people here, so many man-hours go into it,
  我们这里有这么多人，投入了这么多人力，

[05:14] And to actually see them feed properly on the camera is the biggest—
  能够真正看到它们在镜头前好好进食是最重要的——

[05:17] They're back in numbers.
  它们成群回来了。

[05:17] There's 3 of them.
  有3只。

[05:21] Yes!
  是的！

[05:21] He's quite a small one, him.
  他是个小家伙。

[05:25] Look, look, look, look, he might be on the edge of your frame.
  看，看，看，看，他可能在你画面的边缘。

[05:28] Oh my God, it's on!
  我的天，开始了！

[05:30] Oh, it's on!
  哦，开始了！

[05:33] Oh, it's on.
  哦，开始了。

[05:33] Look, look, look.
  看，看，看。

[05:38] And another one.
  又来一个。

[05:38] Oh my God, look how good it looks.
  我的天，看看它多好看。

[05:41] He's coming down.
  他下来了。

[05:44] 4 days in and we had feeders on the main spot.
  才4天，我们就已经在主要地点设置了喂食器。

[05:48] Sweet, sweet, sweet.
  太棒了，太棒了，太棒了。

[05:50] And not only that, they continue to the point of us now having a little crew.
  不仅如此，它们还在继续，以至于我们现在有了一个小团队。

[05:56] So let us introduce the cast of the underwater.
  那么，让我们介绍一下水下团队的成员。

[05:59] White Patch.
  白斑。

[06:00] Underwater is on.
  水下开始了。

[06:02] OG Crinkle.
  OG Crinkle。

[06:04] Ah, Crinkle's nice.
  啊，Crinkle很不错。

[06:04] I like Crinkle.
  我喜欢Crinkle。

[06:06] What a guy.
  多么好的家伙。

[06:06] What a character.
  多么有特点。

[06:08] What a lovely fellow he is.
  他真是个可爱的小伙子。

[06:10] The Butler.
  管家。

[06:12] He's the butler to the Lord.
  他是 Lord 的管家。

[06:14] He's just cleaning the spot so it's convenient for the Lord to come in and feed.
  他只是在打扫这个地方，这样方便主进来喂食。

[06:17] Okay.
  好的。

[06:18] That's what he's doing.
  他正在做这件事。

[06:18] Is that what it is?
  是这样吗？

[06:19] That's what all good butlers do.
  所有好的管家都会这样做。

[06:21] You gotta prep a zone.
  你得准备一个区域。

[06:24] I didn't put two and two.
  我没有把事情联系起来。

[06:26] Hopefully the Big 'un.
  希望是那个大家伙。

[06:28] That is it.
  就是这样。

[06:29] And some whose names need a bit of explanation first.
  还有一些名字需要先稍作解释。

[06:33] He's got a really crisp bum hole, that one.
  他有一个非常干净的肛门，那个。

[06:37] Have you noticed that?
  你注意到那个了吗？

[06:37] No.
  没有。

[06:39] We're going to have to call it bum hole, aren't we?
  我们不得不称之为肛门，不是吗？

[06:43] Starfish.
  海星。

[06:44] No, it's not starfish, it's like a proper bullet wound.
  不，不是海星，它像一个真正的枪伤。

[06:49] But more on that later.
  但稍后会详细介绍。

[06:52] We said to the lad at the Farnborough Show we would do a fish bump.
  我们在范堡罗航展上告诉那个小伙子我们会做一个鱼跃。

[06:54] Neil we've lost it.
  尼尔，我们搞砸了。

[06:54] No, we were doing this.
  不，我们当时在做这个。

[06:57] This little— Yeah, the lad.
  这个小—— 是的，那个小伙子。

[06:57] No, I do remember actually.
  不，我actually记得。

[07:00] I said we'd do a fish bump.
  我说我们会做一个鱼跃。

[07:00] What is it then?
  那是什么？

[07:01] It's swimming like a fish.
  它游起来像鱼一样。

[07:01] Fish bump.
  鱼跃。

[07:03] We've done a fish bump.
  我们已经完成了一个鱼跃。

[07:03] There you go, boys.
  好了，孩子们。

[07:05] There you go.
  好了。

[07:05] Said we'd do it.
  说过我们会做的。

[07:08] That has to go in, Shaun Ladd.
  那个必须放进去，肖恩·拉德。

[07:15] I'm only going to record this now if something different happens.
  我现在只会在发生不同寻常的事情时才记录下来。

[07:18] Yeah.
  是的。

[07:19] Oh, there.
  哦，在那里。

[07:19] That's different.
  这不一样。

[07:19] I haven't seen him before.
  我以前没见过他。

[07:24] Definitely haven't had him in.
  绝对没有把他弄进来。

[07:25] That is definitely a new fish.
  这绝对是一条新鱼。

[07:26] I'm trying to get a picture of these now.
  我现在正试图拍下这些照片。

[07:28] So we've got— dusk is unreal at the moment.
  所以我们有——黄昏的时候简直太棒了。

[07:33] Yeah, joke.
  是的，开玩笑。

[07:36] Like you said earlier, now's when we'd be recasting our rods,
  就像你之前说的，现在是我们重新抛竿的时候了，

[07:39] getting ready for the night ahead.
  为即将到来的夜晚做准备。

[07:40] Could be absolutely ruining chances.
  这可能会完全毁掉机会。

[07:42] I think that's a really important takeaway from this.
  我认为这是从中得出的一个非常重要的启示。

[07:45] We've noticed that every single time we do one of these, dusk, certainly this time
  我们注意到，每次我们做这些事情中的一件时，黄昏，尤其是在这个时候

[07:49] of year, seems to be really productive.
  一年中的这个时候，似乎都非常有成效。

[07:51] There's always fish in there feeding.
  总有鱼在那里觅食。

[07:53] But normally this time of night I would be getting my rods ready and almost everyone
  但通常在这个时候，我会准备好我的鱼竿，几乎每个人都会

[07:58] does because you've obviously got the whole night.
  这样做，因为你显然有整个晚上。

[08:00] You want your rigs fresh for the morning, but maybe we're missing
  你希望你的鱼饵在早上是新鲜的，但也许我们错过了

[08:04] a really important time on dusk.
  黄昏时一个非常重要的时段。

[08:07] If you got your rigs ready at 3, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, you'd get one now.
  如果你在下午三四点钟就准备好你的鱼饵，你现在就能钓到一条。

[08:10] Yeah.
  是的。

[08:11] Whereas normally you're trying to hit the clip and getting it done just before dark.
  而通常你试图在天黑前击中夹子并完成它。

[08:16] It's something I've noticed actually over the last two Underwaters, I'd say.
  这是我实际上在过去两次水下观察中注意到的，我这么说吧。

[08:20] And it's really evident in this one, that in the evening, the feeding spells are as strong almost as first light.
  在这个案例中，这一点非常明显，那就是傍晚时分的觅食高峰几乎和黎明时一样强烈。

[08:29] So, normally for me, dusk is nowhere near as good as first light, but actually, when I look at my own fishing, I'm always putting my rods out right at the last minute, and that had cost me fish in the past, I'm sure of it, because when you see how hard they're feeding, you're definitely missing an opportunity if you're not set and ready to go at that time.
  所以，对我来说，通常情况下，黄昏远不如黎明好，但实际上，当我审视自己的钓鱼习惯时，我总是在最后一刻才放下鱼竿，我确信这在过去曾让我错失鱼获，因为当你看到它们觅食有多积极时，如果你没有准备好并在那个时候出发，你肯定会错失良机。

[08:49] So from now on, and I've done it a little bit already, I'm going to make sure that I'm putting my rods out at 6, 7 in the evening if it gets dark at 9, instead of doing it at the last minute, because I'm definitely losing fish.
  所以从现在开始，我已经开始这样做了一点，我会确保在晚上9点天黑的情况下，我在傍晚6点或7点就放下鱼竿，而不是等到最后一刻，因为我肯定会因此丢掉鱼获。

[09:02] With the light fading fast, I went out to rebait the spots with a little less than a kilo of Cell and Essential Cell 10mm, corn, and a bit of juji, aka the nut mix, to keep them grubbing around all night.
  随着光线迅速消退，我出去重新打窝，用了不到一公斤的Cell和Essential Cell 10毫米颗粒，玉米，以及一点点juji，也就是坚果混合料，让它们整夜都在那里觅食。

[09:14] We've been rebaiting as soon as we turn the cameras off each night to hopefully
  我们每晚关掉摄像机后就立即重新打窝，希望能够

[09:18] Make sure we had traffic for when we turned them on in the morning.
  确保我们在早上打开它们时有流量。

[09:21] In your own fishing, you'd want to top up a few Spombs going into dark, as unlike us, you'd have rigs out and if all is well, you'd be getting bites, after which you'd top up a few Spombs.
  在你自己的钓鱼过程中，你想在天黑前补充一些Spombs，因为不像我们，你会有鱼饵在外面，如果一切顺利，你会咬钩，之后你会补充一些Spombs。

[09:32] So just a slight tweak on what we were doing here.
  所以只是对我们在这里所做的事情做了一点小调整。

[09:42] Today's the day, boy-chee.
  今天就是这一天，小子。

[09:45] It is indeed.
  确实如此。

[09:48] I've got all my stuff.
  我带了所有东西。

[09:49] I feel like a kid when he goes fishing, you know, when you get all your little bits out.
  你知道，当我拿出所有小东西时，我感觉就像一个去钓鱼的孩子。

[09:51] Yeah, got me catapult.
  是的，拿到了我的弹射器。

[09:54] I've got a receiver that we definitely don't need.
  我有一个我们绝对不需要的接收器。

[09:57] No, it's nice to see it go off anyway.
  不，无论如何看到它响起来还是不错的。

[09:59] Adds to the excitement.
  增加了兴奋感。

[10:01] What have we got then?
  那么我们有什么呢？

[10:02] No bait, no fish.
  没有鱼饵，就没有鱼。

[10:04] Yeah, which is perfect really, isn't it?
  是的，这真的很完美，不是吗？

[10:04] Well, it is really.
  嗯，确实是。

[10:08] Gives you a chance to get your rods out, no disturbance, put a bit of bait out, a little bit of zhuzh.
  让你有机会拿出鱼竿，不受打扰，放点鱼饵，加点佐料。

[10:11] A bit of zhuzh, eh?
  加点佐料，嗯？

[10:13] Yeah.
  是的。

[10:13] Yeah, I like it.
  是的，我喜欢。

[10:16] Excited?
  兴奋吗？

[10:19] Yeah, I am.
  是的，我是。

[10:20] Come on.
  来吧。

[10:22] The moment was upon us at last.
  时刻终于来临了。

[10:24] 6 days in and it was finally time to deploy the rig.
  6天过去了，终于到了部署钻机的时刻了。

[10:27] The technology was what I always use, a spinner rig made up of a 5.5-inch, 25lb Boom hooklink, a size 4 Krank, and a 12mm Pineapple Goo soaked pop-up fished on a helicopter setup.
  我一直使用的技术是，一个旋转钻机，由一个5.5英寸，25磅的Boom钩线，一个4号Krank，和一个12毫米的菠萝胶浸泡的弹出式鱼饵组成，用直升机设置钓鱼。

[10:37] Going by the previous underwater, the rig is ultra-effective when you spread the bait out and force the carp to drop down onto it almost as a single.
  根据之前的潜水观察，当你把鱼饵撒开，迫使鲤鱼几乎像一个整体一样落到上面时，这个钻机非常有效。

[10:49] But we're fishing on small clean patches amongst big banks of weed, so we've had to bait tighter than we'd like.
  但我们在杂草丛生的大片区域之间的小片干净水域钓鱼，所以我们不得不比我们想要的更紧密地投放鱼饵。

[10:56] Whether that would be detrimental to the rig's effectiveness, we'd have to find out.
  这是否会对钻机的有效性产生不利影响，我们还有待观察。

[11:05] I like it. Game on.
  我喜欢它。开始吧。

[11:07] Do you like it? Game on.
  你喜欢吗？开始吧。

[11:08] Yeah, it doesn't look like much bait, does it?
  是的，看起来鱼饵不多，是吗？

[11:10] No, that's like— felt like between 5 and 10 handfuls of both boilies, so Cell and Essential Cell,
  不，那就像——感觉有5到10把颗粒状鱼饵，包括Cell和Essential Cell，

[11:19] So probably 15 handfuls, I reckon.
  所以大概15把，我估计。

[11:22] Yeah.
  是的。

[11:22] And then 5 sprays of corn, which felt like there's like a lot of items out there, but it looks like there's nothing there.
  然后撒了5次玉米，感觉那里有很多东西，但看起来却什么都没有。

[11:28] Yeah, I do think a lot of it gets obscured anyway, so you're not seeing every bit.
  是的，我认为很多东西都被遮挡了，所以你看不到全部。

[11:32] You can see where I said a few bits are caught up in the weed.
  你可以看到我说的一些东西被杂草缠住了。

[11:35] Look.
  看。

[11:36] But they're just going to knock them down as they swim through it.
  但它们游过去的时候就会把它们撞倒。

[11:38] Now we're already over a week into the session and the type of bottom that we want them to feed on, we've been feeding and we just can't get them to touch down.
  现在我们已经进行了一周多的时间，而我们希望它们进食的那种底部，我们一直在喂食，但就是无法让它们停下来。

[11:47] So when you've got a spot at the opposite end of the lake in the shallows where they're feeding aggressively, the first thing we notice is that it's on really chunky gravel, which ordinarily we'll do everything to avoid, but sometimes your hand is forced into casting out.
  所以当你发现湖对面浅水区有一个它们正在积极觅食的点时，我们首先注意到的是它在非常粗的砾石上，通常我们会尽一切办法避免这种情况，但有时你不得不被迫向外抛投。

[12:04] That's what you had to do.
  你不得不这样做。

[12:04] Yeah.
  是的。

[12:06] And results say in the past that it's not good, but we actually don't know why at this stage, do you?
  而且过去的经验表明这不好，但我们实际上在这个阶段不知道为什么，你呢？

[12:10] No.
  不。

[12:13] The rig looks okay.
  鱼饵看起来还可以。

[12:14] It's presented because it's a pop-up, and I guess we'll find out why it isn't
  它被呈现出来是因为它是一个浮漂饵，我猜我们会找出为什么它不行

[12:20] Good, but I still don't fish on it.
  很好，但我仍然不钓它。

[12:20] I don't like it.
  我不喜欢它。

[12:25] The main thing for me is— not the main thing, there's lots of important things, aren't there?
  对我来说最重要的是——不是最重要的，有很多重要的事情，不是吗？

[12:30] One is that you convert when you get picked up.
  一是你在被选中时进行转换。

[12:36] Yes.
  是的。

[12:37] The second thing is that you get picked up in the first place, and you get picked up a number of times for the amount of fish that are in the swim.
  第二件事是你首先被选中，并且你因为水域中的鱼的数量而被选中多次。

[12:45] So, and for you to get picked up, you've got to, one, have good presentation.
  所以，要让你被选中，你必须，第一，有良好的展示。

[12:50] And sometimes to definitely have good presentation, you've got to downgrade your effectiveness a little bit.
  而且有时为了确保良好的展示，你必须稍微降低你的有效性。

[12:58] Slightly longer hook link like we used, and a pop-up which might not get picked up as much, but also is more effective.
  稍微长一点的鱼钩连接器，就像我们用的那样，还有一个弹出式鱼饵，可能不会被选中那么多，但效果也更好。

[13:08] So it's sort of like, I feel like this rig is in between.
  所以它有点像，我觉得这个装备介于两者之间。

[13:11] I know I'm going round in circles here.
  我知道我在这里说来说去。

[13:12] No, but I hear what you're saying.
  不，但我明白你的意思。

[13:15] So I sort of feel like you get the presentation there.
  所以我觉得你能在那里得到展示。

[13:18] No matter what, because it's a slightly longer hook link than Dan would use.
  不管怎样，因为它比丹用的鱼钩连接器稍微长一点。

[13:22] Dan would use like a 3 or 4-inch hook link, which is super effective.
  丹会使用大约3或4英寸的钩链，这非常有效。

[13:25] but also you don't get the right presentation a lot of the time.
  但很多时候你也无法获得正确的呈现效果。

[13:30] I think this— that's why I think this rig is so good, because it's the perfect middle ground as well as being super effective, I believe.
  我认为这个——这就是为什么我认为这个装备如此之好，因为它既是完美的折衷方案，又非常有效，我相信。

[13:38] And you can feel that when you're fishing, can't you?
  当你钓鱼时，你可以感觉到这一点，不是吗？

[13:41] A lot of the time when you've got fish on you, you cast it out and you get a bite.
  很多时候，当你钓到鱼时，你把它抛出去，然后你就会咬钩。

[13:44] Which means it's presented, you've got a good pop-up on or a good hookbait on, which means they want it and they're getting it in their mouth.
  这意味着它被呈现出来，你有一个好的弹出饵或好的钩饵，这意味着它们想要它，并且正在把它们放进嘴里。

[13:51] And it actually does convert at least half the time, I think.
  而且我认为它实际上至少有一半的时间会转化。

[13:55] Hookbait is so important as well.
  钩饵也非常重要。

[13:58] Yeah, because it can be as effective as you want it to be, but if it's not getting picked up, it ain't getting picked up.
  是的，因为它可以像你想要的那样有效，但如果它没有被拾起，它就不会被拾起。

[14:02] Exactly.
  没错。

[14:05] You've got to treat the teabag with respect, like a good woman.
  你必须像对待一个好女人一样尊重茶包。

[14:11] It was a very cold morning, and if it wasn't due to get warmer in the afternoon, we'd say fishing in the shallows wouldn't be our first option.
  那是一个非常寒冷的早晨，如果下午不会变暖，我们会说在浅水区钓鱼不会是我们的首选。

[14:19] But the first thing to warm up is the shallows, so we had high hopes for
  但首先变暖的是浅水区，所以我们寄予厚望

[14:23] Traffic once the sun started coming up.
  太阳开始升起后，交通拥堵。

[14:23] Come on!
  加油！

[14:30] Yes! Yes!
  是的！是的！

[14:31] C'mon!
  加油！

[14:34] What are you?
  你是谁？

[14:37] Come on.
  加油。

[14:39] If he drops now, he's in the zone.
  如果他现在放下，他就进入状态了。

[14:46] Come on, come on.
  加油，加油。

[14:55] I can see his shadow coming over here.
  我可以看到他的影子朝这边过来。

[14:58] He had a little— he's just having a little—
  他看了一眼——他只是看了一眼——

[14:59] he's had a little look.
  他看了一眼。

[15:01] He had a look.
  他看了一眼。

[15:01] He didn't spook though, did he?
  但他没有受惊，是吗？

[15:03] No.
  不。

[15:03] Very happy to be here.
  很高兴来到这里。

[15:05] So exciting, this is.
  这真是太令人兴奋了。

[15:07] What time was that?
  那是什么时候？

[15:09] I don't know, Neil.
  我不知道，尼尔。

[15:12] Even after a bit of zhuzhing midday, there wasn't much of a response.
  即使在中午稍微调整了一下，也没有什么反应。

[15:16] So rather than fish for carp that weren't there, I reeled in, rested the spot,
  所以，与其去钓那些不存在的鲤鱼，我收了线，让那个地方休息一下，

[15:20] and redeployed it around 4:00.
  并在下午4点左右重新部署。

[15:22] Taking what we've learned about carp activity, getting the rods out before dusk
  根据我们对鲤鱼活动的了解，在天黑前把鱼竿放出去

[15:26] so it's ready for when the carp return rather than getting it out as they return is our biggest take-home so far.
  所以它已经准备好迎接鲤鱼的回归，而不是在它们回归时才抓捕，这是我们迄今为止最大的收获。

[15:33] There's one.
  有一条。

[15:35] Look.
  看。

[15:37] He's there.
  它在那里。

[15:37] White patch.
  白斑。

[15:39] He's back.
  它回来了。

[15:41] Oh, he's really close.
  哦，它真的很近。

[15:45] The contrast between the freezing cold mornings and the warmer evenings was as stark as it could be.
  寒冷刺骨的早晨与温暖的夜晚之间的对比，是尽可能鲜明的。

[15:52] The carp were moving faster, coming into the shallows more frequently, but we were still waiting for that first touchdown.
  鲤鱼游动得更快，更频繁地进入浅水区，但我们仍在等待第一次上钩。

[16:00] He likes a feed.
  它喜欢吃东西。

[16:01] Butler might be the one that gets the party started.
  巴特勒可能是那个能带动气氛的。

[16:04] I think he might have been here every day, Butler.
  我想他可能每天都在这里，巴特勒。

[16:07] Is he?
  是吗？

[16:07] Yeah.
  是的。

[16:09] Butler, Butler, Butler. Where's Crinkle?
  巴特勒，巴特勒，巴特勒。克林克在哪里？

[16:12] That's what I want to know. Butler, Butler.
  这就是我想知道的。巴特勒，巴特勒。

[16:14] The evening felt like it was slipping away from us.
  夜晚感觉正在从我们身边溜走。

[16:17] Falling off.
  正在消逝。

[16:17] That's quite bad.
  这相当糟糕。

[16:19] And the Carplantis tadpoles seemed to have got a visa to come and ruin our vibe.
  而卡普兰蒂斯的蝌蚪似乎获得了签证，来破坏我们的气氛。

[16:24] Oh, aren't they close, Tom.
  哦，它们离得有多近啊，汤姆。

[16:28] But all was not lost.
  但并非一切都失去了。

[16:30] We finally had some classic underwater action.
  我们终于有了一些经典的潜水艇动作。

[16:33] Yeah, yes!
  是的，没错！

[16:36] Another one behind it as well.
  后面还有一个。

[16:37] Great, come on, come on!
  太棒了，来吧，来吧！

[16:41] He's going to be close, he's going to be close.
  他要近了，他要近了。

[16:45] Keep going.
  继续前进。

[16:50] Is that Butler there?
  那是巴特勒吗？

[16:53] Butler's going to go down and grab it.
  巴特勒要下去抓住它。

[16:54] Is he going to come on?
  他要上来吗？

[16:56] No, he's a bit too far behind it.
  不，他离得有点远。

[16:58] Butler's going to have it.
  巴特勒会得到它的。

[17:04] Thank the Lord.
  感谢上帝。

[17:06] Come on, come on, Butler, we'll have you.
  来吧，来吧，巴特勒，我们会抓住你的。

[17:12] I don't recognise it.
  我不认识它。

[17:12] Oh no, it's that new little zip linear.
  哦不，是那个新的小型拉链线性。

[17:14] Here's a bigger one behind.
  后面还有一个更大的。

[17:16] We'll take you in.
  我们会带你进去。

[17:16] Here we go, come on, we'll take you, boy.
  开始了，来吧，我们会带你走的，小子。

[17:19] That's very good.
  那非常好。

[17:21] Oh, it's on.
  哦，开始了。

[17:27] I can't tell.
  我看不出来。

[17:33] Are we going to get one?
  我们要得到一个吗？

[17:37] Yeah, of course.
  是的，当然。

[17:39] Little straparoonies on.
  小小的滑稽人物们。

[17:41] Yeah.
  是的。

[17:42] What are you saying, butler?
  你在说什么，管家？

[17:44] Yeah, butler. Yeah, butler.
  是的，管家。是的，管家。

[17:45] Bang on line. No, he's turned off.
  在线。不，他关机了。

[17:49] Butler, Butler!
  管家，管家！

[17:53] Mate, there's 3 of them!
  伙计，有三个！

[17:55] There's 3 of them, Neil Zip linear!
  有三个，尼尔·齐普·线性！

[18:03] 4 of them.
  四个。

[18:05] Yeah, the other one, that one up top's bigger.
  是的，另一个，上面那个更大。

[18:07] Yeah, that's a lot bigger.
  是的，那大多了。

[18:08] Yes, yes, just go down and take that pop-up.
  是的，是的，下去把它拿下来。

[18:11] Go down and take the pop-up.
  下去把它拿下来。

[18:12] Go down and take it. Go down and take it, you're joking!
  下去拿吧。下去拿吧，你在开玩笑！

[18:16] It's eating your—Take it!
  它在吃你的——拿住它！

[18:18] Yes! Take it!
  是的！拿住它！

[18:18] Oh, how did that not take it?
  哦，怎么没拿住？

[18:22] How did he miss it? He's still there.
  他怎么错过的？他还在那里。

[18:30] I can't believe he didn't have that.
  我不敢相信他没拿到。

[18:32] It just, it just, it just didn't take it. It just didn't take it.
  它就是，它就是，它就是没拿住。它就是没拿住。

[18:35] He already had a mouthful.
  他已经满嘴都是了。

[18:36] What's this one coming out?
  这是什么东西出来了？

[18:39] I'd right prefer him though, Gal, wouldn't you?
  不过我宁愿要他，加尔，你不觉得吗？

[18:41] Oh yeah.
  哦，是的。

[18:45] He's gonna come back.
  他要回来了。

[18:49] Drop.
  放下。

[18:51] No, that's a good fish, that, mate.
  不，那是一条好鱼，伙计。

[18:57] Good fish, mate.
  好鱼，伙计。

[19:09] It's going to be butler.
  将是管家。

[19:15] Oh, that's a new fish.
  哦，这是一条新鱼。

[19:19] No, I thought it was a little zip linear, wasn't it?
  不，我以为它是一个小小的直线拉链，不是吗？

[19:23] Looked like a plain, plain zip linear to me.
  在我看来，它看起来像一个普通的、普通的直线拉链。

[19:29] Is that butler there?
  那是管家吗？

[19:31] Yeah, I would prefer that common to come back, mate, if I was Being honest,
  是的，如果我实话实说，我宁愿让那个普通的回来，伙计，

[19:38] I think it's going to be Butler.
  我认为会是巴特勒。

[19:48] Oh, there's a bigger one behind him.
  哦，他后面有个更大的。

[19:50] You eat it.
  你吃吧。

[19:53] Oh my God, is that common?
  我的天哪，这很常见吗？

[19:56] Go on, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it.
  来吧，吃吧，吃吧，吃吧，吃吧，吃吧。

[20:01] How can you miss it? How can you miss it?
  你怎么能错过它？你怎么能错过它？

[20:03] Eat it! Oh, it's wafting up.
  吃吧！哦，它飘上来了。

[20:10] How is he not eating this?
  他怎么不吃这个？

[20:21] I thought he was going to just go down and nab it, didn't you?
  我以为他会下去把它叼走，你不这么认为吗？

[20:23] He turned, didn't he?
  他转过身了，不是吗？

[20:24] He's now sitting up a bit higher now though.
  不过他现在坐得高了一点。

[20:26] He's like pushed the hook
  他好像推了钩子

[20:31] Sitting now, looks like it's sitting.
  现在坐着，看起来像是坐着。

[20:34] Here he comes, here he comes.
  他来了，他来了。

[20:36] Just eat it.
  快吃吧。

[20:38] Eat it.

[20:39] Sound like you're talking to one of your kids.

[20:42] Eat it now.

[20:45] Oh my God, you're fishing in 3 or 4 foot of very,

[20:51] very clear water on big bits of gravel,

[20:56] and that is like the opposite scenario

[20:59] in which you want to fish a pop-up.

[21:01] But our hand is forced because of the gravel, and we also just want

[21:05] to try things that we've caught on in the past.

[21:07] I didn't want to get into, like, doing some mad stuff right away just

[21:11] because of the scenario, you know what I mean?

[21:14] I wanted to see exactly how our rigs acted out there.

[21:19] Yes, it was completely ignoring it.

[21:21] Was it because it was too yellow?

[21:23] Was it because it didn't like the pineapple?

[21:24] Was it because it was 2 inches off the bottom in 4 foot of very clear water?

[21:28] I think it was probably more that it was a pop-up, but it wasn't good to see

[21:32] them completely ignore it, I must say.

[21:35] Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking.

[21:37] You put your best hookbait out that you have.

[21:40] Yeah, it's hard for me, though, in that scenario to go, oh,

[21:43] that means that they're not good.

[21:44] Because I know they are, which is why I always keep going back

[21:48] to them, because I just know that in a real-life scenario, they're the

[21:52] things that get picked up all of the time.

[21:54] So it is weird to see them being ignored, but obviously the scenario is

[21:57] slightly different, so weird one.

[22:00] Our old mate Butler always seemed to get the party started

[22:03] by bringing in more fish.

[22:05] That's a bigger one, innit?

[22:07] Take it.

[22:11] Oh, oh, Crinkle, no, no, date hole, come on.

[22:17] But as the tension was building, was my hook bait choice good enough?

[22:22] You are on the line.

[22:24] If you are not, if you're not, if you don't eat it, if you don't eat it,

[22:28] you're gonna eat it, you're gonna eat it.

[22:37] Mate, he ate it along with your rig.

[22:45] There is bait and fish and tadpoles and weed flying everywhere.

[22:52] The only thing that's remaining—

[22:53] come on, this one.

[22:54] What fish is this?

[22:57] Huh? What fish is that?

[23:00] I think it's butler, innit?

[23:02] No, date hole!

[23:07] Is it?

[23:09] Yeah, look at his little bum.

[23:12] I think he's pooing as he's eating.

[23:14] He's pooing along.

[23:16] He could eat it.

[23:18] He looks like he's eaten everything else by the looks of it.

[23:24] Their mouths are very close to the bottom, aren't they, when they're feeding?

[23:27] They are, yeah.

[23:30] I thought the chunky gravel would mean that they'd be eating off the top of it

[23:34] and that, but actually they're like getting their heads right in the crevices.

[23:42] I'm not going to lie, I'm going to be distraught if I don't get one out.

[23:45] It's like it's not registering.

[23:46] That's what it's like.

[23:48] It's there, it's in his eyeline.

[23:50] They're not spooking off of it.

[23:51] No, it's not like they're seeing the line or the lead core or the—

[23:55] no, definitely not. It's like it's not registering as food.

[24:01] Go on, he's close, isn't he?

[24:02] Come on, come on, come on, get, get in!

[24:11] Oh my God, what fish is that? Is that—

[24:16] it was date hole—

[24:18] the hook bait, I think was in his mouth. No, it didn't go in.

[24:22] Did it not?

[24:24] No. He doesn't want— they don't want it.

[24:27] If that was the right hook bait, I'd have caught one by now.

[24:31] Turn! Take it, take it!

[24:34] He went hell.

[24:37] Whoa, what fish is that, gal?

[24:39] That's a bigger common.

[24:42] I know, he's dumpier. It's a different one.

[24:44] That's a different fish.

[24:50] Oh my God, we've had so many near misses.

[24:56] That last one was outrageous.

[24:57] In fact, two there were outrageous.

[24:59] This common's going to have it.

[25:00] All right, let's talk it on.

[25:01] Come on then, this common's going to have it.

[25:02] It looks, it looks different. Go on, eat it.

[25:04] You won't, you ain't got the guts.

[25:06] You won't eat it.

[25:08] Go on, prove me wrong.

[25:09] Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it.

[25:12] Eat it.

[25:14] Turn left. He's come back round.

[25:26] Can you say something to me?

[25:32] I don't know what to say to you.

[25:33] Say something.

[25:35] They hate your hookbait.

[25:39] No, I can't really.

[25:40] Yeah, give us— huh? No, it's not done.

[25:44] It's not done.

[25:46] We've got— you can, you can— ah, no,

[25:51] it's not literally— take it, take it,

[25:54] take it, take it, take it, take it.

[25:58] He's gone. Huh?

[26:02] He's turned off.

[26:04] Why are they not taking it?

[26:08] Neil talk to me.

[26:13] It's like just flying, flying, coming in from the right.

[26:18] Look, it is like there's so much food. He's going to take it.

[26:21] He's not going to take it.

[26:22] It's like there's so much food on this spot that gets buried,

[26:25] but that's what they're— oh, he's close. He might have got it.

[26:28] Have you? Oh, he's done ya.

[26:30] He's just done you.

[26:32] That was in his mouth. That was up in the air.

[26:34] This has been the worst evening ever.

[26:38] You should have reeled in when we said at least you wouldn't have got done.

[26:41] What fish was it?

[26:43] Possibly date hole.

[26:45] I'm not sure who took it.

[26:48] I can't believe that.

[26:50] You can see my leadcore off the bottom. Yeah, you got done.

[26:54] I deserve to be done with that hookbait on.

[26:57] What a—I'm going to have to reel in.

[27:01] You are. What a terrible way to end the day.

[27:04] Probably fun for you.

[27:06] No, probably fun for you.

[27:09] What have I got to take from this?

[27:12] I would say they don't like the hookbait for whatever reason,

[27:15] whether it's because it's off the bottom or because of the flavouring, maybe.

[27:20] I would say probably more because it's off the bottom.

[27:24] And I got done.

[27:26] I don't know how well it went in its mouth because the clarity is so good,

[27:29] but the fish was in the way of it going in its mouth, so I didn't

[27:34] really get to see it. I definitely got done.

[27:37] The Leadcore was off the bottom.

[27:39] The only time it went in the fish's mouth, it was right on dusk.

[27:42] These fish are eating right on the cusp of it getting dark.

[27:46] And I'm gonna have to reel in now.

[27:48] Neil, you can take the mickey out of me if you want.

[27:51] I would not do that.

[27:57] Just bringing back memories.

[28:01] Barely moving, look, between mouthfuls. His head's down.

[28:04] There's another one at the back.

[28:05] You see, they're feeding very confidently.

[28:07] Another one here, but very close to the bottom and on very small items.

[28:12] And moving very slowly as well.

[28:14] Would you say they're moving that slowly?

[28:15] They're moving pretty slow. Yeah, they are.

[28:18] The big problem here is that they're not upending and then going

[28:24] to pick up another bait. No.

[28:26] The space between them picking up 2 or 3 baits is that, because the baits are

[28:30] really small and close to the ground, whereas you really want them moving 3 or

[28:34] 4 foot before they pick up 2 or 3 baits.

[28:37] And this is the problem with the juge.

[28:39] Oh, was that me being done there? Why would you do that to me?

[28:42] But it is, though, isn't it? It looks great.

[28:44] It's got them feeding.

[28:45] But for the way we normally fish, this is not— this is not effective.

[28:50] You're making it difficult for yourself.

[28:59] It was my first day in front of the cameras, and it was

[29:02] exciting but also terrifying.

[29:05] Seeing Dovey's pop-up barely even be registered threw us for a loop.

[29:10] But my usual go-to is a wafter anyway, so I was starting with that alongside

[29:14] increasing the amount of bait.

[29:17] The carp seemed more turned on when more bait was out there,

[29:20] but we ran the risk of creating a feeding situation that would

[29:24] really hamper our chances.

[29:26] More bait equals slower feeding and less effective hooking opportunities,

[29:31] or less bait, far less traffic but likely to hook the single carp that came in.

[29:36] These are not going to get away with it today, Neil.

[29:39] It's all swings and roundabouts.

[29:42] He's been done yesterday on a yellow pop-up.

[29:45] Multiple. Well, not done, they just didn't want it.

[29:47] Spoon, what are you going with? I think I'll go for a yellow one, geez.

[29:50] Idiot.

[29:52] I'll put Match the Hatch out.

[29:53] I'll just put a Cell Bottom bait out there.

[29:55] Yeah, I think the boilies ain't the agg though.

[29:57] What do you reckon you say? How yellow is your bait?

[30:00] It's actually quite yellow, mate. How's yours?

[30:02] Yes, it's that sort of bright yellow. Yours?

[30:04] Mine's more of a dull yellow, but you know, it's still that sort of yellow.

[30:07] I've caught so many carp on yellow, I'm just going to stick with yellow for

[30:10] another— we've only been here 8 days.

[30:12] Well, it ain't half cold.

[30:14] How is everyone this morning?

[30:15] We were just doing our Neil and Tom impression.

[30:17] Yeah, yeah, you have to wait for the edit. Huh?

[30:21] You have to wait for the edit.

[30:23] It'd be worth the wait.

[30:24] You don't look good in it, I'll tell you.

[30:27] Outside of being ripped a new one, the day had started positively.

[30:32] We'd put in a lot more bait the previous night, and when we turned the cameras on,

[30:36] all that bait was gone.

[30:37] There ain't a grain left.

[30:40] And carp was still in the swim looking for more.

[30:43] Oh, carp.

[30:45] Two carp.

[30:46] Which so far hadn't happened.

[30:48] So with the bait mix out—

[30:50] I can see why you're good at darts, mate.

[30:54] You haven't missed a throw. And the rig in.

[31:02] First time.

[31:05] Works every time.

[31:07] Admittedly, after a tonne of miscasts the editor has kindly cut.

[31:11] Perfect line, too long, too close to the camera.

[31:14] You're a bit long of shot, mate, to be honest.

[31:16] I didn't even see it, mate.

[31:17] Mostly the hunt was was on.

[31:22] Instantly, this wafter looks better.

[31:24] The rig was similar to Dovey's but with a few key differences:

[31:28] a spinner rig with 7 inches of 25-pound Boom hooklink, an anti-tangle sleeve,

[31:34] a size 4 Kamakura Krank, and a Pango Goo'd yellow dumbbell wafter,

[31:39] as Rossiter has already rinsed me about earlier.

[31:42] Idiot.

[31:43] I prefer lead clips and especially so seeing as we're fishing over gravel,

[31:47] albeit very chunky gravel, and the rig needing to sit above

[31:51] any random debris isn't a concern.

[31:53] And unlike my usual running lead clips, I'm fishing them fixed so the lead drops

[31:57] off due to the amount of weed in the swim.

[32:01] You tell me when you're ready, Kev, and I've got a few questions

[32:03] to buzz at my friend Neil.

[32:05] You're a idiot, do you know that? Oh, I know.

[32:09] It's actually tough to be around you sometimes, I think.

[32:11] Sometimes I really like you and other times I think I would not have

[32:13] been friends with you at school. Mm-hmm.

[32:16] The rig looked great.

[32:18] The Dark Matter tubing was heavy on the deck and out of the way.

[32:21] The rig extended perfectly and the Pango wafter hookbait was so similar

[32:25] to the Essential Cell Freebies that I couldn't see the carp ignoring it.

[32:30] But this is both a positive and a negative.

[32:33] It was behaving like a Freebie in that it was in crevices between the chunky gravel,

[32:37] Carp were happy to feed in there, but also the gravel might prove

[32:41] a nightmare for my hook point.

[32:44] Baiting was a few handfuls of 10mm Cell and Essential Cell soaked all night

[32:48] in Cream Smart liquid, which replicated the milky nut sludge we

[32:52] were using but didn't contain all those little bits that might have been

[32:56] preoccupying and slowing down the carp's feeding.

[32:59] And a bit of sweetcorn, as it's always a winner.

[33:03] Reflecting on yesterday, I would say I've done two things

[33:06] that I wouldn't normally do.

[33:08] What one was, was just fishing on this gravel in the first place.

[33:14] If I was having a proper feel around, I would have cast onto that.

[33:18] You'd have found out the back.

[33:20] Yeah.

[33:21] And because I was on the clay, I would then put my normal bait out,

[33:26] which would have been just bigger items, 10mm, 15mm, corn,

[33:30] say Tigers if you allowed them.

[33:32] And I think if them bigger items were on that, it would have been attractive

[33:37] enough to get them feeding, whereas because we're on this thicker

[33:40] gravel, I feel like them baits have fallen into the crevices.

[33:46] It didn't really look as much.

[33:47] So then I ended up putting a small amount of that sludge out as well.

[33:50] Yeah.

[33:50] And I think there's probably the sludge out and the crushed boilies and everything

[33:53] that we'd put in previously, and they're feeding really close and tight

[33:58] to the bottom, and I really think that makes them difficult to catch.

[34:01] Yeah, I've heard you say that a lot over the years.

[34:03] Yeah, it just definitely does.

[34:04] So then in that situation, then you need a shorter hook link and a

[34:07] smaller hook bait that's on the bottom.

[34:09] Whereas I was like, I'm feeding, partly feeding something I wouldn't

[34:13] normally feed onto a bottom I wouldn't normally fish on,

[34:16] and it's creating the feeding situation I don't want, which is them like really,

[34:21] really close to the bottom like that.

[34:24] You're almost creating the sort of situation that we see when Dan fishes.

[34:27] Yes, because Dan loves that type of mix.

[34:29] He loves getting them like really competing close in.

[34:32] He's got 3-inch rigs on, which is perfect for that situation.

[34:35] Yes, it is.

[34:38] Tom's working.

[34:41] Good.

[34:45] Yep.

[34:45] I just think sat with us, you know, might be quite nice looking

[34:50] after the receiver and that. Yeah, got it.

[34:51] Just let you know that was Tom Rossiter shot.

[34:54] You'll be able to tell. I'm not on it.

[34:59] He's done you.

[35:04] He's had you right over there, Tom.

[35:07] Despite the high hopes throughout the morning, nothing materialised.

[35:11] The carp moved out of the shallows and into the open water,

[35:14] which gave us the opportunity to spend that time looking

[35:16] for more open water spots.

[35:19] It wasn't until gone 2 that we started to see some more traffic, which was

[35:22] a few hours earlier than we were used to.

[35:26] It's getting so hot this week.

[35:27] 24, 25, 25, 24.

[35:30] It's probably worth noting as well that this is an unusually hot period for April.

[35:35] This is normally still cold, still a small amount of bait,

[35:38] but actually they're starting to spawn everywhere around the country.

[35:43] Like, 4 or 5 of the lakes we know are being shut now for spawning,

[35:47] and they normally don't shut until the very end of May, beginning of June.

[35:51] So it's crazy, doesn't it?

[35:52] It's weird, but that's how quickly things can change with water temperature.

[35:56] It's almost like now we're getting, like, a really condensed period

[36:00] of spring in the space of a week.

[36:01] Yeah, we're getting almost nothing happening the week before last to them

[36:05] eating loads of bait and possibly spawning in 2 days' time.

[36:10] If the carp were going to show up early, then my rig had better

[36:13] be out there early too.

[36:14] These Pangos just— cranberry orange Pangos.

[36:20] Yeah. By about quarter past 3, I was fishing.

[36:25] You like it?

[36:28] I like it.

[36:30] Bit of water.

[36:33] Rehydrate for the afternoon sesh.

[36:37] Right, I need to set up now.

[36:39] No messing around, Tom.

[36:41] 2, 3, maybe 4.

[36:43] It might be one behind him.

[36:45] That's a better—4, 5.

[36:47] 6. Oh my God, 7.

[36:52] 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, mate.

[36:54] You are going to— oh my Lord, have mercy upon us.

[36:59] That's the most we've ever seen at one point.

[37:01] Come on, that's, that's quite big.

[37:03] And that mirror, that might be— no, it's a common.

[37:06] It's a common. That's the big one.

[37:08] Oh my God, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

[37:11] Touchdown.

[37:17] Here he comes.

[37:20] No, that was cray cray, mate. What is that?

[37:36] It's even That looked

[37:40] massive from a long way away.

[37:44] Do you not think?

[37:46] It looks massive. Huh?

[37:48] It just filled up there.

[37:50] Well, you've got the big group of big fish in early, early, early,

[37:56] and snuffling.

[37:58] The spot was out of hand, but we needed fish to drop down.

[38:02] They want to eat this food. Yeah, they do.

[38:04] They want to see someone else doing it first.

[38:07] This is when you need Butler in.

[38:10] Yeah, Butler will get the party started.

[38:12] Well, that's what he's there to do, uncover the food.

[38:15] That's his job.

[38:16] It's all covered in cling film, he undoes it, people eat.

[38:19] And right on cue, he's gonna eat them boilies off the top.

[38:21] Is that Butler? Hey, he's Butler.

[38:24] So what did I just say?

[38:25] You said we needed Butler to get the party started.

[38:27] Come on, Butler, get the party started.

[38:30] Butler. Oh yes, yes, touchdown!

[38:35] Butler's in the zone.

[38:36] We said we'd be happy with him as fish number 1.

[38:39] Yeah, these tadpoles, can't really put a swipe on now.

[38:45] Not when he's there.

[38:47] But worse yet, a great big ball of weed drifted over my lines, dragged my lead,

[38:51] and blunted the hook in the process.

[38:53] And it couldn't have come at a worse time, but it did bring up an important issue.

[38:59] Kamakuras are the sharpest hook, but durable they are not,

[39:03] and fishing them on the deck among essentially rubble meant this sort of

[39:07] thing probably would have happened again.

[39:09] So I changed to a normal size 4 Krank and a heavier lead to hopefully stop any

[39:14] weed drift pulling my rig from the spot.

[39:19] This is the problem with using a bottom bait.

[39:21] In any situation, but especially when you've got big chunky

[39:26] gravel, because you don't know what you're landing

[39:29] on, and you're at the mercy of what's

[39:32] on the bottom for what presentation you get, which is why I always default

[39:37] to a pop-up, even though it's not always the best thing to get picked up

[39:40] in with a perfect lie, if you like, but it does present, whereas

[39:47] with a wafter, this can happen.

[39:50] The last one went down the back of a rock, and then this one's just sort

[39:53] of sitting weirdly on the side of it.

[39:56] They'll probably just pick it up, but it's weird.

[40:00] What we saying?

[40:06] Do you weirdly like it?

[40:10] No, I don't hate it. It's weird.

[40:14] Is that good or is that really bad?

[40:17] Well, we don't know because we don't know if we've ever been picked

[40:20] up with it like that before.

[40:22] No. Do you want to leave it?

[40:24] My point is a little bit is, is that this is what would happen,

[40:27] but then at the same time we get to see what's happening and you've only got

[40:32] a couple of, you know, you've got an evening today.

[40:37] The chunky gravel was a sticking point.

[40:40] I had a stiff hook link on, an anti-tangle sleeve.

[40:44] It clearly hadn't tangled due to those factors, but the chunky gravel meant it

[40:48] still wasn't presented, and it was more likely to catch

[40:51] the hook point, as we've seen.

[40:53] For science, we wanted to work it out, and going from what we were seeing

[40:57] on the test cameras out in open water, this was still the spot we

[41:00] were getting the most traffic.

[41:02] As the old adage goes, fish where the fish are.

[41:05] We just had to work out this gravel.

[41:08] Oh, freaking hot.

[41:09] Mm-mm-mm.

[41:11] Butler, Butler's just come straight in.

[41:13] We're sitting here mowing down food and so is he.

[41:18] Mate, he might just go for it straight away.

[41:22] Oh! I thought he was just going to nail that.

[41:26] No, he went, he moved away from that though, didn't he?

[41:28] Yeah.

[41:30] He went to take it.

[41:34] He was like, something ain't quite right there.

[41:36] Why is it hanging down off of a cliff face?

[41:40] Do you reckon that was a presentation thing?

[41:45] He didn't spook, did he? I'll tell you what he did do, though.

[41:47] He went to take it.

[41:49] That's the first fish that's fed next to it, went to take it.

[41:52] Oh, he's coming from that side.

[41:53] Had a little feed, then come to the Pango.

[41:59] It's Crinkle back!

[42:01] Crinkle's back from outer space.

[42:08] Come on, Crinkle, come back round.

[42:11] Crinkle is back.

[42:14] OG Crinks.

[42:16] Oh, your yellow kicker is doing you proud there, I think.

[42:19] I agree, I really do.

[42:21] Yeah, that little fluffy colour.

[42:22] It's green or it's just or it's black, whatever colour, then all

[42:28] of a sudden your swivel stands out.

[42:30] Yeah, but with that, it looks like there's a bit of corn and a bit of boilie.

[42:33] Yep. Doesn't it?

[42:34] Yep. As I've said, I like it.

[42:37] Feels like it should be OG Crinkle or the Butler to get us off the mark.

[42:43] Well, Crinkle would be the best one, the best OG to get.

[42:49] We've only got 10 minutes left.

[42:51] We've got a reel in at 7.

[42:55] As soon as that clarity started getting bad just now, I was in.

[42:58] Straight in. Yeah, come on, Butler.

[43:01] It's a good line.

[43:03] It's a very good line. Is he gonna take it?

[43:05] Is he or is he not?

[43:07] He's close.

[43:10] He is close. Come on, Butler.

[43:12] Come on, buddy. Come on, come on.

[43:16] Go on.

[43:18] Oh, he just— oh, he just did a little— he didn't want it.

[43:23] He wafted me wafter and didn't want it.

[43:26] No, he didn't want the pango.

[43:29] He went to eat and he was like, no, don't fancy it.

[43:33] That was close.

[43:35] Oh well, he wasn't bothered by how it was sitting.

[43:38] It didn't— it didn't spook him.

[43:40] Is that him again?

[43:46] He's a weird feeder.

[43:47] I'm going to stick by that.

[43:48] Don't start having a go at my butler. I'm going to have a go at him.

[43:50] Don't start having a go at my butler.

[43:52] It's like the amount of times you've seen him mouth to nothing.

[43:54] Huh? It's like he mouths at nothing.

[43:57] No, but he went to eat that.

[44:03] Start having a go at butler.

[44:06] Butler really was our bestie that evening.

[44:09] Oh, he's going to go and take it.

[44:12] Oh, he's attracted to that smell.

[44:15] He keeps—He keeps coming.

[44:18] He goes in that same area.

[44:19] He keeps going to that same area every single time.

[44:22] Yeah, he does.

[44:22] He's touched that bait nearly 3 times and he's been in 4 or 5.

[44:26] Yeah. But we were running out of time.

[44:29] Fish were clearly feeding off the back of the spot in the clay on what we thought

[44:33] might be loads of natural surfacing due to the dropping light levels and kicking

[44:37] it all up, making vis pretty dodgy. Go on!

[44:41] Oh, you went for that one, he got that one straight down the old gullet.

[44:44] Save the day, Butler!

[44:47] Oh yes, he's mowing them down,

[44:55] he's mowing them down!

[45:00] Mowing them down.

[45:04] Come on, come on.

[45:08] He don't like it. He doesn't like it.

[45:10] He does not like that.

[45:11] Butler is not an idiot.

[45:13] No.

[45:14] So regarding Rossiter rinsing us earlier, my theory was that Dovey's pop-up was

[45:19] being ignored because it was a pop-up, not because it was yellow.

[45:23] After all, we'd seen them mowing down Essential Cell, But in this case,

[45:28] pop-up or wafter, yellow clearly wasn't a good hookbait in this situation.

[45:33] If it was a good hookbait, it would have been taken by now.

[45:36] Outside of whether the rig was efficient or not, it should have

[45:39] been eaten at least.

[45:41] Have you got any, like, what little brown pop-ups have you got?

[45:43] Or little cell-coloured pop-ups have you got?

[45:45] I'd have to look through my tubs. Okay.

[45:47] Is that what you fancy?

[45:48] Maybe. Come on, Butler.

[45:52] It's a good line for the first hookbait.

[45:54] No, it's not.

[45:59] He's there.

[46:01] He's not going to eat that. No, he's not.

[46:02] He's really not going to. You need something else to come in.

[46:04] I really, really believe it.

[46:06] I agree.

[46:08] I think your card is marked on the side of the—

[46:10] Yeah.

[46:12] If Butler had our cards marked, got the hump with Butler now.

[46:15] He's not my friend today.

[46:17] Then hopefully OG Crinkle would oblige.

[46:20] Come on, Crinkle!

[46:21] Just touch down—

[46:23] crinkle!

[46:26] Ohh!

[46:27] Ooh!

[46:29] Mate,

[46:37] he looked like he was going to go down strong.

[46:39] He did, yeah, he did.

[46:41] It looks like I'm float fishing.

[46:46] Oh, the wafter's wafting again.

[46:48] He looked like he was going down to it.

[46:52] Butler's done his job, he's got Crinkle to touch down.

[46:58] Come on.

[47:05] Do you think he's gonna take it?

[47:07] When the fish are in the swim, it looks more ridiculous

[47:09] the way the hookbait is sitting.

[47:11] It literally looks like I'm float fishing.

[47:14] Upon reflection, the hookbait was in a ridiculous position.

[47:18] Carp were mainly coming in from the back beyond the weed,

[47:21] and my hookbait was behind a rock, completely invisible to them.

[47:25] But I got a good drop when casting, and this is just one of those

[47:29] things that sometimes happens.

[47:32] You'd expect a bite, but then nothing, and when you recast, it goes straight away.

[47:37] Something like this could be happening, so worth proving that if nothing else.

[47:41] But all that coping goes out the window when a biggun approaches.

[47:46] Oh no, no. Oh, big common!

[47:49] Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

[47:53] This is the one, this is the one that was in last night.

[47:55] The one that ignored me. Yeah.

[48:02] He might take this. He's got a chance.

[48:05] This is perfect line.

[48:07] Perfect line. Go on, go on.

[48:11] Perfect line. Come on, get it.

[48:13] No way, mate.

[48:15] That's exactly what he did to the pop-up.

[48:17] No way, that was so close.

[48:21] Oh my, I thought that was it, Tom.

[48:31] No. Oh, my goodness.

[48:36] It's crazy that every— it's like the same moment of both nights.

[48:40] Yeah, it's within a minute.

[48:42] Yeah.

[48:43] In 2 minutes' time, I got ejected.

[48:46] When most of the hopes lie in carp coming from a very specific angle to even see

[48:50] the hookbait, the gravel is an issue.

[48:53] For present— for presenting rigs.

[48:57] It's like nothing's sitting right, you know.

[48:59] It just isn't the one.

[49:01] Look, that's going to go straight for it, mate.

[49:07] Neil, go down! Oh, he did.

[49:10] He heard you.

[49:11] But look, he, he, he couldn't be at a worse angle.

[49:18] He hasn't got the turning circle.

[49:24] He's literally circling it.

[49:26] My biggest fear is that I think we wasted that evening just to prove that bad rig

[49:31] positioning will definitely not do you any favours.

[49:35] You're welcome.

[49:36] We sort of said for science, as we kept saying,

[49:39] you wouldn't know if you were fishing over that type of gravel and you've cast out 80

[49:42] yards, for argument's sake, and you've got a drop, you've got a donk,

[49:46] you'd be leaving it no matter how it would sit.

[49:48] So it was a real good opportunity in that situation to see if your rig is

[49:52] sitting over like that, do the carp care? Would you get a bite?

[49:56] Well, yeah, they cared. No, you didn't get a bite.

[49:59] They didn't even— there was one near it, I think.

[50:03] No, and the big common did as well.

[50:04] Did similar thing to you where it sort of almost didn't recognise it as food.

[50:10] But it comes back to us not wanting to fish over chunky gravel.

[50:13] Yeah, these are the things that you're not going to know that you've got that issue.

[50:17] You've got a drop, you think it's all perfect,

[50:19] and it could be sitting so badly and you've got no idea.

[50:23] You sit there thinking, yeah, here we go, the rod's on the spot,

[50:25] I'm going to get a bite.

[50:27] Yeah, that's why we will always try and fish that hard sand, because 9

[50:32] times out of 10 you're presented well.

[50:34] It's like, I know we keep saying the same thing all the time,

[50:37] but it's like you first need presentation, because if it's not presented, it can't

[50:42] go in their mouth or they won't take it.

[50:46] And most of the time you're not presented well on that bottom.

[50:49] Exactly. That's the reality of the situation.

[50:58] Pink hookbaits are pretty notorious for being the ones on underwater films.

[51:03] Despite not working as well as a yellow in my own fishing,

[51:06] But so far that hasn't been the case here.

[51:10] If I was watching this from afar, I'd say, "They don't like your hookbait,

[51:13] lads." With a few fish feeding already, putting out a squid goo-infused 12mm

[51:17] Mainline pop-up felt like a good bet.

[51:20] If one came down and took it, we'd know it was the pink's time to shine again.

[51:23] That's the one I had, one of them.

[51:24] I know loads of people that absolutely swear by this squid goo,

[51:27] Elliott Gray being one of them, Darrell being another one.

[51:30] You don't really need to know much more. And Spooner.

[51:32] There you go. It's the colouring.

[51:41] The big three like this hookbait, so it's good enough for me.

[51:45] It's the right colour pink.

[51:47] I'm going to clip it on me spinner rig and then we're ready to go.

[51:51] Okay, where's the old waders?

[51:55] With Spooner left high and dry, I put a bit of bait out and the rig

[51:59] went out for the first time.

[52:01] I don't know how he managed to not do that.

[52:05] Yeah, no, I can't argue with you.

[52:10] The pop-up looked good, but we were concerned that it was really

[52:13] the only presentation that was viable due to the chunky gravel issue.

[52:17] We decided this would be the final day on this spot.

[52:21] We're going to quickly get into a stage in it where all we're

[52:24] talking about is gravel.

[52:25] Because we can't do anything else.

[52:27] The gravel is narrowing the scope of what we can do.

[52:31] Yeah, we discussed fishing solid bags or mesh bags with crushed boilie

[52:35] for a hookbait to sit on top of, but the tiny particles would end up

[52:38] getting lost between the rubble and we'd be in the same situation.

[52:42] Plus, we came to the conclusion we just wouldn't recommend fishing

[52:45] on this type of bottom.

[52:46] The chunky gravel traps bait between it and causes the fish to root around

[52:50] and slow down, which in turn makes them harder to catch, which then means you'd

[52:54] have to fish a shorter hooklink that won't present very well on this

[52:58] really rough bottom.

[52:59] We'd spend the day with one eye on the spot and the other on the test camera.

[53:04] Where is the biggun in here?

[53:06] Where are you, biggun?

[53:09] Earlier in the session, we'd seen a few smaller fish in and around

[53:12] the tree line, but as time went on, we were seeing more and more bigger fish

[53:17] in there in the mornings and afternoons particularly, whereas our current

[53:22] swim was mainly an evening spot.

[53:24] The bottom looked a lot smoother and much more versatile to present on,

[53:29] and luckily fishery rules allow for a bit of stalking during the day.

[53:33] I'm just going to put it out there, today is going to be a good day.

[53:38] All right, I don't know what it's going to be.

[53:41] Okay, whether we're going to catch one off of here.

[53:43] Yeah, or we're going to see the big one on here.

[53:46] Everything about it felt perfect.

[54:01] 3. Oh yeah, he's a better fish.

[54:03] Big fully, mate. Is that it?

[54:07] That ain't big enough. I don't know.

[54:10] That is— I don't know.

[54:14] I don't know, gal. What's this?

[54:19] That's the common.

[54:21] It's bigger than that.

[54:24] We need to watch that again.

[54:26] Do we?

[54:29] Please.

[54:33] Why has that gone blue?

[54:36] Don't worry about that, son.

[54:40] What side was it?

[54:41] Left side, wasn't it?

[54:43] It's it, it's it! That is it!

[54:46] Look, that's the S-scale. Yes!

[54:48] What did I say just literally a second ago?

[54:51] There, look, look at that.

[54:52] You cannot mistake that S-scale.

[54:55] Oh my God, it's under the tree, Gal.

[54:58] It's under the tree, we're going to catch him.

[55:03] Look, Bruce! And he's feeding.

[55:05] Spitting everywhere.

[55:07] That's definitely it, 100%.

[55:09] Seeing that biggun on that camera was one of the most exciting moments for me

[55:13] in underwater history, for like my own personal sort of doings with it.

[55:17] The session starts now.

[55:19] I know, again, we always say this, but so much time and effort and so many

[55:23] decisions and everything go into these sort of things, and ultimately you don't

[55:27] think it's going to go well because it's difficult for it to go well.

[55:30] So to actually see it on the camera, we were like, okay.

[55:33] There she is.

[55:35] Oh my Lord.

[55:38] Oh my God.

[55:42] The weather was getting better.

[55:44] We were close to getting a bite.

[55:46] It all looked like it was going to fall into place.

[55:50] But the biggest decision for us then was was, do you leave the test camera there

[55:56] and just go and fish in front of the test camera without causing more disturbance

[56:00] because it's already there feeding?

[56:02] But the reality is, was you could barely see the bottom.

[56:06] And if we made that decision, we had a better chance of catching

[56:09] the biggun, but the footage would have been useless.

[56:12] So it's like, then you have to say, why are we here?

[56:15] We're not here just to catch it.

[56:17] We're here to see how it feeds.

[56:18] To see how it picked up the hookbait.

[56:20] If it does, you need to see all of that.

[56:23] So in the end, we decided to take the test camera out and put the big camera in.

[56:29] But my worry was that it causes so much disturbance that a fish like that is

[56:35] likely to move off and never come back.

[56:37] But I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

[56:40] So for me, that's a core memory of that whole situation because it was

[56:44] like I'm having to make this decision, but deep down I knew that there was a big

[56:49] possibility of it completely ruining it.

[56:52] There's Butler. Butler's down there, the little—

[56:57] oh, I can't believe that.

[57:02] What a sneaky little Butler.

[57:07] He's down. He's cheating on us.

[57:08] He's cheating on us on a different spot, but he doesn't know

[57:11] that we know that he knows.

[57:12] He'll come back here like, well, here he is, been in the back of the weed all day.

[57:16] But we know different.

[57:18] We knew we were gonna see it today, gal.

[57:20] Well, you said about 11 seconds before we saw it.

[57:24] Prediction 1 came true.

[57:25] Prediction 2 of catching one on this spot was still up in the air, though.

[57:29] While we were locked into the test camera, OG Crinkle was a very

[57:33] frequent visitor on Main. Come on.

[57:35] Come on, Crinkle. He's interested.

[57:39] He's interested, Crinkle, isn't he?

[57:41] Now, wouldn't that be a nice first fish?

[57:44] We deserve a fish off of this spot before we move, don't we?

[57:48] Yeah, he might feed.

[57:52] He's got lower down.

[57:53] He's in line with a pop-up.

[57:55] Is he going to go for it?

[57:56] No, not interested.

[57:58] Well, he does look sort of interested in feeding.

[58:00] Yeah, that's what I mean.

[58:01] I'm not saying that he didn't want the pop-up, he's just sort of,

[58:04] he's getting close to having a little, a little schnaffle.

[58:08] I'm expecting carp to drop straight onto it and take it with speed,

[58:11] much like we've seen on Carplantis Underwater,

[58:13] and that just wasn't happening here.

[58:17] Too blatant in here.

[58:18] I think with these bright ones, they're either the right colour and you

[58:21] get them, like, from out of the blue, or they ignore them.

[58:27] The period before lunch was almost constant traffic as well.

[58:30] Feed, feed. See, he's following it now.

[58:32] He's going to take it.

[58:34] Oh, he looked like he was coming straight for it.

[58:39] Yeah, he did.

[58:39] But unfortunately, it was just proving what we had

[58:42] already thought to be the case.

[58:44] I'd really love to just catch crinkle now.

[58:46] I really, really would.

[58:48] Yeah, it would set a lot of things at rest.

[58:50] Yeah, it would be lovely.

[58:53] We had to make the best of what we were fishing over, and the more we saw

[58:57] crinkle, the more I wanted him.

[58:58] So our thoughts went back to potentially fishing a mesh bag.

[59:02] I was going to say, we are always trying to learn something.

[59:05] So I think the fact you're going to put a bag of some sort on there tonight,

[59:11] if that gets picked up quite quickly and you get a bite,

[59:13] we'll have learned that if we do have to fish this coarse sort of gravel,

[59:16] because you can't find a lot else, you fish a bag.

[59:18] I think in a bag is the right way to go.

[59:20] Be that a solid, be that a Hooked On bag, it's a way to get around what is otherwise

[59:25] an awkward thing to present over.

[59:27] But you're right, we are ultimately waiting for today to end to get up there.

[59:32] That's what's happening.

[59:34] Everyone at home would be exactly the same.

[59:36] They'd probably be there now with a rig on the spot.

[59:37] Well, you would, wouldn't you? Yeah, because you'd just be fishing.

[59:40] You've seen it, you'd lower your rig in and you'd

[59:42] hope that's the one that picks it up.

[59:44] The midday heat being enough for the fish to move away and start bathing

[59:47] on the surface, we decided to swap the test camera out

[59:51] for the proper one in the treeline swim, ready to hit the ground

[59:55] running the next day.

[59:56] And while we were away sorting it, OG crinks was on the chunky gravel having

[01:00:01] a right old time, and we were determined to catch him.

[01:00:05] This is right up your street.

[01:00:07] That is a Golden Honey pop-up. Oh yeah.

[01:00:10] Yeah, brown.

[01:00:12] Yeah, they're them.

[01:00:13] Okay, one of them's gonna go on next.

[01:00:16] Okay, I think we could get the biggun

[01:00:17] on that and all these little brown pop-ups

[01:00:24] that Spooner's got, the little honey ones, they're Cell pop-ups

[01:00:26] with honey goo on them.

[01:00:28] Um, they look absolutely perfect.

[01:00:29] They're dark, they don't look like they're going to be in your face too much,

[01:00:31] but they aren't very buoyant because he's had them for about a year.

[01:00:35] And put so much goo on them that you can even tell the inside has gone brown.

[01:00:41] But I'm going to put a little bit of cork in there just to make sure they're buoyant

[01:00:44] enough to hold that hook up for the duration of the time it's out there.

[01:00:49] This is exactly why we say sometimes to rest your swim,

[01:00:53] because no matter how inconspicuous you are, the fish definitely

[01:00:58] know that your line is there.

[01:01:00] It doesn't often stop stop them from feeding, but it will

[01:01:02] make them feed cautiously.

[01:01:04] And it's always the same on these underwaters.

[01:01:06] You reel the rod in, the fish come in and eat with gusto,

[01:01:09] and eat exactly where your line's been, where they haven't been

[01:01:12] whilst it's out there.

[01:01:13] So reeling in for a little while, letting them come in and feel free,

[01:01:16] and then putting it back out there might mean that they've built up

[01:01:19] the confidence and you get them quickly.

[01:01:22] It's worked in my own fishing a lot, that has.

[01:01:26] I mean, you think this is a one rod on one spot.

[01:01:29] Imagine having 3 lines going to one spot with tight lines going in there.

[01:01:31] They know it's there for sure.

[01:01:34] The rig was the same: a spinner, size 4 Krank, 5.5 inches of 25lb

[01:01:39] boom on a helicopter setup.

[01:01:41] The difference was the 12mm Honey goo pop-up and a little hooked-on

[01:01:45] bag of Cell Boilie Crumb.

[01:01:47] The bright pop-ups in this shallow, ultra-clear water wasn't it,

[01:01:50] so something that mimicked to match the hatch but had an ultra-strong taste.

[01:01:54] Along with a little pile of crumb just felt right.

[01:01:58] Obviously it's a darker pop-up, so it doesn't stand out as much,

[01:02:02] but where it's landed near some of the higher ground but landed alongside

[01:02:06] it, it doesn't look like a pop-up at all. No.

[01:02:09] Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do.

[01:02:12] That's primo. That's the best cast we've had.

[01:02:14] Yeah. I feel like that's the one.

[01:02:19] Not far from the hook bait.

[01:02:23] What was that?

[01:02:23] One's just dived in from the corner, not far from the hook bait.

[01:02:26] Oh, that's really good. He's literally just come in.

[01:02:28] Where is the hook bait? Here.

[01:02:30] He was about 6-8 inches the other side.

[01:02:35] There's a Linear that's done a fly by.

[01:02:37] Crinkle's been nowhere and he's flown in.

[01:02:39] Where is it there?

[01:02:41] He's on line for it.

[01:02:42] Oh, he's turned away at the last minute.

[01:02:45] Sorry, mate, I was just getting the colours sorted out on the screens.

[01:02:49] Oh, —

[01:02:53] Yeah, it's coming back, it's coming back, it's coming back.

[01:03:03] Come on, Crinkle, come on.

[01:03:08] This is close, this is close.

[01:03:11] Go on. He's got it.

[01:03:12] No, he didn't. Just turned away at the last minute.

[01:03:14] Oh, did that go in his mouth?

[01:03:16] No, he spooked off it.

[01:03:18] Did it go in though?

[01:03:19] No, didn't go in his mouth, mate.

[01:03:21] That was half close though.

[01:03:27] We need to watch that back.

[01:03:30] First time one come in and fed, and we come super close on a brown one.

[01:03:33] Super close.

[01:03:34] What happened there?

[01:03:41] I actually think that got caught on a stone.

[01:03:44] The hook link.

[01:03:45] It didn't look like it had full extension, did it?

[01:03:47] It didn't go into his mouth, but I don't think that's

[01:03:49] actually because of the buoyancy.

[01:03:51] Now, looking at it here, that— are we saying if it was more

[01:03:55] buoyant, would it have gone in his mouth?

[01:03:57] No, it wouldn't have.

[01:03:59] No, something was holding that back.

[01:04:02] Wouldn't it?

[01:04:03] Yeah, it looks very weird, though.

[01:04:06] I would say in general that the fish's power of sucking in is much,

[01:04:10] much more powerful than we think it is.

[01:04:12] Like, stones often go in.

[01:04:13] So the difference between a slightly smaller bit of cork in the bait,

[01:04:17] I'm not sure makes a massive difference on how it goes in.

[01:04:21] It might make a difference on how it's presented because of how slowly it kicks

[01:04:24] out and how buoyant it is for the presentation.

[01:04:27] But I think if they decide to suck it in, you could have lead

[01:04:30] in that and it's still going in. It's still eating it.

[01:04:33] Yeah, so I don't— yeah, I don't think that was the problem there.

[01:04:35] Just watch it again.

[01:04:37] Yeah, you just—

[01:04:39] I just, you know, it didn't go— it didn't

[01:04:44] go in that, that second time, did it?

[01:04:46] I think it's caught on something on the bottom, isn't it?

[01:04:50] It's a chunky gravel.

[01:04:51] How many times can we blame the gravel?

[01:04:54] Oh, we've got loads Loads. Yeah, okay, that's fine.

[01:04:57] Years, I'd say.

[01:04:58] It's not a coincidence the first time he's come to eat, that hook bait

[01:05:01] nearly went in his mouth.

[01:05:02] No, the other ones haven't even nearly gone in his mouth.

[01:05:05] He liked the smell of it. He liked the taste.

[01:05:07] He tried to eat it.

[01:05:09] Science. Science.

[01:05:11] With a little extra cork to stop the pop-up from leaning over,

[01:05:14] we were back out on the spot.

[01:05:16] Come on, come on, go back down.

[01:05:18] Right there. If you tip now, you're close.

[01:05:22] I think they can see the line, mate.

[01:05:24] I really think they can see the line in like 4 foot of gin-clear water.

[01:05:30] Yeah, when you go and wade out, you can see it quite clearly.

[01:05:34] So unless it's on— even if it's on the bottom, I think they can see it.

[01:05:37] This is like really difficult conditions, isn't it?

[01:05:41] Yeah, yeah.

[01:05:41] Once it— especially with the sun still being up, everything's

[01:05:43] heightened, isn't it?

[01:05:44] That's obviously why they're more confident.

[01:05:46] Confident as the lights fade, or part of it.

[01:05:49] There was a trade-off here.

[01:05:50] We were fishing for a ridiculously large fish in a very weedy lake,

[01:05:54] so we had to step up our gear.

[01:05:56] Stronger unfortunately means thicker, and being in such shallow, clear water,

[01:06:01] we sacrificed presentation.

[01:06:03] Again, everything is a constant balancing act of variables.

[01:06:06] He's there, step next to that white round one that looks like a little tennis ball.

[01:06:09] Come on. Oh, it's Butler.

[01:06:13] Oh, you cheat!

[01:06:14] Oh, you want to come back now?

[01:06:15] Oh, you want to come back and eat our food now, do you?

[01:06:17] All right, that's fine.

[01:06:18] Well, I hope you eat the one with the hook in.

[01:06:20] Yeah, okay, fine. How about that, Butler?

[01:06:21] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what it is?

[01:06:23] Unbelievable. Do you believe him?

[01:06:25] I can't believe him.

[01:06:26] Come on, come on.

[01:06:33] These are the— these are one of these two are what we want to catch first.

[01:06:36] Yes.

[01:06:37] They've fed the most.

[01:06:39] I think Crinkle was the first feeder we had at all, and Butler has been a staple,

[01:06:44] even though he's a cheat.

[01:06:46] We would love him on the bank.

[01:06:50] Crinkle's going to be close here.

[01:06:52] Crinkle knows that rig's there now.

[01:06:54] I'm telling you, he won't go anywhere where the line is, where the rig is.

[01:07:02] It's not a coincidence that as soon as I reeled that rig in, he was eating

[01:07:05] all over where the rig was. That is true.

[01:07:09] It's very clear water, this.

[01:07:12] Very shallow and very sunny.

[01:07:14] Another one dropping in.

[01:07:15] They're not going to get better conditions to see in this than this.

[01:07:19] There's your one.

[01:07:21] He's— come on, one coming down.

[01:07:24] That's close.

[01:07:25] That's right on line.

[01:07:29] I don't know if he's just done you.

[01:07:31] Did he? I don't know.

[01:07:34] I think he might have. He shook his head like that.

[01:07:36] I think he might have.

[01:07:38] Okay.

[01:07:40] So he's come down for that hookbait. Yes.

[01:07:43] Straight at it, like typical underwater footage.

[01:07:46] All right, he didn't get hooked, but he wanted to eat that.

[01:07:49] I think it's the non-bright hookbaits, the duller hookbaits,

[01:07:54] are more likely to get picked up in that shallow, clear water.

[01:07:57] Yeah, I think generally, I don't think they normally are, but in

[01:08:00] this situation they were better for sure.

[01:08:03] I know I sound like a broken record, but this is exactly why I prefer

[01:08:06] presentation over efficiency.

[01:08:09] Sometimes you see something and you learn something new, and sometimes what you

[01:08:15] think— no, sometimes what you already know, what you already know is cemented.

[01:08:20] Is that right? Yeah.

[01:08:22] Okay, and one of the things that is cemented in this one is that, for me,

[01:08:26] presentation is far more important than efficiency.

[01:08:31] Because if you can't— if the hook can't go in the fish's mouth in the first place,

[01:08:38] you can't get a bite.

[01:08:39] So you can have something that's super effective, as in it will convert more

[01:08:44] bites, but if it doesn't go in as many mouths, there's no point in using it.

[01:08:48] And there is a middle ground, and I really believe that middle

[01:08:52] ground is a Spinner Rig.

[01:08:54] It's very efficient, but also with a stiff boom hook link

[01:08:58] and a helicopter rig, most of the time it's presented,

[01:09:02] and that's the most important thing.

[01:09:04] I'm happy to lose the efficiency for the presentation,

[01:09:08] so the presentation means that it goes in more mouths, and over the course

[01:09:12] of a year, you just get more bites. Are you having that, or—

[01:09:15] I am having that.

[01:09:16] I've heard you say it quite a lot over the years, to be fair.

[01:09:18] It does. It's really, really, really important.

[01:09:22] And I think if people really understood that and put that into their own fishing,

[01:09:27] that's the idea that will change your year.

[01:09:31] Big shout. No, it is.

[01:09:33] It is.

[01:09:34] Because if 50% of the time you're not presented and them times it converts 4 out

[01:09:40] of 5 times, say, out of 10 bites, then you get 4 fish.

[01:09:44] But if you've got— if it's presented 10 times and it's 6 out of 10 effective, it's

[01:09:50] still more fish on the bank, isn't it?

[01:09:51] There's more fish throughout the year.

[01:09:53] And I think that is the way it is.

[01:09:56] So I will always go for presentation over effectiveness.

[01:10:01] Come on.

[01:10:08] Yeah, I don't know if he— did he get it in again?

[01:10:10] I don't know.

[01:10:18] I thought that was it.

[01:10:24] He's feeding so good.

[01:10:27] This is exactly the feeding situation you don't want.

[01:10:32] Their mouths are so close to the bottom and they're moving so slowly.

[01:10:38] Yeah, it's a really good example of that, isn't it?

[01:10:40] It is, yeah.

[01:10:41] And then even if— I don't know if the hookbaits are going fully in,

[01:10:45] but they're sort of going in and out so quickly.

[01:10:48] It's not like they're going down and taking it and it's

[01:10:50] like deep in their mouth.

[01:10:51] No, they're not engulfing it. Engulfing.

[01:10:56] The brown pop-up is infinitely better.

[01:11:03] Oh, he's been forced back down because of that fish.

[01:11:06] What fish is it?

[01:11:08] Is it piglet?

[01:11:11] Date hole? Yeah, it could be day owl.

[01:11:13] Come on, date hole.

[01:11:16] He's not far away from you. You only just pressed record.

[01:11:19] No, I pressed it the other time.

[01:11:21] Come on, turn right, turn right, turn right, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it.

[01:11:25] Did he eat it?

[01:11:31] The rig had been done again, but it did give us more proof

[01:11:35] that the Honey Goo hookbait was definitely more attractive than what we'd been using,

[01:11:39] certainly more than the bright pop-ups.

[01:11:42] Feeding small items on this gravel is just causing aggro.

[01:11:46] They're too slow and too close to the bottom.

[01:11:49] It's either going in its mouth and they're doing it, or the hook point's gone over

[01:11:52] either way, it's just causing aggro.

[01:11:55] Yeah.

[01:11:57] You need a really short hook link on a bottom bait, really,

[01:11:59] to get them when they're feeding like this, but then you can't do

[01:12:01] it because of the bottom.

[01:12:04] As long as the rig kept resetting, which it was, and the hookbait kept being

[01:12:08] attractive, then we'd get another chance.

[01:12:10] But the day was very quickly quickly running out, leaving us with one more roll

[01:12:14] of the dice, and it was Crinkle who we were betting on.

[01:12:18] That's Crinkle, innit?

[01:12:22] Come on, Crinkle!

[01:12:26] Two of them right next to each other.

[01:12:27] Come on, upend!

[01:12:30] Upend, you idiot!

[01:12:33] Come on, Crinkle!

[01:12:34] Come on, Crinkle, save the day! Go on!

[01:12:37] Come on, come on, this is it,

[01:12:39] come on, yes!

[01:12:46] Oh my God, how upended is he?

[01:12:49] Go on, he's got it, he's got it, he's got it, yes!

[01:12:53] Yes!

[01:12:55] Yes!

[01:13:04] Come on, Crinkle.

[01:13:08] I mean, I'd prefer all this weed not

[01:13:11] to be on my line, but come on, Spooner.

[01:13:19] Come on.

[01:13:30] Yes! Is he much smaller than we thought?

[01:13:36] Oh God.

[01:13:39] Oh, sweet, son.

[01:13:43] It's crinkle as well, mate.

[01:13:46] He sucked that hook bait in.

[01:13:48] We have learned— well, we've learned that definitely yellow

[01:13:53] and definitely definitely pink are not the ones.

[01:13:55] That brown one has been, I reckon, in 4 or 5 mouths.

[01:13:59] It's Crinkle. He was in from the very beginning.

[01:14:02] First one that we had feeding.

[01:14:03] The very first one that fed on the spot.

[01:14:05] Yeah, true.

[01:14:06] I loved it that we caught OG Crinkle straight away.

[01:14:09] He was the first, like you said, he was the first one in.

[01:14:11] He was eating loads of grub and he was one of the ones that we had

[01:14:16] sort of gauged the size on. Yeah, it was.

[01:14:18] Yeah, he got a little bit bigger in it.

[01:14:20] I remember seeing him when he rolled and I was Oh, God, he's not as

[01:14:23] big as I thought he was.

[01:14:24] It's like when you see a famous person on telly and you see them in real life

[01:14:27] and they're much shorter than you think they are.

[01:14:28] Do you know what, though?

[01:14:30] It's a perfect way of going into tomorrow.

[01:14:32] Oh, yes.

[01:14:33] We've got a hookbait that they definitely like, and we've got a spot where we've

[01:14:37] seen the big ones feed, and we've got Crinkle in the net.

[01:14:40] Get in there, boys!

[01:14:42] Yes!

[01:14:44] I think it had to be between him and Butler.

[01:14:46] Yeah, they were the two, weren't they? They were there from the start.

[01:14:48] From the get-go.

[01:14:50] Yeah, but yeah, OG Crinks.

[01:14:53] There he is, old Crinkle Boy. Come here.

[01:14:58] Little mouth. Yeah, tiny little mouth.

[01:14:59] I didn't realise it was that small.

[01:15:01] I actually thought it was damaged, but it's not.

[01:15:02] It's just a tiny little mouth.

[01:15:04] Solid as a rock.

[01:15:06] Proper barrel little fish he is.

[01:15:08] He's eaten, I reckon, 4 kilos of Cell, and Essential Cell.

[01:15:12] My hook bait's been in his mouth twice we think, and we got him third time lucky.

[01:15:17] What a beautiful fish.

[01:15:19] We've watched him for so many hours.

[01:15:21] It's nice to have him on the bank, and to be honest,

[01:15:23] catching one is just a bit of a relief.

[01:15:25] We've been here for a long time already.

[01:15:27] These fish are very tricky.

[01:15:29] They're small water fish, and they're proving it, aren't they?

[01:15:33] They are indeed, but one has tripped up.

[01:15:36] Fitting that it's the first one that fell on the spot.

[01:15:38] Yes. We've learnt a lot as well.

[01:15:40] The yellow ones and the pink ones aren't it.

[01:15:42] And we've got a spot just on the other side of the lake that

[01:15:46] the big'un is feeding on.

[01:15:48] There's lighter gravel, and I think we're going to catch the big'un.

[01:15:51] Watch this space.

[01:16:01] We know now for a fact that the big'un, the crème de la crème, the 60lb fully,

[01:16:07] has fed on this spot in the last 24 hours.

[01:16:11] Huge pressure. You're using your Jag eye?

[01:16:13] I'm using me Jag eye.

[01:16:15] Does that work with them blue moon glasses?

[01:16:18] Yeah.

[01:16:18] Whilst I couldn't wait to put a rig in front of it, there were

[01:16:21] a few things stopping us.

[01:16:23] A, fish were in there feeding immediately, which is the first time we've seen them

[01:16:27] there since putting the proper camera in.

[01:16:30] And B, light levels around this part of the lake were much lower,

[01:16:34] so the viz wasn't completely ideal.

[01:16:37] Sitting on me hands, getting me rig ready so that everything's

[01:16:40] perfect, because it's not every day you're putting a rig on a spot where, you know,

[01:16:44] a 60-pounder fed the day before, is it?

[01:16:48] No, the pressure's on today, isn't it?

[01:16:50] Every time I see a glimpse of anything, I'm like, is that it?

[01:16:53] The facts are it's probably within 10 yards of this spot.

[01:16:56] It's probably in the snag just to the left, and it's probably eating

[01:16:59] some of these boilies this morning.

[01:17:01] So often when one hookbait proves to be successful, every fish

[01:17:05] is willing to take it.

[01:17:06] So I went in with the 12mm Honey hookbait that had caught OG Crinkle,

[01:17:12] this time as a wafter due to the spot being a typical fine gravel,

[01:17:16] which is my go-to approach.

[01:17:18] It was still a spinner made up of 7 inches of 25lb Boom and a size 4

[01:17:23] Krank fished on a lead clip.

[01:17:24] The most nerve-wracking cast and presentation I've ever

[01:17:29] had to put in the water.

[01:17:30] We're lucky it's under arm.

[01:17:32] I think we're screwed otherwise, aren't we?

[01:17:36] Carp was stirring up the nearby clay areas, feeding on the bait that had rolled

[01:17:40] down the shelf from the previous night, which was annoying for camera viz,

[01:17:45] but fishing-wise, a little bit of murkiness to disguise

[01:17:48] everything is exactly what we want.

[01:17:50] Exactly what you want.

[01:17:52] It's another major take-home for us.

[01:17:54] Light levels are so important.

[01:17:57] It's no coincidence that when it's been ultra clear and bright, fish are more

[01:18:01] cagey and more aware of our rigs and line.

[01:18:04] As soon as dusk comes, or you're fishing a spot with cover

[01:18:08] or it's just a cloudier day, carp feed with much less caution and are

[01:18:13] much more likely to take your hookbait.

[01:18:16] Though, we just had to wait for a clear moment to deploy the rig.

[01:18:21] He's a decent common.

[01:18:22] He's a nice one, rounded.

[01:18:24] He looks like the old tolpits common.

[01:18:26] Did you fish tolpits? No.

[01:18:29] There was a lot of traffic and a lot of bait eaten, which was

[01:18:32] really clearing the viz.

[01:18:34] I mean, are we just going to record constantly on this?

[01:18:37] Well, it's like bloody London Aquarium down there, Gail.

[01:18:40] It is.

[01:18:41] We were even visited by some familiar faces.

[01:18:44] That's OJ Crinkle.

[01:18:45] What's he doing up here? What's he—

[01:18:46] he's just had a hook in his mouth.

[01:18:48] They're all up here, gal.

[01:18:51] With the fish traffic slowing down, it was about time to get the rig out.

[01:18:55] I threw out a few handfuls of 15mm Essential Cell, partly to get the distance

[01:19:00] right because I couldn't afford to mess up the cast in a spot like this,

[01:19:05] but also we've seen this particle and small bait mix slow the carp down

[01:19:09] to a crawl, and using bigger baits would, in theory, make them move between

[01:19:14] mouthfuls and make them easier to catch.

[01:19:20] Yeah, we'll take it.

[01:19:22] Yep, go on, slacken off and get out of there.

[01:19:25] We couldn't fish like this on the other spot, so it felt like we

[01:19:28] had a real chance now.

[01:19:38] Fish! Yes, mate, he's close to you already.

[01:19:44] Really close. First one, he's very, very close to you.

[01:19:48] Where's the pop-up there? Uh, what's the—

[01:19:50] there, it's just— if he keeps coming—

[01:19:52] what fish is it?

[01:19:54] Don't know, but he's very close.

[01:19:56] Come on, come on.

[01:19:58] He's not a small one, is he?

[01:20:01] Might be that common.

[01:20:03] Oh no, he's not small.

[01:20:04] There might be another one behind it as well.

[01:20:07] I'm really pleased because obviously you're in there for quite a long time.

[01:20:11] I'm hyped. I feel hyped.

[01:20:13] But you're in there, you know, you're baiting up, you know,

[01:20:15] you're within inches of them.

[01:20:17] I'm having to spod to clear the weed. Yeah.

[01:20:20] Then get the line down.

[01:20:21] I've done all that and they're in that quickly.

[01:20:24] It's far more relaxing when it's not your rig out there.

[01:20:30] I'll have hairline like you in a couple of hours, hopefully,

[01:20:33] and I can have a go at you for the next 10 years like you had me.

[01:20:42] Get off your phone! Oh!

[01:20:44] It actually made me jump.

[01:20:45] I'd send an email, don't you mind?

[01:20:47] I don't care, mate. I don't care, mate.

[01:20:50] The carp were definitely more cagey with the rig in the water.

[01:20:54] We were using heavier stuff than we normally would because we were essentially

[01:20:57] fishing for one fish, a 64lb fully, if we hadn't already made that clear enough.

[01:21:04] So that could have been causing the rest of the stock to be more wary.

[01:21:08] In order just to perhaps make the swim a little bit more attractive,

[01:21:11] I've just crushed up some boilie, laced it with Smart Liquid,

[01:21:14] and just dropped a few, almost like little groundbait balls

[01:21:16] of crumb and chop, and they've landed around the hook bait,

[01:21:20] and they're just breaking down now.

[01:21:22] Just put a little bit more taste in the water, see if we can

[01:21:25] entice them back down again.

[01:21:27] The juge worked in that fish were coming through, but not a great

[01:21:30] deal dropped down.

[01:21:32] Just swirl back down and eat.

[01:21:35] They are just not— they know we're fishing for them, don't they?

[01:21:39] I think Crinkle did yesterday.

[01:21:40] Yeah, he did. Apparently they're eating on your spot.

[01:21:42] Your spot. Your spot today.

[01:21:44] This spot. The spot down there.

[01:21:46] No lines in the water.

[01:21:47] They've barely— when we've been there fishing from, they've barely ate

[01:21:49] at this time of day down there.

[01:21:51] I'll tell you what I'm going to do, which is going to be interesting.

[01:21:54] I'm going to change over to fluorocarbon tomorrow.

[01:21:57] See if they—

[01:21:58] just see what their reaction to it is.

[01:22:00] Yeah. Good shout.

[01:22:07] Oh my God, you just squirted your sausage all over me again.

[01:22:13] Unlike my sausage, it ended up being an anticlimax.

[01:22:17] Rather than stubbornly fishing the spot waiting for perhaps a non-existent chance,

[01:22:22] I decided to reel it in and return to the chunky gravel spot for the evening.

[01:22:27] But despite a rig change to solid bags, which apart from the

[01:22:30] occasional close call—

[01:22:32] pick it up.

[01:22:34] Just keep going.

[01:22:36] Oh, did nothing to change our fortunes.

[01:22:41] A day full of promise fizzled out into a pretty sad end.

[01:22:46] Well, it's currently

[01:22:54] Sunday the 4th of May.

[01:22:57] The lads are due to come back tomorrow.

[01:22:59] They've been away for a couple of days seeing the family.

[01:23:01] Dovey wasn't very well, but anyway, that's not what you want to hear about.

[01:23:05] They're due to come back tomorrow.

[01:23:07] We've been keeping an eye on the spot, keeping the bait going in,

[01:23:09] and the reaction has been insane.

[01:23:12] I don't know how well you can see that, you'll have the footage anyway, but yeah,

[01:23:17] the reaction's been absolutely insane.

[01:23:20] The fish are super confident, clearing out the spot as we speak,

[01:23:26] and they just can't get enough of it.

[01:23:28] There's 4 fish in frame right now, all feeding.

[01:23:33] Hopefully this continues when the lads turn up tomorrow.

[01:23:36] Where is that fully?

[01:23:37] I don't know, but I don't think it's too far away at all.

[01:23:48] Fully rested and having gotten over being ill, we hit the ground running.

[01:23:53] Little, little slag.

[01:23:56] Having the weekend away meant we had well and truly rested the spot.

[01:24:00] We had gotten too excited when we saw the big'un feeding on it before,

[01:24:04] and when we moved on it the following day, the fish just backed off when really we

[01:24:09] should have primed it a bit longer for them to gain confidence, which,

[01:24:14] from the look of it, they definitely had.

[01:24:16] Look at that one in front of the— Well, that is insane.

[01:24:19] The crew had fed the spot consistently while we were away,

[01:24:21] and the carp were on it.

[01:24:23] So much so that they had blown in a fair bit of debris which might cause problems,

[01:24:28] but that's fishing and it couldn't be helped.

[01:24:30] Sorry, not sorry.

[01:24:31] Yeah, we're trying to catch the bloody big ones.

[01:24:34] Taking notes from Spooner's session and what we've learned so far,

[01:24:37] I'd made changes to the rig.

[01:24:39] It was still a spinner, but now I was using a Snowman,

[01:24:42] and because it was essentially a bottom bait, I like to fish that on a lead clip

[01:24:45] with a Hybrid Stiff hook link and a little bit of putty on the hook,

[01:24:48] but more on this later.

[01:24:51] With the amount of carp on the spot and ideally needing to get it out first

[01:24:54] time, it meant getting the rig in was a nightmare.

[01:24:57] Yeah, this would be a stupendous time to put a rig in.

[01:24:59] And the surface weed wasn't helping, meaning we'd have to drag a Spomb through

[01:25:03] it just to clear some space for the line.

[01:25:06] Carp back on spot now.

[01:25:10] Right, I know you don't want me to put the pressure on, but this is

[01:25:11] a fantastic time to put the rig in.

[01:25:13] Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

[01:25:16] Oh, he's back feeding anyway.

[01:25:21] Ready, rolling.

[01:25:26] Yeah, it's bang—

[01:25:28] it's literally bang centre.

[01:25:30] I mean, it didn't look like it kicked away as neatly as Spoon's.

[01:25:32] I can't really see how it's landed, but I might— I can see your hook

[01:25:35] bait in terms of sitting in the spot. That's pretty good.

[01:25:39] I would take— I would definitely take that.

[01:25:45] And now we wait.

[01:25:47] Yeah, I don't think we're gonna be waiting too long before there's something.

[01:25:49] Not necessarily getting a bite, but I think there'll be— there's one!

[01:25:52] There you go.

[01:25:54] And we're back.

[01:25:55] Let's see if they see the line or not.

[01:25:57] Oh, big common!

[01:26:03] See, on an incredibly Good line.

[01:26:09] Oh, come on, this will be funny. I need to get my waders on.

[01:26:16] Does he know there's something wrong?

[01:26:24] Is he feeding behind it, or is he—

[01:26:27] that is a decent common, isn't it?

[01:26:29] Yeah, it's not the one with the Please, is that little Butler?

[01:26:38] We've got to catch Butler.

[01:26:41] He's eaten half of the bait we've put in the lake, no matter where we put it.

[01:26:58] Come on, decent common.

[01:27:04] Get up that shelf.

[01:27:05] Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up.

[01:27:11] Come on, come on.

[01:27:17] Oh my God, that was close. Oh, it still is.

[01:27:19] It's in. Is it in?

[01:27:22] You got him, you got him!

[01:27:28] Boys, can we get my waders?

[01:27:52] Reminiscent of Dan and Damo, mate.

[01:27:55] Put my waders on.

[01:28:01] Cheers, buddy.

[01:28:05] Try and get around here.

[01:28:22] Right, okay, okay, that's a bit insane.

[01:28:39] Might have to get out the boat for this.

[01:28:45] Whatever you need to, mate.

[01:28:49] Yeah, get— jump in the boat, lads.

[01:28:52] Is it moving?

[01:28:57] No.

[01:28:58] Okay.

[01:29:08] I think it's quite a good common. It looked good.

[01:29:12] Certainly bigger than Butler anyway.

[01:29:13] I think Butler was out the back with it.

[01:29:20] Tell me what you want me to do, Tom, when you want me to do it.

[01:29:22] I can get that if you want.

[01:29:31] Yep, okay, mate.

[01:29:41] There we go, we saw a kick then.

[01:29:42] Yeah, we're on still, right?

[01:29:44] Um, do you want me to net it?

[01:29:45] Huh? Oh God.

[01:30:00] Lovely, these little rods. Great, aren't they?

[01:30:03] Do you think he's 30 pounder this.

[01:30:05] Well, he looked it.

[01:30:06] Just, um, back off with it with the engine so we're out of there.

[01:30:11] So we're out?

[01:30:12] Yeah, just go out.

[01:30:13] I don't want to— we're drifting into the snag.

[01:30:16] Mike do you wanna swap sides.

[01:30:17] The fish is turning us, mate.

[01:30:19] The fish is Just reverse out.

[01:30:27] That was absolutely quick.

[01:30:30] That's the quickest spot in underwater ever.

[01:30:31] It must be. Got to be, innit?

[01:30:33] Do you know what that shows? The importance of pre-baiting.

[01:30:37] Yeah, the rig's good, obviously, because it works straight away, but it

[01:30:39] means a lot when they take it confidently.

[01:30:42] Yeah, that just— whoosh—

[01:30:44] didn't even think about it.

[01:30:45] It was almost like like he was on the spot where the bait was for a while.

[01:30:52] This is so tense.

[01:30:53] I just really want to get this in.

[01:30:58] Here we go.

[01:31:11] Get in there!

[01:31:13] Yes, boys!

[01:31:18] That is insane.

[01:31:20] We have been here about 45 minutes.

[01:31:25] The rig had been in the water 5 minutes, I reckon, 10 minutes maybe at a max.

[01:31:29] Maybe.

[01:31:31] First fish that come in had a little snuffle.

[01:31:33] Second one came in, nailed about 4 boilies, and then

[01:31:38] Took my Essential Cell with a little yellow tipper on top,

[01:31:41] and it is a decent 30lb common.

[01:31:44] Get in there!

[01:31:46] What have we learnt?

[01:31:47] We've learnt that this rig is very decent first time off the bottom as well.

[01:31:51] The one that you weren't so confident in being.

[01:31:52] Well, I just thought they're not normally as good as pop-ups, and second of all,

[01:31:57] baiting up is so, so important if you can do it.

[01:31:59] It means they're very confident.

[01:32:01] They're coming in looking for the food.

[01:32:03] And they'll even take a bit of disturbance.

[01:32:06] Right, let's go back to the bank.

[01:32:08] get in there.

[01:32:15] When I look back at when I was, if you like, trying to catch a specific

[01:32:20] carp, pre-baiting played a massive part.

[01:32:25] Being able to go down to the lake when you're not fishing just to put—

[01:32:28] there was never a lot of bait.

[01:32:29] I was never putting kilo upon kilo in, but I could go down after dark,

[01:32:33] put a couple of hundred, maybe 300 boilies into the same area with regularity.

[01:32:37] It feels like when you then go fishing, it feels like you've got a cheat code.

[01:32:42] Yeah, you have, because you've got fish eating in an area with no lines.

[01:32:45] They've got like a free meal, and all of a sudden there's three little

[01:32:48] rigs dotted amongst them, and you do catch quickly.

[01:32:51] Yeah, maybe not the one you want quickly, but you know, you've got it going.

[01:32:54] It's going to be so much easier to get a fish to pick up a boilie off of a spot

[01:32:58] if he's already eaten 1,000 off of it.

[01:33:00] 200. 200.

[01:33:02] Sorry, 200, 300. No, but it is, though, isn't it?

[01:33:04] If they've been confidently eating there and every time they see a bait there,

[01:33:08] they go and pick it up and it's not got a hook on it, by the time it has got

[01:33:10] a hook on it, they're eating it properly. And this proves it.

[01:33:13] That's what we saw. They're eating it confidently.

[01:33:15] And if you can get them eating confidently, then you catch them.

[01:33:19] Cell everywhere.

[01:33:21] Don't want the bank, don't matter about that.

[01:33:23] That's for the rats. Get it for free.

[01:33:31] What a cracking bit of fish that is.

[01:33:35] 34lb 10oz common and probably one of the ones that's been in the swim,

[01:33:39] this one and the shallow end, to be fair, over the last 9 days.

[01:33:43] This filming is tough, but it's so rewarding when

[01:33:45] it happens quickly like that.

[01:33:47] Like I said, we'd been baiting for the last couple

[01:33:49] of days without putting a rig in there, and that meant this fish was really

[01:33:52] confident when it took back the hookbait.

[01:33:54] And it did, it was really confident, got him straight away.

[01:33:58] Gives a massive thumbs up for that rig, and I'm obviously just really pleased

[01:34:02] to get a decent one on the bank like this.

[01:34:04] Thank you very much.

[01:34:07] Let's go and tell his big old fully pal.

[01:34:11] Cracking fish, that.

[01:34:19] He's slow, but he just had the hook bait in his mouth for a long period of time.

[01:34:24] He's opened and closed his mouth a couple of times with it in there

[01:34:27] because he's just so confident. And then you get him.

[01:34:30] And everything was perfect.

[01:34:32] He came in at the right angle.

[01:34:34] My lead is to the left here, isn't it?

[01:34:37] The hook link's dead straight.

[01:34:38] And it's come onto it like that and it's just got him straight away.

[01:34:42] What a good moment, Gal.

[01:34:44] It's gone in and closed his mouth.

[01:34:47] It didn't tighten the hook link or nothing.

[01:34:49] No, it was towards it. Yeah.

[01:34:52] Pre-baited, good hook bait, good rig.

[01:34:55] Carp fishing.

[01:34:56] Yeah, completed it.

[01:34:58] What you saw there was practically real time.

[01:35:01] It was as quick as you'd possibly want.

[01:35:03] Now the rig and a bit of bait was back out.

[01:35:06] Unfortunately, the spot had sprouted a bush in the commotion.

[01:35:09] I'm not so keen on the bush.

[01:35:11] want it trimmed back a little bit on that one.

[01:35:14] Yeah, prefer it just not to be there really.

[01:35:16] Any at all?

[01:35:18] No, prefer it without it.

[01:35:24] You would prefer it without it.

[01:35:25] We did well there.

[01:35:27] I was really trying to look at the screen.

[01:35:29] I would prefer it without the bush there though, especially at the top there.

[01:35:32] Well, yeah, because they do often come in from the back there,

[01:35:35] don't they, from the snag.

[01:35:36] I don't know whether the spot's just looking better the more vegetation there

[01:35:39] is in there, do you know what I mean?

[01:35:41] Yeah, I do.

[01:35:43] Yeah, I get this a lot.

[01:35:50] Oh, he's looking, he doesn't like it.

[01:35:53] I think he's got a mouthful. has he?

[01:35:56] Yeah, I'm more in the camp of that they see things now and look.

[01:36:00] Are you, yeah, a little bit.

[01:36:03] Yeah, I still think the most important thing obviously is that you get them

[01:36:07] feeding right, and that's whether you can pre-bait or not, you know.

[01:36:11] Yeah, create the right feeding environment, they get confident,

[01:36:14] and that's it done.

[01:36:16] Yeah.

[01:36:23] It's a bit worrying that it's just him coming back all the time.

[01:36:28] He might do a butler though and get the others.

[01:36:30] That's just what I was going to say. This could be the butler of this zone.

[01:36:33] He's going for your hook bait.

[01:36:35] Okay, yeah.

[01:36:38] He doesn't like something.

[01:36:39] It's this light, I'm telling you.

[01:36:44] He's not coming into the light.

[01:36:45] Stokes saw the same thing during his time at Carplantis.

[01:36:49] Whether or not carp can see in detail, enough to spot rigs is debatable,

[01:36:53] but they definitely are able to discern light and dark.

[01:36:56] We see it time and time again when light levels dip, whether that's approaching

[01:37:00] nighttime or the spot clouds up a bit, carp are easier to catch,

[01:37:04] and the effect is even more apparent on these shallow, clearwater spots.

[01:37:08] We've seen carp eat around the spot and around structures that provide cover

[01:37:12] way before they get to the spotlighted parts, and I believe that would be true

[01:37:16] whether our rig was there or not, but the fluorocarbon mainline did seem

[01:37:19] to help confidence levels this morning for the bite.

[01:37:22] But then we had pre-baited for a number of days, so the jury's out.

[01:37:26] I would say pay attention to light levels in your fishing though,

[01:37:29] especially on clear lakes.

[01:37:30] It's not quite the smoking gun, but there was a bit more cloud cover

[01:37:34] at this point and the carp were definitely starting to move back in.

[01:37:37] Another one.

[01:37:41] Some regularity back on this spot now.

[01:37:43] Yeah, it has been an hour and a half-ish.

[01:37:49] Yeah, another one over the top of you.

[01:37:51] Oh, he's gonna be close, he's gonna be close, very close.

[01:37:54] Is he gonna take the pie? Is he gonna take it?

[01:37:56] No, but he was very close.

[01:37:59] Two different fish, these.

[01:38:00] He came straight down in that zone though, didn't he?

[01:38:03] Yeah.

[01:38:06] We're going to get a chance soon.

[01:38:09] Yeah, I don't recognise that one.

[01:38:10] No, quite a nice carp though. Quite a big one.

[01:38:12] He's feeding well.

[01:38:13] I tell you what, that 0.33 fluorocarbon thin nano tubing,

[01:38:19] they're not seeing that as much as they were the other kit.

[01:38:24] Agreed. They're definitely not.

[01:38:27] Agreed.

[01:38:28] I'm going to get a chance here, gal.

[01:38:30] Bush or no bush, which is personal preference, of course.

[01:38:34] In this case, it was obstructing the carp.

[01:38:38] That's done exactly what you just said, that bush.

[01:38:40] Yeah, it's diverted him off, innit?

[01:38:43] But again, this would all be unknown usually, and when you might be expecting

[01:38:47] a bite and you don't, it could simply be something totally random like this.

[01:38:53] Into the background, don't they?

[01:38:55] I don't know, but he's on a good line. He's low enough.

[01:38:56] He's on a great line if he doesn't see my tip.

[01:38:59] Another one coming in this way.

[01:39:01] What one is it?

[01:39:03] Go on, go on, go on.

[01:39:05] Oh, didn't spook, just didn't drop at the right angle.

[01:39:09] Which one's this one?

[01:39:11] Is that a liner, do you reckon?

[01:39:16] Oh my God, he could feed right behind him here.

[01:39:21] He's going down. Is he going to take it?

[01:39:23] Is Is he going to take it?

[01:39:24] He's going to take it, surely.

[01:39:29] I beg to differ.

[01:39:32] That was very close.

[01:39:35] Oh, it's a common, that one.

[01:39:36] You can't tell, can you?

[01:39:37] Because there's another one coming in here.

[01:39:40] It's going to be the biggun. Be the biggun.

[01:39:44] This is when we want the biggun to come in.

[01:39:46] Yeah, bit of cloud, bit of excitement in the area.

[01:39:57] It's a common.

[01:40:01] Just turn up out of the blue. He's a good'un.

[01:40:07] He's close. He's close.

[01:40:09] He's close on the close.

[01:40:12] Come on, come on.

[01:40:13] One more, one more, one more.

[01:40:15] Come on, he's looking at it. He's looking at it.

[01:40:17] One more. He's going to take it.

[01:40:18] No, he fed next to it.

[01:40:20] He fed next to it.

[01:40:21] He's going to take it.

[01:40:22] He's not going to take it.

[01:40:27] Oh God, that was so close.

[01:40:29] That was very, very, very, very close.

[01:40:34] He's crying.

[01:40:39] He's a nice common, that.

[01:40:41] Is that a nice classic shape?

[01:40:46] Yeah, he is. I don't think he's very big.

[01:40:49] Oh, that one.

[01:40:50] This is what I wanted it to be like all along.

[01:40:52] Here we go.

[01:40:54] I thought that was Butler for a minute, but it's not.

[01:40:57] Got the wrong Mui.

[01:41:00] Scaley 20.

[01:41:02] Another one coming in.

[01:41:03] Two more coming in.

[01:41:04] I've got to get a chance here, gal, haven't I?

[01:41:06] Turned away.

[01:41:08] He's turned the one— they've all turned away, Tom.

[01:41:10] What great footage this is.

[01:41:13] If you, if you take out of the, um, equation the one you hooked, okay,

[01:41:18] that came in off the back of being very confident, 2 days of feeding,

[01:41:22] all of these have done what you'd expect fish to do over a bed of bait—

[01:41:27] eat around the edges first.

[01:41:29] They're doing exactly what a stereotypical carp should, or we expect to do.

[01:41:33] Yeah, no, 100%.

[01:41:34] It's like if you, if you put them out with the spod,

[01:41:36] it'd be your left-hand rod that goes, not your middle.

[01:41:37] Yeah, exactly. This is your middle rod.

[01:41:39] Exactly.

[01:41:39] You are bang in the middle of the spot, so it's going to get a chance.

[01:41:42] It might just take a bit longer.

[01:41:44] I hear you, Neil.

[01:41:48] Come on.

[01:41:58] Dive bombed, oh he wanted that one.

[01:42:00] He could see your one and have that.

[01:42:02] Up, pace, up, pace, up, pace.

[01:42:05] What are you doing?

[01:42:06] He's chewing.

[01:42:08] Here he goes, another little snuffle.

[01:42:11] Come on, you entered me screen on here, so I know you're close.

[01:42:15] He's close.

[01:42:16] Oh, I think he heard us. I think he heard us.

[01:42:22] How close was that?

[01:42:26] Still not, still not going to get it in the mouth yet.

[01:42:29] No, neither is a lot of that bait around the hook bait.

[01:42:31] No, no, no, middle section.

[01:42:34] They're still tidying the spot up for you.

[01:42:37] Come on, give us enough time for that biggun to come in, please.

[01:42:40] Let's make it all happen, all of us.

[01:42:43] Question for you.

[01:42:47] I'm just imagining it going into swim.

[01:42:49] So We've seen on other underwaters when

[01:42:53] you've got the hook bait bang on, they come in and charge at it.

[01:42:58] You've caught on it.

[01:42:59] Do you feel it's the right hook bait?

[01:43:01] Sorry, do you feel it's the perfect hook bait?

[01:43:03] I don't feel it's the perfect hook bait, but what I don't want to do,

[01:43:08] because there's two scenarios for me.

[01:43:10] There's one where you're about to get a bite here, so you're already recording.

[01:43:16] This is going to be close.

[01:43:18] Looking too much.

[01:43:21] Yeah, there's two scenarios for me.

[01:43:23] One in which you want them to eat the hookbait first,

[01:43:26] and another where you think they love the bait and they're eating a lot of it.

[01:43:30] Yeah, and we know that they're eating loads of bait.

[01:43:33] You're already recording?

[01:43:34] Yep.

[01:43:34] You know they're eating loads of bait, so I want something that's

[01:43:37] pretty hatchy-matchy.

[01:43:39] Hatchy-hatchy, hatchy-matchy.

[01:43:41] I agree.

[01:43:42] I think there's another hookbait you could try that you might get a quicker bite,

[01:43:45] but it's not necessarily the be-all and end-all.

[01:43:47] No, and I can't put 3 rods out there and see what one works best,

[01:43:51] which is what I would normally do. No.

[01:43:53] If I put the wrong hookbait out in here, I miss the chance.

[01:43:56] So I'm better off with something that I know works most places

[01:44:00] that will get picked up. That's close.

[01:44:03] That's really close. That's in.

[01:44:05] That's in his mouth.

[01:44:06] Yeah, yes!

[01:44:15] It was only a matter of time.

[01:44:19] Still recording, Tom.

[01:44:26] I don't like being that close to your Johnson, I'm not going to lie.

[01:44:36] That's right, that's right.

[01:44:43] Oh my God, this is absolutely

[01:44:47] stripping me, this thing.

[01:45:00] That rig don't half get them quick, don't it?

[01:45:02] Yeah, instant.

[01:45:05] If that's in, that is not coming out.

[01:45:08] You going to try and, Where you going? I'm going to dive down here again.

[01:45:15] Oh God.

[01:45:24] Trying to get away from the snags.

[01:45:29] That was smooth.

[01:45:35] Made that look easy.

[01:45:39] This fish absolutely stripped me to the left-hand side.

[01:45:48] Justin, the owner, had said he'd got rid of all of the snags,

[01:45:50] so it's safe down there, but you never know if it's just a little

[01:45:52] twig or something down there, it might nick the line.

[01:45:54] So I needed to come down here to the right-hand side to get them

[01:45:57] in the main swim and keep most of the disturbance away from down there as well.

[01:46:02] Do you want to net this, Tom, as you're out further?

[01:46:05] Yeah, all right.

[01:46:15] It just looks so good.

[01:46:17] Like, if you were just fishing out now in this swim, you'd be so confident of bites.

[01:46:22] The wind's pushing down here, there's cloud cover.

[01:46:24] It's been so sunny the last week.

[01:46:27] So the conditions have worked perfectly for us today.

[01:46:31] The weed cover on the spot, the baiting for 2 days, and now rigged as 1-in-1.

[01:46:38] Dan!

[01:46:52] We knew it was close though.

[01:46:54] There was more and more fish coming in and they'd eaten so much of the bait.

[01:46:59] Yeah, he's thinking about it.

[01:47:01] Get in there! Well done, Thomas.

[01:47:07] Yes!

[01:47:07] Another one for the Essential Cell with the little bit of Pineapple Pop-up

[01:47:13] on top with a spinner rig,

[01:47:18] size 4 spinner hook, and a putty,

[01:47:22] blob of putty on the bend of the hook.

[01:47:25] Straight away that gets them without any worry at all.

[01:47:34] Okay, so the fish is sitting down in the net there, and I've got my rig

[01:47:36] ready to put back out on the spot.

[01:47:38] Thought I'd show you through it quickly.

[01:47:40] It's nothing mental, but it is slightly different to what I use normally.

[01:47:44] So instead of having the thicker tubing on there, I've used a much

[01:47:46] thinner tubing called Nano.

[01:47:48] It's, I don't know, probably half the size of the normal Dark Matter tubing.

[01:47:52] This is still Dark Matter.

[01:47:53] It's got Tungsten in it, so it sits on the bottom.

[01:47:55] I've got 0.33 fluorocarbon there instead of like 0.38 or 0.40 normal nylon.,

[01:48:01] and this just means that you can't see it as much.

[01:48:03] It's very shallow and very clear here, so I'm trying to be a little

[01:48:05] bit more inconspicuous.

[01:48:08] And instead of the pop-up rig I put out before, I've still got a spinner rig,

[01:48:11] but there's a few changes to it.

[01:48:12] So instead of having the Boom hook link, I've got a Hybrid 20lb hook link.

[01:48:16] It's still stiff enough for it to sit out dead straight, but with a bottom bait,

[01:48:19] I want just a little bit of more movement on the hook when it goes

[01:48:22] into the fish's mouth.

[01:48:24] And then on the hook end, here is something quite

[01:48:27] different to what I usually use.

[01:48:29] That is a size 4 Spinner hook with a little bit of putty on the bend

[01:48:34] of the hook, and that means that the hook will sit flat on the bottom like that,

[01:48:38] and this Mini Snowman that's not particularly bright or different to what's

[01:48:42] out there will just sit over the top of the hook.

[01:48:44] But what that putty does do is that when this goes into the fish's mouth,

[01:48:48] that makes sure that hook swings round and this gets them in the scissors

[01:48:51] or in the bottom lip.

[01:48:53] I've been using this for a couple of years now.

[01:48:54] I thought it was good., but it's very, very good.

[01:48:58] 2 out of 2. I will take it.

[01:49:00] That biggun is coming in soon, I'm telling you.

[01:49:04] A similar effect can be made using the shot on the hook.

[01:49:07] I just quite like using the putty in this case because it looks neater

[01:49:10] due to its low profile.

[01:49:11] But realistically, both the shot on the hook or the putty

[01:49:14] will work as well as each other.

[01:49:17] Yes. Yeah.

[01:49:18] Oh, that's good. That's in the zone.

[01:49:21] Okay, would you say this is more like one of your left-hand or

[01:49:24] your right-hand rods now? I would say so.

[01:49:25] You're on the edge of your right-hand spot now.

[01:49:28] I like him as a little rogue off the right.

[01:49:30] You like that, don't you, Neil? I like that.

[01:49:32] I like it as well.

[01:49:40] Here he is, the old boy.

[01:49:42] Lovely little chestnutty mirror, probably about 16, 17 pounds.

[01:49:46] And one to build the confidence, let me tell you.

[01:49:50] That's 2 out of 2 now on that rig.

[01:49:52] I'm extremely confident now that if anything comes in, I'm going to get it.

[01:49:57] And I feel like it might be a real big one soon.

[01:50:00] Cracking little fish.

[01:50:01] He's been in there obviously for a long time eating them boilies.

[01:50:04] They absolutely love them in here.

[01:50:05] Love to see it.

[01:50:07] I'm going to put him back because my rig's on the spot and I'm excited for another.

[01:50:10] You watch, we'll get it tomorrow when it's my turn.

[01:50:12] And there'll just be nothing left because he's either caught them

[01:50:14] all or spooked them. Great.

[01:50:18] I can't believe they're back in so quickly.

[01:50:20] That's crazy. That is mad.

[01:50:22] Bearing in mind you walked all over the spot, the fish shredded you down

[01:50:24] the right, you basically played in over the top of the spot and they're

[01:50:28] just back in straight away.

[01:50:29] This is the power of pre-baiting.

[01:50:31] Honestly, there isn't many chances you can do it these days because obviously you

[01:50:35] don't want to bait next to somebody that's fishing, but if you have an opportunity

[01:50:38] like this, that's in a snag, you can walk around your lake each day.

[01:50:43] If the fish have eaten thousands of boilies off of the spot,

[01:50:46] they are definitely more willing to take your hookbait quickly,

[01:50:49] and they are more willing to come back into the swim once you've caught one.

[01:50:52] 100%. Here he comes.

[01:50:57] I think.

[01:50:58] Look.

[01:51:01] 11-11. Here we go.

[01:51:02] Big'un's going to come in.

[01:51:06] Oh.

[01:51:09] Keeps hitting me on the head.

[01:51:11] And you need to have 4 weeks hoping you'll get it down in two.

[01:51:15] Yeah, there's one is one, is one, is one.

[01:51:17] Glasses off.

[01:51:18] He's on the good line, mate.

[01:51:20] He is on the right line. He's on the right line.

[01:51:22] Go on, go on. Is he going to take it?

[01:51:23] Yes, yes, he's done you.

[01:51:26] He's actually done you.

[01:51:28] Did you get done?

[01:51:30] Properly got done.

[01:51:31] Yeah, the hook bait went into his mouth.

[01:51:32] I don't know whether the hook I did, but—

[01:51:34] 4 words, gentlemen, and I'm going to sign off.

[01:51:36] Shot on the hook.

[01:51:38] Hang on, hang on.

[01:51:39] That's still 2 in 3, though. I'm happy with that.

[01:51:46] Let's have a look back on that.

[01:51:47] Right, Dan, we're going to go.

[01:51:50] That does go to show what we were saying is that we were going to get

[01:51:53] a quicker pickup on that.

[01:51:55] Almost none of the boilies have gone, and that's been in a fish's mouth.

[01:52:00] That's very, very different to what happened before when the hookbait

[01:52:02] was in the centre of the spot.

[01:52:05] That's why it's always worth having 2 rods on a spot.

[01:52:07] We can't here because it's so tight.

[01:52:09] It's like a little tiny snag spot, but normally if this was out in the lake,

[01:52:13] I'd have one in the centre of the spot and have one on the outside,

[01:52:15] and that means as soon as they start feeding, they can eat

[01:52:17] a few and you can get one.

[01:52:20] And then I would often leave my middle rod until they eat the rest of the bait.

[01:52:24] I think.

[01:52:27] Until they eat the rest of the bait and you get one off the centre of spot,

[01:52:30] then you know most of the bait's gone.

[01:52:31] You need to put more bait out and put both your rods out.

[01:52:33] That's how you can get into a real swing of catching a lot off of a spot.

[01:52:37] Hook link's still sitting all right.

[01:52:38] I mean, it's going back a little bit towards the lead, but I'll take it.

[01:52:43] Carp were continually in for most of the afternoon.

[01:52:46] Come on, turn, turn, turn.

[01:52:48] This is close. Turn round.

[01:52:49] Turn around, turn around.

[01:52:51] Oh, that's a fatty common.

[01:52:53] Not massive, but he's a nice fish, isn't he?

[01:52:58] He's a nice one, isn't he?

[01:52:59] He's nice.

[01:53:02] That's probably the biggest one we've seen for a while, I would say.

[01:53:05] For a while, yeah.

[01:53:07] Yeah.

[01:53:07] And in typical fashion, they were constantly feeding right

[01:53:10] on the edges of the spot, and weirdly, the majority right over Dovey's line.

[01:53:15] Which just goes to show how undetectable that 0.33 Kontour fluorocarbon is.

[01:53:21] But it does prove the point that the rigs that are often the first

[01:53:24] to go are on the outer edges.

[01:53:27] But when you get the right hookbait, which is absolutely irresistible,

[01:53:31] then it almost doesn't matter.

[01:53:33] They'll eat it first wherever it is.

[01:53:36] But what makes the right hookbait?

[01:53:38] That is the million-pound question. What is a good hookbait?

[01:53:40] A good hookbait is one that gets picked up a lot.

[01:53:42] The carp want to eat.

[01:53:44] Yeah, and you find it by testing things out.

[01:53:46] And you also, you, you test it out over a short period of time during your trip.

[01:53:50] So you can put 2 or 3 different colours and flavours out and you can

[01:53:53] find out what happens then.

[01:53:55] And you're also naturally testing it over a long period of time, aren't you?

[01:53:58] Yeah, because over them trips, okay, the yellow's won again,

[01:54:02] the pink's won this time,

[01:54:04] and you gauge what ones are good or not.

[01:54:07] And normally for me, that's a pineapple pop-up.

[01:54:09] And that's why we keep going back to them on this trip.

[01:54:12] Yeah, we put out what you feel is your most successful hookbait

[01:54:16] over a long period of time.

[01:54:17] Mine, it's been Isotonic or Pango in more recent years.

[01:54:21] Without doubt, when I've got them two sat out there, I think, well,

[01:54:24] they're going to eat it.

[01:54:25] It's as simple as that.

[01:54:27] Yeah, you can play around with things, but over a long period of time,

[01:54:30] you'll tend to know what's best anyway.

[01:54:34] I think he's smart, that one.

[01:54:41] Or cautious, not smart.

[01:54:52] Maybe it's a 28-pounder.

[01:54:55] This is a chance here.

[01:55:00] There's another one coming in from the back as well.

[01:55:03] There's the common.

[01:55:06] Yeah, no, the common's about 22-23 pounds.

[01:55:09] Another one in from the right. There's loads in here.

[01:55:12] There's 4 or 5 in and around the zone.

[01:55:14] 13, 14.

[01:55:18] Bare fish.

[01:55:20] Who wrote that yesterday? Bare fish.

[01:55:26] We like it!

[01:55:39] Come on, come on, come on, come on,

[01:55:44] go on tilt, tilt, tilt for it—hang on...

[01:55:51] That could be in his mouth.

[01:55:54] I think I've got done there.

[01:55:55] I think you've got done there.

[01:55:57] Has it moved though?

[01:56:00] Yeah, he's spooked. Yeah.

[01:56:02] I did say he was going to be difficult. You did.

[01:56:04] But did it go in?

[01:56:05] See, look at that hook sitting on the hook link now.

[01:56:10] Brings me back down to 50/50.

[01:56:17] Is that a really achievable— is that a good line?

[01:56:20] Is that a good line? Is that scaley 20?

[01:56:22] No.

[01:56:23] Yeah, you could like achieve the line there.

[01:56:25] Is it? Might be.

[01:56:27] No, it's not. Just want to get him.

[01:56:29] Plain Janer.

[01:56:31] Oh, now we've seen him before though.

[01:56:32] We've seen him at the other end, them little starburst pattern.

[01:56:35] He's on it, he's on it, he's in it.

[01:56:37] No, no, didn't go any— he's got it that time.

[01:56:40] Oh, that was done badly. Royally done.

[01:56:47] That was properly in his mouth.

[01:56:50] Has it straightened it out now though?

[01:56:52] I reckon it's now sitting better.

[01:56:55] Please, Lord, I'm gonna get another chance here.

[01:57:00] Yep, I'm gonna get another chance.

[01:57:01] Nice, the common.

[01:57:04] He is super. Your rig looks perfect now.

[01:57:08] He's cautious, he is.

[01:57:09] He's not an idiot, that one.

[01:57:13] It was going so well.

[01:57:16] I think what we can take from this is your rig needs to be sitting out straight.

[01:57:20] Yeah, it's really, really, really important.

[01:57:24] If it's not, it goes in and out of mouths.

[01:57:28] It's mad how quickly it changes.

[01:57:30] 20 minutes ago it looked perfect.

[01:57:31] Now it looks like you're almost fishing a single.

[01:57:34] Don't it? Yeah, it does.

[01:57:35] Yeah, they've eaten a lot.

[01:57:37] Yeah, I reckon we're putting in about at least 2/3, maybe a kilo every

[01:57:41] single time we put bait out.

[01:57:43] It's just a better feeding scenario here now than it was at the

[01:57:45] beginning of the trip.

[01:57:47] Completely different, actually.

[01:57:49] Yeah, I do actually think this is where a slightly shorter hook link would work.

[01:57:58] Yeah, when you get fish like that not moving as much.

[01:58:01] Yeah. Yeah.

[01:58:03] Everything else around the scenario will tell you whether you should catch or not.

[01:58:08] Fish are jumping on your spot, they're fizzing, you're getting liners,

[01:58:11] and then it all stops.

[01:58:13] Then you can bet your bottom dollar they've been in and cleaned you out.

[01:58:16] And if them scenarios arise, then you have to start thinking,

[01:58:20] maybe I haven't got the right thing on the end, or I'm not presented.

[01:58:24] But because we fish rigs that are presented a lot of the time, it's often

[01:58:29] the hookbait that we'll change first.

[01:58:32] So that's where, I guess, experience in certain situations will tell

[01:58:38] you whether you should change it or not, but I think it's quite obvious when you

[01:58:42] feel like you should be getting a bite.

[01:58:45] The wind looks good, the fish are jumping near you,

[01:58:47] the weather's warm, getting liners, all them sort of things.

[01:58:50] If that's happening, then you ain't getting picked up.

[01:58:52] You got the wrong thing on the end.

[01:58:54] My stomach feels a bit bad.

[01:58:56] You gonna like explosive everywhere?

[01:58:58] Maybe in my waders.

[01:59:01] Can I ask a favour? They're my waders.

[01:59:04] Leave them on. Do you need not in them?

[01:59:07] Okay.

[01:59:09] Fair, innit?

[01:59:14] Lewis, my good man, could you pass me that bag there, please?

[01:59:17] That's the one. That's the kidder.

[01:59:19] That's the very fellow.

[01:59:21] That is the very fellow.

[01:59:24] That's the very fellow.

[01:59:26] Always travel light and don't take too many pots of pop-ups.

[01:59:30] Don't take too many pots of pop-ups.

[01:59:32] Only take what is absolutely necessary, because what you'll find yourself

[01:59:36] in the situation is you'll be trying to get your rods out, you'll be like,

[01:59:39] which one shall I go for?

[01:59:40] And you're just not going to know.

[01:59:42] Travel light, don't go with many, have a couple of different colour options.

[01:59:46] You don't need to have loads and loads of different flavours of the same colour.

[01:59:53] Normally what I find is that you can get, you can get the ones that you

[01:59:57] really need just in your rucksack.

[02:00:00] You don't need to bring, you don't need to bring

[02:00:04] a whole separate bag.

[02:00:06] Travel light.

[02:00:08] Life is great.

[02:00:14] Okay, come on.

[02:00:18] Come on, have a look at that bait.

[02:00:21] You've come back, you've realised it's the same one,

[02:00:24] you've realised there's more bait down there, and now you're going to go and tell

[02:00:26] your boys, and then you're going to come back with your boys.

[02:00:30] I think that was a cute common, that one. Is that what you thought it was?

[02:00:33] No, no, no, it's that mirror that come around before with a flat belly, big back.

[02:00:37] That's what you've got to call him, flat belly, big back.

[02:00:42] After a good look through the billion pots of hookbaits, I settled on a slightly

[02:00:47] heavier washed-out pink wafter, very underwater 7, just to see if I could

[02:00:51] get a bite before we got cleaned out again.

[02:00:54] On retrieve, I hooked the bush and managed to get it out of the swim, and instantly

[02:00:58] carp were coming in from that angle.

[02:01:01] That tree might have been doing you dirty without us realising.

[02:01:05] Really doing us dirty.

[02:01:09] Oh, what's this one?

[02:01:11] Nice one.

[02:01:12] Go on, go on, go on, straight down, straight down.

[02:01:15] Did he take it? No.

[02:01:19] I don't know what happened there.

[02:01:21] It looked like he was absolutely bang on. We'll have to watch that.

[02:01:25] Where has it gone? Still here, look.

[02:01:27] It's just moved.

[02:01:28] It's moved. It's like he scooped it.

[02:01:29] I don't know if he actually got that in his mouth.

[02:01:31] I don't think he did.

[02:01:33] Do it again.

[02:01:35] Well, did you see exactly what happened? You moron.

[02:01:37] No, watching it again is not going to show me anything, is it?

[02:01:39] No, let's have another look.

[02:01:42] You're unbearable sometimes.

[02:01:45] Yeah, no, he didn't. Do you think it did?

[02:01:48] No, I didn't the first time.

[02:01:50] That's why I said it, because when I watched it the first time,

[02:01:52] it was exactly the same as when I watched it again.

[02:01:56] Exactly.

[02:02:01] Okay, mate, we've been up a long time.

[02:02:05] We're both getting a little bit tetchy.

[02:02:08] You're pushing my buttons.

[02:02:10] I'm pushing your buttons.

[02:02:27] They know it's there, I'm telling you. You reckon?

[02:02:29] I really do. You reckon?

[02:02:31] Yeah. What's this one like?

[02:02:33] Any good?

[02:02:36] How close are you to that?

[02:02:37] That's not a bad angle for the light one.

[02:02:39] Come on, take it. No, he's not gonna.

[02:02:41] Is the other one gonna take it?

[02:02:43] Are you going to take it?

[02:02:45] Is anyone going to take it? Can you just take it?

[02:02:47] He's going to take it.

[02:02:49] He done you. He done me.

[02:02:52] That's 2.

[02:02:53] That's 1. He took it though, didn't he?

[02:02:59] He took it. Told you, mate, that flavour is good.

[02:03:04] This is getting not good now.

[02:03:06] That's 3 at least, I think.

[02:03:08] It is. Going to watch that again.

[02:03:10] 2 on the bounce and then 3.

[02:03:12] No, no, no, no, no.

[02:03:14] Going to watch it?

[02:03:15] Oh, yeah, I'd love to rewatch that, yeah.

[02:03:18] You wanted to watch it last time. Yeah.

[02:03:20] No, because I just didn't know whether it went in the mouth last time.

[02:03:22] This time it definitely did.

[02:03:25] I think there's too much slack with this hook link now.

[02:03:27] It's not sitting out right.

[02:03:29] I had concerns that with the fish moving slowly between baits,

[02:03:33] this 7-inch Boom was too long.

[02:03:35] A slow fish needs a more spiteful, shorter rig, so I went back to the 5½

[02:03:40] inches of 25lb Boom that I fish with the pop-ups.

[02:03:44] The pink wafter dumbbell was still on, so we'd see whether or not the shorter

[02:03:47] rig would make a difference.

[02:03:51] That's Butler, isn't it?

[02:03:54] Looks like little Butlers' head.

[02:03:56] It's a long way out, but I feel like we can ID him from there now.

[02:04:00] We're close with him, aren't we?

[02:04:03] Well, we thought that until he was cheating on our spot, remember?

[02:04:07] And it's not until you have another spot that you realise who people really are.

[02:04:12] I'll bet he's eat on the others.

[02:04:13] I wouldn't put it past him.

[02:04:15] No, no, no, you know what he's like, little slag.

[02:04:17] It turns out this spot is pretty much a morning/afternoon

[02:04:21] spot with the traffic really slowing down.

[02:04:25] I decided to make up a little bait mix composed of Essential Cell crumb and whole

[02:04:29] boilie, Cell, sweetcorn, and some Cream Smart Liquid in prep for my

[02:04:34] turn in front of the cameras the next day.

[02:04:37] But seeing how great of a friend I am, I put out a few handfuls for Dovey,

[02:04:42] and a carp was in as it was dropping.

[02:04:44] There's a fish in already!

[02:04:48] But it ended up being just a lone flyby.

[02:04:51] That lone flyby took a bit of a turn. Back it up.

[02:04:56] There's another one behind. Is that his fin?

[02:04:59] No, there's another one. There's another one.

[02:05:00] They've just rocked back up, and they like Christmas.

[02:05:03] That's got in their gills, hasn't it?

[02:05:09] Right, now we get to see if this slightly shorter and stiffer hook

[02:05:13] link is doing the do. Is that butler?

[02:05:16] Yep. I ate you.

[02:05:18] Butler. No, don't be horrible to Butler.

[02:05:20] No, you don't know what that saying means, do you?

[02:05:22] That common ain't that big, because Butler weren't much smaller.

[02:05:28] There used to be a comedy back in the day called On the Buses.

[02:05:32] Neil, I don't care.

[02:05:33] That's why I'm saying I ate you, Butler, because it was a saying off the bus.

[02:05:35] Oh, right, okay.

[02:05:36] For God's sake, just trying to have a little chat with you.

[02:05:38] Yeah, I'm just— all I want to do is— do it, watch it.

[02:05:41] Big girl, big girl.

[02:05:42] All I want to do is just see these fish eat my bait.

[02:05:47] Is that one?

[02:05:48] Oh, he's facing the other way.

[02:05:51] Oh, you can see the hook bait now.

[02:05:54] Oh, yeah. See him?

[02:05:55] That's got a nice level of waft to that. You like that, don't you?

[02:05:59] I do like that.

[02:06:00] What's happened here?

[02:06:02] That's got to have been the zhoosh.

[02:06:04] It's got to have been.

[02:06:05] There's no way that that's a combination.

[02:06:06] What time did I put that in?

[02:06:07] Because you didn't film, did you?

[02:06:09] I did film briefly.

[02:06:11] So probably, so 18:31,

[02:06:15] 3 fish come in to feed.

[02:06:20] Oh, is it the—is it the—

[02:06:22] probs 15 mins after introducing.

[02:06:31] Oh, is that on a good line?

[02:06:33] There's 2 of them here, is there? Keep an eye out, Neil.

[02:06:35] It's 3.

[02:06:36] Yeah, I know, but right near the hook bait.

[02:06:38] I can't see anything here.

[02:06:40] Come on, Tom.

[02:06:42] He's coming in. Drop down.

[02:06:44] There's another big—

[02:06:46] that's a big perch.

[02:06:47] I thought it was a decent fish.

[02:06:51] Nice common in.

[02:06:52] What is going on here?

[02:06:55] What is in the juice?

[02:06:57] Another one.

[02:07:00] You're joking.

[02:07:03] That's the same common. Yeah.

[02:07:05] Oh, he's turned.

[02:07:08] Where is the bait? Where is the bait?

[02:07:09] The other side of his head.

[02:07:11] That's not the cute common, is it?

[02:07:15] It's been so long since I've seen him.

[02:07:17] It could be, you know, actually.

[02:07:19] He's feeding a little bit less cute, though.

[02:07:22] That Juju's got him all riled up. It really has.

[02:07:30] They've just been sitting out the way, a bit bored.

[02:07:35] Now, come on, couldn't be further from the truth.

[02:07:42] You love to talk some rubbish, right?

[02:07:44] That's— there's Butler's on the line, isn't he?

[02:07:47] Is that you there? Yeah.

[02:07:52] Oh, that's just spooked off something.

[02:07:55] Might be a big one coming in.

[02:07:58] Dun dun.

[02:08:00] Unfortunately, the washed-out pink continued to underperform for us.

[02:08:04] A lot of fish were about.

[02:08:05] It's like a jacuzzi.

[02:08:07] Look at these fish.

[02:08:11] Mate, I really say this hookbait isn't— My yellow one would have

[02:08:16] been picked up by now.

[02:08:18] Do not think, mate.

[02:08:27] Have you ever seen so many?

[02:08:28] Look how many fish are in the swim.

[02:08:31] It's carnage.

[02:08:44] I should reel in, really.

[02:08:47] Oh my God.

[02:08:50] Wow.

[02:08:52] I can't quite believe that.

[02:08:55] They have just ruined the film.

[02:09:00] Do you think I should reel in?

[02:09:03] There's a lot of fish in here now, mate.

[02:09:05] I can see it now.

[02:09:07] It's there.

[02:09:13] He might, he might.

[02:09:15] Scaly 20 is in the zone.

[02:09:18] Oh my goodness, another one's about to come into the zone and he's upending.

[02:09:23] Come on, I can't see a thing.

[02:09:26] The thing is, I'm not reeling in now because we can't see it.

[02:09:29] No, it's there, I think.

[02:09:31] No, it was higher than that.

[02:09:36] One's coming down on it now, is it?

[02:09:39] I think not.

[02:09:43] I didn't think it was going to stir up like this.

[02:09:54] Blimey, this has got very murky very quickly.

[02:10:00] A lot of carp in it.

[02:10:04] Wow.

[02:10:05] It's crazy that that hook bait hasn't gone in their mouth yet.

[02:10:09] I know there's quite a bit of bait out there now.

[02:10:11] Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is it, though.

[02:10:13] I think that is— that still looks like a dumbbell to me.

[02:10:16] Is it you?

[02:10:17] It does, but is it—

[02:10:21] in which case, it might have moved slightly.

[02:10:26] But I think that's just from— he's reversing it.

[02:10:30] I think that's just from how hard they were feeding.

[02:10:33] I don't think it got picked up.

[02:10:43] Good line, good line. Looks very good.

[02:10:46] Good line. It's gone in.

[02:10:51] Did it go in?

[02:10:53] Looked like it.

[02:10:54] We'll have to watch that one back.

[02:10:56] When it's like this, I really should be getting far more opportunities.

[02:11:01] One thing we can take from this, though, a little Spomb or two when things have

[02:11:04] died down is more than enough to spark up feeding.

[02:11:07] Just do a better job than us with hookbait choice.

[02:11:10] In hindsight, the Match the Hatch Snowman with the little yellow topper would have

[02:11:14] been better, seeing how they were chomping through the bait.

[02:11:17] When the carp were finally going for it. Yeah, go on.

[02:11:20] I just get done anyway. I think I just got done.

[02:11:24] He went for that. He definitely went for it.

[02:11:26] Oh, for science, I ended up switching back to a yellow pineapple goo pop-up just

[02:11:31] to see if something very blatant would at least get some reaction

[02:11:34] in the final half hour or so. Here we go.

[02:11:39] Oh, he didn't like the pop-up being on the spot.

[02:11:42] I don't think it was the pop up, but something had made the carp far

[02:11:45] less confident as the day progressed.

[02:11:49] It's not funny, mate, this is the worst chair ever.

[02:11:53] It is funny though.

[02:11:55] We'd had a couple and got done a fair few times, so it might have been

[02:11:59] the constant pressure all day.

[02:12:02] I'll tell you what, you can say what you want about Butler.

[02:12:06] Little slag. Little slag.

[02:12:08] Cheek! I can't believe him.

[02:12:10] The little cheek. The little—

[02:12:12] I hate you, Butler.

[02:12:14] But he's very crafty. Yeah, he is.

[02:12:17] He's eaten more.

[02:12:18] He's got to have eaten more bait than any other carp on both spots.

[02:12:22] Yeah, I'd say so. Hasn't he?

[02:12:24] And he's got away with it constantly.

[02:12:26] With a few more close calls to round the day off.

[02:12:28] What a lovely carp he is.

[02:12:30] Got beautiful little nose.

[02:12:31] What are we going to call him?

[02:12:34] Beautiful linear.

[02:12:36] He's got to be on the hookbait.

[02:12:37] I think he's just left of it. Oh, he is.

[02:12:39] Look, it's there.

[02:12:41] It looked as if the pop-up experiment didn't pan out.

[02:12:45] I would say the take-home from that day is that if you pre-bait and get them feeding,

[02:12:51] you'll catch them on almost anything.

[02:12:53] And I'm not saying that my rigs and the bait are almost anything, but I'd

[02:12:57] say that it doesn't matter so much.

[02:13:01] What you've got out when they're feeding really hard.

[02:13:04] You've done the hard work, haven't you? The hard work's done.

[02:13:06] You've got them eating on the spot, they're eating the bait that we're putting

[02:13:08] out, they're cleaning it out regularly, so your hookbaits then being in situ,

[02:13:13] it's just like another thing they think they can safely eat.

[02:13:16] They almost don't question it.

[02:13:17] Yeah, and it's going in their mouth and staying in there longer because

[02:13:20] they're not sort of skittish and worried about the whole thing.

[02:13:24] It just makes a huge difference.

[02:13:25] It's very difficult important now to pre-bait lakes because a lot of lakes

[02:13:30] have rules to say that you can't do it.

[02:13:32] Lakes that you are allowed to, you don't want to put lots of bait out

[02:13:36] next to somebody and ruin their fishing, so you have to pick and choose

[02:13:39] your times that you can do it.

[02:13:40] But if you can, it essentially makes fishing easy.

[02:13:44] That's the reality of the situation, isn't it?

[02:13:46] 100%.

[02:13:47] So we still learn that the hookbaits are good and we still learn

[02:13:50] that the rig was very good.

[02:13:52] But the main reason that them bites occurred was because we pre-baited.

[02:13:57] One thing I would add as well is that we had essentially pre-baited on the other

[02:14:02] spot, but the only difference was the chunky gravel.

[02:14:06] That is the only difference.

[02:14:08] Kev had found the spot probably 4 days before we fished it.

[02:14:12] 3 days, certainly.

[02:14:14] Yeah, found it on the drone.

[02:14:15] We started putting bait out, then we put the camera in.

[02:14:17] I reckon it was 3 or 4 4 days of them feeding on that spot.

[02:14:19] So essentially that was pre-baiting.

[02:14:21] So the situation was the same.

[02:14:22] We'd moved on to a spot, the fish were on it, but you couldn't present.

[02:14:26] So that's the difference between

[02:14:28] chunky gravel and sand, very clearly.

[02:14:37] The dwindling traffic the previous evening must have continued overnight,

[02:14:42] as the bait we'd put out before signing off for the day unfortunately hadn't

[02:14:46] been eaten as much as we hoped.

[02:14:49] I had planned to put out an Almond Goo high-attract pink-tipped Essential Cell,

[02:14:54] and something standing out that much over this much bait solidified the choice.

[02:15:02] Mm. Why does it only happen to you, though?

[02:15:05] That didn't happen to me once on that chair yesterday.

[02:15:07] A Match the Hatch or even a yellow one, we felt, would have taken

[02:15:11] too long to be noticed. This is—

[02:15:14] yeah, it is, mate.

[02:15:16] Yeah, this is weird though, do you not think?

[02:15:18] Yeah, very. Don't really make any sense.

[02:15:20] I know it's the first day back on bait yesterday, but that ain't gonna— no,

[02:15:23] they must do it in a day.

[02:15:24] No, like I say, another chilly night, sort of two back to back.

[02:15:28] It was a very slow morning, and seeing as the little juge worked

[02:15:32] wonders the previous day, I decided to go out and put a bit

[02:15:36] bit of fresh scent into the swim.

[02:15:39] J-E-U-G-E.

[02:15:50] When would you put it out?

[02:15:56] Um, it feels like it if you're going to put it in,

[02:15:57] maybe at the beginning of the trip. Yeah, exactly.

[02:15:59] If you're, if you'll turn up for 2 or 3 nights somewhere, going to somewhere like,

[02:16:02] let's say, Norton Disney, we know there's a lot of carp.

[02:16:05] That cloud that's going to fall through the water with lots and lots of little

[02:16:10] bits in, it's going to bring the fish in, it's going to get them rooting around.

[02:16:12] But I really believe that as soon as you get your first bite or two,

[02:16:16] that's the time to draw it back. Yeah, possibly.

[02:16:19] Bigger bits going in.

[02:16:20] If you've got fish competing, once they're competing on a spot

[02:16:22] and there's a regular supply of food coming in, I think they're

[02:16:26] going to carry on eating.

[02:16:27] And if you think it's gone quiet, maybe put a little bit out.

[02:16:29] The key is not to have it as a large percentage of your

[02:16:33] overall bait in the swim.

[02:16:35] Put a really small amount and not too often, because if you build that up

[02:16:40] on the spot, then you're in a difficult position to catch them.

[02:16:44] But, yeah, if you think it's quiet and you need a little juju out

[02:16:46] there, put a juju out.

[02:16:50] So many of them.

[02:16:55] It was probably a mix of it being extremely cold during the night

[02:16:59] and for most of the morning.

[02:17:01] I think even my is cold.

[02:17:03] And that the fish had just moved off.

[02:17:05] We had left them to eat unmolested for a few days, and through fishing for

[02:17:09] them, it perhaps just put them off a bit.

[02:17:12] It wasn't until nearly 11 that we even saw anything.

[02:17:16] To be honest, I'm bored out of my skin anyway.

[02:17:23] What? That is fair, Tom.

[02:17:25] By the time I get back, the old kettle will be boiled.

[02:17:27] I'll be warm. It won't be.

[02:17:28] There's a lot of water in there.

[02:17:29] It's like boiling a lake.

[02:17:31] hell.

[02:17:34] Maybe this is the start of a good year for me, and hopefully yours gets worse.

[02:17:42] Imagine if he comes down and now is your pink one.

[02:17:52] He nearly did.

[02:17:53] He nearly came in on that.

[02:17:57] Oh, but it's a feeder in the middle of the spot, Tom.

[02:18:01] That's the sort of behaviour you'd expect from a good hookbait.

[02:18:05] It wasn't picked up immediately, so not a great hookbait,

[02:18:08] but it clearly pulled the fish down to feed right on it in the the centre

[02:18:12] of the spot rather than nicking a few freebies on the edge.

[02:18:16] Though, that was the last fish we'd seen for over an hour before we decided

[02:18:21] it was time for another little juge.

[02:18:25] Little one.

[02:18:27] It's the same one that was in before.

[02:18:30] He's on a good line. I just think there's too much bait.

[02:18:32] The line he's taking is just a lot of bait there at the minute.

[02:18:39] Oh, see the juju going up.

[02:18:41] Yeah, Smart Liquid's doing its job there.

[02:18:44] Do you reckon we should ask Mainline to change the name of Smart Liquid to juju?

[02:18:48] I think Kev will be all right with that. Mainline Juju.

[02:18:50] Yeah, I think he'd be fine with that.

[02:18:51] The little juju definitely sparked a bit of activity.

[02:18:54] Come on, Neil, this is a good chance here.

[02:18:56] Thank you, Tom. Neil?

[02:19:02] Yeah, yeah. Thank you.

[02:19:04] For the next hour, multiple fish came in.

[02:19:08] Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

[02:19:11] Doesn't want it.

[02:19:13] He's too cute for that.

[02:19:14] But our initial excitement about the hookbait fizzled out the more

[02:19:17] time it was left untouched.

[02:19:20] Like we surmised earlier, or assumed earlier, though,

[02:19:23] we didn't think they were just going to come in on a bright one.

[02:19:27] No, they haven't done that. They've had every opportunity.

[02:19:29] Opportunity to just eat that, they ain't doing it.

[02:19:31] They want what's hard on the deck.

[02:19:34] Small waters, which this is one, are known for being tricky.

[02:19:40] They become riggy, or I don't know, I'm not convinced it's like that,

[02:19:44] the actual thing, but they're under a lot of pressure all the time, aren't they?

[02:19:47] Yeah, they're under a lot of pressure all the time.

[02:19:49] If you looked at just how many rigs a fish saw in a 3-acre lake compared

[02:19:54] to a single fish in a 100-acre lake.

[02:19:57] They're on a much quicker learning path.

[02:20:01] They're like essentially seeing 100 rigs a year, or 1,000 maybe, whereas one

[02:20:05] in a 100-acre lake will only see 10.

[02:20:07] So if they do learn or they do become wary of things, which I think they probably do

[02:20:14] just through nature, they become wary very quickly,

[02:20:19] and that's why they They're very, very tricky, these little lakes,

[02:20:22] and you can see that they're ignoring pop-ups,

[02:20:26] and maybe they're seeing the line and the lead core much more than

[02:20:30] a fish would in a big lake, I think.

[02:20:33] I think you're right, but what I think is important to remember

[02:20:37] is that we're trying to catch them right in the edge as well.

[02:20:40] You've got an alien camera that they're not used to being in.

[02:20:43] They're trying to get used to that.

[02:20:45] I would lay money if we if we'd have put the hookbaits that we started with out

[02:20:48] into the lake where we could see them feeding round the weed beds in the clay.

[02:20:52] If those rigs were in amongst that, I bet we'd have caught fish every night.

[02:20:56] We would have, but that doesn't stop the fact that they are trickier

[02:21:00] in small waters, I don't think.

[02:21:01] No, I agree with that.

[02:21:03] We definitely would have caught more in the clay.

[02:21:05] That's the other thing, is that it's always in a tricky situation, isn't it?

[02:21:09] That 4 foot of gin-clear water is probably the hardest situation to catch a carp in,

[02:21:14] so everything's exaggerated.

[02:21:15] Everything they know is exaggerated, whereas if you're in 10 foot of water

[02:21:19] and there's clay everywhere, as soon as they touch down, it clouds up

[02:21:22] and sort of obscures things a bit more.

[02:21:24] Yeah, you're getting them on anything.

[02:21:25] Yeah, basically. Cutie.

[02:21:29] It's cutie patootie.

[02:21:31] Oh, it's nearly gone in by accident.

[02:21:33] Mate, he was so close.

[02:21:36] Oh my God.

[02:21:40] He went for the whole thing and it nearly went in.

[02:21:44] The other thing is we've got quite stepped-up tackle on.

[02:21:47] We're fishing for big ones, really, aren't we?

[02:21:49] Yeah, true. Do you know what I mean?

[02:21:50] And these are not very big fish.

[02:21:52] These are, I think, the smaller batch of fish that are in here.

[02:21:56] Carp were hitting patches of bait without so much as an attempt on the hook bait.

[02:22:01] We like to say that if the fish are eating more than 50% of the bait before the hook

[02:22:06] bait, then it's a below-average choice.

[02:22:09] In normal fishing, this would look like fizzing over

[02:22:11] the spot, slicking up, or getting liners without a bite.

[02:22:16] I decided to go back to the old faithful Pango Goo-topped Cell bottom bait,

[02:22:21] which was practically a match-the-hatch compared with the Essential Cell Freebies.

[02:22:27] Mate, that nearly went in his mouth. Did he try for it?

[02:22:29] Yes, he did, and it—

[02:22:33] Is that old crafty as well?

[02:22:37] Oh, you saw it move then.

[02:22:38] It was crafty, but I'm telling you, that's already infinitely

[02:22:42] better than the other one.

[02:22:43] First fish that's fed next to it, it's gone in the mouth.

[02:22:44] That is not a coincidence.

[02:22:46] No. It was a promising start for the hookbait.

[02:22:49] Just the lack of fish traffic only gave us a handful of chances to properly test it.

[02:22:54] He wants it. He wants it.

[02:22:56] Come on.

[02:23:00] He might take that one.

[02:23:06] Here he comes.

[02:23:07] Come on, come on, come on.

[02:23:09] Okay, come on, come on. Good line.

[02:23:11] Come on. Very good line.

[02:23:13] Come on.

[02:23:14] No.

[02:23:15] You deserve one today, Neil.

[02:23:18] You've been very patient. It's been tough, Tom.

[02:23:20] You put a little zhu zhu zhu zhu out when you needed to.

[02:23:24] There's been no feeding on any other spots, but they've fed

[02:23:27] on here a little bit.

[02:23:28] Yeah, I think you've got the right hook bait out.

[02:23:31] Come on, come on.

[02:23:32] And I think, I think you still might get a chance before it's too late.

[02:23:35] Could be a chance.

[02:23:38] Not quite sure what that fish is, but 18:42.

[02:23:48] That's where he wants it.

[02:23:49] He knows it. Is that a mirror?

[02:23:52] I think so, yeah.

[02:23:53] He really is similar to Cutie. Yeah.

[02:23:55] Didn't get any of this with the almond pop-up with the pink, did we?

[02:23:58] None of it. No, they were ignoring it.

[02:24:00] In fact, when that was cast out, the common got closer and he

[02:24:02] just keeps circling it.

[02:24:03] He wants— look, here he goes.

[02:24:05] How much does he want it?

[02:24:07] Just take it, boitie.

[02:24:10] He spat at it.

[02:24:15] You make involuntary noise in this tent that you didn't know you made.

[02:24:24] It's going to be very hard to catch one carp on its own.

[02:24:27] Yeah, we do always say that, like, you need another one to sort of edge him

[02:24:31] on to go, oh, I'm going to get it first.

[02:24:34] The evening ticked away with practically nothing happening.

[02:24:38] A few single carp of the cutesy variety variety, which would have been hard

[02:24:42] to catch on the best of days, but it was a pretty nothing day.

[02:24:46] I don't even like underwater filming anyway, and we didn't have too many days

[02:24:49] left for me to actually catch one at all.

[02:24:53] The only consolation was that the other spots around the lake had

[02:24:56] basically no activity either.

[02:25:06] I do worry about this now, though. Got to be honest.

[02:25:13] Yeah, me too.

[02:25:15] Obviously, my day yesterday was the start of the decline.

[02:25:18] Been baited, had an amazing day's fishing, weather changes,

[02:25:22] they don't want to be here now.

[02:25:23] The odd one having a boilie here and there is not the one.

[02:25:27] The lake had shut up shop.

[02:25:29] There was no activity on our current spot, none on any of the backups,

[02:25:33] and the very few fish that were showing were over clay areas where we

[02:25:37] couldn't deploy the cameras.

[02:25:41] Tom was getting tetchy.

[02:25:45] The wind had changed, the weed had drifted off the spot, which

[02:25:49] meant we had lost their natural cover.

[02:25:51] What's worse, it was our final couple of days before we passed the baton over

[02:25:55] to Damo and Stokes, who were due to lend bringing their

[02:25:57] expertise to the underwater saga.

[02:26:01] We can't just let Damo turn up to this, can we?

[02:26:05] That's not fair. Waste of his time.

[02:26:06] It's a waste of everyone's time.

[02:26:08] We need a grand finale.

[02:26:11] We need something going on the last few days and it's just not— I don't

[02:26:14] think it's going to happen here.

[02:26:17] We hadn't seen any big fish since Dovey caught the 35-pounder,

[02:26:21] and with the realisation now firming up that the stock levels were definitely not

[02:26:25] as great as we were led to believe, and us essentially fishing for a single

[02:26:30] fish that we hadn't seen since that brief moment on the test cameras,

[02:26:35] we just felt like our final moments were quickly fizzling out.

[02:26:39] With no fish in the swim, there was no point in getting the rig out.

[02:26:43] If we've learned anything, the power of pre-baiting,

[02:26:46] or at least leaving a spot without lines for the fish to feed without pressure is

[02:26:50] actually a bit of a superpower in these small gin-clear lakes.

[02:26:54] So by the time I decided to put the rig in, the same wafter rig I'd caught

[02:26:57] the fish on previously with an Essential Cell hookbait

[02:26:59] with a Pineapple Goo topper, I'd hope I'd have at least a final

[02:27:03] chance of picking up one last fish.

[02:27:06] Go on, go on, he's going to take it, he's going to take it.

[02:27:10] Oh, did it go in? No, don't know.

[02:27:15] I'm not sure.

[02:27:18] I don't think it did.

[02:27:19] I don't know, Neil.

[02:27:21] I think it might have.

[02:27:24] The thing is, I can't look back because he's there.

[02:27:28] It was him as well.

[02:27:30] It's the one we said was catchable, and he's just— No, that's Butler, isn't it?

[02:27:33] That's not Butler.

[02:27:34] I can only see the two big scales.

[02:27:36] No, it's not Butler.

[02:27:44] Huh, look, look at him.

[02:27:53] Would you believe it?

[02:27:57] It's hard to tell, isn't it?

[02:27:58] Are we giving us— whatever, whatever, whatever you, whatever you want to say

[02:28:02] about that, it was a chance and he wanted it at at least though.

[02:28:06] Yeah, but that's getting done, isn't it?

[02:28:10] That's him sucking it in and me not getting him.

[02:28:12] Knowing when it's time to, if you like, reel in for a bit can only come down

[02:28:16] to either what you're experiencing that session or taking it back to,

[02:28:22] as I said before, when I was fishing for specific carp

[02:28:25] and you're putting bait into certain areas, I would kind of know very quickly.

[02:28:30] I would either catch a carp catch quickly or not at all, and then it felt like it

[02:28:33] was time to perhaps bait another zone in readiness for that one

[02:28:37] being quiet for a bit.

[02:28:39] But yeah, I think within a session though, if like, I would say, like,

[02:28:44] all good things don't last.

[02:28:46] And if you're fishing a spot that you're

[02:28:51] catching lots of carp from, you're not

[02:28:54] going to keep catching loads from it.

[02:28:57] And actually you're better off stopping when maybe when it just starts

[02:29:00] slowing down a little bit.

[02:29:01] If you're getting 2 or 3 bites at a time, if it's really going and it just starts

[02:29:05] waning off a little bit, that's the time to think, well,

[02:29:07] I'm going to rest, leave the rods out,

[02:29:09] put out 15 Spombs and give it a few hours because you want them to gain confidence

[02:29:13] again and you're killing the confidence by catching them every single time.

[02:29:16] So it's actually you're better off stopping and resting it at the top to sort

[02:29:20] of last out that period a little bit longer, I would say.

[02:29:23] Do you ever do that? I actually do, yeah.

[02:29:25] I'm guilty of not.

[02:29:27] Yeah, no, I do.

[02:29:28] Somewhere like Wraysbury is the perfect place to do that because it's not easy

[02:29:32] and it's not sort of like that in-between sort of thing.

[02:29:36] If you're fishing somewhere like Norton and there's lots of carp in there,

[02:29:38] then you can often carry that on for a long period of time.

[02:29:40] But somewhere that's sort of like mid-range easiness,

[02:29:45] I would say, yeah, understand that you're not going to keep catching loads,

[02:29:50] so give it a rest for a little while.

[02:29:51] It was clear that the fish were eating Cell, and maybe because I only had a few

[02:29:55] hours left, I switched

[02:29:57] to a straight-out-the-bag 15mm.

[02:30:07] At least 4 fish there.

[02:30:09] There's 2 in the gloom, 2 here. He is close.

[02:30:13] Oh, he turned away from that.

[02:30:16] It must be the It must be the tackle, mate, in this clear water.

[02:30:20] Something is chowing.

[02:30:23] Looks like a hurricane's just kicked up.

[02:30:27] That's how I'd imagine a mid-60 fully to feed.

[02:30:31] With gusto.

[02:30:38] Is he going down straight on it?

[02:30:40] Very close to it, Tom.

[02:30:42] Very close, very close.

[02:30:47] How's he not eaten that?

[02:30:49] That was just unlucky, I think.

[02:30:55] Got a question for you.

[02:30:58] You've got a question?

[02:30:59] Yeah, go on then.

[02:31:01] You called it unlucky.

[02:31:03] Ah, that's unlucky.

[02:31:06] Would you have called it unlucky if that had been your rod?

[02:31:16] Would you have called it unlucky if it had been your little snowman with a yellow

[02:31:19] tipper, or would you have said, he don't like that, ignored it?

[02:31:22] I'd have said he ignored it. You would, wouldn't you?

[02:31:24] Yeah, but I don't know how he could possibly ignore that.

[02:31:26] That's just exactly the same as everything that's out there.

[02:31:29] He was like eating on my hook link, you know, it was there.

[02:31:32] I agree, he can't have picked that out as being a dangerous item of food,

[02:31:37] but perhaps they weren't doing that before either, is what I'm saying.

[02:31:40] Perhaps. Perhaps.

[02:31:43] But they certainly weren't picking it out, which is what you go

[02:31:45] for with a bright one.

[02:31:47] Agreed.

[02:31:49] Day done, and I chalked up a fat zero for it.

[02:31:53] Oh, there's a little one.

[02:31:55] Little schnuffler. I'm not filming that, I can't even see it.

[02:32:01] Frustratingly, the only thing that we could take away is that when the lake is

[02:32:04] fishing hard, you can't really do much apart from rest the spot for a few hours

[02:32:08] and hope that when you go back, you're using the right hook bait, which so

[02:32:12] far has been a fairly fruitless search.

[02:32:22] This is your last chance. This is my moment.

[02:32:26] Imagine how much pressure I was under to finish this shoot with a carp.

[02:32:31] Now double it, because if I didn't catch, I'd have spent over 2 weeks blanking,

[02:32:36] which was not an option.

[02:32:39] Come on, Neil.

[02:32:41] Neil, this is it.

[02:32:43] This is it, time.

[02:32:44] Seeing the carp's reaction to the freebies,

[02:32:46] my opening approach to the day was a double 10mm Cell straight

[02:32:50] from the bag bottom bait.

[02:33:01] Neil, I'm not going to lie, you need to catch one today.

[02:33:03] Thanks, mate.

[02:33:04] I'm not putting the pressure on, but pressure's on.

[02:33:08] Okay.

[02:33:11] No pressure, but all the pressure.

[02:33:13] We were off to a good start.

[02:33:15] We'd seen some of our old friends.

[02:33:20] Like day one. Yeah, this is like 9 weeks ago.

[02:33:24] And even some new faces.

[02:33:28] A lot of men die at 50.

[02:33:31] You might only have 6 years left. You might do.

[02:33:37] Didn't like something, did he? No, definitely.

[02:33:39] Butler again though. Is it Butler?

[02:33:41] Yeah, sneaky little Butler.

[02:33:43] He didn't touch down, but something— I don't know.

[02:33:44] Did he touch the line?

[02:33:47] These fish are seeing here.

[02:33:50] I've never really been in that camp, but it is very clear.

[02:33:55] Classic Butler.

[02:33:56] If we couldn't outsmart him, then at least we could always count

[02:33:59] on him to get the party started.

[02:34:02] Right, you're in a good position here, Neil.

[02:34:05] Just— just—PMA.

[02:34:06] Just understand where you're at here. Come on.

[02:34:08] You've got 2 cell bottom baits on.

[02:34:11] They're eating loads of cells.

[02:34:13] 5 fish in the swim.

[02:34:15] This is it.

[02:34:17] Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

[02:34:22] On your tubing, on your tubing,

[02:34:24] on the close, on your tubing lead. Another one.

[02:34:30] Come on.

[02:34:38] Mate, there's loads. I can't handle this.

[02:34:40] 2, 3, 4, 5 at least.

[02:34:42] Can't handle this.

[02:34:44] What? I can't handle it, Gal.

[02:34:51] You've got to get one here, boy.

[02:34:53] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, maybe 6 now.

[02:34:59] One's just gone off there. 5.

[02:35:01] Yeah, there was 6. 6 carp.

[02:35:03] There's 6 carp in your swim.

[02:35:08] Carp soup.

[02:35:09] It is carp soup. It's carp soup.

[02:35:13] See, do you wish you had a brighter hookbait on now, or do you not?

[02:35:17] In my head, I'd say yes.

[02:35:19] That's only because you can see it better.

[02:35:21] But in reality, no.

[02:35:22] We've seen them not really go for them as such.

[02:35:28] I'm just hoping that they'll come across them 10mm's and eat them.

[02:35:31] Do you know what they will eat them with? Gay abandon!

[02:35:33] Oh, I thought he meant their mouth.

[02:35:36] Good line—

[02:35:36] drop down, go on, drop down, drop down, drop down, drop down, drop down,

[02:35:40] it has gone past him.

[02:35:46] I really want you to catch one now.

[02:35:51] I don't think I have ever wanted a bite more in my life.

[02:35:53] Really do not care about anything else at all right now.

[02:35:53] Really, really, really.

[02:35:55] I just— this needs to happen today.

[02:35:58] Just a lot of reasons.

[02:36:00] Mainly because we've been here a long time.

[02:36:03] Mainly because it would be your first ever underwater carp.

[02:36:06] Mainly because we're leaving today.

[02:36:08] Mainly because this is a massive chance.

[02:36:11] And what, wondered if there's any more?

[02:36:13] And also, I don't want you to look stupid.

[02:36:20] Do you know what I mean though? Yeah, yeah.

[02:36:22] I don't want you to look really stupid.

[02:36:27] You sound like you do a bit.

[02:36:30] Do you know what I mean? I don't want you to look like an idiot.

[02:36:34] He's on your lead, mate.

[02:36:37] Take it. Don't know where it is.

[02:36:39] We don't know where it is.

[02:36:40] No, that was just— that was an inch that way of your hook bait.

[02:36:45] Okay.

[02:36:47] Mate, I really don't want you to look like an idiot.

[02:36:52] Oh, there's one coming from behind as well.

[02:36:55] Mate, you've got to get one here, Neil.

[02:36:57] There's so many carp out there.

[02:37:01] Look at that, 4 dark shapes in a 4-foot square.

[02:37:06] Not even 4-foot.

[02:37:18] Oh no, it's just dragged me line off.

[02:37:20] Just seen it drag through shot.

[02:37:21] No, it hasn't.

[02:37:26] I don't Play into the whole,

[02:37:39] I've had an unlucky trip.

[02:37:43] Come on, mate, go and do it quick while they're out of the swim.

[02:37:49] I don't want him to look like an idiot here.

[02:37:51] Well, it was a complete disaster, wasn't it?

[02:37:54] Potentially the chance of the trip and the rig got dragged off by a massive liner.

[02:38:00] Though I chose to see it as an opportunity,

[02:38:02] potentially the 10 millers would drop inbetween the gravel,

[02:38:05] so I decided to go with a 15mm Essential Cell and 10mm cell straight from

[02:38:10] the bag with a little bit of cork in it.

[02:38:13] Like a sad snowman lying on its side.

[02:38:16] We'll go with a sad snowman.

[02:38:18] The weather was getting warmer, we were days away from the full moon.

[02:38:22] What was less than ideal conditions throughout this whole thing

[02:38:25] was quickly turning good.

[02:38:30] I couldn't waste this opportunity.

[02:38:33] It's visible. Yeah.

[02:38:36] Lead clip, anti-tangle sleeve, stiff boom setup works really well.

[02:38:40] Even with that heavy bait, it kicks it out like eff.

[02:38:43] I really like that.

[02:38:45] That's— you're getting a bite on this one.

[02:38:47] All right, we'll make a note.

[02:38:49] I'll make a note.

[02:38:50] Yeah, I don't hate that.

[02:38:51] You tell me you hate that. You can't.

[02:38:53] You can't tell me you hate that.

[02:38:54] Tell me you hate that. You hate fishing.

[02:38:56] You tell me you hate it. You hate catching carp if you hate that.

[02:38:58] You can't tell me you hate it. I can't.

[02:39:00] I ain't going to. You love it.

[02:39:01] That's why. It's because you love it.

[02:39:07] Your rig is very, very, very, very good at kicking out.

[02:39:11] Very, very, very good.

[02:39:13] did you put cork in it, little plug inside the 15mm, just to put a bit of buoyancy.

[02:39:17] Okay.

[02:39:18] But even so, it's still quite a heavy hook bait.

[02:39:19] It's not sitting up, is it?

[02:39:21] Sitting on its side, isn't it?

[02:39:23] Anti-tangle sleeve, boom, lead clip is— you ain't getting no tangles.

[02:39:27] No, you're not. And you're not getting them.

[02:39:29] And I use that a lot.

[02:39:30] Yeah, that hook bait is not sitting next to the lead either.

[02:39:33] No, it almost can't.

[02:39:36] It hasn't once landed next to the lead.

[02:39:38] No, not once.

[02:39:40] And if we've learned anything, a rig that is straightened out and sitting

[02:39:44] away from the lead is the absolute ideal.

[02:39:47] It's a spotlight.

[02:39:48] It looks like a comedian in an arena.

[02:39:50] It does.

[02:39:52] Everyone laughing at it.

[02:39:59] And we were about to hit another feeding spell after a little zhuzhin.

[02:40:04] It's weird because it's like you're putting out the little bits as well.

[02:40:06] It's making them definitely feed slower and close to the bottom, but they are

[02:40:09] eating all of the boilies as well.

[02:40:10] Yeah, so there's no— what— there's no reason they shouldn't eat the hookbait.

[02:40:14] No, I agree.

[02:40:16] I don't feel like I've got an oversized hookbait on because they are— well,

[02:40:19] we watched that one earlier, physically he only picked up a 15mm.

[02:40:22] They've been eating chunks of 15mm.

[02:40:25] Yeah, like very nice little piles of them.

[02:40:27] Don't talk about piles.

[02:40:29] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[02:40:31] Is there two there?

[02:40:33] Yeah, one above, one there, one there, one there.

[02:40:36] Yeah, come on, turn left, turn Just don't get a mad liner that scares

[02:40:43] them all and pulls you off the spot.

[02:40:44] That'd be handy if you didn't do that right now.

[02:40:47] Can't happen again, can it, Gal?

[02:40:49] Probably not.

[02:40:51] Yeah, he's going to be on a good line if he keeps coming.

[02:40:57] That hook bait is such in primo position, it's just that side

[02:41:00] of a few boilies as well.

[02:41:04] Come on, you alright there, babe?

[02:41:15] Yeah, mate.

[02:41:15] Come on, come on, tip down, come on, race for it, tip down.

[02:41:20] You both want it, you both want it. Oh, he's turned.

[02:41:23] I don't think any of them want it.

[02:41:25] They want this one from the right.

[02:41:30] Or this one from the right.

[02:41:34] You have to get a pickup. Come on, come on.

[02:41:36] He's going to take it. He's going to take it.

[02:41:39] Take it.

[02:41:50] What's this one? Oh, he might be the fish.

[02:41:54] Take it.

[02:42:01] Oh my God, that's an inch away!

[02:42:09] Just reverse a bit.

[02:42:15] I don't like him feeding right on my tubing.

[02:42:18] Is someone going to come behind though?

[02:42:21] Is that, is that weird?

[02:42:23] I can't believe that.

[02:42:28] Look at it on there now.

[02:42:34] So much feeding.

[02:42:43] OMG.

[02:42:45] Yeah, yeah, makes Something's got to happen here.

[02:42:49] Right, even if he's getting done,

[02:42:54] something has to pick that hook bait up.

[02:43:01] Go on, go on, go on. Is he in?

[02:43:04] Oh. I don't know if the hook went in or not.

[02:43:08] The bait definitely went in his mouth.

[02:43:12] Was that?

[02:43:16] No, it's not.

[02:43:18] Even if it's getting dark, something has to pick that hook bait up.

[02:43:24] I think I'd rather not know this was all going on.

[02:43:27] I ain't going to lie.

[02:43:29] I'd just like to be sat with a cup of coffee looking out, get a little,

[02:43:32] "They're about," and then a screamer.

[02:43:35] That's what I'd like.

[02:43:38] This is a lot.

[02:43:42] We can do more to get bites here.

[02:43:47] I don't know what it is though, because you put brighter baits on,

[02:43:50] they don't take them, but then you put match the hatch, they don't take them.

[02:43:55] Trebles?

[02:43:57] That was about 20 minutes of nail-biting activity only to end in an ejection.

[02:44:02] but the tension was about to get worse.

[02:44:06] The gang rocked up again.

[02:44:09] Tilt, tilt, tilt. He's gone past it.

[02:44:11] He's missed it.

[02:44:13] Mate, they can see the kit.

[02:44:18] They must.

[02:44:20] They can see the kit. They must be able to.

[02:44:23] Not bothered by it as such, but they just know that that bit ain't right.

[02:44:28] I don't have that bit, I'll have everything else.

[02:44:31] Yeah.

[02:44:33] And now you're waiting just for one to approach, like this one,

[02:44:35] potentially at the right angle.

[02:44:38] It's even murked up a little bit down there as well.

[02:44:40] This is what you need.

[02:44:44] He's eating quite hard, this one.

[02:44:46] He could take it.

[02:44:51] Mate, they can—they can see it. They can see it.

[02:44:54] I think in this really clear shallow water we need to be lighter, lighter stuff.

[02:44:59] I think we're overgunned.

[02:45:03] I think it's all obvious to them.

[02:45:07] I mean, you're not going to— you can't get a better feeding scenario.

[02:45:09] No, you get better feeding scenarios in like them coming down and picking up

[02:45:12] single boilies, but you're not getting harder feeding than this.

[02:45:15] No, it's arguably the best we've had since we've been here.

[02:45:17] Yeah.

[02:45:19] I really thought that hookbait was just going to— I don't mean in that situation,

[02:45:23] but when I was sitting here with that hookbait, I'm thinking,

[02:45:26] why would they not eat that?

[02:45:27] They've eaten so many of them.

[02:45:30] Just tackle, that's why.

[02:45:32] Yeah, it's got to be, hasn't it?

[02:45:34] I don't feel like when I matched the hatch and put that on, I still

[02:45:38] didn't get an instant bite.

[02:45:39] There was still a prolonged period of feeding, but logic dictates if they've

[02:45:44] spent a long time time eating all of that boilie, why wouldn't

[02:45:48] you have it on the hair?

[02:45:51] And I never do that.

[02:45:53] No, no, I never do, because I, you know, my head still says that something more

[02:45:59] attractive will get me a quicker bite.

[02:46:01] But some of our best hookbaits got ignored.

[02:46:06] Like, I'm not saying I've stopped using them, I've carried on catching them now,

[02:46:09] but I have started to play around with match the hatch.

[02:46:12] That's one of my biggest bits to take home from the whole thing.

[02:46:14] Yeah, me too, actually.

[02:46:17] But you have to keep going back to the idea that you're 4-foot

[02:46:20] in clear water, small lake.

[02:46:21] You do, you do.

[02:46:23] Because I'm not saying that you don't learn anything from these,

[02:46:26] but you tend to learn— I learn more from my own fishing over periods of time.

[02:46:30] Not what we think is happening by watching them, but what is actually

[02:46:34] happening in results.

[02:46:36] The brighter hookbaits almost always get you better results apart

[02:46:39] from maybe later on in the year.

[02:46:41] Yeah, but that sort of time of the year, the yellow ones do normally do better.

[02:46:46] So it's weird to see them just to be ignored.

[02:46:48] It's a fair point.

[02:46:49] I think what you learn when you're fishing on an underwater camera is how to get

[02:46:54] a bite in front of an underwater camera. Yeah, that's true.

[02:46:56] That is what is actually happening.

[02:46:59] You're creating a very alien situation and you're trying to put your normal

[02:47:02] fishing into it, which isn't right there and then to get

[02:47:05] the quickest bite possible.

[02:47:07] But I will put a but in there.

[02:47:09] It does make you question other things.

[02:47:11] And I think long term, if you can take some bits out and as long

[02:47:14] as you try them, it's making you a better angler for a start, for sure.

[02:47:19] It's like shining lights on the floor to see if there's any bait there.

[02:47:24] Nothing. No, nothing in it.

[02:47:26] Not eating that one.

[02:47:30] Bamboozling.

[02:47:31] We were due off the lake at around lunch and we were running out of time.

[02:47:35] I'm a little bit worried they're going to eat the camera.

[02:47:39] Just cut, sir, sorry.

[02:47:40] Not that my heart could keep up with the sheer amount of fish cleaning me out.

[02:47:45] Come on.

[02:47:45] I'm bored of saying he's on the right line, he's looking good,

[02:47:47] he's got to eat it. Come on.

[02:47:51] But I had one more idea.

[02:47:53] Go for a wee, and then I'm gonna, I'm gonna just jump in and grab one.

[02:47:56] Okay. Okay.

[02:47:57] Yep.

[02:47:58] We had less than an hour left, and I was tying up what would have

[02:48:02] been my very last roll of the dice.

[02:48:06] I just know.

[02:48:07] So, you know, sometimes you know when you know, you know, you know.

[02:48:10] Sometimes you know this is it, and this is it.

[02:48:17] It's probably still less than— come on, speak your than the—

[02:48:19] he's going to take that.

[02:48:20] He's got to take it, mate. He's taking it.

[02:48:23] He's got it. No.

[02:48:25] Yes, you have got it. Yes!

[02:48:27] Thank the Lord.

[02:48:29] Oh my God, them fish were

[02:48:40] in for 40 minutes, I reckon.

[02:48:43] Absolutely absolutely nothing, then two come back on their own,

[02:48:47] one went down and took it straight away, hooked him.

[02:48:50] So I would say that they can see the kit, but when there's nothing left,

[02:48:55] they will end up taking it.

[02:48:57] So if you were fishing normally, you would see that as a success,

[02:49:00] but obviously because we can see it in here,

[02:49:03] you think you should have got one sooner, but ultimately he's had the bite

[02:49:06] and it worked, didn't it?

[02:49:09] This is good.

[02:49:16] Oh, thank God.

[02:49:21] Talk to me spoons.

[02:49:23] I can't believe it was the first hookbait you picked up.

[02:49:30] He's coming round now nicely.

[02:49:33] He went hard left to begin with.

[02:49:36] But he's slowly coming round.

[02:49:39] Just trying to make sure I was clear of the camera.

[02:49:48] I think it might be Scaly 20.

[02:49:50] That would be quite nice. He's been in a lot.

[02:49:53] I think he's actually Scaly 16, isn't he?

[02:49:56] He's Scaly That Will Do.

[02:49:57] That's what he is.

[02:49:59] Scaly Don't Fall Off.

[02:50:01] Yeah, it's mad.

[02:50:05] Even though you know it's not a big one, it means so much.

[02:50:08] It means everything.

[02:50:10] After being royally— I wouldn't even say mugged off as such.

[02:50:13] It's not like the rig got done or possibly got done.

[02:50:17] To have that much feeding, not get a pickup so much sooner.

[02:50:22] Effectively, I caught it on a single hookbait.

[02:50:24] That's what it feels like.

[02:50:32] Can you imagine what this would be like knowing you've hooked the fully?

[02:50:37] It'd be drastic.

[02:50:38] My mouth's dry, my legs are gone.

[02:50:40] I know it's probably a mid-double.

[02:50:51] Come on, come on, Spoons! First underwater carp!

[02:50:55] Yeah! Yes!

[02:50:57] Get in!

[02:51:00] Oh, well done, mate!

[02:51:03] Get in!

[02:51:08] Oh my goodness,

[02:51:15] my track record underwater

[02:51:16] has not been great.

[02:51:18] The first time I got to put a rig in front of the camera, there were no fish.

[02:51:21] That was at Lac Luna.

[02:51:22] Dan had caught the only one that wanted to feed on that spot.

[02:51:25] We then went to Carptlantis and I had the first bite and then a hook pull,

[02:51:29] and that was my only chance for the week.

[02:51:32] So I'm now sitting with you.

[02:51:34] We know that this is our underwater, essentially.

[02:51:37] You've caught a few and I've had a couple of— I wouldn't say I've had

[02:51:41] loads of brilliant opportunities.

[02:51:43] He's like, really? You had given up an afternoon for science.

[02:51:47] I did, yeah, I did. Yeah, you've got to remember that.

[02:51:48] Yeah, people will forget that. Don't forget that.

[02:51:50] But that last morning where I am, I'm minutes away from reeling,

[02:51:55] having to go home, it was done, it was over, and the fish fed so hard.

[02:52:01] If I, if I had have left empty-handed, I might not have ever wanted

[02:52:04] to do one with you again.

[02:52:06] But thankfully that didn't happen.

[02:52:08] And when that I felt the first time that my rig got picked up properly

[02:52:12] from a carp, I got the bite that I've been waiting for.

[02:52:15] Weeded me up for a bit, but that elation—

[02:52:18] it's relief more than anything. Yeah, it is.

[02:52:20] Yeah.

[02:52:21] At that stage, we really needed you to catch one as well,

[02:52:24] and I was slipping into depression.

[02:52:27] And it actually— it was literally an hour before we left, wasn't it?

[02:52:30] It was, yeah. It was done.

[02:52:31] Over.

[02:52:32] It happened, and it looked like— it really, really looked looked like it

[02:52:35] wasn't going to happen, and it did.

[02:52:37] So at least we could drive away with a smile on our face.

[02:52:39] Big smile.

[02:52:41] I've just had to sit through the most painstaking bit of rig watching

[02:52:45] that I will ever have to do.

[02:52:47] Fish were feeding constantly for 45 minutes to the point where I was

[02:52:52] on the verge of putting out a solid bag, but thankfully my bucket weren't in place.

[02:52:56] I didn't get it done quickly.

[02:52:58] This is the result of just being a little bit more patient.

[02:53:01] You can make of that feeding spell what you will.

[02:53:03] I know it's left me with far more questions than answers.

[02:53:06] I'm going to go away, have a long hard think about exactly what

[02:53:09] happened, but for now, not only do I get to enjoy an amazing

[02:53:14] 26-pounder that I thought was an upper double, the weather's getting better.

[02:53:18] That biggun has got to be seen soon. He's got to be caught.

[02:53:22] And who's moving in onto the cameras?

[02:53:24] Stokesy and Damian Clarke.

[02:53:26] You got it. You got him.

[02:53:28] You got him, Damo. Go on.

[02:53:32] He's flipping got it.

[02:53:34] That fish does not know what's coming.

[02:53:42] We were on the bank for a long time, weren't we?

[02:53:44] Yeah. What can we take away?

[02:53:46] What have we got to make sure?

[02:53:48] Okay, one is definitely casting out before the change of light, whatever it is.

[02:53:54] You want your rig settled as the light is changing, whether it's

[02:53:57] dusk or dawn, for sure.

[02:53:59] Zero doubt. Zero doubt.

[02:54:01] One, try some normal bottom baits every now and then if you're

[02:54:06] not getting any pickups.

[02:54:07] Definitely. Yeah.

[02:54:08] Two, don't fish on Chunky Gravel.

[02:54:11] I know you're bored of it, but don't do it.

[02:54:13] Avoid it at all costs.

[02:54:14] It's one of them things that's making it difficult for you no matter what's

[02:54:17] going down, so just ignore it.

[02:54:19] Fish to the clay to the left-hand side of it.

[02:54:21] It'll be there. Or the right.

[02:54:22] Find it. It'll be there.

[02:54:25] Pre-baiting. Oh, yeah.

[02:54:27] Do it if you can.

[02:54:29] Yep.

[02:54:29] Don't be disrespectful with people next to you, but if you don't like them, do it.

[02:54:34] Fair. Stove it in.

[02:54:35] Yeah, 300. Like Spooner.

[02:54:38] If you get it for free, just chuck it everywhere like Spooner.

[02:54:42] I think that's— was that 4 or 5?

[02:54:46] 5 or 6, or whatever it is.

[02:54:47] He's struggling to count.

[02:54:48] He's a long way off his nearest personal best.

[02:54:53] Presentation over effectiveness is a very,

[02:54:59] very good rule to live by.

[02:55:02] If you're not presented, you can't get picked up, no matter how good it is.

[02:55:05] So if it's presented all of the time, even if it's rubbish,

[02:55:08] it will still be something that's effective and not getting seen.

[02:55:11] So think about that a lot.

[02:55:14] Fish bigger lakes.

[02:55:17] Little lakes are tricky.

[02:55:19] I would say because we know that the underwater spots are difficult,

[02:55:24] they're difficult because they're clear and shallow and gravelly,

[02:55:27] and that does make it hard.

[02:55:29] You want to try and make it easier for yourself.

[02:55:32] There were like clay spots out in the lake that we know that Darrell and Tom Stokes

[02:55:36] have caught from, and you just knew because of the amount

[02:55:41] of action out there and because you know how different the feeding situation is, is

[02:55:46] that you're catching 3 to 1 on them spots.

[02:55:49] Another thing, watching this back, it reminded me that that spring lasted

[02:55:55] literally 3 weeks, and people should make the most of that good weather

[02:55:59] in that springtime, because it can fly by.

[02:56:02] When we first got there, we were thinking they're not awake yet.

[02:56:05] This was like middle of April, wasn't it?

[02:56:08] Yeah. Yeah.

[02:56:08] Thinking, oh, they might not feed.

[02:56:10] By the end of it, we were thinking they're not eating bright ones because it's so

[02:56:14] summer-like, and they're going to spawn any minute.

[02:56:16] And that was within 3 weeks.

[02:56:18] So that spring that everyone looks for, you need to be fishing March, not April,

[02:56:24] because it's gone before you know it.

[02:56:27] You need that lead-up, you need to be learning in the lead-up

[02:56:29] so when it hits you are like—

[02:56:31] You're in tune and ready to go.

[02:56:33] You don't want to be learning in them 2 weeks because everything

[02:56:35] changes so quickly.

[02:56:37] I think that will change everyone's life if everyone lives by them rules.

[02:56:41] It's very easy to look back on these things and see where you go wrong

[02:56:44] and where it didn't go right, which is wrong, but ultimately I

[02:56:49] had a really good time with you.

[02:56:50] Oh, I had a great time. It was funny.

[02:56:52] Yeah, you were quite abusive.

[02:56:55] I'm gonna you up, you little .

[02:56:58] I wouldn't say that.

[02:56:59] You're a idiot.

[02:57:02] But we learned a lot and we're never doing another one.

[02:57:06] Ever again.

[02:57:07] I'm out.

[02:57:08] Because looking back at them is always good.

[02:57:10] I really enjoy like looking back on them because the good parts are amazing.

[02:57:14] Yeah. But it's so difficult.

[02:57:16] To actually sort of live through it all.

[02:57:18] You've got between a 2.5 and 3-hour film for 3 weeks of pain.

[02:57:24] Mainly pain.

[02:57:25] And some little cherries on the top, but they're worth it.

[02:57:29] Oh, it's cute, isn't it? Shall we kiss?

[02:57:42] That one really hurt.