Not much to report I'm afraid, as I count the cost of a trip to Stafford Moor in Winkleigh - more outlay on petrol, bait and day tickets, for precious little in return. Beatties was the chosen lake, in the company of Ben Franks.
The water temperature did not seem too bad, despite an overnight frost, but the carp just weren't interested. I failed to learn much, except that my confidence in my carp rigs is pretty low. I think they might benefit from a bit of silicone tubing on the shank of the hook to keep the hair from wrapping over, but other than that I'm quite happy to continue with a basic running inline lead and shortish hook length. I used PVA bags for the first time today but I still came back most times with leaves and muck on the hook.
Half a boilie and a piece of cork was tried in an attempt to raise the hookbait clear of the silt and debris, but even this failed to impress Stafford's significant stock of fat mirrors.
I was fishing small PVA bags with a mix of six and 8mm trout pellets and broken mainline cell boilies in the bag, and then scattering a few whole boilies over the top with a catapult, which was achieved with surprising accuracy. I even tried a bright pink boilie popped up with a bit of cork, again to no avail. There were three other carpers on the lake, who also failed to catch whilst we were there. In fact, we did not see one sign of a carp all day.
![]()
