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Very much. Word of advice, never wade in without a wading pole; it can help you keep your balance as well as bottom prodding. The silt on my current lake is probably up to welly boot height, and then water up to my waist, so pretty similar, although the stream bed you can add a bit more to the depth. There are also feeding holes which can put you chest deep, and I have been known to occasionally go fractionally over the top of my chest waders, hence the advice on a solid wading pole. The honest answer is the carp feed in the silt. I have found massive bloodworm in the deepest thickest silt, along with massive swan mussels, bigger than my hands. I still use run rings and standard rig set-ups, hooklinks around 20-30centimetres in an attempt to put the bait at the level the fish are feeding at. Lead size I normally stick with 2.5-3oz, but use flattened leads to hopefully reduce sinking in too far, but even dropping a lead in the margins can see it disappear. Funnily enough, in May I cast out a 3oz lead, PVA stringer and snowman bait and I am positive that crashed quite deep into the silt. I had a take within a couple of minutes, and I think that the lead had sunk so far, complete with run ring it jammed as the buzzer was bleeping (Delkims vibration).

I have a feeling that higher test curve rods are needed in shorter rods as the 'standard' lower test curves won't cast as far; using weight instead of length to create the same casting force, just a theory mind, but seems right in my head. Then we have the 'Korda' theory, that they needed higher test curves even in 12ft rods to make up for lack of skill/practice to get distance. I've said it many times in the past that with 2¼lb North Western and Armalites I could get over 100metres, but I spent many hours across the field practicing. Even my 2.75lb SP's I could get over 120metres. My normal casting distance on the syndicate is no more than 40metres, and my 12ft 2.75lb Enduro and Sceptre rods do that and more, to 100metres easily. That's funny, that is quite literally all I do use shorter rods for, along with jungle stalking. Even my clearwater floater fishing rod is 11ft. @crusian if you can get the carp feeding right under the rod tip on floaters, a freelined dog biscuit, or lump of crust just touching the surface on the centre pin is great fun.

A bite at 03:30 on the final night, full moon night but a small stockie NOT a massive common, good to be catching. Just a single night next week, so will have to fit in where I can, could be a useful reccy of other areas.

Just got back from a weekend on a water I thought I knew pretty well. I caught a 21-9 fully scaled mirror and 13-2 common on a water that is fished 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the warmer months so almost catching is a bonus. I've got a newish bait boat (sorry Yonny!) and it's got all the bells and whistles, GPS and sonar. The lake is at least 2 foot down as you can see the tide line on all the islands. I was getting a pretty steady 3 to 3.2 foot after the marginal shelf and sent the boat out to an island. Unfortunately I must have got a bit too close and managed to ground it! Over a grands worth of tech beached 50 yards away and I couldn't get it back to deeper water. Nothing else for it, roped in the bloke in the swim next door to help and then stripped down to my under crackers and waded in. The marginal shelf was clear and then I hit the silt, probably up to my knee. It was so thick, I was having to breast stroke to get through it. Luckily the sonar was spot on and the water didn't go above my belly button. There was a clearish channel between 2 islands where the silt was a lot less but there are also some aeration pumps nearby which probably helped to keep it clear. Luckily I have always tended to fish close to the islands and just at the bottom of the marginal shelf so I was probably fishing the best areas anyway. I wasn't expecting the silt to be anywhere near that thick and the sonar was only showing a clear bottom. After I got it back, I got out the marker rod and cast out a heavy lead and dragged it through the area I had just waded through and although it did feel like silt, I would have guessed it at a couple of inches at most. My local water is brick hard at the inlet end where I do most of my fishing and so a 3.5 oz lead is my weapon of choice and that's all I had in my bag. I normally fish a helicopter rig rather than a lead clip which is fortunate but now wonder how many times I've been buried with no chance of a bite. Just dug out a load of 1oz leads and probably won't use back leads on there again despite liking the fact that there isn't any line cutting through the swim. I try fluorocarbon on my reels every couple of years and then pretty soon realise why I hate it as a main line! Many years ago I did a compromise and fished a 30 foot leader of 20lb fluorocarbon but hated the way the knot clattered through the rings when bringing a fish to the net and gave it up as a bad job. Anyone else had experiences with silt?

Thanks for the response gents. I don't particularly want a 10ft rod and as an oldie is not a size I have ever used before. The reason I asked was I am seeing an increasing number for sale, maybe others are not getting used to them. Most of the 12ft rods I am seeing for sale 2nd hand are 3.5 or 3.25 TC. I usually go for a 2.75 and maybe push to a 3lb TC. This is mainly because I have this feeling a 3.25 or 3.5lb TC rods are a bit overkill for me. My fishing is not often on large venues where I need to cast 60-70 yards. And fish are generally up to about 30lb. Am I wrong in thinking 3.25 or 3.5lb TC is too high for mid size venues where you are only really needing to cast 30-40 yards on average. I fancy a set of Free Spirit rods (I have a 9ft stalking rod that is great). Possibly e class in 12ft.

With age, unfortunatly comes cynicism, suspect @salokcinnodrog, is probably right. @BackInTheGame, why do you actually feel you need the shorter rods? oh and the rest of the stealh stuff that is probably associated with them too? In perspective, I still have a 9 foot Wychwood extractor, I used it at a small Dorset lake years ago for margin fishing with a centre pin, probably the most enjoyable carp fishing I have had for years, but on everyday carp fishing I do now, just not an option and can't see the point really? 👍

Thanks for adding more helpfull information to my post , fellas . When I think it's necessary , i.e. the Carp is actually bleeding , I would probably use my Gardner Intensive Care ; the only trouble I find is that I get blue dye all over the place . So for a more targeted application I've bought some Acute Anti-Bacterial Swabs from Carp Care UK . I haven't used the swabs yet , but the marketing blurb sounds plausable , so I'll find out eventually .

My view is that the 10ft rods do not cast as far as a 12ft or even longer rod, even in the higher modern test curves. Much of my fishing is on larger waters (above 20acres), with open banks, and at times I need to cast long distances. Even my lighter rods for smaller fish are 12ft, albeit 2lb test curve. I think that the smaller rods to some extent are tackle manufacturers pushing a new item to sell a new item, create a new market.

So I am looking around for some decent 2nd hand rods. Looking at free spirit e class possibly. However I have seen that there are now a lot of 10ft rods, carp rods have always been 12ft to me unless they are for stalking. Apart from the obvious advantages in smaller venues/swims, are they any other advantages or disadvantages of 10ft rods.

You have an absolutely amazing moon phase for the next 3 nights according to my moon app. Best of luck lads.

Good evening all, so this trip came about after my sons have come to visit for the last few days and my younger son wanted to get the rods out at the park lake. So last night found us winding our way down to see what was occurring. we were trying to get on the night before, but the available swims were all taken, so the following morning saw the boy and I hurriedly chucking the gear into the motor and driving, whilst becoming increasingly frustrated, through the school run traffic to the park lake. Now the night before, I hadn’t slept well, the baby has his first sniffle, and every time I closed my eyes, I could see serried ranks of carp anglers lining the banks, with no room for the boy and I, which would have been a bitter disappointment for him as he only had limited time before he needed to travel back for work - hence the rushed and stressful arrival at the park lake! Before the car had even stopped rolling, the boy was kicked out the door like a paratrooper jumping from a plane with a couple of buckets and my voice shouting “run!” ringing in his ears as he scarpered down the path and through the fishery gates to secure a couple of swims before the dreamed of carpy hoards arrived. I started unloading the car as the boy came sauntering back up the path, “I don’t know what the rush was dad, every swim is empty!” Still, the swim he loves was bucketed, as was the swim next door. (One, coincidentally, I hate!) but this trip was about him, so as long as he was happy, I’d make it work. As we set up, the hurried bomb-burst from the house soon proved to have been unwise, as I had left my spod and marker rods, as well as the water container and food bags behind! Now the boy went into his favourite (and mine) swim, where he has had 95% of his captures from and where my 3 fish hit from last week was from and was soon wrapping up, prepping his gear and chucking up his brolly, whereas I sat scowling at the swim my boy had bucketed for me, the bucket looking forlorn in the corner. I really didn’t like this swim, I’ve never found any spot that do bites with any regularity and I always feel as though I may as well close my eyes and pub chuck the rods any old where. Having a quick wander up the bank found me in a swim that always looks good, I know the spots that produce, I’ve seen them there, but my luck never runs, the fish either get caught just before or after I’m there! In fact, since 1997 fishing the lake on and off, I’ve never caught from this swim, although I know it can do the biz. The barrow was moved into the new swim, rods and home set up and before I could get them out, it was back to the car to drive the 10min drive home to collect the stuff I’d left behind. Once back on the lake, the X4 Horizons were soon sending the 3.5oz lead to the overhanging bushes on the far margin where they thudded down onto firm clay/pebble/concrete (this is a disused man made reservoir with a concrete “ring” jutting 2-3 rod lengths out before giving way to silt - the years have mellowed the concrete and a layer of clay and gravel now cover most of it) the newly collected marker rod showed 8ft of water level with the overhanging bushes, distance 18.5 wraps @12ft (no idea how many yards that is) I opted to initially bang a 7 bait stringer on each rod, rigs being fox cortex coated braid to size 6 esp barbless claw hammer hooks slip D style. My boy was nicely set up on the hard patch that weeks of prebaiting, spodding hemp/pellet and fishing over has improved nicely. Distance was a lovely 8.5 wraps with 14ft over it. Three (not immediately obvious) landmarks on the far horizon made recasts easy, the firm crack as the lead sank marked the spot. with the rods out, I set about wrapping up the spod to 18 wraps (taking into account swing back of the lead at this range) and tried to put out a bed of hemp, pellet, sweetcorn and whole/halved/crumbed homemade boilies onto a spot, but whether it was the blustery wind, the tackle or (most likely) my utter ineptitude on the day, I don’t know, but I think only 60-70% landed on target! On other occasions, in this swim, to this spot, I’ve not had this problem. I found I really had to “step into” the cast to get it flying. As the spod crashed into the surface over the left hand rod, this same rod started trickling off, “damn it!” I’ve picked up the line with the spod! Then the middle rod started going too! Realising that I’d had a take, which had kited and picked up my middle rod, I struck and was soon bent into a carp. The fight was fraught with issues, as at one point I had the spod, middle rod and a long length of unidentified line trailing all over the shop! My boy came to my aid by carefully retrieving each rod in turn before slipping the net under a lovely common, where the unidentified line was, well, identified! Nestled in the bottom corner of the fishes mouth, near to my size six embedded in the bottom centre of the lip was another rig! It had a fused leader, a lead clip with the tail rubber pushed on so tight that the 4oz lead hadn’t discharged! There was about 30yrds of thick, 20-25lb mono attached. Once that rubbish had been removed and bagged up, he was hoisted up for a happy snap. scraping 21lb, I was well made up! I’d finally caught one from this swim!! A day bite too, which is a rarity. My son was muttering something about me making a hard lake look easy, but it’s been 25+yrs of learning the place that had led to this string of captures, knowledge that he is reaping the benefits of too. As the day wore on, what came apparent was that the number of anglers who had booked on for the night hadn’t bothered to show up, so as it drew on to early evening, the spod was wrapped to 8 wraps and the boy soon had a nice bed of bait out, ready for the late evening/early hours bite window. The carp drop away from the shady margins and into open water spots at night to feed up. My son’s swim was soon fizzing like a jacuzzi, fish evident by topping and subtle head shows in the moonlight. My boy was being pestered by bream, but was rewrapping and restringering after every one, although he did swap the usual 12mm hook baits for “mega-baits” boilies of 30-40mm (and larger) that my daughter rolls from the scag ends. Some of them are like ping pong balls, but they do deter the slabs! He got his head down at about midnight after swapping his beloved mini microns for my spare delkims as they were low on battery. I too, was soon in the land of nod. At 2am, the shrill warbling tone of a delk split the night, my boy was into a carp! It soon went boring down the margins, but he had the better of it and it rolled into the net without too much problem. it was a gnarley old beast, weighing in at a respectable 26lb. That was the last of the action for each of us, although we couldn’t complain. We had both had a fish. It was an early wrap up on the dawn of a busy day, so by 8am, the lake saw only our backsides as we headed up the path and back to the car. caught on the astronomical start of Autumn, my favourite time of year!

Good luck fellas 🍀 🤞

Back on it, 3 nights - full moon coming, fingers crossed, not seen any yet, but didn't last week either. Very happy with all 3 rods this time 🤞

🤞🤞🤞

quick park lake overnighter

I found Baz's Bees honey by 'accident'. I used to fish Alton Water and as I drove through Tattingstone noticed the honesty box next to the bus stop. At the time there was a QR code for direct payments. If I can buy surplus eggs or fresh fruit direct I am happy to support. Anyway this honesty box had jars of honey in, so out came my £5 into the tin. Since then whenever I drive through Tattingstone I have a look see if he has any for sale, and return the cleaned jars. Otherwise I buy honey from my greengrocers or Jimmy's Farm. If you have a local farm shop or garden centre or nursery they might have a supplier who is local.

I wanted to buy some locally produced honey as it can help with hay fever apparently, getting you used to the local pollens. Sadly the FB seller didn't send me the link I needed to pay - but interesting all the same.

Only the best!

Bargain..... Manuka Health NZ MGO 950+ Rare High Grade Manuka Honey 250g | H&B

If you’re not lathering your catches in the highest grade Manuka then you can’t call yourself an angler imo.

Yeah was a nice steady take on a fairy tight clutch, then when I got to the rod and tighened further made some savage lunges taking line in spurts making it's way over to the far margin. I was nervous about the trees in the water off the island but turned it and got it half way back (think that was more it's decision) then it kited left all the way around the point into the left nearside channel and tried to find snags in the near margin, treelined again obvs. Nerve jangling moment again but got it back bit by bit - no rubbing on branches - probably because the water is 3ft down. Then of course it picked up the left rod fished single style into the left nearside channel, making it impossible to bring fully over the net. Bail arm off and with another go it went in the net. Glad you asked it was proper scary tbh especially as I was expecting a blank lol. Hopefully more to follow fingers crossed doing 3 nights instead this week from thursday, going for it and baited up as I left. Heard another good fish roll after the fish and having that one made me think the big common must have been there that night, maybe having a few boilies too - close but no cigar! It's coming - feeling it 🤞

Nice one @kevtaylor I hope it fought as mean as it looks. Proper warrior that one

Cheers Kev. 👍

For comparison, I'm 6ft with a 34 inch waist, bought the Large which fits OK but could also have gone for the XL You will not be disappointed with these - so warm, you'll not need the coat.

Thanks Yonny. 👍