Leaderboard

naked mainline +free running lead to short ESP coated braid hooklink in 20lb. dont see the need for a leader (unless you wanna look like a poncey git) and their is no need at all in any form of angling for leadcore. Evil stuff

Now this sounds far more like the type of fishing I am used to - is there a fashion in carp fishing to overcomplicate things?

That seems dangerous, I only use 12# mainline and a rig of 7" - 12" so that short piece of braid and a swivel is all that's left on the fish after a break. Perhaps if using a strong leader a weaker rig should be used. When I want to check for rig strength I just rig up as if for fishing, set the hook in the edge of the kitchen cupboard and walk backwards until it breaks. That will show you where your line will part if you get snagged.

When I started carping I always had mono rigs of weaker line than my mainline but switched to braid eventually. I tried fine braid but (fish safety considerations aside) wasn't able to cast them without rigs tangling so after trying a mate's 20# braided rigs started tying my own. As Nick says when things get German the line always seems to part at the knot. I've never had a major mainline break leaving a fish with a long tether but have landed a fish that was tied to a snag overnight and when I got it out found 30' of mono still trailing. Rather than blame this on unsafe angling I class it as a bizarre underwater accident. The man who caught it first explained that by the time he realised he had a fish on it was already tying knots around a submerged tree root. Since the only way I carp fish is with a simple running rig the chances of ever leaving fish and lead connected are remote.