Leaderboard

Exactly my thinking mate. Or experiment and use heavier leads and see how that affects your hook holds. If you've caught a few already that is.

Way over thinking this in my opinion. If as you say in a later post the lead leaves a crater in the silt then being inquisitive creatures the Carp would be more than likely to investigate it than be wary of it. Chod rig all the way for me on that kind of lake. 4 or 5 oz lead so it plugs in the silt deep to set the hook firm. I used to fish a lake that, at one end where the gravel workings used to be the sandy/silt (more like sludge) was upto 3feet deep in places (I know this as I was stuck in it once in my chest waders, quite frightening if I'm honest). Plenty of anglers fished the area for little reward. You would see the big plumes of coloured water when the fish were there. My first time in there and I used Chod rigs on 6foot of lead core, 4oz leads on and caught half a dozen. 4oz lead in silt becomes a pound of lead or more, sets the hook, job done.

Imo pulling the lead back is the kiss of death. There is a significant chance you'll foul or even blunt the hook, regardless of what substrate you're fishing over. The obvious answer is to go to a heli set-up with the top bead set to cope with any of the substrates out there. You mentioned that everyone is doing this - there is a reason for that. By all means keep your options open in terms of differentiating yourself from others, but make sure you have the very basics (presentation of a bait to a carp) right first. You're over-thinking it imo mate. This water sounds tricky enough without coming up with new problems. Keep it simple. The focus needs to be on presenting a bait to a carp. If you spend the coming weeks trying to do that whilst watching the water like a hawk, the carp will give you the clues you require to fine-tune your approach in terms of location and tactics. I think you're getting ahead of yourself by creating your own problems ("the silt furrows", "the fish don't act right", "the weather doesn't act right", "chods are for sheep", "it's too far/windy", "the water pressure....", etc, etc....). Whack a couple of baits out where you have seen signs of carp, sit down, watch, and use the info that nature will give you if you look hard enough. Keep it simple. Enjoy it. And get rid of the Fish-Spy lol. After all, that is what started this confidence issue you seem to have. No electronic device can ever be as effective as an angler tuned into the natural environment imo.

This. I thought that this had been established as best practise 20 years ago lol.