Leaderboard

Pretty sure the 2005 record carp at 83lb was from Graviers and not rainbow, but then if I'm reading your post correctly, you caught it so I guess you'd know.

Don’t ask me! I don’t know! Lol!

Re read this and seeing the fish you are catching I would go down to a method feeder rod or float rod or like Nick has suggested an Avon style if you can find one nowadays Match style route would be better

I must admit I would only be using Specialist or Avon style rods on a water like this, with 8lb line. Hook size sounds possibly a bit big, for me it would probably be a 14 or 12.

I don’t have a problem with someone coming to wake me if they have a carp need photographing, one lad woke me to take a pic of a low double then apologised afterwards as it was “only a little one” it happened to be the first carp he’s ever had from the lake, after a fair ole wait, so he was over the moon! That’s no drama as far as I’m concerned, I was happy to congratulate him and share the moment. I blanked... 🙄

The daiwa gs4000 is the modern take on the ss2600 with better line lay and less wobble and a much nicer reel to use. it also has the infinite anti reverse so you can actually line up the rollers without them moving so you can fold the handle in the right place if that floats your boatlol

Yes as you said. Nothing to write home about however I suppose you get what you pay for. However if something breaks there customer service is top notch . I broke the block on my typhoon storm bivvy(totally my fault as i found out after watching the setup vid on youtube) they sent a new block out no questions asked within 2 days. I thought that was pretty good of them to do so to be fair.

A water I fish for carp to double figures, I still concentrate on fishing the float with sweetcorn and lift float. If you put in much groundbait, you get other species more than carp so I use loose fed sweetcorn. On occasion I do use pop-ups I don't put any, or very little, feed around them. In fact I almost fish them zig rig style, well off the bottom.

Well my leadcore leaders are 40-50lb breaking strain, but my mainline is 12lb, so that’s the overall breaking strain of my set up. I couldn’t apply 50lb of pressure as although the leadcore (correctly spliced) could take it, the mainline would part long before! I wouldn’t worry about the leader breaking strain too much mate, the over all strength of your set up is governed by the weakest component.

Sometimes smaller fish take a a hook too far back in the mouth, on waters with a stock of fish up to the 10lb mark it's a rod in hand job hitting bites before they hook themselves might want to avoid using a hair rig if you are.

A water not far from me has always had a boilie and floating bait ban, hence the banks aren’t very crowded and you have free reign to be able to move about. The owners wanted a pleasure water where anglers could come and not see swim after swim packed with little green domes. They are only small venues, quite intimate. Pellets or meat in the margins will produce some lovely carp. I actually don’t mind the fact boilies are banned, it gives me a chance to refine other baits and methods which in many cases, I’ve neglected for years. I mean, I have probably fished luncheon meat maybe 2 or 3 times in the last 15yrs? Yet it was my go to bait as a kid.

I believe the action of the rod is more in keeping of it rather than the test curve I would up the size of the hook personally I couldn’t even see a size 10 nowadays lol

Have you seen any evidence of the barbless hook moving during the fight? 15lb mainline and a size 10 seems a bit unbalanced, have you tried upping the hook size? The thicker wire may help spread the load as it were. Are you aiming solely for carp? Or are you just happy with whatever comes along? If that was the case, I’d probably go down the Avon/quivertip route or a float outfit with lighter line and smaller hooks. If I was aiming for solely carp, I’d increase hook size to an 8 or 6 and use baits that smaller species can’t easily take. do you use any form of clinic or carp antiseptic solution on your hook marks before returning them? This is important regardless of size as it can help heal marks like these and prevent infection. Some also harden on contact with water, so will help minimise bleeding.

Have a look at the Daiwa SS2600, not a baitrunner but a lovely stalking reel... the 4000 baitrunner is a good one too (especially the 4000 Aero X)

Small carp have much softer mouths and are more susceptible to damage... if the fish don't go over 20lbs in the water I'd consider a softer rod and lighter line... the thing with using a 15lb mainline is with small carp you tend to get em in quick so the damage could be occurring at that point... and if, as I said, the fish don't grow much over mid double size then I'd say that a 2.75lb rod is a bit heavy... I'm sure other lads will have their own theories... but thats mine for what its worth

Spawn already? Not yet😉 Carp won't be ready for spawning until the water has been 18 degrees for at least a week, probably late May, early June. As for sacking or retaining fish, just for a few minutes while you sort the camera gear out, an hour at the most if you have someone come and take pics. This fish was retained while I ran half a mile to get another angler to do the pics. I can do my own self takes, but do prefer someone else to take pics as I think results are better.

Hillside fishery nr Rawtenstall