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Dusting off my old shimano aero 11ft 2 1/4lb tc carp rods and 6000 shimano baitrunners on a little pond in the Mole valley. Literally fishing under the rod tips, my baits are each side of the end of the boards. I’ve not used these rods in maybe 15yrs, but this lake didn’t suit either my 12ft 3lb fox torque or my 12 3.5lb fox horizon rods, average carp mid-high singles, with the odd low double, so a lovely through actioned rod like these ones are so much more matched and more fun to play carp on.

There are 'only' about 30 on the lake this year, from over 100 2 years ago. Bird flu took a big hit on them, more so than the geese. The lake, which is just up the road from Lopham Fen seems to be a spot for young swans to grow before they go get their own territory. The 2 dominant pairs, there were 3, but 1 was killed in a swan fight keep moving them about.

It’s always worth a go mate, it used to be a popular method (no pun intended) and in essence, it’s not too dissimilar to a pva bag I suppose. It probably went out of vogue because it was no longer “fashionable” as opposed to anything else. It’s a good compact way of presenting an attractive parcel of food, with the hook link tucked away out of sight, what’s not to like? I seem to remember it being branded a “small fish method” but that could be down to many variables, the fact it was a “match tactic” or that it was used on runs waters etc. I always think that with the turn over of young new carp in today’s waters, tactics such as the method have a whole new shelf life when presented to a generation of carp that haven’t seen it yet because everyone overlooks it as a tactic. when I first started carping in the mid 90s, I never EVER used strawberry or tutti boilies as an old hand told me that the carp were so used to them they wouldn’t touch them, that has stayed with me for 25+yrs! Daft really, those carp are long gone, and this generation of carp probably haven’t seen a strawberry boilie in their lives! Everyone seems to skip these flavours in favour of some more popular flavours. I was recently told that if I wasn’t fishing with a particular brand and flavour on my club lake, I would blank as the carp wouldn’t eat anything else… i then caught the big common over 40lb, first 40 from the lake