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I've moved this into UK Carp fishing as I think it's worth more than NCB. I can go back to carp fishing in the 1980's when 'the rise' was on it's way. From Mitchell reels that were easy to clean and re-oil, to Daiwa Ab1350's which I won and used for float and tench fishing, and onto Abu Cardinal Ultracasts, the rear drag made fishing 'spool runner' possible, then the Shimano Baitrunners. North Western rods, which I would prefer over many more modern available brands, Century Armalites, mk.l and ll. As for brollies, making your own overwrap from a tarpaulin and then being able to get a proper branded overwrap to go over a 50inch umbrella. Clothing, life was cold in winter, although most of my winter fishing was for roach and pike. A tanksuit, that if you were lucky was actually waterproof. What irritates me is the lack of courtesy and etiquette in fishing now, and it has become a 'sit behind the rods' at all costs, often missing out on stalking and floater fishing. A rise in commercialism, waters and media I think have killed the mystery. As for tackle shops, as much as possible I prefer to go into the shop, although if I do have to order tackle online I prefer to use Tackle Box in Kent and Johnson Ross in Hoddesdon, both of which I have been in. I am lucky though, I do have 3 very good tackle shops within 5miles of my flat.

I remember a 'sort of quilted themal onesie' I had from Catchum, it actually did the job..... however that was in my younger days! 😁 Think that really sums it up for me too, unfortunatly can't turn the clock back, have to enjoy the time on the bank hopefully away from too many kn*b heads 👍

Just back from 2 nights on the syndi, first session on the big lake and I only went and had one at 23.30 on the 2nd night. Made up with it at 35.02 and a proper one. Dont know what I've trodden in but feel like I'm having a run of good luck, long may it continue🤞

V easy to I'm of the same generation mate, and while it's easy to reminisce, I can also remember the not-so-good stuff. Worst of all being the rubbish clothes we wore for winter fishing. I honestly believe I put myself at serious risk back in those days. Boys will be boys though. Let's face it, most of the tackle was absolutely pants. In modern angling you can choose your approach and I maintain many of the values I did when I started. But now I have decent gear. Ergo, it's the best of both worlds for me.

Afternoon all, so I managed to get a free pass to get out and dunk some boilies in a pond last night, so I chose to head to my local tricky park lake. now I haven’t been there since the start of the season, and due to extremely low water levels, the club made the decision to shut the water for fish welfare, so last night was my first trip back in a while. on getting down to the lake, I found it was fairly busy, but everyone was on the opposite bank. I headed around to a small, neglected swim that is often ignored, which coincidentally is my favourite swim on the whole lake! there were a few signs of feeding fish, so I got the marker out and located the area of smooth harder silt that does the bites and soon had the rods clipped up to the range. tackle consisted of 3 x 12ft fox horizon X4S TT carp rods with fox EOS 12000 reels spooled with 12lb esp synchro main line. Rigs were leadcore helicopter rigs with 10” fox cortex soft slip D rigs with size 6 ESP barbless Clawhammer hooks. Bait was my usual premier superaminos/shellfish sense appeal offering made in the shed. 3 rods were dispatched to the spot adorned with 7 bait stringers, and with that i broke out the spod rod! I’m not quite sure what possessed me, but I ended up putting out a whole bucket of hemp, boilies and mixed pellet with lashings of salt which is a lot of bait for a quick overnighter, but my gut said it was the way forward, so in it all went! rods out, about 100 spods (so it seemed) done, it was time to chuck up the bivvy and get the kettle on. as the sun sunk beneath the trees, the swim came alive, with bubbling and swirling all over the spot. I was getting liners like nobody’s business and it was getting pretty obvious that something was going to happen… …well it did, bream after bream! I was hammering through the rigs as slabs of 3-5lb came gliding in, it was simply a case of hitting repeat and getting the stringers out there. as an aside, some anglers try to avoid the bream, but I welcome the activity, all that feeding soon draws the carp. at 11pm, the left hand rod pulled tight then dropped slack, as I was crouched next to it trying to decide if it was a liner or bream, the middle rod picked up and tore off! after a spirited fight, I soon slipped the net under a pretty linear that just scraped 20lb I don’t know what happened, but I look deranged in the pics! I sorted the left hand and middle rods and got them back out there, lucky 7 bait stringers attached and tried to get some sleep. I was awoken by a single bleep at 1am and opened one bleary eye to see the middle rod rip off again, this fish felt slightly better, taking me through every overhanging bush in the near margin, but the trusty horizons soon had it beat, and at 25lb made me a buzzing lil carper. pressing repeat again the middle rod was back out there, new hooklink attached. I finally got some shut eye at 2am for a whole 90mins when the middle rod decided to trundle off again, the strike met with a determined slow plodding weight that didn’t really give me too many dramas, just refused to come in. eventually, it succumbed to pressure and rolled into the outstretched net At 30lb it made the trip really! Big high shoulders, broad across the back, it was a pearler. (Cue stupid face again) it was so wide over the chest, I struggled to hold it properly. that rod replaced, I climbed into a damp, carp slime encrusted sleeping bag and got some kip. on dawn, the bream reappeared as the carp retreated back into their day areas, the sun started beating down so I decided to wrap it and head home, well happy!