Damo_UK

Looks like a nice little water! Good luck!

Redesmere mate. Back this weekend for another session.

Wonky rod shot from a rainy blank on club water...

This is a great tip - why have I never thought of this before!!

I have never heard anything about this pole, but a quick look online tells me it should handle most commercial carp. I know it's only an inexpensive pole, but how many top kits do you currently have? In terms of elastics, well it depends on a number of factors - what size carp are you targeting - what kind of elastic do you prefer (hollow, latex, solid?), does it have pulla bungs, or standard bungs? I'd feel confident in sticking any elastic through the top twos - it's a carp pole after all, so the top kits are going to be power kits. I have several power kits for my Daiwa Air and I have elastic up to size 20 - which I have never even used. I've landed carp up to 20lb on size 14 elastic, with pulla bungs - but I've also landed carp up to 16lb on size 6 elastic during silver fish matches (it took forever to get it and ballsed up my match). What i'm getting at is it depends......on the fish you're targeting, on the top kits you have, on the bungs you have etc etc. If I was you, i'd buy a couple of the preston pulla bungs, cut them down to fit inside your top kits, stick some size 12 Latex in there and cover your bases for 90% commercial carp.

Welcome to the forum mate. For 95% of my UK fishing I use my 10ft Nash Dwarf Mk2 rods. I use them on waters as small as 1.5 acres, up to 15 acres. I have them in 3.5lb, because I fish with PVA bags and they have the backbone to chuck these a decent distance. Although they have the backbone, they have a very forgiving tip section, which makes using them on small waters easy. If you aren't using PVA bags, I would go a lighter test curve. I went for 10 foot over 9 foot as it gives you a bit more reach on bigger waters - but with a pack down size only 6 inches more. I pair these with the new Avid AV8000 reels, which balance perfectly but still have the capacity and capability to chuck distance if needed; they're light weight, very smooth clutch and only £68.00 each. (Check the Rod Shots post for a picture of them on the dwarfs) There are of course, other makes and Sonik retractable rods get very good reviews. Best thing is to get to a tackle shop when they open again, have a play with some - short retractable rods are quite controversial for some reason, with some people thinking they're a gimmick or a fad, but only you know what you need for your style of fishing. As an aside, I do fish larger waters (30 acres +) and for that you will definitely need a set of 12 footers minimum - I have Fox X4 3.5lb paired with XTD 14000 for that scenario.

That is ace!!

😂 That's Lil Don Exotic. A mash up of Joe Exotic and Lil Donnie Trump Mugshot. If you haven't seen Tiger King on Netflix, I'd strongly recommend it - very entertaining.

I had the K9 alarms a couple of years ago. Bought to replace aging Fox buzzers and being a bit of a techie these looked perfect. I used them for a few day sessions before taking them to France with me. The first evening I am sat with my mate in-between our pegs (about 10 meters from my bivvy) when my mate says he could hear a whirring noise - checked my receiver, nothing - glanced at my rods to see the reel on my right hand rod melting. Long story short, I had what felt like it could have been a PB, but because my receiver had not indicated anything it had ran at least 100 yards and eventually came off - I sold the alarms as soon as I got back and will never trust anything by ND again. The S9 alarms come with exactly the same receiver as the K9s. I have Nash R3 now and have never looked back.

cheers mate

I'm going to try and find out this year!!

I agree totally - they are completely overlooked in terms of carp - i'm going to have a bit of a mini campaign on Rake/lower rod this year, probably autumn time. As far as i'm aware only one or two people fish it for carp - the club advertise it as a pike water and stipulate that there is no carp present - but there clearly is to those that know. There are a few pikers I know that have been on there over the winter, but a 30 out of there is immense. Fish of a life time right there!

I dread to think of the amount! Even buying rig bits from places like bank tackle, it soon adds up.

I've gone through a fair few different terminal tackle solutions in my time, from using one of the old original Shakespere tackle boxes back in the 90's, to the Fox F Double, Avid Pouches and Korda tacklesafe - however as the years go by I found myself naturally honing my terminal gear to just what was necessary and fell upon the Korda Tackle box a few months back. I like things organised and this is perfect, rather than having hundreds of plastic pouches in pockets to sort through. I know it's very fanboyish and I'm not like that normally, but I think this is a genuinely decent product for someone like me who scales down their carp gear for mobile UK day sessions.

Thanks Big Bass - figured it was time to sign up and contribute rather than lurk and admire all the rod shots from fellow blankers 🤣