those pesky fisherman

[danny hill]

does it annoy anyone when your happilly fishing away, and a carper turns up with an entire tackle shop in the boot of his car!!! i mean come on weres the skill in angling when your sat behind 3 rods all on alarms, and bait boats dont even get me started on those !!!!! ive been fishing all my life and have caught hundreds of carp on light tackle, why do you need all that gear its useless, wot ever happened to floating abit of crust in the margins

[fullcreel]

I have to agree, many times I'm amazed at the amount of gear people take, and hte effort involved iun lugging it around. Many of my trips are with just a couple of rods, I will admit to some times taking a rod for every occasion, but those trips are not too common. When I know the water, I'll have a pretty good idea of what i need, when I went to the royalty last spring, I think I took 4 rods, to cover all eventualities, but I do think that the sport has lost something, with regard to all the tackle out thee, bait boats, depth finders, alarms, lost some of the hunting skill that our ancestors relied apon.
In saying this, there is a timeand a need for some the kit out there know, with people paying good money to fish some very difficult waters, when accuracy to afew yards at range is essential.
Basically I tihnk that we make of it what we will.... does that make sense. On a persaonal level there nothing like a peaceful afternoon by nice lake ruined by beep beep beepas some mumpty plays with their alarm. I havenot used mine in years, when I did I had the tone set low, so they souded like a duck. The clicking of the reel is all I use now. But todays angler is educated by the mags, tackle industry that this is the way to fish. I've been ina tackle shop and the dealer was selling a wife loads of kit, thing is I was fishing the same lake, catching many fish, by being careful, quite and observing.
Modern angling eh

[riverdart]

my broyher inlaw is the same.he even takes his portable telly with hjm just in case the fishing goes quiet

[Banana Steve]

What wrong with taken a telly fishing, i take mine when im out for the week.

[German Andy]

Where I am at, at the moment, is as embarassing as turning up with all the bells and whistles. I only just got back into fishing and left all of my gear behind in Aus a few years ago. So I got the itch and just had to start wetting a line. Mostly I go fishing with a mate and use his gear, but the itch was unscratchable (is that a word?), so i wrapped 30 metres of line around a plastic coke bottle, attached a basic bottom rig for live and dead bait.... and Bob´s your uncle. A Basic handline for about 5 euro. The locals look at me like i have just walked out of the stone age (if it don´t have bells and whistles, people will not use it in germany). So far I have only caught small whiting and flounder, but I reckon it will be a killer set-up for all the small drainage canals (full of eel) we have around here. Will try to upload a photo. I agree with Fullcreel - education and the background you come from as a fisher makes all the difference. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

[Greenheart]

Live & let live & each to his own Andy. With the vocal anti-fishing lobby the way it is in this country at the moment we need to respect other anglers views & methods & stick together. I used to be an out & out match angler & used to have the same views as you on Carp anglers. I also used to thing fly fishing was just for rich snobs. Thankfully, having been talked into trying both of these methods, i've discovered that all angling methods have their place. I discovered that plenty of working class people fly fish & also that there's a lot more skill to modern carp fishing than meets the eye. Carp fishermen are currently the innovators of most of the new baits & rigs that are filtering down into general coarse fishing. As i've become older i've found that sitting back behind a couple of bait alarms on a comfy chair & in a nice warm bivvy is very relaxing. However I still enjoy travelling light & stalking individual fish with a peice of floating crust, or fishing a stick float on a river for wary chub. I now consider myself an all round angler & am just as happy Coarse, Sea or Game fishing. I've discovered that skills that i've learnt from each disipline can be carried over to other methods. Don't get tunnel vision & don't knock it until you've tried it mate....

[BoldBear]

Live and let live. Each to their own. As long as they don't interfere with you then let them do what they like.
I used to be an out and out Carp angler and carried everything but the kitchen sink, If I wanted to experiment with something different I had the tackle & bits to do it, but if I were to travel light I would have no choices. we also spent hours off the bank developing new rigs/baits etc.
Likewise I used to be a serious Match angler and I used to carry just as much tackle as the Carp anglers if I was fishing somewhere new (eg. 5 rods/pole/whips etc.). Nowerdays I only take one or two rods (I usually only use one rod) and only carry a tiny shoulder bag to hold my bits plus a landing net and light roving chair and sometimes catch just as many fish (usually Barbel or Tench these days).
I know it's annoying when some of the Carp anglers think that they are the bees knees and that anyone else is a noddy but you know this is just being stupid on their part, just ignore them and get on with your own fishing.
You know it makes sense.

[German Andy]

Point taken, guys. Sorry, didn´t want to sound like a back to nature freak with a loincloth and a spear, just that anglers can get annoyed by too little technology, as well as too much. I love the innovations that have been made in angling, but I had to get rid of all my gear before I came over here. Thus, the improvisation with a coke bottle (but only until this weekend when my local tackle shop should have all the gear i orderd). As a good example, the best weather to fish my local beach for cod is in a howling north-easter in winter (with sleet, snow, hail and all the rest). Without a bait alarm and a flourescent light on the rod, I don´t think I would even know if my line is still in the water and i certainly wouldn´t be out there without a bivvy. It can get fairly baltic here sometimes.

[NICK R]

Originally Posted by danny hill

does it annoy anyone when your happily fishing away, and a carper turns up with an entire tackle shop in the boot of his car!!! i mean come on where's the skill in angling when your sat behind 3 rods all on alarms, and bait boats don't even get me started on those !!!!! Ive been fishing all my life and have caught hundreds of carp on light tackle, why do you need all that gear its useless, wot ever happened to floating a bit of crust in the margins

If you carp fished the type of lakes i do ,IE 40 acres and only about 100 carp in it you would use the help of any of the modern technology
.I have only had 3 fish from this lake in 2 yrs mbut both were 40lb plus

[BoldBear]

I used to fish a reservoir for a leather Carp called 'Toadless' (last caught at 44lb and was the 2nd largest 'Leather' caught in the country) which lives in a water that has very few other carp, I used to carry everything but the kitchen sink when I used to fish for her, it didn't mean that I was any better than anyone else who fishes other easier waters for other species, I was besotted by the target and spent every fishing moment in persuit of her. but I have moved on to much more enjoyable (to me) fishing, and I now target Barbel Tench and Roach with the absolute minimum amount of tackle and still don't catch much.