I like to walk around popular fishing venues hoping to strike up a conversation with a like-minded angler about the fish, the methods and the country side. I love fishing for carp, but find that a stroll around a typical carp specialist lake does not always trigger the required chats.

Typically when I walk round the margins I will see each peg inhabited by an angler with fairly standard carp tackle. There will be a very neat battery of three identical carp rods, all with matching swing arm indicators and bite alarms. There will be a base camp, a bivouac with comfortable bed chair in evidence. It will be outside if the weather is fine, poking out if it is changeable and completely inside if inclement.

There will be a “kitchen” area with cooking stove and a saucepan containing the remnants of this morning’s breakfast still to be washed up.

Contrast this with a roving angler carrying an old battered rod and reel and not much else, making his way around the margins of an under fished lake. There are no reports of the size of the fish in this water, no photographs of the named fish that have all been caught several times. There might be no monster lurking in the depths, though the roving angler will have seen some fish rolling and know at least there are carp in the water. His carp tackle will be minimalist, to ease his passage around the bank side.

The difference between the two forms of carp fishing is marked. In the first the specimen hunter has a sole goal to catch more or bigger fish than the next angler. In the latter the roving fisherman probably sees the final capture as the least exciting part of his day out. Both forms of fishing for carp need attention to detail with the carp tackle used, but one involves immense patience whereas the other is an activity in itself. One is not better than the other, it is just that I don’t ever feel that I can disturb the specimen hunter in his mini encampment!

Mark Jenner is a keen angler and fishing author. His carp fishing tackle web site gives valuable tips on carp fishing tackle, rigs and venues. Also visit his pike fishing tackle site for information on pike gear and methods.