marshy07

I'm looking to buy a carp pole, nothing too expensive though. I landed my 3rd carp today after 5 hours of not even a bite. 7.5 lbs & boy did it fight. i guess thats nothing to a regular fisherman, but for me it was amazing. Anyway, back to the point, can anyone reccomend one online? I don't want to spend a fortune as being a complete novice it would be a waste. I have been using an elasticated whip & ready made rigs. I noticed a chap at my local pond today fishing in the margins with a pole, but he didn't have a float as such. It was just like a bobble. What is that?

I was fishing yesterday and I must have missed half a dozen decent bites through not striking at the right time and / or in the right direction. Is there a general rule to follow? There were times when the float clearly bobbed down then back up & I wasn't quick enough. My excuse was that the fish might have been playing around and not actually got it inside its mouth. Can I actually strike in the wrong direction ie pull it away from the fish?

Cheers for the help. I was advised to get the pole as it was an inexpensive way of getting started, and that it would be easier to get fishing quickly rather than having to completely set myself up from scratch, needing floats, shot and hooks etc etc. Can you reccomend any books, dvd's etc for beginners.?

Once again, sorry for all the questions, perhaps I should have just asked the one rather than asking too many. The one about thr correct depth would really help if anyone can assist me. Cheers.

Fantastic forum BTW, managed to stumble accross you by accident. I hope you can help me. As the topic says I am not an experienced angler. I was advised rightly or wrongly so to get a 6 metre whip elasticated & get hold of some ready made rigs. £1 each. Firstly are these expensive at a £1. I was lucky enough a month ago to land 3 carp within 2 hours. The problem is I can't remember what I did.It was clearly a fluke. I was on holiday in Norfolk in a pond stacked with rudd. I certainly didn't go out to catch a carp as I didn't want to get smashed.The rig was 10ft, I shortened it & plumbed it accordingly to fish on the bottom ( I only did this after being shown) I am guessing, as I don't know how to fish any other depth. It was really down to luck. Question 1. How do I fish shorter rather than on the bottom as today I purely caught 3 roach? is it just a case of shortening the rig? It was a bit of a come down from catching the carp. Question 2. Do carp tend to stay at one depth or will they look around for food? Question 3 I used sweetcorn when I caught the carp, What size hook should I use? I caught the carp on a size 20? I had heard I should use a 16-18 is this right Q uestion 4 (finally) should I completely hide the hook inside the sweetcorn or should part of it be showing to make it easier to hook. Don't get me wrong I don't only want to catch carp, but it was such a fantastic feeling to land a fish that was in the water about 3 mins before I managed to get it out, and I would love to experience it again. Sorry for all these questions, if they can't all be answered then the depth one is bugging me most. Cheers guys.