14 set-up styles over the years
From the cool, to the downright crazy; here’s 14 set-ups that fashion-minded carpers have used since the 1950s!
1. On The Deck! (1950s)
You might wince at the thought, but some anglers laid their canes on a groundsheet in the 1950s, with silver foil wrapped around the line for indication! Chris Yates was still doing it on Redmire 30 years later when he banked his iconic record.
2. Perched on Herons (1960s)
No, not the gangly bird! Herons were in fact the fashionable buzzer of their day, invented by the father of modern carping, Richard Walker. They were generally teamed with single banksticks and slightly shambolic-looking canes!
3. Sitting on top of the rods (1970s)
A classic late 70s set-up when concealment was essential and if you were to stand a chance of catching a carp, close enough to be able to successfully strike the hook home pre-Hair and bolt rigs.
4. Pike Style! (Early 1980s)
Rods set at waist height, Heron buzzers and light monkey climbers on long needles; you’d have found the likes of Rod Hutchinson behind a set-up that looked like this on the first Savay syndicate. It might look alien now, but it was all the rage then!
5. Ultra-Cult Style (mid 1980s)
If you wanted to be cool in the eighties, you needed a can of matt-black spray paint. The term ultra-cult was coined for anglers with mean-looking, all-black set-ups! Foam wedged in the butt rings helped stop line spilling from the spools, creating bird’s nests on the take!
6. Savay Stainless (1990)
It’s 1990 and Martin Locke is busy rampaging through the stock of Savay while turning out his first stainless buzz bars and banksticks. To complete the set-up, you’d want rods with flared, full-Duplon handles and Optonics!
7. The Mighty Sod (1995)
Martin Locke’s era-defining pods were so robust that you can still find them in active service today. They were compact, beautifully machined and, frankly, awesome when teamed with Delkims and Quiver-Lok springers!
8. New-Wave Cult (1998)
In the late 1990s, a young trailblazer called Terry Hearn forged a style that became his trademark. You know it: Steve Neville buzzers, little white PTFE bobbins and stainless buzz bars and sticks! It’s a look that continues to inspire the ultra-carpy to this day.
9. Single Sticks (Splayed) (2000)
The ultimate in practicality. We’re thinking Julian Cundiff on Selby Three Lakes in the mid 1990s, with shiny Daiwa Infinities pointed straight at his hookbaits, irrespective of where the other rods were!
10. The Odd One Out (2005)
Back in the middle noughties you’d have seen the great and good with super-chunky stainless. Those in the know opted for a tight, two-rod buzz bar and one off the side on a single!
11. Single Sticks (Tight) (2000)
Think Chillcott, Horton Church Lake, 2000. Delkims and single stainless sticks, set beautifully tight and perfectly straight – anyone would think he was in the military!
12. Tips Up (2007)
Who can forget Jim Shelley’s bank of four rods, set like an artillery position? He started doing it alongside his famed running-Chod fishing around 2007 and he still does it to this day!
13. Über Tight (2007 – Modern-day!)
In the late noughties, the first reel handles were folded and set-ups among the fashion-conscious got tighter, and tighter, and tighter – with the craze reaching its peak in recent years. Despite the ridicule, for some your rods aren’t tight enough together unless the reels are touching!
14. On Point! (2016)
Stainless master craftsman, Martin Locke, releases his latest benchmark pod! The Worldwide P1 is set to be every bit as popular, and enduring, as the Sod Pod.