It’s easy to sneer at those that do it differently, but at the end of the day we are all anglers and we are all important to keep the sport going. Tribalism, whilst I’m guilty of it myself, is only harmful to angling. Without the evolution of modern carp angling, I think the sport would have died off almost completely. I don’t own a bivvy, rod-pod etc. But I can see the attraction for some. Camping outside, fairly stress free, have a drink and relax completely once your rods are out etc. Although one thing I don’t get about carp anglers in Lancashire (where I live) is, well, why bother carp fishing in Lancashire? The vast majority of waters are dominated by double figure fish, a 20lb fish is quite rare with 30s being almost unheard of apart from a handful of super well known fish in super well known waters. Lancashire is virtually empty of specimen carp (i.e. over 40lb). But it’s full of specimen perch, roach, pike, crucians, rudd etc. Why sit behind three Diawa Tournament big pit reels, loaded with 50lb braid on 3.5lb tc rods if the biggest fish in the, usually small, lake is 21lb and the average is 12lb? Why not just spend a fraction of what you spent on one reel on fuel and syndicate/club membership and drive south where you’ve a chance of catching a specimen carp? I love catching 10lb carp on floating baits, but such fish don’t need a 3lb tc rod, but if that’s what you enjoy it’s harmless.
Personally, the one aspect of the sport I don’t get and which is still inexplicably popular in Lancashire, is pole fishing. On most of the stillwaters that I fish it’s either triple rod carp fishing or pole fishing with no one but me in between. I’m weird because I fish a float rod or single feeder. I just don’t get the attraction of hooking a tiny skimmer bream on elastic, sliding that enormously heavy pole (yes, even the most expensive space age poles are enormously heavy rigid sticks compared to the tiny fish they hook), faffing around dismantling the sections, unhooking a skimmer so light relative to the pole it’s impossible to know it’s there and then repeating the faff in reverse. I suppose this is because I’m not competitive and don’t understand match fishing. At least, unlike Lancashire carp fishing, Lancashire match fishing makes biological sense as most of our cold, acidic waters are stuffed full of small silverfish but too cold and acidic to produce record breakers of most species.
But saying all the above we have to appreciate it’s each to their own and tribalism harms the sport of angling. Whether we enjoy endless faffing around with massive poles, stalking fish or catching 15lb carp on gear designed to catch 60lbers, we are all anglers and vital to the continuity of the sport.