What "Revelation" Smacked You Straight In The Eyes?

Over the years there have been quite few solutions to fishing problems that have "bugged" me. The answers may seem obvious now, but at the time!

One such example was:

Floating crust at range for carp. Way back in the early 1980's a particular lake held some nice carp that loved to cruise the surface but some way out.

I could fish freelined crust quite well but couldn't usually reach these carp except with a following wind. That same wind quickly blew the crust out of the key area.

I eventually fished the lake with a good friend who showed me how to fish "anchored crust". A bomb on a free running link with the swivel of the link only stopped by the eyed hook.

Cast out, pay out the line until the crust surfaced and wait. We caught carp a plenty!

He also taught me a little dodge with crust - pinch some flake around the line just above the hook (as well as the crust)and when the knowledgable carp knock off the crust they pick up the sinking remnants including your bit of flake. Wait for the line to tighten and hey presto!

Simple solutions and probably well known to most but well beyond my thought processes at the time!

As daft as it sounds. When tyeing the polamar knot, I tried to push the doubled over line through the eye of the hook in one go. Because that's how it looks in the diagram. Then the penny dropped. Push the line through singly, then double it back on its self.
Thick or what? I haven't a clue what I was thinking of at the time. I think it was one of those senior moments.

Neil, in the early 70's a couple of mates and I had a syndicate ticket for a carp lake on the edge of Bourton on the Water which contained carp into the high 30's, massive for those days. The 'anchored crust method' that you describe was our standard approach but I can't for the life of me think where we learned that from, so that method is at least 36 years old.

Incidently the cost of that Syndicate ticket, and we fished it 12 months of the year as well, no closed season, was ?7, can you believe that, compared to todays prices?