How was it for you?

When you started Carp angling how different would you say things are today. The gear, the anglers and the waters? Have things got better or worst?

i first started fishing for carp 50 years ago and would either cycle or catch a bus to fish for carp, our tackle consisted of a match rod and a fixed spool reel , the method we used was a dough bobbin,if you left the rod for a call of nature the bread would often be missing when you returned presumably eaten by rats,the carp we fished for were small by todays standards a 6 lber was massive, my first double was taken when i was 16 caught on floating crust at night,i dont think there would be so many people fishing for carp now if carp and carp waters hadnt become so widespread and tackle progressed so quickly although i think that a lot of tackle and bait catch as many anglers as fish and things are made out to be far to complecated, i see a lot of people fishing for carp that forget that they are wild animals i work on the theory that if they know you are there they are harder to catch, all in all i suppose that there has been good and bad progress made or is it me that is to old fashioned