We recently paid Heronbrook Fisheries a visit to put the Acolyte Margin Carp 9.5 through its paces. The result was a bulging catch of quality carp for Drennan’s resident ‘pole man’ Dan Varney!

Tackling an attractive corner swim on Meadow Pool, Dan went for an all-out margin attack down both edges. The left-hand swim was around seven metres away, tucked between a clump of grass and an adjacent platform. Here he opted for the extra stability of a 0.3g Carp 2 float to help deal with the 3ft depth and gusting winds. This swim was attacked with large pots of groundbait and micro pellets with an added glug of Yum Yum Bait Booster for extra attraction.

The right-hand swim was fished at the Acolyte Margin Carp‘s full 9.5m length. This was tight to some marginal reeds in 2ft of water to demonstrate how well the pole fishes at maximum extension. Here he used a 0.2g AS4 float and adopted a lighter feeding regime involving small amounts of micros pellets and a few grains of corn tapped in each cast via a small pole pot.

Shellfish Extract Yum Yums in 4mm and 6mm sizes and sweetcorn were both tried on a size 16 Wide Gape Pellet hook to 0.16mm line. Elastic was pink Carp Bungee through a full Ghost Margin Kit. Even with this relatively strong gear the Side Pull System came into play on more than one occasion with fish to 8lb being swiftly played and landed. As the Acolyte Margin Carp is stiffer than your average ‘margin pole’ it is a great advantage for bringing hard-fighting carp to submission.

It was a tremendous day with with increasingly larger and angrier fish homing in on the feed. An impressive catch was Dan’s reward – every single one of them caught with the Acolyte Margin Carp 9.5!

Thanks to Heronbrook Fisheries in Slindon, near Eccleshall, Staffordshire, for the use of its lakes.