Carp fishing is the "heroin " of angling. 3 rods,3 bite alarms 3 reels, bivy, camp-bed, bait-boat 5 gallons of spod, wheelbarrow to cart it round, membership of syndicates, club fees, stainless rod pods, unhooking mat, tackle-box/chair, not to mention the ever-growing variety of rigs. Very addictive, and the first 20plus makes settling for silver fish very hard. It's ironic that in the sixties the north-west was so short of decent waters but had a huge number of anglers, now you can even catch in the Mersey and Salford quays; the Bridgewater and Maccy canal are practically deserted, same goes for Sale water park. Angling is quite tribal, game-fishers dont mix with coarse who dont mix with sea anglers and , match anglers have little in common with pleasure anglers. 3 clubs, Lymm, Prince Albert and Bay Malton control most of the choice waters, further west Warrington and Northwich are huge, though do have some day-ticket waters. Another sign of the times is the scarcity of tackle shops, they were in most districts at one time.