) and didnt fancy the weather (with the threats of rain) we were left to put that trip on hold until some better weather comes along 
The fishery in question is a strange place at times and often presents a challange. Its a naturally formed venue thats had a few stockings of craps over the years to add to the already resident roach, tench, crucians and skimmers. Its depth varys from 1 foot to 4 foot in places and the bottom is mostly smelly silt. Its quite open to the elements so come a windy day, it tends to catch it and this can make fishing a pole line tough going especially in a foot of water
Because of this i decided to give the method a go last year for the simple reason that a) presentation should be better when its towing like hell due to the wind and b) you can get out to 16/17/18meters and catch those cheeky fish sat out in what they think is safe water. I do enjoy fishing the method but if i had a choice i would sooner be fishing the pole line but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and that method can often catch you some bonus fish (or ten) on this water. My only gripe with the smallest methods i could find is, well, they just arent small enough!
and having seen the banjo method, and likeing the idea i wondered if we could make something a bit smaller. I only really wanted to get out a portion of bait the size of the end of my thumb so i needed something that was less of a dinner plate and more of a saucer After much looking at the various tops of body sprays and fruitshoot tops (anyone thats made their own toss pots will know how this search goes!) i finally found the perfect saucer.....the tops off fizzy pop bottles. 
With some sticking and poking the devices was complete and me and my friend were both confident it would catch. So after my dad dropping out of our little pleasure session it left me free to go try out the newly created item.
I arrived at the pool around 10:30am, the sun was shineing and the birds were singing. The air was fresh and there was a nice gentle but not particularly warm west/north westly breeze. This added a nice ripple to the water and if i am honest the pool looked bang on for a play on the pole. I resisted this urge though even if i did have it with me as all i really wanted to do was see if this banjo caught some fish. With only 4 other people on the pool i had a good choice of pegs and opted for peg 6, a peg with a nice bit of open water and a lilly bed about 20 meters out to my right slighty. If the going was hard i planned to chuck to this but really my main aim was to just get it out in front of me in open water and fish it as i would a match.
I first sorted out a little bait. Although the weather was not to bad this morning the temps of the water were still low and based on the match results from previous weeks the fish were still not spread out and getting their heads down. Most fish were being caught on tiny amounts of feed so i felt the best way to go foward was with some 2mm soaked feed pellets, a few trusty reds and whites and a small amount of IM5 green. I planned to use the pellets and the IM5 in the banjo switching to see which they fancied. Hook baits would be mags, pellet and some white boilies i had to try. While the colour of these boilies was bang on i just felt they might be alittle to big at 8mm.
The bait;
With the bait sorted and the other gear all setup if was time to have a chuck, clip up and then have the first proper cast of the day. I loaded the feeder up starting with the IM5 and 2 live mags. A gentle chuck and......i managed to catch a over hanging tree behind me and damage the stem on the banjo
So i set it up again 
and took a bit more care with my really real first chuck! This time things went alittle better and the rig ended up in the water rather than in a tree....I helped to sink the line alittle and placed the rod on the rest just gently tightning up to the banjo. It was then just a case of seeing if the fish wanted to play today. Well as it turned out i didnt have to wait long
with less than 2 or 3 mins gone the tip plucked a couple of times then slammed round. A lift of the rod and i was in! After spirited fight my first crap of the day was netted. I was pleased! The little home made banjo had caught me a fish and the feeling was much like when my home made pole floats sail away 
So i loaded it up again and dropped it in the same spot. BANG, off it went again with the same result, small carp. This happened 4 or 5 times on the trott within the space of 3 or 4 minutes. A shout from the other bank came " Dont you get fcuking that peg up for tomorrow!" I chuckled and replied "I will try my best!" As it happened i didnt fish the sunday....but the chap that drew it weighed in 2nd on the open so i will have to try harder next time 
. Then came a few phone calls which broke my rhythm up and as a result sport slowed. I decided that the IM5 and maggot was still the way to go but as i was just having a play, i would try the pellet in the banjo along with pellet on the hook and then later white boilie. Well as it happened i gave them about an hour with not so much as a sniff so there was only one thing for it. Back on the GB and mag although this time i was going to kill the mags before they went in the banjo. Slowly but surely the clouds turned black and it started to hail. Up went the brolly......i hate fishing under a brolly!The hail hitting the water. You can see the pads just coming up on the right of the picture. On the left you can see a chap sporting some new Maver/Sensas clothing
The switch back to IM5 and dead mag made a big difference and i was soon back into fish, picking up a few skimmers along the way. The carp were between a 1lb 1/2 and 2 1/2lb at a guess. I think i had 10 or 11 of those along with the couple of skimbos. Had i not had the interuptions and wasted (not really the right word) an hour or so on the pellet/boilie i might of caught afew more. Most important thing really was testing out the banjo and i felt it worked quite well, even if i did break it on my first cast
I would of been happy with half my weight on an open down here at the moment and added to that fish i might of caught on the pole it didnt go too badly at all.Heres a few more shots i took on my camera phone.
The rig;
I must of had the pellet on when i took this shot;
And the catch....i did ask them to keep still...
