About Bank & Bivvy
Independent carp fishing gear reviews for UK anglers. No sponsorship, no free kit from manufacturers, no rankings shaped by commission rates.
Why this site exists
Most UK carp fishing content online is either written by tackle-shop staff whose job is to move stock, or by sponsored anglers whose rod bag came free. Both produce useful content and both have a bias. Bank & Bivvy puts the facts that decide a purchase (sizes, weights, materials, what fits with what, and what it costs) in one place, so you can compare kit before you buy.
How we research and score
We do not run hands-on tests of the products on this site. Our reviews are built from manufacturers' specifications, UK retailers' listings and published owner reviews, and we say where sources disagree. Scores out of 5 are our editorial judgement from those sources: how well the specs match the use the product is sold for, and how it compares with the alternatives at its price.
Prices are typical prices we found in UK tackle shops on the date shown. They change often, and the price on Amazon can be higher or lower: check it on the day before you buy.
How we make money
Every product page and every guide on this site carries Amazon UK affiliate links. When a reader buys through one of those links, Amazon pays us a small commission. This costs the reader nothing extra. It is our only source of income.
Amazon's commission does not depend on the brand you buy, so we have no reason to push one manufacturer over another. Specialist UK tackle shops are often cheaper than Amazon for big items such as bivvies and alarms, and our prices come from them.
Full details of our commercial relationships are on the affiliate disclosure page.
Who writes this
Bank & Bivvy is a small independent editorial site. Editorial decisions are made on the kit's specs and sources, not on which brand happens to be promoting.
Corrections and disagreements
We get things wrong. If a review misrepresents a product, or if a specification is out of date because a manufacturer has changed a blank or a pole material, please send us a message. We correct openly, dated, and named at the bottom of the affected page.
What we do not do
- We do not accept manufacturer sponsorship.
- We do not accept free product for review.
- We do not run "sponsored posts" of any kind.
- We do not track visitors beyond basic anonymised traffic analytics. See privacy policy.