looking to start carp fishing and need some advice on rods/line

Starting with:

rods?
lenght? i was thinking 12ft?
Test curve? 2.5lb?
Looking for 2 rods would like to get some cheap ones for now till i learn abit more etc seen on Dragoncarpdirect there 12ft 2.5lb rods are £10 silver or 12.50 for the gold version cant imagine there will be anything out there better value than this but if there is let me know in there

Line
at the moment i only have 10lb diawa sensor and i dont think this is strong enuff? thinking 15lb line?


thanks in advance

craig

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Colin.

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When I want your opinion I'll give it to you..

Hi Craig,

don't expect much from a £10 - £13 rod, a friend tried this route with a starter kit; they were *****. you might be better off buying second hand for better gear. I have seen some pretty decent rods for about £40.00 new over the years; Daiwa were good for this price bracket, but any of the well known names should suffice (Sonik seem to be making good quality gear so i'm told)

i've been carping for a fair few years on and off and in my opinion your expectations of gear need to be matched to the waters and size of fish in there. if you are after 20lb plus fish, then you'll need half decent rods, reels and end tackle; also if you are new to the carpin challenge, please put a decent well padded un-hooking mat at the top of the list (not wishing to teach egg sucking of course)

Craig.....stick to PROPPER fishing!!! You've done quite a bit of Fly Fishing, you'll only be disapointed by Carp fishing..........

I would avoid very cheap kit, it will fall apart if you ejoy it and go a lot.
bottom range of daiwa or shimano will be fine, ebay worth a look.
2.5lb test rods are ok if only going to fish small waters. i would go for at least two and three quarter test. a heavy rod will be more versatile in the end.
a light rod will not cast pva bags big leads etc.
Carping fits in quite well with trouting, when its red hot go carping
trout not so keen in the heat.
atb, dave

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I bought two of the Dragon Carp rods for my son to start carping, they do the job but they are pretty much rubbish, I would look at Shimano's budget rods, or for £49 each 2.75 Fox Warriors, Reels, Okuma Interseptors I sold my Shimano's and got 3 of these as I like a front clutch and they've never let me down, Bite Alarms Fox Micron M's just over £20 and Bomb Proof all of these can be bought second hand at a fraction of the cost, specially at this time of year when folks have had new gear for Christmas, I'll send you a link to my local tackle shop, it's pretty dire regarding Fly Gear but it's usually got loads of offers on carp Tackle

Craig,

You don't need all this flashy gear !!!! I caught a 20lb mega fighting common on a 7wt. fly rod see: First Carp on the fly !

Pre fly fishing days I used to use a 12 foot John Wilson Avon rod, centre pin etc and fished the margins....on one occasion when fishing with two pals who must have had 4 grands worth of gear between them and were casting spods to the horizon - I swung and dropped under a bankside bush. Guess who was the only guy to catch that night ?

The only time you need a 2.5 lb plus "boat rod" is if you wish to cast huge leads, pods or pva bags for miles !

Nigel

Depends what you mean by "carp fishing"! Big carp hunting or commercial carp fisheries, many of which also contain big doubles, but you won't find the anglers camped out behind alarms and its spwaned a sort of crossover between match fishing and big fish tactics. If you're fishing commercials, forget your 2.5lb distance type rods etc, a decent feeder rod, barbel type rod, or power float rod will be fine, something with reasonable power but not poker stiff otherwise you will lose fish at the net too often. Eg, your neck of the woods: I spotted and caught a 20lb+ carp from Billing Aquadrome during a weekend's camping a few years back, on my lads 10' holiday spinning gear, legered strawberry sweetcorn, from a lilly covered lake, so you don't need lots of specialised gear to have fun.

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Craig,

Further to my last post, one of the things that started me on the KISS and "close in" principles was when one day on a commercial stillwater fishery I was using a feeder with groundbait / sweetcorn etc. casting out and catching regularly until, at one point I just happened to glance down and saw some enormous carp (way bigger than anything I had caught ) in less than 18" of water - 2 feet from my tootsies, hoovering up the bits of groundbait and sweetcorn I had dropped as I refilled the feeder !!! There was hardly enough room for them to swim and they didn't make a sound.....that was when I gave up using spods / pva bags etc and casting to the horizon !

Go where the food is ! (true for all fishing)

Nigel

Yes, turn up at one of the commercial carp fisheries in summer about an hour after a match has finished and see all those fish nosed right into the bankside shallows mopping up all the leftovers, tails sometimes waving in the air its that shallow! I used to do just that at a place just down the road when it was still day ticket, great fun. Just drop a bait in the margins and hang on

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