World Carp Classic - Offical Global Website
Lake Bolsena 3rd - 9th September 2012

Looking at rod sales all over Europe one thing becomes clear: in countries like England, Holland, Belgium and Germany the anglers are rather using light rods between 2 and 3 lb, often 12 ft in length, whilst in countries like France, Italy, Spain and most of the East European countries 13 ft - 3,5 lb seems to be the standard.   

Over the years I’ve designed and used many different rods to cover a large variety of circumstances and fishing tactics, and I can honestly say that the ultimate carp rod doesn’t exist. In a perfect world every carp angler should own different sets of rods to cover the whole spectrum of carp fishing. But let’s face it, not a lot of people can afford to buy 9 or 12 rods! So choosing a rod is often a matter of compromise.

Most people choose a set of rods which fit the best to their personal style of fishing and type of waters they spend most of their time on. But sooner or later they will end up fishing other type of waters as well, often bigger ones, fishing for bigger and stronger fish, and find out their rods are not really doing the job!

Fishing big lakes or rivers often means dealing with heavy leads, fishing snaggy or weedy areas and fighting strong fish. In such kind of circumstances a longer and more powerful rod is required. In my opinion a semi-parabolic 13 ft - 3,5 lb rod is perfect for tackling the bigger continental waters. Such a rod is capable of casting big leads (4 oz or bigger) a long way, to put a lot of pressure on a fish in “difficult” swims, get them quicker to surface (away from the bottom snags) when fighting them from a boat, but also, when combined with Dyneema lines, to instantly lift a lead from the bottom when retrieving it from a long distance (rather than snagging it each time). When boating out rigs at long distances in windy conditions I often use leads between 5 and 8 oz to make sure my rigs stay in place. When fishing in strong currents I also use heavy leads to avoid the rigs moving downstream and ending up getting snagged somewhere. In such conditions using heavy leads is the only way to be sure of a good and effective hook bait presentation all the time. With a good quality 13 ft - 3,5 lb rod and the right casting technique (without being a casting champion) it is still possible to cast a 5 oz lead at 140 yards plus, and an 8 oz lead at 100 yards. That means that such a rod allows you to fish in circumstances where a less powerful rod isn’t adequate anymore. Therefore you can consider a 13 ft - 3,5 lb rod being the most versatile tool for carp anglers fishing the (bigger) continental waters, like Lake Madine for example. Don’t think such a rod won’t give you any pleasure when fighting a fish, they still bend and perform well on small and medium sized carp, but they have the extra power in the butt section which you can solicitate whenever it’s needed. If I had to choose just one single set of rods to cover all my carp fishing I would definitely go for a set of 13 ft - 3,5 lb, knowing they would allow me to fish everywhere in Europe in the most effective way!

Leon Hoogendijk