Tackle Fanatics Buyers Guides

Rods Buyers Guide

With hundreds of different models on offer, the choice of rods can be a bit overwhelming. Tackle Fanatics is here to help you narrow down the options. With most carp anglers today using at least two rods, it’s essential to make sure you get the right rod that best suits your angling needs, chosen venue and angling ability.

If you’re chosen venue is a small runs water or estate lake with carp into double figures then a light rod would be recommended with a test curve of between 1 ½ to 2 ½ lb sufficient to tackle the biggest of the lakes residents. For waters that are bigger with typically bigger fish then a rod with a heavier action will be required, not only to tackle the fish but also to cast the distances required to reach them.

Once the required test curve has been chosen the action of the rod must then be considered. Fast taper, medium and through action rods are available to the angler with all doing the same job just slightly differently. For casting extreme distances with heavy leads a fast taper action rod is best suited. This enables a forgiving tip to reduce the chance of hook pulls whilst retaining a great deal of power in the butt section required for casting heavy leads. At the other end of the scale is the ‘through action’ type of rod. Although these are beautiful to play fish on due to the entire rod taking on a parabolic curve when under compression from a fighting carp, they are not well suited to casting any distance, heavy leads or PVA bags.

Reels Buyers Guide

For an angler, reel choice is a quite personal thing, very much dependant on the type of venue, size of fish and of course the rod that the reel will be married up to.

When choosing a reel distance is something that should be taken into careful consideration. There’s no point spooling up a ‘big pit’ style reel with 600 meters of expensive mono only to fish under the rod tips on 2 acre runs waters. This obviously means choosing the correct type and size of reel to best suit the venue. As a general rule of thumb the bigger the water the bigger the reel required.

Once the correct size has been selected the reel features need to be considered – mainly whether the reel has a free spool or baitrunner facility. This is where the reel has a function by which the main clutch of the reel can be disengaged to make way for a free spool clutch that is set to a much lighter pressure. The advantage of this being that on a ‘take’ a running fish is able to freely take line off the spool until such time as the angler reaches the rod, disengages the free spool and is then in direct contact with the fighting fish with the clutch at the pre-set position. Of course a free spool facility is not a necessity, just something to make life a little easier! After all this has been taken into account the reel must be fitted to the rod to ensure a correctly balanced set up. This means having a reel that compliments the rod instead of unbalancing it.

Bivvies Buyers Guide

With so many bivvies, brollies and shelters on the market today, choosing the correct shelter for you can be a real minefield. Things to take into account when choosing a new, or even your first bivvy is the type of fishing, length of stay and amount of room required to cater for your sessions.

For the session angler or those that enjoy long European holidays, a bigger and possibly twin skinned bivvy would be ideal. For example the Trakker Armodome or even the huge Collosus are best suited for logner sessions.

For those that enjoy shorter sessions on work nights or just prefer to be super mobile then a light and compact shelter will best suit your needs. Something like the Trakker Specimen brolly system or the Angling Intelligence Airframe Light would be perfect.

Bait Boats Buyers Guide

With the bait boat fast becoming a must have item of carp fishing tackle, choosing the right one can be a daunting task. The size and openness of your chosen venue must be accounted for when choosing the bait boat that is best for you. The reasons for this being a small, fairly unstable boat will not be suitable for a windswept, inland sea where the boat could be blown off course or worse still, capsize and sink.

Bait hopper size and type of bait used are also factors that require consideration as the variety of hopper sizes varies massively. If using particle baits in large quantities then a bait boat with big hopper capacity would be best, something like the Angling Technics Microcat would perform this job perfectly. For smaller, intimate waters where stealth and tight baiting are a must the Angling Technics Pro Cat may be better suited.