I am fairly new to Carp fishing having taken my son (9yrs) fishing and him loving it we have both got into it together. I was given a free, 'third' hand rod which I believe was a spinning fishing rod which I took to a lake near us. We ended up catching a few tench and a carp on it. Having had such fun and after going a few more times I bought my son a new rod for his birthday. A Nash 6ft 3lb scope rod. Everything about it is perfect - size, build etc. But as we are only catching small carp, I feel the fun has been taken out of the catching/playing of the fish. The carp we are catching are 4-7lbs so small and although still very enjoyable we no longer get the fight or the bend in the rod like we used to. We are trying to catch bigger ones, and in the lakes we fish they go up to mid twenties but we cant seem to catch these.
I am thinking I may have made a mistake buying him a 3lb test curve rod? However our lakes are quite snaggy so people say you need a stronger rod for the snags. The lakes are also small so no need to cast any real distance.
What I think we need is a smaller than 12ft rod. A rod that will bend with a fight of a very small carp. But a rod strong enough to handle a bigger fish and able to get clear of the snags. Is there a rod out there that would fit the bill? I have seen stalking rods which are smaller but these have similar test curves to the 3lb one we have. Or should I go back to my original rod!?
