Chris87

Thanks for the advice all, admittedly I caught my first catfish on my old setup at a lake I visited for a few hours and i thought at first it was a new pb! Turned out to be a lively 16lb 8oz catfish. So still a pb for me 😀 Ive had no issues with sonik as such, i have a lot of their gear, bar an issue with one of the side support poles on their axs bivvy which was bent but i didnt notice until i put my bivvy up weeks after an ebay purchase. I contacted sonik direct and to my surprise they sent out a replacement free of charge which arrived the next day without asking for proof of purchase! Blew me away - personally never had customer service that good. I definitely want to change my reels regardless, so will check out the okuma and shimanos as the nash look like they’ll be impossible to get anyway. My bro, and most of my fishing buddies all have shimano dls and swear by them but I was hoping for a lighter reel, after using my recons with light reels I personally wasn't keen on the feel of the 12fts with DLs when I helped a friend by striking a fish on his setup.

Thanks for the reply, was looking to upgrade them if i’m honest - plus while the wife lets me and I’m going to the carp show it seems prime opportunity as theres often some bargains. Its quite packed there previously so wanted a shortlist of what to keep eye out for I see a lot of good reviews on the okuma inception 6000s. I guess I want to ensure the reels are up to the task if im lucky enough to hook a good fish and I’ll be honest I don’t have a great knowledge of what is required - hence coming on to forums to get opinions cheers

Morning! New user here, joined on the back of searching online and stumbling across your forum Im a relatively novice carp angler, having recently been using 8ft sonik xtractor recons paired with sonik vader 6000fs reels for a couple of years I have now upgraded to 9ft insurgent rods after finding a blinding deal on an auction on ebay. My wife has surprised me with a trip to France this year with couple of my friends for a week with chances to catch bigger carp. Therefore i’m looking to purchase some decent reels plenty capable of some larger fish on the chance of hooking one. Im going to the essex carp show next weekend and ideally looking for relatively light reels for max £200 per reel if possible, so far shortlist has been; shimano 5500 xtd or ci4 - are the ci4 worth the extra £? nash scope gt6000 - although these seem to be sold out everywhere daiwa emblem 35 - but not sure if id want these as they seem heavy by comparison to previous options Thanks