Rod for carp

[FlyCraft]

Hi Alec,

I believe a 7wt is one of the most underrated rods in SA. In my opinion it is really a versatile outfit - carp, bass, grunter, largemouth yellows, light salt. In terms of the line weight, you will be able to cast a wide range of fly sizes and have a good shot at landing a trophy fish etc.

I prefer rather to fish heavier than lighter, from a rock and surf background.

[Nepptune]

Must say I agree with Philip... 7wt was my go too rod for so many years when I started flyfishing.. doubled as Bass and even Stillwater trout as well as light salt and estuary work on the KZN coast growing up..

But the past 15 years I've not had one on my quiver, only recently acquiring another and I am in love with is ( Orvis Helios 2 )... Bass, Carp, Salt and hopefully tigers again soon..

However, my No.1 Carp rod, which for me personally is the perfect Carping weapon for the fishing we do here in the Western Cape, is a 6 weight Glass stick, the Epic 686... I know a lot of people are very critical of this new "Glass Rod" fad, claiming that it doesn't make sense to go backwards in technology etc with all the current modern tech and materials available to us, but I must say that for Carping, I find it the perfect weapon.. amazing short range accuracy, tough as nails, and bullies a fish when you need it to, but also very forgiving on light tippets in our clean water spots where going down to 4x and even 5x is required.. it can also cast a very heavy fly, and is surprisingly good to medium/long range...

Only draw back is length, being 8'6" where some scenarios require a longer rod when "dipping", especially over wide backside vegetation, but its a small price to pay for the rest of what the rod offers...

Personal opinion of course, but you did ask about opinions on a rod for Carp specifically, and thats mine...

[FlyCraft]

Hi André, my first ever rod was also a 7 from what I can remember, it was a curry yellowish glass rod with a Daiwa reel and Cortland 222 sinking line I often used it with my coffee grinder also to catch carp and barbel in our town dam. Back in the day I believe those were almost the only rods available in SA at the time. My dad was a member at the Haenertsburg Trout Association and we fished Magoebaskloof often. When he realised that all I wanted to do is fish I got a 5/6 Osprey for a birthday, from what I can remember these Daiwa Ospreys were the first ever graphite rods in SA. Know this is off topic but mentioning the 7wt in your post, reminded me of that curry glass stick.

[Nepptune]

When he realised that all I wanted to do is fish I got a 5/6 Osprey for a birthday

Philip - I still have my original Daiwa Osprey 5/6... with a little Okuma Graphite reel and a Cortland 444 that was the best outfit in the world for me for many years after I graduated from the old 7# glass stick... Like you I often used my old 7# with a coffee grinder, but for bass... a lot of the farm ponds I fished as a kid in KZN had a lot of over hanging bush along the banks... that 9ft rod rigged with a 5inch rubber worm ( black with a chartreuse little tail ) dipped over the backside bush or into holes in the lilly pads absolutely cleaned up... But with old mono line and a soft fly rod I really had to strike like a hooligan to set the hook through those old rubber worms!

[AlecJ]

All this talk of 7Wt! wow, I had a starter kit with 7Wt rod but 4/5Wt line, I thought I could not cast and learnt that my setup would not allow me to learn properly. I got some 7wt line, Learnt to cast and got better.... I mean more rods and reels, being a newbie I made some mistakes and got wrong line on my 3wt...

Long story short, I got an amazing gift from a fellow member(I do not want to mention him as I do not have his consent, You are more than welcome to tell the people if you want as I am burning to tell, but I will not, you know who you are!!!)! a brand new stealth ultralite reel and with it he gave me the gelspun backing and DT sientific angler line! I was stoked, been practicing a lot! caught some nice small winter bass and plan to next season go to the cape streams. I then decided to help out another youngster.

I gave my 7Wt setup to a guy that really wanted to start flyfishing but could not afford the equipment, my rod reel line and 20 flies (whooly buggers) so he could learn. so if I get the chance to go FF for carp again, and the carp are big, i will use 9WT if average I will use 5WT.