A New River Rod

[RedDieselFisher]

Hi all,

I've come back to fishing after a few years away and instead going back to carp fishing I have picked up my river fishing instead for chub and barbel etc. Currently I'm using my Daiwa Sweepfire feeder rod coupled with a Ninja 3000 reel. I love the Sweepfire but sometimes it just feels a tad too 'delicate' if I hook into something half decent and not being a 2 piece does grump me some days walking down to the river.

I'm currently looking at the Fox EOS Specialist Barbel rod 1.75tc rod to become my main river rod for roving for chub, barbel(unlikely but still possible) and perch. I also want to use it for stillwater perch fishing and tench/crucians in the Summer. I know its a lot of boxes to tick in a rod but do you reckon it would perform adequately in all of these aspects or would it feel slightly like a broomstick fighting stillwater perch on is my main concern. It'll be coupled with my Ninja 3000 running around 8lb line.

Cheers guys for your advice in advance it is much appreciated!
Lloyd

 

[108831]

Forgive me for saying,but your reel is a fraction small,4000 size would probably be the smallest I would go to,mainly for two reasons,one is that the heavier line required for normal barbel fishing tends to coil on the smaller diameter spool,therefore casting is impaired,second is that the smaller reels tend to take the pounding less well....
As for your question of rods,budget is a major part of the answer,personally I generally would not use a feeder rod for barbel,in fact I rarely fish with a quivertip when fishing for the species,why,because why would I need sensitive bite indication for a species that devotes it's life to trying to drag rods in,at the modest end of the market,Korum and Wychwood take a bit of beating from what I see,after that imo big money needs to spent....

 

[no-one in particular]

I am not the one for tackle advice but wouldn't the test curve rating of a rod be the thing to guide here. What would the average/middle rating be best for chub, barbel, perch, crucians. Personally, I would be looking for two rods, one for barbel and chub, and another for perch and crucians.

 

[john step]

Here is the rub. You used to fish for carp presumably with beefy gear. Any thing lighter and suitable for your perch and crucians will seem too flimsy.
It takes me a while after a winters piking to get my head around roach tackle for instance. The line seems like spiders filament !

1.75 depending on your venue sounds OK for barbel/chub but overkill for smaller species.
A 5000 reel would be better on a barbel rod

An ordinary old style match rod or light quiver tip rod will be much better for the smaller species.
I can't imagine using anything heavier than 4lb bs for the perch and cucians so the 1.75 seems rather too much.

The tench is another mater. Depending on the venue/weed/size of tench the 1.75 may be OK.
If a weed free/small fish venue the match rod will be fine.
However the river I go tenching on you need beefy gear due to heavy weed growth in summer. 8lb is the norm. Horses for courses.

Basically I don't think you would get much enjoyment from one set of tackle for all those disciplines you wish for.
Tackle nowadays is cheaper relatively. There is some good tackle fairly priced nowadays ( covid out of stock levels permitting).
Two sets need not cost the earth.
Tight lines.

 

[RedDieselFisher]

Thanks guys for your advice. The barbel I'm unlikely to connect with aren't very big at all so chub is the main species here along with perch and tench etc. I shall amend my prior post

I'm currently going to the river as I can't get to any stillwaters and also cannot join my local club this year as they've closed membership due to covid. Once I join/ go back to stillwaters then my main targets will be perch and tench.

Maybe I'll have to re-evaluate what I'm looking for
Lloyd

 

[trotter2]

Personally I think a 1.75 test rod is over powered for chub,tench,perch.

 

[no-one in particular]

Re what John said, I use a 12ft match float type rod for most of my fishing, I think size rather than species, this handles anything up to about 4lb well enough but 5oz-3lb is probably the best range, this handles the perch, crucians, roach, rudd etc. that I catch. It will handle most of the chub I catch as well but they dont go over 4lb, the average being about 2lb. But for bigger hard fighting fish I have a couple of light carp rods that would do the job for me. I don't have barbel but mullet maybe but if I ever get some barbel fishing in I would probably use one of these. Re what John said as well, there are plenty of cheap but not bad rods about, all of my rods are second hand sometimes picked up for very little. The thing is you could go cheap until you got a better idea of exactly what you want for the rivers etc. and then go for something better.
Then again you might want to go straight in and get a really good new rod but I think at least two rods would be better than trying to compromise with just one rod.
As to exact makes and prices, others have better knowledge than me.

 

[RedDieselFisher]

Thank you markg. I've just started looking at the Drennan twin tips in 1.5 tc as I reckon in the future my perch and chub fishing will be the mainstay of what I do along with tench.
Barbel and chub wise I may look at the EOS Barbel rod and possibly a larger reel for a dedicated barbel and bigchub set-up. I still haver my Korum kxi80 reel left from carp fishing but it seems a bit large with masses of line on it for river fishing!

Lloyd

 

[waldi]

I’ve just got myself a 11/4 lb torrix for exactly the type of thing you described. Was using my Avon rod before that but was having problems keeping fish out of undercuts on the bank. Too soft. The torrix is equally at home legering or trotting a stick float down the river. Great piece of kit. Shame they don’t do one @ 1lb, That would be even better.

 

[mikench]

Excluding barbel, the Darent Valley .75 tc rod from the Tacklebox would be ideal imo and at £45 it's the best bargain you will find. Do a search on here for reviews.

 

[markcw]

10 posts and 3 rod recommendations, that's good going, usually get more reccomendations than that and confuse matters,
My advice is go to a good tackle shop when open again, go with an open mind ,forget brands, you may find a better rod in a different brand you thought of, Have a waggle with them, but take the reel with fully loaded spool you will be using and ask if you can put it on the rod to check for weight and balance.

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

Don't know if its still made but this may be an option
Greys Prodigy VX Twin Tip Rods (anglingdirect.co.uk)

 

[Keith M]

Don't know if its still made but this may be an option
Greys Prodigy VX Twin Tip Rods (anglingdirect.co.uk)

I have had the 1.5lb/2lb version of these twin tip rods for quite a few years now and it’s been a godsend to me at times both for chasing Chub and Barbel in low water conditions (using the 1.5lb tip section) and in flood conditions for Barbel and for surface fishing and bottom fishing for Carp at closer ranges (using the 2lb tip section).

However the lighter 1.25lb/1.75lb version would probably be a lot better for you if you also wanted to go after slightly smaller fish (using the 1.25lb tip section) and it would still be fine for catching double figure Carp and large barbel (using the 1.75lb tip section) but I’m not sure that they still do this lighter version any more; plus if you wanted a Quivertip then it doesn’t have One.

Keith

 

[RedDieselFisher]

Cheers guys for all your replies, certainly a lot of options out there to look at!
I've been looking at a couple of the Greys rods Keith and have a stockist of them localish to me to have a look around once lockdown is over. I think I'll mainly be chasing perch and chub instead of barbel in hindsight so I'll have a dig through all of your suggstions.
Thanks
Lloyd

 

[108831]

1.25lb t.c. imo for chub and perch,no need for heavier for perch,chub,then you could possibly creep up to 1.5lb,but I wouldn't,trouble is that each blank is so different to another you really need to see one in the flesh,very difficult in these telling times,good luck..

 

[RedDieselFisher]

Thank you Whitty, I'm still getting my head around lower TC rods and how they behave etc. I know the test curve isn't the be all to end all to judge a rod by so hopefully when the lockdown is over I can have a looksie about again.
Lloyd

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

I've never used the 1.75 TC but the 1.25 has felt "comfortable", even for someone happier with a float rod!

 

[Steve Arnold]

As someone who has fairly recently returned to coarse fishing my opinion might be questionable! But here it is anyway!!!

The barbel on my local river here in France average around 3lb and top out about 8lb. What they lack in size they make up for by being exceptionally fit! No massive "boilie belly" here, doubt the majority of river Lot barbel in my stretch had ever seen a boilie before I arrived!

At first I used medium heavy spinning rods to good effect. Then I bought a Shimano Alivio AX Barbel Classic 1.5 tc in a sale from one of the big UK mail order companies. That has caught a lot of barbel in summer and autumn conditions and is a decent enough rod for the £40 I paid for it.

That fish taken on the Shimano Alivio AX barbel classic was close to 8lb, gave a lovely fight!

Then in another sale from the same company I bought a Shakespeare Agility Commercial Feeder rod 11', expecting it to have some backbone. It turned out to be light and delicate, a 4lb barbel has it bent into a loop! Now it is my rod for perch and chub in fairly clear swims. That was around £40 as well!

Not having any decent tackle shops nearby meant I had to take a gamble when choosing mail order rods. These two budget rods are better than their low price would suggest, they cover many bases for me.

 

[RedDieselFisher]

Many thanks Pelamid for the input, thats a beauty of a barbel! I'll have to have a look again but currently having to save cash for other exciting adult things