It’s very rare for me nowadays to fish any waters that need 100mtr plus casts; and I usually only need to cast up to around 75mtrs max; and usually it’s no more than around 35 to 50mtrs; and subsequently I am quite happy using my Shimano 5000 series baitrunners.
I have a pair of Greys 2.75lb and 3lb TC carp rods which I use with 2oz and 3oz leads, however I also have a pair of more forgiving 2lb & 2.25lb TC Powermesh rods and I use Shimano 5000 series reels with all of them with no problems at all.
I think that Big Pit reels are only really needed if you are regularly needing to cast to the horizon; otherwise they are totally unnecessary in my view.
So it depends on the waters that you regularly fish for your Carp; if they are not too large and you don’t need to cast 100 mtrs or more; then why would you need to use expensive Big Pit reels ?
Keith
I think the distance casting aspect is far less important relevant. 100m casts can be made with mini pits or 8000/10000 size reels with no issue.
However the 8000/10000 size reels lack torque and overall strength when compared to a good big pit or surf reel. I have personally bent the shafts of 8000 sized Shimano's when fishing in heavy weed and on tidal rivers for carp. One in-fact, seized up so solidly the handle could not be turned at all.
Another aspect is in the line retrieval rates, especially with a large lead on the end of the line. Being able to get the lead up in the water and moving quickly over bars, snags and weed beds is very useful, if not indeed safer for fish and angler.
There are many reasons why they can be of benefit in certain situations, and if it came down to having to choose one one pair of reels to cover all of my carping and big fish fishing, I would go for a larger reel as it covers more bases.