Hi,
Where you fishing m8, because this will make all the difference.
I use 2.25 TC older style Carp rods, fairly soft with a through action,
before this I used a 1.75 TC "Barbel" rod this was just not quite enough to
stop the fish disappearing under the nearest snag, also felt unbalanced when
using higher weight to hold bottom or my carp rods (2.75 TC) but these were
to OTT for me and removed the pleasure.
This said I do fish the Trent (both tidal and non-tidal) so can get fairly
extreme some days especially flowing at 220m3/sec as it was early last
month.
The difference in Barbel and carp rods is in the test curve as a rule Barbel
rods go to 1.75 carp start at 2.25 however most newer carp rods seem to be
more distance than action orientated so there is very little choice of
quality 2.25lb TC carp rods available. That's why I got some older s/h Nash
Dictators Daiwa made ones when I decided to get some.

However there are a couple of multi top Barbel rods coming out (so I hear)
that will have a 1.75, 2 and 2.25 top section with a slightly more powerful
butt section these may well be worth a look.

Have fun, also just one thing Barbel unlike Carp take a long time to recover
after being caught due to the build up of lactic acid so please give them
plenty of time to recover (2 mins for every min taken during the fight,
landing and weighting process is the minimum) and don't let them trick you
into thinking there OK any earlier. I witnessed 3 fish go belly up past me
(one I managed to catch in my landing net and allowed it to recover) when I
asked the people fishing above me what was going on they said quote "they
were ok when we put um back".


www.whybother.co.uk