Carp rods for barbel fishing

Peter Cliff wrote in message ...
To turn your question the other way round, I have recently been doing a
lot of fishing for tench using my Grauvell Barbel Bionic rod. I have
been picking up a lot of 'nuisance' carp and found it great for handling
fish to over 25lbs - action right through the rod when you need it,
tough when the fish get a head of steam up yet supple enough when you
need to be delicate. Great for all sorts of specimen fishing!

So in fact anglers are now re-discovering what Dick Walker knew in the
1950/60's - that a well-designed one-and-a-half pound test curve,
through-actioned rod will cope with most things. I remember a letter
published in David Hall's "Coarse Fisherman" magazine in the 70s,
complaining that too many specialist rods were being produced (did
Terry Eustace start the trend?), with names like the "Meat Mauler"!
The writer was quite happy with the rods he bought from Woolworths.
And I'm still happily using a Winfield "Stillwater Leger" rod that I
bought for about £7 in 1978. Comes back to the old saying about most
floats/lures/flies etc being designed primarily to catch anglers...
Dave Rogers