12ft 3lb Carp Rod

[Moray Shore Fisher]

Hi,was looking for opinions on using the above for sea float fishing
Any opinions greatly appreciated

[davek]

I don't understand your rod description 12ft 3lb, but so long as you don't mean that you're intending to fish in the sea with 3 lb breaking strain line, I'd give it a go because a carp rod is designed to handle big fish. For a few years I've been using a similar strength rod for estuary fishing, a 9ft light spinning rod with a strong spinning reel and 50 lb braid line. I've used floats for mid-water trotting the incoming and ebbing tides and I've switched to a 1 or 2 ounce ledger for bottom fishing during the tide changes. So long as you limit the amount of weight you're casting, and you take care not to over-load the rod when you hook-up on under-water obstructions, you should be okay.
My only negative thought is that your rod could prove to be a bit weak, but if you've landed large carp with it and know what you're doing when you hook into something that you can't reel in, you'll be fine. Where I fish it's possible to slide a good sized fish up onto the beach, or into a landing net, but I've also fished off walls and some sea beach fishing spots where it's necessary to lift a heavy fish out of the water with my rod. I doubt that a carp rod would be suitable for doing that, so choose your fishing spots with that in mind.
To maintain the condition of tackle used in the sea, it's necessary to give it a wash, or a wipe all over with a damp cloth (using fresh water) after each use. It's essential to remove all salt and sand from it before drying it and putting it away. If you do that religiously, you shouldn't get any deterioration.
By the way, I recently put away my spinning rod and "upgraded" to a new 12ft Shakespeare Beta, beach-caster rod which is rated to cast up to 7 ozs. I've found it excellent for ledger fishing when casting 5 and 6 oz weights on 50 lbs braid line to my personal range limit of about 90 yards. It only cost me £25 from my local tackle shop, and it also comes in a matched combo (rod and fixed spool sea reel pre-loaded with 19lb mono line) for about £40. There are many similarly priced, longer rod/reel combo's on offer on-line, e.g., 15 and 16 ft rods which will cast 4 or 5 oz to much longer distances, so it wouldn't cost you a fortune to get fixed up with a beach-caster rod/reel combo which would be good for all types of sea fishing, without risking breaking a good carp rod.
Good luck and I hope you enjoy your fishing.

[sharpey]

He'll mean a 12', 3lb test curve rod. Should be ok for light estuary stuff....


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[pros]

When I asked the question on here some time ago someone offered the information that you can use the formula of 1 lb of test curve equals 1.25 oz of casting weight. Therefore your 3 lb rod would be ok to cast 3.75 ozs.

I have spent a limited amount of time using carp rods for sea fishing and have kept just below the theoretical wts. but certainly your rod would cast 3 ozs.

To be honest you will probably be over powered for float fishing.

[billbob]

I have caught lots of different fish on the float last year. My weapon of choice was a 12ft feeder rod. I have two, one is a medium with a slight through action. The other is a heavy feeder rod with a more tippy action. I have found that they have the strength and are light enough to strike a bite very quickly. My carp rod is only 1.5 test curve but I don't really use it for float fishing as it is more cumbersome than a feeder rod.

If you do decide to use a feeder rod, buy one with a fixed tip. Mine are Silstar Traverse X and were very cheap second hand. Hope this helps.