Carp reels

A good reel as a guarantee of your fishing success

Investing in a good, well-fitted reel will be one of the most important and expensive angling investments for you.

It is therefore important to make the right decision when buying it. The right reel will serve you for a long time and perform well from all angles.

A good reel and a winder that looks good!

Now imagine how much work a reel has to do when carping and how much depends on it. A long, precise cast, a powerful haul, several escapes of the prey - all of this depends on the right winding, a good brake and high-quality components. Therefore you will surely agree with our opinion that the reel is one of the most important elements of the set, on which the fate of the whole carp haul rests.

In order to choose a machine tailored to your requirements it is worth learning about the types and kinds of reels available on the angling market first. To help you with this we have compressed all the necessary knowledge into one helpful article.

Carp reels come in two main types with fixed spools:

• Free spool reels - these mainly come in several sizes from 3000 to 6000. There are also large machines available in 9000 - 10000 sizes which can be classed as Big Pit reels.

• Classic Big Pit machines - are derived from marine reels.

Free spool reels

Free running is a mechanism that allows the fish to freely pull the line out of the reel during a bite. This is a very helpful system that protects our tackle from being dragged into the water. The freewheel works up to the first cranking of the reel. After this, the reel disconnects the free spool, engaging the clutch and the brake needed to fight during the haul.

Most free spool systems have adjustable drag. This is useful, for example, when fishing in close proximity to reeds or submerged trees. Properly adjusting the resistance of the freewheel will prevent the fish from swimming away too far and getting entangled in nearby weeds. You can set the drag tighter so the spool unwinds slower, giving you time to react and pull the fish to safety.

When fighting, it's also a good idea to use the reel's front drag, which controls the amount of line you extend. This drag should be set so that it releases the line with resistance, but with less force than the line break test.

Big Pit Carp reels

These reels come in sizes 9000 and up and are designed to hold a large amount of line, allowing you to fish from a retrieve at very long distances. The special spool design allows for extremely long casts, especially when combined with a 13-foot rod with 50mm guides.

Recently, Big Pit reels have been increasingly equipped with shallower spools, typical for casting, with a small winding.

Big Pit carp reels have evolved in terms of technology over time. The body has been "downsized", which means that it has been possible to keep a high-performance gear inside the body with its small size.

Today a Big Pit reel is a small body built around a large spool.

The spool of a Big Pit reel can hold a good amount of line and its construction means that the line comes off the spool with less resistance for longer casts. As with the free spool reels, the Big Pit reels also have a front drag. With these reels, the brake is set to a low resistance so that the carp can swim away freely after a jerk.

Which type of reel to choose?

A free spool reel makes fishing much easier. It is also a very good option for the carp angler who is just starting out. With a free spool, the reel will do some of the work for you. Otherwise, you will have to set the drag yourself while waiting for the carp. It is worth thinking about this, because it may turn out to be very inconvenient on the water and sometimes even decide about the fate of our fishing spot. Setting the drag in the dark or adjusting it to the right level to fight when the fish is already pulling can ruin our hard earned bite.

However, if you aim at fishing long distances, want to retrieve your sets and need a really big winding line, it is worth to consider choosing a Big Pit reel. These machines may prove to be equally indispensable if you decide to use specialist sets for setting up a rocket or marker.

Remember to analyse the waters you intend to fish and your own ability level before choosing.

Other important considerations when choosing a reel.

In addition to the right type, when choosing a reel it is worth leaning into the technical specifications of the machines and their build quality.

Pay attention to:

Body

The rigidity of the body in our reels is ensured by the high quality graphite, which keeps the rotor as well as all the internal parts in place (even when the reel is loaded with a hard fighting fish), allowing you to maximise the force you exert through the handle of the reel.

This also contributes to the reel's considerable corrosion resistance and lower weight, while maintaining high strength.

Rotor

The precisely designed geometry of the rotor increases its resistance to twisting under the forces exerted on it during the fight with the fish. Superior rotor performance is the result of computer balancing.

Spool

Decent carp reels have spools made of aluminium. This is because aluminium is both light and strong, so it can withstand constant rotational friction. Plastic spools can break under the pull of the line.

Slow spool oscillation

From the functional point of view, this solution means very tight winding on the spool, which reduces friction during casting. It also has a significant influence on reducing the twisting of the reeled line.

Gears

Worm gear

The most durable and resistant is the worm gear, in which the worm (worm shaft) is made of hardened, ground steel and the worm wheel, also ground, of improved bronze.

This excellent construction solution is used quite rarely due to high costs of machining and required high precision of holes in the body for bearings supporting the worm and worm gears.

We use this type of gear in our new Phantom series reels.

Hypoid gear

These gears are used quite often. They are less robust than worm gears, but at the same time less expensive, which affects the purchase cost of the reel. The driving disc wheel in these machines is made of aluminium alloys and the driven wheel is made of brass.

We use this type of gearing in the Enforcer reels.

Gear ratio

The gear ratio of the reel is also worth mentioning. It is the number of bail rotations with one crank revolution. For example 4 : 1 means that with one turn of the handle the rotor will turn four times.

It is worth paying attention to the ratio of our future reel, because it translates into the amount of reeled line and thus the reeling speed, which is useful when fishing at a longer distance.

Quick drag system

It uses a narrow range of the front drag. Thanks to this system we are able to change the free spool gear into a tightened brake ready to haul fish in a split second. It can be used on Big Pit reels as well as on reels with slow drag.