Beginners Guide to Fishing Tackle
A Beginners Guide to Fishing Tackle
The first thing you must do to get started in carp fishing is to go out and buy a pickup truck. Full size is best but a small pickup will be ok too. The reason you need a truck, is to carry all the kit and bait needed to fish. What about fishing tackle? Actually the trucks main function isn’t for the safety of your rods but instead it’s to haul all your new fishing tackle. Where do you get all this fishing tackle? First thing to do is get a big tackle catalogue from England and order everything in it. This saves you lots of time trying to figure out what tackle you need to fish, you will eventually need it all even if you won’t ever know what it’s for. Buying everything in one big order also allows you to save lots of money on shipping things from England to Spain.
Maybe we should talk a little about some of the things you need to fish the modern way. For example carp fishermen need a hair rig. It’s a hook with some extra line coming off the shank of the hook with a little loop on it. I know it looks strange you will need some until you can learn to tie the no-knot knot. That’s right, you will eventually have to learn to tie the no-knot knot, more on that later, but for now just get some pre made hair rigs. Second thing you will need are some sinkers, but first you have to decide if your carp are going to be close to the bank or far away. If you learn to bait up you can bring them close to shore but sometimes they want the bait delivered out in the middle of the lake, and so you might have to cast far anyway. Better to get a big box with 1-4 oz weights, since you are a beginner it doesn’t matter what shape they are. Get some fishing line, any type will do to start with because until you learn how to handle big carp they will just take it all anyway so might as well start off with a store brand and then work your way up to braid or quality line. You won’t need swivels just yet as your pre-made rigs will already have some attached, but you will need to learn to tie a good clinch knot, we aren’t fishing for little bleak so your knots need to be good, practice tying you knots!
Reels, there is only one kind of you need to get. It’s called a baitrunner; it has a little lever that lets the carp take out line during a screaming run so he doesn’t pull your new reel into the water. The little baitrunner lever is guaranteed to work every time you remember to engage it, if you forget just once you get to buy a new rod and reel. It also holds a lot of line so you can fish all day and only have to refill it once since it’s almost impossible for even a big carp to take all the line off a baitrunner on just one run.
Now we need some long rods to cast with. Those long rods just look so cool, but actually they are a pain in the arse to deal with, but you need them anyway. If you really want to impress people buy the most expensive rods which are very pretty and cast out further. If you learn to bait up you can catch most of your carp at a range of 50 yards fish. You will also need a spod rod.
A spod is a neat little cup with string attached to it that you fill with bait and cast out. If you release the cast too soon the bait showers down upon your head, this is much worse than even a flock of seagulls flying over. If you release too late you get to make the biggest splash, you have ever made whilst learning to cast. Most spods are made with little forethought right on the bank from plastic bottles and some spare fishing line. These are known as temporary spods; some spods can cost more than 20 Euros and referred to as a specialist spod.
Now you have your rod, a hair rig fitted and some nice new line. What do you do now? You start fishing of course! 
