A carp set-up can look very complicated at first, with three rods on a pod, each with an alarm, various bits and bobs hanging off the lines and a little box in the bivvy that lights up. However each part has a job to do, and a carp set up is a lot less complicated than it looks at first.
The front of the setup is what tells you when a fish has taken your bait. This is made up of three things that work together.
The item in the front is the electronic head, also known as the bite alarm. When the line moves, this part beeps and lights up. The bite indicator, which is part two, is attached to the line and gives you an indication of the direction the line is going in. This is more important than you think and it definitely effects your success rate. The receiver is the handset or sounder box, and this picks up the signal from the alarms and allows you to hear a take from a different swim or from inside the bivvy.
Everything is attached to either a rod pod or a pair of bank sticks. Which one you need depends mostly on the ground you fish from. Our blog post on rod pods and bank sticks goes into more detail on the subject.
There are more details about alarms in this older piece we wrote about why bite alarms changed carp fishing. There is also an explanation about how a rod and line pick up a bite here.
You don’t necessarily need to buy the most expensive options of these pieces of equipment to catch carp, but you need them to work every single time at three in the morning in the pouring rain. Reliability is key.
More information about carp rods, reels, line, end tackle, baits, fish care kit, bivvies and bait boats is to come.