What exactly is balanced tackle?
I HEAR a lot about using balanced tackle for carp. What does this actually mean?
George Hunt, Waltham Cross
‘BALANCING’ your tackle means matching hooks, mainlines and hooklengths to each other to ensure there are no weak links in the chain should you hook a big fish.
As an example, a waggler rig made up of 5lb mainline to a 4lb hooklength and a size 16 barbless carp hook will land a 10lb carp with the minimum of fuss, provided you take your time. For margin fishing on the pole, 8lb mainline to a 7lb hooklink and a strong size 14 hook matched to a solid No12 or No14 pole elastic will manage big carp.
Modern tackle including hi-tech lines means you can fish surprisingly fine on commercial fisheries, even though the carp in many are getting biggers. F1s especially can be very finicky and some top anglers will scale right down to 0.1mm hooklengths and size 18 hooks with maggots to catch them.