Getting Close to the Ultimate Carp Rod

Product Review

Temple Fork Outifitters TiCrX 7'6" 6 wt.

Flats fishing for carp at Lake Ray Roberts is a game of dichotomies; flies need to sink but cannot hit the surface too hard, leaders need to be strong enough to resist abrasion and land big fish but thin so as to not spook them, and rods need to have the backbone to control a six pound fish headed for timber but also be able to hit a teacup at 20 feet. Catching these fish can require standing on some pretty thin "ledges" when it comes to your equipment.

I've been searching for the Ultimate Carp Rod (UCR) for sometime - really since I first started fishing for them in the late 90's. At first I used a 9 foot, 6 wt. Sage RPL because it was the same rod I used for light redfishing on the coast and for small bonefish in the Yucatan. This rod definately had the backbone to handle any cast/wind and when combined with a Lamson LP-3 (one of my favorite reels of all time), it could stop a small freight train. Problems arose when I had to cast it short (<25>

And that's what the majority of carp fishing at Ray Roberts is . . . short range. Most of our casts are 20-25 ft. Subtract 9 feet for a leader and you don't have much flyline past the tip of the rod. Many of today's "fast" action flyrods do not begin to load (and therefore become accurate) until you have 30-35 feet of FLYLINE past the tip. What usually happens when you try to cast one of these rods at short range is you crash the butt of the leader and/or last few feet of flyline into the water on top of your target. Carp REALLY don't like this and will respond with a boil of mud and a wake streaking across the flat.

What is needed in a UCR is a rod that is not so fast in the upper third of the blank but that has enough stiffness in the lower third to give you fish-fighting "backbone."

Length is another consideration. A nine foot flyrod is not going to load at short range as fast as a shorter rod. A seven and a half foot rod will give you another foot and a half of flyline out there to help straighten a leader - and we've all read our Lefty and know that a straight leader is a good thing. This reduction can only be carried so far - accuracy at distance drops dramatically when a rod gets shorter than 7 feet. As I said, MOST of our casts are at short range. Every trip, however, gives us an opportunity to throw a "Hail Mary" at a departing drum or large bass on the edge of a flat. All of a sudden, an angler needs to throw 50 or 60 feet of line . . . NOW . . . with a minimum of false casts. Shorter, slower rods are not very good at this; a UCR needs to be between 7.5 and 8 feet long.

One last criteria - it helps if the rod has a "saltwater" setup. A full wells grip and fighting butt to battle large fish and larger stripping and snake guides to clear line quickly and get fish on the reel.

Well, I have found a happy middle ground. It is the Temple Fork Oufitters TiCrX 7'6" 6 wt. This rod is fast, like the rest of the "X's", but not. It has a softer tip and will throw a nice loop and straighten a leader at 18 feet (yes, I measured it!). The rod still has enough backbone in the butt to lean on BIG fish. I caught a 9.5 lb. carp with it about a month ago and had no problem getting the fish in. Luckily, I was fishing a new, 12 lb. bass leader and could really pull on the fish - the rod bent deep into the butt section but I could tell it was no where near "stressed". That same butt section strength will enable this rod to throw a quick 70 footer with 2 false casts.

The rod has a full wells grip and large guides. The fighting butt is my only real "gripe" with the rod - it's too big. Unlike Sir Mix-a-Lot, I don't like big butts and the folks at TFO put the same size fighting butt on all the TiCrX models (I understand this - it saves them $$ and enables you to purchase a great rod at $250). I'm a fanatic about rod/reel balance and want that rod to balance right under my thumb - about an inch back from the edge of the grip. The standard butt balances just fine on the 9' models but puts too much weight on the back of the little 7.5 footer. With my venerable LP-3, the balance point was two inches up from the back of the grip. So, my rod received a much needed "buttectomy." I removed the fighting butt and about the last1/3" of threaded reel seat (after measuring the fit of the largest reel foot I would use) then attached a smaller, one inch fighting butt. This moved the balance point to the middle of the handle - acceptable, for now. The addition of a light, modern, large arbor reel like a Lamson Litespeed or Ross Evolution will make it PERFECT! Check out the photo above - you can tell the difference between my "semi-custom" 6wt. and a standard TiCrX (you can also see this rod in action in the video further down the blog).

This same outfit will be great for redfish (I'll let you know in three weeks when I get back from South Carolina) and as a canoe rod for bass. It's a quick, ACCURATE little fish fighter that would make a great addition to your warmwater arsenal!