Sorry, me again 😂

[Martin Osmond]

Apologies for bombarding your forum but I have another question, and I'm sure there will be many more!

I have an old pair of Vic Gibson built MK1 Century Armalites. 12ft 2.75lb. They are obviously built to be used as carp rods, 40mm butt ring, 16mm tip.

I was wondering whether they would work for barbel rods on the bigger rivers or just when I need to be using heavy leads.

Cheers
Martin

 

[Tim Marks]

Perfect with 4 -6 oz on a flooded Thames !

 

[Graham Tremble]

Perfect with 4 -6 oz on a flooded Thames !

Hi Martin,
It is always nice to have top of the range new products but you will find that people on here use a wide range of rods. It is simply a case of matching the rods action to the type of river you are fishing and maybe the size of Barbel you expect to catch.
A couple of my rods are at least 30 years old and were originally designed for carp fishing. They are fine in most circumstances and anyway, I just like them.
G.T.

 

[Martin Osmond]

Hi Martin,
It is always nice to have top of the range new products but you will find that people on here use a wide range of rods. It is simply a case of matching the rods action to the type of river you are fishing and maybe the size of Barbel you expect to catch.
A couple of my rods are at least 30 years old and were originally designed for carp fishing. They are fine in most circumstances and anyway, I just like them.
G.T.

I love my old gear mate, all my Carp fishing stuff is 'oldskool', old Aqua bivvy's and brollies, Daiwa SS3000's, Steve Neville stainless and alarms, I haven't bought new carp gear for years.

I'd absolutely love to be able to use my Armalites up the river, they are wonderful rods but quite limiting in a carp fishing sense as anything above 80 yeards and you struggle, even at that range accuracy is pretty difficult so I haven't used them in a long time, just wasn't sure if they would be a bit too much for barbel.

 

[Paul Richardson]

Hi
I think they would do the job- lovely rods
Just try them out and if you feel they’re costing you fish , consider trading up?
I use a Mk1 Armalite 2.25lb on a medium river with 3oz leads for barbel
It bends a lot but does the job and puts a smile on my face
I had a retro outing at the weekend on some late season piking , all rods 20 years old - original Fox Predators( burgundy) and a Chimera 2.75 and they all felt more through action than modern rods( probably the carbon has lost a bit of strength?)but all were joyous to use and landed plenty of fish to just under 20lb
There’s something special about using a rod that’s been with you a long time- nostalgic