The history of the carp rod can be traced back to the early 1950s when Richard Walker, one of the early carp fishing pioneers, began experimenting in rod design to try and make a rod suitable for casting larger baits and playing heavier and stronger fish than most Wallis type rods of the time could cater for. A few prototypes followed, all made from split cane, until finally the Richard Walker MK IV was born; a single-built split-cane carp rod. The rod got its name as it was the forth rod Walker had attempted at the time.
B James & Son began producing the rods shortly after and thus the first commercially available carp rod was born. The rod became more and more popular as time went on, increasing from 1.5lb test curve to a 2lb test curve during the course of its life, and by the mid sixties most of the leading rod makers like Hardy Bros were making their own versions of the MK IV.
The early sixties saw the advent of glass fibre and slowly but surely, over the coming years the draw of the new technology moved on from cane, to the extent that by the end of the sixties, the majority of specimen carp anglers were switching to glass fibre.
By the mid 70s names like Sportex and North Western had become popular in glass fibre rod making but more was to come with the advent of carbon as we entered the 80s. Carbon rods took a while to establish themselves as worthy successors to glass fibre, but the Tri Cast rods set the bench mark for others to follow, and as the 80s progressed more of the names we recognise today entered the fray as the likes of Century started to develop their own ranges of interweaved carbon rods.
The nineties was the snowball decade in terms of the amount of rods which hit the market from all types of manufactures and suppliers; Shimano and Daiwa amongst others began to get in on the act and before you knew it we had carp rods available for all sorts of different applications.
There is more choice now than ever when it comes to carp rods, and whilst it’s fair to say the technological advances may have slowed over the last decade, there is no shortage of absolutely stunning rods available from the likes of Daiwa, Shimano, Greys, Free Spirit, and Century, all designed to help the specimen angler get the most out of his or her fishing.