If you intend to try your hand at catching larger fish such as Pike, Carp or large river Barbel, you will need a stronger rod than described earlier.
Although there are specialist rods for each of these species, you can certainly catch Pike on a Carp rod and Carp on a Pike rod, and a rod suitable for either of these species will be suitable for legering the larger rivers for Barbel.
A good compromise that will be suitable for all three species will be described as a ‘specialist’ or ‘big fish’ rod, and will be described as having a ‘test curve’, a technical term used to describe the amount of weight required to bend the rod through 90 degrees.
A rod of 12 feet (3.6 metres) with a test curve of about 1.75 to 2lb will cover most situations when fishing for these larger specimens, including ‘Spinning’, a general term used for predator fishing with artificial baits for predators such as Pike.