Here's another tip. Okie put me on this: Use a short, light rod. My carp rod is a 6 1/2 ft. 2 wt. The advantage of this rod is that it's very accurate; you can dap easily with it (much harder to dap in close with a 9 footer); and it makes a very delicate (translate, "quiet") presentation, all very desireable qualities when carp fishing. My biggest carp to date on this rod is a 10 pounder and I routinely catch them from 3 to 7 pounds on this rod so don't think it's too small. Poke also uses a 2 wt. I know he'll chime in shortly with some good advice. If he can get away from his, shall we say, "friend" for awhile. I like to give Poke a hard time.