Best Carp Fishing Reels 2023: 8 Brilliant Reels

For most anglers, the reel is usually the most expensive bit of gear that you’ll buy and arguably the most important. With a vast array of options in the market, it’s a hard choice to decide which reel to invest in, which is why we’ve compiled a thoroughly researched list of our favourite carp fishing reels in 2023.

Not all of these reels are super high-end-tech reels, but carp reels that we feel will be available to most anglers and appropriate for their requirements. If you’ve got deep pockets and just want the best carp fishing reel possible, we’d point you in the direction of a Diawa Basia QDX. But for the majority of people, this is complete overkill and any of the reels below will cover nearly every fishing situation you’ll encounter:

Fishing Reel	Consensus
Shimano Baitrunner	Best Overall
Shimano Ultrega XTD	Powerful Long Range Reel
Sonik Vader X	Sonik Vader X RS
Diawa Basia 45 SCW QD	Simply The Best
Fox EOS 12000	Best Value
Wychwood Riot 65S	Best Compact Reel
Okuma CB-60	Most Aesthetic
Diawa Black Widow	Best For Beginners

Shimano Baitrunner – Best Overall

Performance

Like most reels on the market today Shimano baitrunner ranges in sizes as well, from 2500-10000, personally, we prefer the Shimano baitrunner ST4000FB which is on the smaller end of the spectrum as we fish a lot on small commercials. Put simply the bigger the reel, the better it will cast and the stronger it will be, the trade-off, however, is the price!

If you’re an angler that does require long-distance casting the Shimano 10000RB will have a huge advantage over its smaller brother and you also get better line lay with the larger spool but it’s also quite a bit more expensive.

Value

The Shimano baitrunner is outstanding value for money, its feature-rich, built very well, and reasonably priced. It’s packed with the features you’d expect from a high-end reel while only being a fraction of the price. 

You do pay slightly more when buying a reel from a big brand like Shimano but in the end its worth the trade as at least you know you’re buying from a trusted manufacturer and you’ll avoid being scammed into buying cheaply-made tackle. You can find out the price for the Shimano Baitrunner on Amazon.

Quality

Shimano has been pumping out great quality reels for a long time now and we have no hesitation in recommending their products, everything we find on any Shimano reel is always practical and precise, their attention to detail is superb, and in our opinion, the Baitrunner one of the best carp reels in this budget.

To summarize the Shimano baitrunner is the same as every other Shimano reel we’ve used. Its good quality and all the functions on the reel are easy and simple to use, the fights also feel very good and it handles itself very well in tight fishing situations. 

Shimano Ultegra XTD – Powerful/Long Range Reel

Performance

One of the main reasons we have the Shimano Ultegra XTD near the top of our list is the perfect line due to the incredibly slow oscillations in this reel. We’ve compared it to reels double its price and we seriously can’t tell much, if any difference. It is perfect for casting long distances and targeting those larger fish.

The Instant drag system is another reason why the Shimano Ultegra XTD is at the top of our list. Most modern carp fishing reels today have a dual drag system but not many do it as well as the Shimano Ultegra XTD. It allows you to seamlessly switch between two drag settings, one for freespool and another for fighting fish.

Fights are also incredibly exciting on Shimano Ultegra XTD – which is important! It still is fun when fighting fish but it also provides plenty of control and it performs excellently in most circumstances, you have a great sense of maneuverability with this reel, providing that it is paired with an appropriate rod.

Value

The Shimano Ultegra is one of the more expensive reels on this list but for good reason, it is equipped top to bottom with high-quality features and a finish you’d typically find on reels that cost several hundred pounds.

We think at this price range, the Shimano Ulteraga XTD is the best big pit reel available, if there is a better one at this price bracket, we are yet to try it! If you’re interested in the Shimano Ultegra XTD you can find it on Amazon.

Quality

As always from Shimano, the quality is on point for a reel of this price point, with premium materials and an immaculate finish. Another feature we love about this reel is the design, we love where Shimano has taken this reel as it comes with a stunning matt black finish with a very simple and minimalistic design. It’s quite subtle but also stylish, we don’t think are many reels out there that can match it for looks.

Sonik Vader X RS – Most Affordable

Performance

Although Sonik isn’t the biggest name in the carp fishing industry it has become a reputable manufacturer for carp fishing rods and reels over the years. Most famously with their Sonik Vader X Rod and reel. The Vader X RS packs everything you’d want from a reel into a powerful, affordable package. The line lay is impressive, the cranking power is decent, the freespool function is incredibly simple to use, and overall it is a solid carp fishing reel.

In certain aspects, it won’t be able to compete with some of the other reels on this list but they are double, if not triple the price of the Vader X RS which makes it very good value for money. You can find the Vader X RS on Amazon.

Value

The Vader X RS does everything you’d want a carp fishing reel to ever do and it does feel good for a reel at this price point. That being said it doesn’t feel particularly premium or special but its a reel most anglers would happily use without any problem. 

When considered from all aspects, we think the Vader X RS is top value and a great option for new anglers or if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a reel.

Quality

The overall finish on the Vader X is substantial, it certainly holds up with its competitors on the subject of quality. It’s a tough, robust reel built with good-quality materials. Its hardly an ultra-light Big-Pit but holistically speaking, its put together well.

Daiwa 20 Tournament Basia 45 SCW QD – Simply The Best

Performance

The Basia is arguably the best carp fishing reel ever made. There have been countless iterations of the Basia, making it among the most popular premium carp fishing reels. Nearly all of them are next to perfect but if money truly is no object and you want the best reel available, then the Daiwa 20 Tournament Basia 45 SCW QD is the reel for you.

This reel is packed with technology and expensive materials in an attempt to make it the most uncompromised carp fishing reel ever. Like all Basia reels, the 45 SCW QD is extremely lightweight. This combined with the enormous 45mm spool makes the Basia the best reel on this list for distance casting. It’s not massively more capable than the more affordable reels but its packaged in an incredibly refined fashion making it an absolute joy to use.

Value

With the Basia 45 SCW QD being well over £500, it isn’t exactly good value for money. The performance is unbelievable but unless you’re a professional angler, its nearly impossible to justify so much on fishing reels. However, you can find out the price for the Basia on Amazon.

Quality

As you’d expect from a reel at this price bracket, the finish on the Basia is phenomenal. Lots of effort has been put into making the reel as light and durable as possible. It has a Magsealed Zaion Body, which is essentially a carbon-constructed body with clever magnetic technology that prevents debris from entering the internal components of the reel.

Fox EOS 12000/EOS 12000FS – Best Value

Performance

The performance on the Fox EOS 12000 is also astonishing, this reel is a workhorse with some serious cranking power that holds up in the toughest of situations. Although it’s not the lightest Big-pit we’ve tested, it is probably one of the toughest and is built of high-quality graphite that is designed to last.

The retrieval on the Fox EOS 12000 is very smooth and fast and the line lay is almost perfect because of Fox’s Mesh-Tec gearing system, this reel is a joy to cast and play fish with. You can find the EOS 12000 on Amazon.

The Fox EOS 12000 however also comes in a free-spool version, the Fox EOS 12000 FS. The “FS” stands for free-spool which is a multi-drug system. A free-spool system allows you to have two drag settings, take for example you can use a very slack drag setting when you’re rods are on the bank so they don’t get pulled in, and when you are fighting the fish you can change the drag by the flick of a switch to your fighting drag setting which will make it harder for the fish to strip line. However, having the free-spool version of this reel does mean that it is also heavier, the standard version is just 744 grams.

Value

To be honest we’ve been looking at this reel from a number of aspects now and the level of reel you get at this price always seems astonishing! If someone handed us this reel without telling me the price, we would’ve thought it was easily a £200 reel.

Quality

The Fox EOS 12000 and 12000FS are both incredibly well-built reels, the components are all very solid yet the reel still remains surprisingly light for its size. Overall, very robust, reliable, and nicely finished.

Wychwood Riot 65S – Best Compact Reel

Performance

Like a lot of Big-pit reels, the Wychwood Riot 65S doesn’t feature a freespool system, however, it does feature a very good clutch system that allows you to maintain control of the carp in fights. It’s also a very enjoyable reel to play fish with, a lot of reels we’ve tested work brilliantly but feel dull, this, however, feels alive and very real in fights.

Value

Compact Big-Pits has become fashionable among anglers recently because of their amazing capabilities and they are also often cheaper than full-sized big-pits. The Wychwood Riot 65S is a perfect example of this, it’s everything you’d want your compact big-pit reel to be, it has an amazing casting capability, beautiful line, and gorgeous aesthetics (which matters a lot!)

Quality

It’s not something that everyone’s accustomed to, but we personally really these “compact reels”. They look slightly strange at first but they’re actually put together very well and show no signs of compromise from a standard carp fishing reel. The Wychwood 65S is built with the same premium components as standard reels, the only difference being the size.

Okuma CB-60 – Most Aesthetic

Performance

We first started using Okuma reels around seven or eight years ago and we’ve been in love with them since. Every Okuma we’ve used and tested has been robust, reliable, and excellent out on the lake and the CB-60 is no exception. The drag is incredibly smooth as are all the parts on this reel and it feels much more expensive than it really is, we find it hard to believe that these things are so cheap!

Value

You’d expect at such a low price that the reel has some sort of trade-off, but that’s not the case with the CB-60, it has good cranking power and once you pick it up, it’s easy to tell that it’s built to last. The CB-60 is also quite compact and therefore making it relatively light compared to other big pits, it only weighs 570 grams!

Quality

Another one of the main reasons we love this reel is because of its gorgeous aesthetics, Big-pits don’t come much better looking than this. It has an awesome retro look, finished with classy matt black paint and a beautiful dark wooden handle. Out of all the big pits we’ve used over the years, this has to be one of the best looking.

Diawa Black Widow Reel – Best For Beginners

Performance

In the casting aspect the Black Widow does very well, it can accurately peg targets at quite some distance. This is one of the much newer reels that we’ve tested and it comes in various sizes, ranging from 3500A (smallest) to 5000A. 

For Carp fishing in the UK, the black widow will cover the fishing situations for around 90 percent of the time, It can cast reasonably far and the line lay is good but its not like the premium reels you get from Diawa, but then again it does around a tenth of the price!

For those who will be casting long-range, it may be worth considering the larger 4500A and the 5000A. The larger spool will also mean that you have a better line lay in retrieval due to the slower oscillations.

Value

As we mentioned before, the black widow doesn’t have the feel nor performance of a top-end Diawa reel but it does come pretty damn close. The body is still very light, the retrieval is good and it has a lot of cranking power, when considering all the minimal differences between the black widow and the massively more expensive Diawa reels, you find it hard to justify spending so much more money for such small differences unless you’re a professional or top-level angler. 

When taking all factors into consideration, we think that the black widow reel is probably the best value-for-money reel you can get from Diawa or even the carp fishing reel market in general.

Quality

Quality-wise the Black Widow is everything you would expect from Diawa the built quality is phenomenal and there is not a spot where it feels cheap or rushed which is what you find on lower-end reels. 

It does feel premium when you hold the reel and the materials used are brilliant, they are not top-notch Diawa components but they still feel nice and well-finished. The same can be said for the sleek and stealthy black paint finish which brings out an amazing look on the black widow, the perfect reel to compliment a Diawa Black Widow G50 Rod.