How to Load a Carp Barrow

Knowing how to load a carp barrow can have a huge impact on how easy it is to manoeuvre around the lake.

Carp barrows are designed to make our sessions easier. However, if loaded incorrectly, they can quickly be cumbersome and hard to push. Loading your barrow properly is all about maintaining a low centre of gravity, and making use of heavier items to shift the weight towards the front.

Here are our best tips on how to load a carp barrow:

Put heavy items at the front

Where possible, try to put your heavier items front and centre of the barrow. The more weight you can put over the wheels, the more traction you’ll find you get when pushing the barrow.

I always put my large bait bucket (full of boilies/pellet) at the front to help even out the weight.

As soon as you lift up the handles, you’ll feel the weight shift over the wheels, making it much easier to get the barrow moving.

In contrast, if you were to put your heavy items close to the barrow handles, you’ll have to put more effort in lifting the barrow as well as pushing it.

Make key items accessible

In addition to properly distributing the barrow weight, you need to make sure that you still have all of your key items accessible. The faster you can unload your gear, the faster you can get the rods in the water and fishing.

The last thing you want is to be unable to access things such as your bait or bite alarms if you’ve just seen a carp bosh out on your walk around the lake.

More often that not, I’ll push my barrow with my Saber Rucksack on my back. This means I don’t need to pull everything off the barrow to access all of my essential bits. There’s plenty of space left on the barrow for the bulkier items such as the bivvy, trakker rlx bedchair and standard chair.

I have a small bait bucket filled with solid bags that I hang over the handle, making it easily accessible to rig up and cast to showing fish if need be.

Make use of additional barrow bags

If you’ve got the luxury of a more advanced carp barrow, you may find that you have the option of additional barrow bags.

These are usually well worth using, allowing you to properly distribute weight towards the front, whilst leaving plenty of room on the central barrow rack.

They really are great for giving you more usable space on the barrow, with the advantage of them being easily accessible too.

If you’re someone who fishes longer sessions or takes everything but the kitchen sink, it’s worth looking for a barrow that has additional storage included. Check out our best carp barrow guide for some of the more popular barrows on the market.

Bedchair as a base

As a general rule of thumb, it’s always a good idea to put your bedchair on the base of the barrow.

Your bedchair is probably the flattest item you’ve got, so putting it on the bottom provides a solid base to build upon.

It’s also one of the last items you’ll want to get off the barrow, especially if you like to fish off the barrow before setting up for the night.

Additionally, if you’ve not got a barrow with sides, you can make use of your bedchair by opening the legs either side. This will give you some additional side stability and scope to hang additional items off the bedchair legs if you need to.

Put your rods on top

Your rods are probably one of the most cumbersome items in terms of shape and size. They’re also the item that you want to get off the barrow first and put on last.

For that reason, we advise putting your rods on the very top of the barrow. Just be careful not to catch your rod rings with your bungee straps when you pull them across though.