Rod Advice.

[Blankety Blanksalot]

I know the following is very subjective but I will ask any way because I am suffering from 'to many options' syndrome!

I am looking for a good 'all round' rod to suit my needs. I will be fishing the following venue types.......

My life long friend and now boss very own private pool. Roach, Perch, Chub and Common and Mirror Carp. The Roach are from the size of a little finger up to about 1lb, Perch up to 4lb, Chub up to 4lb and Carp up to 20lb.
The Canal.
Commercial Pools.

I float fish.
Having saved really hard for the past 12 months I am not on a tight budget.
I really like Preston Innovations rods having had one when I was last into fishing.
My frien owns a Daiwa Air AGS 12' Match Rod which is very nice but at £500+ I am not sure if it will be worth the extra money for the likes of me.

Any help or advise will be greatly apprechiated.

Thank you, John

 

[Silverfisher]

What’s your budget (sounds healthy but just checking) and what will you be predominantly targeting? It may be a two rod job to cover everything.

 

[Blankety Blanksalot]

Hi Silverfisher.

I have £2568 saved in my fishing account, I need rod, reel and line. I still have all of my old tackle which is in very good condition.

John.

 

[J W]

For £55 you could do a lot worse than this...

Sold - Drennan Vertex 12ft Carp Waggler

I’ve only used this rod a couple of times. It is as new. It’s a 2 piece 12ft rod designed to handle everything from small silvers up to large carp. Drennan quality for a budget price. Sorry I don’t have a rod bag for it. It’s just been stored on a rod rack. £55 collected from Buxton...

www.maggotdrowning.com

I have 3 Vertex rods and they are superb.

Welcome to the forum btw?

 

[Silverfisher]

Ah nice for all that I’d say get multiple set ups to cover all bases as clearly no need to skimp to get a jack of all trades rod when you could afford specialist stuff.

 

[Blankety Blanksalot]

Ah nice for all that I’d say get multiple set ups to cover all bases as clearly no need to skimp to get a jack of all trades rod when you could afford specialist stuff.

OK, thank you.

Now I am really going to struggle with to many options lol

John.

 

[Silverfisher]

Haha quite possibly!

If it helps at all I fish predominantly for silvers (as the name suggests) and for float fishing I use a drennan acolyte ultra on rivers and not too carpy Stillwaters and a cadence CR10 #1 on more commercial Stillwaters where you run into more carp. Then on the odd occasion I fish for carp I tend to use 1.25tc Avon rods of a couple types but I’m soon going to upgrade them to a drennan twin tip specialist as it’s best feeling Avon rod I’ve found so far.

Couple other good float rods worth looking at are the maver signature pro and garbolino ultra light. Some of the tricast models are highly thought of as well but I don’t personally know about them.

 

[Blankety Blanksalot]

Haha quite possibly!

If it helps at all I fish predominantly for silvers (as the name suggests) and for float fishing I use a drennan acolyte ultra on rivers and not too carpy Stillwaters and a cadence CR10 #1 on more commercial Stillwaters where you run into more carp. Then on the odd occasion I fish for carp I tend to use 1.25tc Avon rods of a couple types but I’m soon going to upgrade them to a drennan twin tip specialist as it’s best feeling Avon rod I’ve found so far.

Couple other good float rods worth looking at are the maver signature pro and garbolino ultra light. Some of the tricast models are highly thought of as well but I don’t personally know about them.

Thank you again.

My budget is £568, I have just noticed I managed to add a 2 in front of my post and do not know how to edit it

I have only ever used 'float' rods. I'm not sure what a feeder rod is or even how to set up or use one. How do they feed the fish?

My boss uses a 12' Pellet waggler but just uses it in the same way as a float rod with maggots , sweet corn or Prawns. That seems to have a light enough tip to catch very small roach and he has landed a 14lb Carp with it.

John.

 

[nejohn]

My advice would be to do a little research, look at things like maver signature pro's, the tri-cast excellence and trilogys, drennan Acolytes, Garbolino essentials, MAP parabolix etc, take on all the recommendations on here but bear in mind that what suits one person may not suit everyone else as we all have different tastes. Draw yourself up a short list and go out and try them in a tackle shop. All of the above mentioned rods are around £200 and are all very good rods, it is just a case of finding one that suits you. Personally I would not go shorter than 12ft as if it is only going to be your only float rod anything shorter will be far less versatile. For a general purpose float rod the maver is not a bad shout along with the tri-casts, the others maybe slightly less versatile than these. These will leave you a good lump of cash for a reel and other bits and pieces that you will find you may need. Reel wise I would look at something by either Daiwa or Shimano in a 2500 or 3000 size, with my personal recommendation being a Daiwa TDM 3012, it's a good balance of price and quality and if you shop around you can often get them for less than £100.
But my most important piece of advice is whatever you do don't buy blind as you could make an expensive mistake (lots of those on ebay)

 

[Yosemite Sam]

I would think, that as you have saved long and hard for a nice rod, then something over the £100 mark, there is no point in buying a cheap rod and always have that nagging feeling, that for a few quid more, you could have had something much better. I would go for a decent pellet waggled for the larger fish, and perhaps a nice lighter rod to suit the silvers, with the ability to handle an odd carp if it comes along. Add a couple of Daiwa reels in 3000 and 4000 sizes and your away. You have saved hard for some nice kit, and have a very decent pot to dip into. You don’t have to spend it all, but £500 or £600 should buy you all this.

 

[trotter2]

Get yourself an Avon rod and a float rod that should cover a lot of options. Visit tackle shop and have a good look at what is available.

 

[angel]

Confidence in your kit is a big thing.
If you like Preston kit start there, go waggle one of their rods, just to be comparable with your old kit. Work from that. All you can go on is gut feeling.

 

[Blankety Blanksalot]

I'm off out to try a few rods and reels, I will let you know how I get on.

John

 

[BoldBear]

I fish a similar lake to yours with fish of a similar size although a few of the Carp grow slightly larger with the largest at around the 28lb max mark.
The lake in question is a lilly strewn estate lake with two islands (see pic before the lilies started to erupt)




I use 3 different types of rod which can handle everything in the lake:

Float rods:
1. A 13ft Drennan Acolyte Ultra Float rod for catching the Roach, Rudd and Bream and Crucians.
2. A 13ft Drennan Tench and Specimen Float rod for slightly larger fish up to around mid double figure fish using lines from around 3lb up to around 7lb-ish.

Bottom/surface rods:
3. A Greys Prodigy Multi tip rod which comes with two different ‘Avon’ type tips of 1.5lb Tc & 2lb Tc (not to be confused with the version with a quivertip). I have caught fish up to 23lb on this rod when fishing for Tench with 6lb line, however the two different tips cover reel lines from around 4lb up to around 15lb, and the rod has a very nice throughish action . This rod with its 2lb Tc tip fitted is also a great rod for fishing for Carp on the surface.

4. A pair of Greys Prodigy 2.75lb Carp rods for the days when I want to have a restful day and night chasing the largest of the Carp.

The above list of rods covers everything in the estate lake from the smaller species up to the biggest species very comfortably.

Tight lines
Keith

 

[Blankety Blanksalot]

Hi Keith,

Thank you for that.

The lake looks fantastic!

John

 

[Blankety Blanksalot]

Sooooooo............

Having tried a few rods and reels 'in hand' plus the offer of interest free credit (at the age of 57 I now have my first efver loan!) I have bought........

Shimano Stradic C14+ 2500 rear drag reel plus 2 extra spools.
Shimano Shimano Super GT 4000 rear drag reel plus 2 spare spools
Daiwa Air AGS 12' Match Rod
Preston Innovations Mini Plus Carbonactive 12' Pellet Waggler Rod
Berkley F1 trebble tip (1.5, 1.75, 2lb TC) Barbel Rod (second hand but like new).
2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12lb Camelion line.

John

 

[BoldBear]

Sounds like you’ve got it covered pretty well John

Keith

 

[Blankety Blanksalot]

Sounds like you’ve got it covered pretty well John

Keith

Thank you Keith.

I am heading off to the Pool in a few mins time, make the most of the break in the weather

John.

 

[Silverfisher]

Blimey good selection there. That should cover everything ??

 

[The one and only Harvey]

Drennan have the best "after sale"-service of them all. That is something to take into account when deciding what to buy.