Two New Rods, Two Extremes

[corsican dave]

my saltwater rod (see video) was  :shock: a flextec xrd44 in a 10wt until i broke it last month. a sound piece of kit with lots of heft. they even offered to replace it under warranty for ?25, so not bad customer service either.

the wife has one of their travel rods which is tiny (and dead cheap) and has a great action.

we both use fladen vantage rods as our 9ft gp weapons. i reckon they're fantastic.

i have to confess that i've got a vintage cane rod at 9ft 6wt which is lovely. however, i only paid ?25 for it off e-bay.

i reckon line quality is much more important than the rod or reel (although the wife's scierra xdp has an amazing quality drag). i only wish i'd realised this 20 years ago  :roll:! i love my cortland 444 classic peach and sl ghost tip.

favourite rod of all time: shakespeare 7' 5wt travel fly 5-piece. first rod i bought myself around 20 years ago and STILL going strong. copes with all sorts of casts that wouldn't make it onto video and has landed my biggest trout at 8.5lb. you will see this in action at crask

can't afford expensive gear and don't think i need to! :

[Wildfisher]

These cheap roads are, frankly, as good as anything you will buy at shop prices or from 'specials makers'   under  200 quid.  OK the cosmetics might not be as fancy and they may have some rough edges, but the rods are usually excellent. The Nielsen rods are  a  classic example.

[scotty9]

On FFF everyones a tackle tart or looking for flashy gear, it amazes me that everyone on here displays common sense. I'm not saying don't buy expensive gear, i own two loop rods, but people hear seem to buy expensive rods for reasons other then the badge! Value for money seems a key thing amongst wild fishers 

[Fishtales]

Value for money seems a key thing amongst wild fishers 

No-one to see us 2000' up a mountain and miles from nowhere so we don't need to pose 

[paulr]

Aye and we need the extra money for petrol to get to the places we want to fish.

[Wildfisher]

Value for money seems a key thing amongst wild fishers 

Aye, that and the extensive use of Dod permits marks us as a  bunch of miserable, grippy  bastards. Mind you this is a Scottish forum...........

I bought  a ?600+   Sage TCX this year, but the  logic behind the purchase is  impecable.

No matter how much my casting  improves the rod will always be more capable than I.

[scotty9]

I like that sentiment (excuse!) for the rod fred  :makefun that rod is loaded with more power than i think any of us could ever fully use!

[Wildfisher]

Earlier this evening I was out on the grass with the wee Fladen. The grip is a bit thick and is way to long  - out of proportion  to the size of the rod.  I have to hold it quite far back  to get balance and the reel I''m using is not especially light weight.

It casts well though with the Pirate #3 DT.

[Wildfisher]

I used the 7' #3 Fladen today on a small stream. I have modified the rod which took about ?  hour.

First I removed the go-faster-stripes  i.e.  the idiotic, incongruous  flashy labels stuck on to attract  the knob ends of the fishing market (they just peel off leaving no marks) and as I mentioned earlier the grip is a bit thick so I sanded it down a bit to make it slimmer. A dawdle.

Using the Pirate #3 DT and a small Snowbee reel, (it would also take a #4 line no problem) I played around with the leader set up until I got it right- 6 foot tapering to 6lb with a  1 ?   foot 3lb tippet was fine for a 7 foot rod on this wee burn. Like a lot  of cheap rods the tip seems to be a bit stiff, but it performs well at the required distances  and is nice to use. If you are looking for a small rod for overgrown burns you  really can't  go wrong for 25 quid.

[Guddler]

On FFF everyones a tackle tart or looking for flashy gear, it amazes me that everyone on here displays common sense.

Some on FFF are strangely dismissive of cheaper tackle and make, frankly, daft suggestions on the strength of this. One beginner who came on saying that he was having difficulty casting was told he needed to get a Sage XP and a Sharkskin line as the cure.
Another poster said he'd had a go of a cheap Shakespeare rod and it performed brilliantly - where could he get a more expensive rod that would cast the same as it??  :shock:

There's good stuff on there but some can't see past their bling.