Rods..help needed please

[Marky]

If I were you i\"d go for either the Conoflex Nemesis plus which have a quality fishing tip and backbones of power but I was also in the Tackle shop the other day and found myself playing with a Ron Thompson Axellerator £99 13\"6 and it felt great. It was light had a hardy tip and the butt was unbendable ideal for lifting and skull dragging.

Smashing value for the money.

[HOODY]

I have got a Century TTB and a TTR.. I would never part with either of them. I have made too many expensive mistakes in the past!

[Ant]

Same here Hoody, got a TT-R amoung others and must have spent £1000\'s on rods but it\'s perfect for me. Love the Tip-Tornado range too, and have four different ones GP, Lite, Ultra-Lite,Sport.

I wouldn\'t hestitate to buy another second hand, or even new but it took some saving to get the first one, £40 of zircon rings on it for a start LOL

[Edited on 6/11/2003 by Ant]

[sless]

exelant rods for whiting
ant

[codstopper]

i would`nt go past my century kompressor grand prix, i fish all grounds, sometime in a big sea and strong tidal areas. i find this rod to be very very strong, light, and sensitive to bites, the sea doesnt bother this rod much, i hold my rod as second nature, never use a stand or tripod, its very comfortable to use and hold for a session, ive pulled in cod in a big sea to 15lb and no probs for the rod,
i use various reels with this rod, slosh, abu 7000 and the elite all match the rod perfectly, 5-6oz weights are ideal for this rod for all conditions.
another excelent rod is my other the century tip tornado, very light, really sensitive to bites, though a bit soft for rocks and dragging fish through kelp beds. but for beach, pier or general rock its perfect. this rod for being so light and having a thin top section it is unbelievably strong, you could never snap it by pulling at a snag. it bends forever, hence-not being ideal for dragging fish through a heavy kelp bed.

good luck

personally i wouldnt buy a zziplex, over exagerated and they are not built with the same composite as century.
remember zziplex are built as what i class as a southern rod, for southern beach work.
century rods are built locally and they know the local terrain the rods will be used on. we have a rugged coastline with some of the finest fishing areas in the uk, these are designed to take punishment, and will never let you down.

rods are not designed to lift fish over around 3lb, no rod is - drop nets and handballing the fish is the only way, to lift a big fish say of around 8lb the rod would have to have a solid butt and the tip section around 3inches thick to withstand the pressures of lifting a fish of this callibre

[Ant]

Depends on how you\'re fishing Sless, but both the Lite and the Ultra are EXCELLENT for clean ground fishing if that\'s what you were trying to spell?

You might win a match or two if you go fishing for them?

[Ell]

Meeeeowwwww

[Chris_Hughes]

I would be very upset if I had a beachcaster that couldn\'t lift three pound weight. A heavy carp/pike rod would have a 3.0 lbs test curve (that is it takes 3.0 lbs to bend the rod through a 90 degree angle) Beachcasters are usually rated for 4 to 8 oz casting weight and are much heavier duty than a heavy carp/pike rod, so would easily handle a weight in excess of 3.0 lbs. However when taking the leverage around the upper hand as the fulcrum (say 3 ft from the butt and say about 7 ft to the tip) that\'s like holding a 7.0 lbs at arms length and could be as much as 12.0 lbs depending on the lever arm. That\'s quite a weight to hold at arms length for an extended period of time.

Richy, I can\'t help you with the rod choice - as my main rod that I\'m still using after 20 years is a Conoflex DC6 - I think the present day equivalent is a Nemesis Plus.

If piscatorial designer labels mean nothing to you, then go for one of the new Ron Thompson rods - in fact you\'d get two rods and have enough change to get an ABU 6500 from Ant for the price you pay for the top of the range Greys, Zzipplex, Conoflex, Penn, Daiwa rods.

[Ant]

I think Codstopper was just saying that it\'s not what the are designed for, not that they can\'t do it. Just like winding fish up the side of piers and other venues, does really damage gears on multipliers. On Century rods when new, there is a note saying that you shouldn\'t swing fish in as it can lead to damgage through \"column loading\". I think that a warning is a good idea, at least they are saying that te are not designed to do it and that if you choose to lift or swing fish in then its your own fault if it goes tits up.

Cheers for the plug Chris...............

[Chris_Hughes]

No problem Ant, my invoice for advertising fees is in the post.

What are the forces exerted on a rod tip during a standard over-head thump (let alone a full blown pendulum)? Granted they are a relative short duration shock load, but they are many pounds, other wise why bother with shock leaders, the rod would have snapped well before the line.

On the subject of fishing rods (and other tackle) I do think that there is a lot of hyped (and over priced) tackle on the market and Ron Thompson is quickly becoming the \"white label\" of fishing tackle. I think the analogy is, if you take a top of the range Porsche and a standard Ford Escort and drivee them from Leeds to Newcastle, at speeds where you are not going to attract the attention of the boys in blue, then both cars will arrive at their destination within 5 minutes (or less) of each other. The same applies to fishing tackle, the performance difference between the top of the range over priced designer label rods and the sensibly priced Ron Thompson (and also budget rods from Penn, Daiwa, ABU, Fladden etc. etc.) is negligible. I dare say that the same will apply to ABU reels and the cheaper offerings from the likes of Ron Thompson (and others). No doubt they will have a magnetically braked \"rocket\" on the drawing board waiting to go into production as soon as the lawyers have decided there are no patent infringements to worry about.

[Chippy]

I think the difference is that rods are designed to cast 6oz plus bait and can withstand that. The label with a new Century rod advises against swinging the rod and fish up past the vertical and down again. I\'m not an engineer but I know that some structures are very strong in some planes but not in others. I assume a rod may be built along those lines. Or as Ant says, it\'s a disclaimer to cut their liability.