I have used this rod three times now, and as stated I feel its time for a review.
Cost:
I bought the rod from Dragoncarp direct for £18. It arrived the following day.
Looks:
The rod looks nice. Made from a carbon blank with a cork and rubberised handle.
Build:
The rod is well made. The eyes are nice and straight and seem to be stuck to the blank with resin as opposed to being whipped. The eyes are lined with what feels like ceramic rings.
Performance:
The rod has a nice progressive bend to it when fighting a fish. The eyes seem perfectly spaced to perform with the bend of the blank. With the Shakespear Mach2xt reel, it is very well balanced at the end of the handle. Control of the rod is effortless, and holding it for prolonged periods is comfortable.
With the aforementioned reel loaded with 5lb line, casting is smooth and precise with little drag on the eyes.
The butt is of a nice length, and rests nicely along your forearm when fighting fish.
Buying:
Dragoncarp direct no longer seem to stock this rod, and I cannot find it online. But I would recommend it as a good budget rod if you can find it.
overall, I would give it 8/10.
Showing posts with label dunlop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dunlop. Show all posts
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
Monday, 4 August 2014
Mistake number 2?
Upon returning from my first fishing outing, I needed to remove the line from the Dunlop reel, and replace it with some new line.
Now I have always put the spool of new line in water before winding it on the spool. One, it gives me tension, and two, the water lubricates the line as it goes on allowing it to seat better. Or at least that is what I thought. I had always done this in the past, and never had problems.
This time however. . .
I was near the end of filling the spool and I noticed the reel getting stiff. I looked over it but could see no reason as to why this was. I pressed the button on the end to get the spool off the reel, and it would not come off. Eventually, it sort of went click but in a soggy way, and something looked odd. I then noticed what I was seeing.
This.
Somehow, the line had split the spool. Whether it be through too much wind on tension, or some other reason, I don't know. I have since done 2 other reels in the same way. One with the same line, and the other with 15lb line and not had any problems with them.
The reel cost me £6 from Dragon Carp direct, so I'm not bothering sending it back. But as the reel only came with one spool, its bye bye reel.
It also meant I had to replace the reel. So I spashed out a bit more and got this:
A Shakespeare mach 2xt.
It came with 2 alloy spools. One deep, one shallow, and a graphite spool. I'm quite liking the feel of this reel, and I am tempted to replace my other float reel with another one. Someone said it wouldn't be long before I become a tackle tart, and I feel they aren't wrong.
Now I have always put the spool of new line in water before winding it on the spool. One, it gives me tension, and two, the water lubricates the line as it goes on allowing it to seat better. Or at least that is what I thought. I had always done this in the past, and never had problems.
This time however. . .
I was near the end of filling the spool and I noticed the reel getting stiff. I looked over it but could see no reason as to why this was. I pressed the button on the end to get the spool off the reel, and it would not come off. Eventually, it sort of went click but in a soggy way, and something looked odd. I then noticed what I was seeing.
This.
Somehow, the line had split the spool. Whether it be through too much wind on tension, or some other reason, I don't know. I have since done 2 other reels in the same way. One with the same line, and the other with 15lb line and not had any problems with them.
The reel cost me £6 from Dragon Carp direct, so I'm not bothering sending it back. But as the reel only came with one spool, its bye bye reel.
It also meant I had to replace the reel. So I spashed out a bit more and got this:
It came with 2 alloy spools. One deep, one shallow, and a graphite spool. I'm quite liking the feel of this reel, and I am tempted to replace my other float reel with another one. Someone said it wouldn't be long before I become a tackle tart, and I feel they aren't wrong.
Sunday, 3 August 2014
Kennet and Avon canal. My first trip.
So I was finally ready to go fishing. I had agreed to take someone with me, and I had to wait for her to get up.
11 am we finally get to our swim. One of the disabled ones in Devizes. The person I took was disabled so I figured we could get away with it.
Bloke on a peg 2 down from us informed us that it was dead and that we shouldn't bother. I informed him we would take our chances and set up anyway.
Now I must state at this point that I was very eager to get a line wet, and I was setting up 5 hours after I hoped to start fishing.
So we get to our swim, I get her chair out, and set up her rod. Unfortunately this person isn't very good at paying attention, and it was really frustrating me. I set her up, showed her how to cast. She asked me to cast out for her which I did, I gave her the rod, knelt down to sort mine, and noticed her float was bobbing.
I told her to strike, and she replied with 'eh?'
I grabbed the rod, struck, and landed a small rudd of about 6 inches long. We put it in the net, I refreshed her bait, got her rod out, gave it to her and looked at her float as it went down again.
'Strike, strike the bloody rod damn you!'
'Where's the float?'
I grabbed the rod and landed another tiddler. Informed her while I was refreshing the bait that she should pay attention to her float.
'But I was watching you set up?'
'Don't watch me, watch the bleeding float!'
She cast out this time, as there was no one around to watch her (She is disabled after suffering a stroke. She has limited use of her left arm and leg). She cast out.
'Now what do I do?'
'Wind it in until the line is tight'
'ok'
I finally got my float on and tied on my hooklength and I heard a 'Erm. . . '
'Whats up?'
'Well I don't know. The float has disappeared, and the line has knots in.'
I turned to the canal, no float. I turn to the reel and a ball of line surrounded the bail arm. Turns out she was back winding. So I spend 20 minutes untangling the line, and winding it back to the spool. Finally the float re-surfaces and on the end is a tiny fish. Sadly it had been on the line so long that the hook was beyond disgorging. And it was already dead. I did not tell her this as I could see that she was getting upset that I was spending my time sorting her out, and had not yet got my own line wet after an hour of being at the bank side.
I have to get you a new hook link.
'No, set yours up first'
So I did.
At last, 90 minutes after arriving, both rods ready to go and we cast in together. Almost immediately, both floats drop. I hook mine, but she misses hers.
Another tiddler for the net.
for the next 90 minutes we were taking it in turns casting and pulling fish out. The hook was never in the water longer than 30 seconds before getting bites.
She decides she wants to have a break, so she sits back so I get the swim to myself. At the same time, I am fed up with the tiddlers. I had started baiting beside weeds with sweetcorn ready to switch to sweetcorn bait. (I had been using red maggots up until this point) I told my friend to watch this cast because I have a good feeling about it. I pulled the shot down towards the hook for a faster sink through the skimmers, put on a single piece of sweetcorn, and cast out. the float settled, then it did the bob as the bulk shot took the slack. there was a 10 second wait of nothing, then the float lifted slightly then started moving. then it purposely dropped down.
'Oh you caught something' came out of her mouth as I struck.
'This is a good fish' I say.
The clutch on the reel starts ticking for the first time.
'What is that noise?'
'It's the clutch'
'Why is it doing that?'
'Because this is a large fish, and I am only on a 2lb hooklength'
'oh'
It tried pulling into the reeds on my right, then shot out across the canal to the other side.I saw a flash of colour, but could not make out what it was.
after a few minutes, I found out something else I needed. A longer landing net. Mine is only 4 foot long, and the disabled stage is 2 foot above the water.
As I bring it to the net, behind me I hear 'Fucking hell, that's a big fish'
I chortled inside as I realise she has only just noticed.
We land it, and I get it out for inspection, and my mind went blank on what I had caught. For some reason, the head and broadness, made me think Tench. But the body said bream. I called it a bream in the end, due to the slime. But even now, I am still not 100% sure.
Here is that fish.
It weighed 2lb 7oz.
That was to be the last fish of the session.
There was a few things I realised I still needed.
1. Scissors.
2. Longer landing net.
3. Replace the line on the Dunlop reel (twice got tangled through backwinding, and I noticed it wasn't tight to the spool anyway.)
4. Get a bigger chair.
11 am we finally get to our swim. One of the disabled ones in Devizes. The person I took was disabled so I figured we could get away with it.
Bloke on a peg 2 down from us informed us that it was dead and that we shouldn't bother. I informed him we would take our chances and set up anyway.
Now I must state at this point that I was very eager to get a line wet, and I was setting up 5 hours after I hoped to start fishing.
So we get to our swim, I get her chair out, and set up her rod. Unfortunately this person isn't very good at paying attention, and it was really frustrating me. I set her up, showed her how to cast. She asked me to cast out for her which I did, I gave her the rod, knelt down to sort mine, and noticed her float was bobbing.
I told her to strike, and she replied with 'eh?'
I grabbed the rod, struck, and landed a small rudd of about 6 inches long. We put it in the net, I refreshed her bait, got her rod out, gave it to her and looked at her float as it went down again.
'Strike, strike the bloody rod damn you!'
'Where's the float?'
I grabbed the rod and landed another tiddler. Informed her while I was refreshing the bait that she should pay attention to her float.
'But I was watching you set up?'
'Don't watch me, watch the bleeding float!'
She cast out this time, as there was no one around to watch her (She is disabled after suffering a stroke. She has limited use of her left arm and leg). She cast out.
'Now what do I do?'
'Wind it in until the line is tight'
'ok'
I finally got my float on and tied on my hooklength and I heard a 'Erm. . . '
'Whats up?'
'Well I don't know. The float has disappeared, and the line has knots in.'
I turned to the canal, no float. I turn to the reel and a ball of line surrounded the bail arm. Turns out she was back winding. So I spend 20 minutes untangling the line, and winding it back to the spool. Finally the float re-surfaces and on the end is a tiny fish. Sadly it had been on the line so long that the hook was beyond disgorging. And it was already dead. I did not tell her this as I could see that she was getting upset that I was spending my time sorting her out, and had not yet got my own line wet after an hour of being at the bank side.
I have to get you a new hook link.
'No, set yours up first'
So I did.
At last, 90 minutes after arriving, both rods ready to go and we cast in together. Almost immediately, both floats drop. I hook mine, but she misses hers.
Another tiddler for the net.
for the next 90 minutes we were taking it in turns casting and pulling fish out. The hook was never in the water longer than 30 seconds before getting bites.
She decides she wants to have a break, so she sits back so I get the swim to myself. At the same time, I am fed up with the tiddlers. I had started baiting beside weeds with sweetcorn ready to switch to sweetcorn bait. (I had been using red maggots up until this point) I told my friend to watch this cast because I have a good feeling about it. I pulled the shot down towards the hook for a faster sink through the skimmers, put on a single piece of sweetcorn, and cast out. the float settled, then it did the bob as the bulk shot took the slack. there was a 10 second wait of nothing, then the float lifted slightly then started moving. then it purposely dropped down.
'Oh you caught something' came out of her mouth as I struck.
'This is a good fish' I say.
The clutch on the reel starts ticking for the first time.
'What is that noise?'
'It's the clutch'
'Why is it doing that?'
'Because this is a large fish, and I am only on a 2lb hooklength'
'oh'
It tried pulling into the reeds on my right, then shot out across the canal to the other side.I saw a flash of colour, but could not make out what it was.
after a few minutes, I found out something else I needed. A longer landing net. Mine is only 4 foot long, and the disabled stage is 2 foot above the water.
As I bring it to the net, behind me I hear 'Fucking hell, that's a big fish'
I chortled inside as I realise she has only just noticed.
We land it, and I get it out for inspection, and my mind went blank on what I had caught. For some reason, the head and broadness, made me think Tench. But the body said bream. I called it a bream in the end, due to the slime. But even now, I am still not 100% sure.
Here is that fish.
It weighed 2lb 7oz.
That was to be the last fish of the session.
There was a few things I realised I still needed.
1. Scissors.
2. Longer landing net.
3. Replace the line on the Dunlop reel (twice got tangled through backwinding, and I noticed it wasn't tight to the spool anyway.)
4. Get a bigger chair.
The Gameplan
So now I decide to sit down and decide what's the best way of getting kit, and in which order to get use out of it as soon as possible. Having mentioned my intention of going back into fishing to several people who expressed an interest in coming along, it was decided early on that I should get 2 float rods.
So the first one I ordered was a Shakespear pellet waggler rod, 11ft. The second, a 13foot dunlop waggler rod.
The reason for the 11foot rod was a little obscure. When I last fished 12 years ago, I used to use a 11 foot quivertip for float fishing. The reason being is that I broke my mates 12 foot float rod, and gave him mine in replacement. In hindsight, I wish I had done it sooner. The quiver tip was better at casting floats in my opinion, and that memory was part in me deciding to get this rod. The other being that my first rod was Shakespear and it lasted well.
The reason for the 13foot rod was because a local freewater I used to fish reguarly back in the day, was a bugger to trot through with a short rod. I thought that the 13foot rod would be handy to have if I decide to re-visit the free water.
I also needed another reel. The reel I got with the telescopic float rod was quite good, but the one with the spinner was loaded with 10lb line and I wanted 6lb. So I bought a dunlop reel and a mile of 6lb line.
Now back in the day, I used to set up 3 rods, and fish with 2. One rod was a waggler, the second a carp rod, and the third was a spinning rod. The idea being that if my swim went quiet, I would use the spinner to see if a predator had entered the swim and scared my fish away. With this in mind, I decided to get a 2 piece spinning rod.
With the rods sorted, I also needed luggage, a keep net, a chair, and more bait boxes. Plus terminal tackle.
My list was made, and over the next few weeks it slowly came together. .
So the first one I ordered was a Shakespear pellet waggler rod, 11ft. The second, a 13foot dunlop waggler rod.
The reason for the 11foot rod was a little obscure. When I last fished 12 years ago, I used to use a 11 foot quivertip for float fishing. The reason being is that I broke my mates 12 foot float rod, and gave him mine in replacement. In hindsight, I wish I had done it sooner. The quiver tip was better at casting floats in my opinion, and that memory was part in me deciding to get this rod. The other being that my first rod was Shakespear and it lasted well.
The reason for the 13foot rod was because a local freewater I used to fish reguarly back in the day, was a bugger to trot through with a short rod. I thought that the 13foot rod would be handy to have if I decide to re-visit the free water.
I also needed another reel. The reel I got with the telescopic float rod was quite good, but the one with the spinner was loaded with 10lb line and I wanted 6lb. So I bought a dunlop reel and a mile of 6lb line.
Now back in the day, I used to set up 3 rods, and fish with 2. One rod was a waggler, the second a carp rod, and the third was a spinning rod. The idea being that if my swim went quiet, I would use the spinner to see if a predator had entered the swim and scared my fish away. With this in mind, I decided to get a 2 piece spinning rod.
With the rods sorted, I also needed luggage, a keep net, a chair, and more bait boxes. Plus terminal tackle.
My list was made, and over the next few weeks it slowly came together. .
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