A change to my sea fishing.........

[philpot 5,031]

I have long been a massive fan of Zziplex beach rods linked to a multiplier reel but in September of last year I had a thought about a three piece rod as we were going on holiday to our favourite place in Suffolk but taking our guns, fresh water fishing gear and 7ft sections of beach rods seemed a bit too much and linked to this, I have been getting a few people coming for a casting lesson with these 3 piece rods.  How can I help to improve their casting if I don't use a 3 piece rod myself bearing in mind that some of these rods have been known to snap so I have to be careful what advise I give to others....................buying a rod (or two / three) seemed to be in order.

Ok so which rod because unlike the Zziplex / Century / AFAW rods, these are very different and I had no bloody idea what to buy.  A dealer in my area bought a couple of Penn, Rough Ground 15.5ft rods for his holiday and was not going to use them any more so I bought one to try, hmmm reel seat up the rod whereas I fish with the reel at the bottom of the rod so I looked and found a Daiwa Emblem 45 scw for sale on facebook at not a lot of money so I bought it. loaded the reel with my normal line and off I went to one of my spots on the Humber that I  know very well. To my great surprise, I caught a couple of flatties which just showed the bites on this rod and so far I was actually enjoying the session.

With the bit between my teeth, I went back and bought the other rod from the dealer and found another Emblem 45 so now two rods and two reels plus with the advice from a fishing pal, I loaded the reels with 44lb braid...................all very different to what I had been doing for the past 40+ years.  So now I wanted more power to cast with so I bought a Sonik Gravity X5 HT which has had a reputation for snapping but after talking to a few dealers around the country who said they were still a brilliant rod so now I also have one of those.

It was time to see if I were able to do more than an overhead thump cast for two reasons, firstly to help others to increase their distance but also because of my own casting style, I wanted to see what I could do without snapping the rods.  With quite a bit of testing on my local sea wall, I was able to increase the distance by quite a bit until I was reaching an average of 176mts which is not a lot by modern standards but with this type of rod I was quite pleased. I have had two guys with three piece rods come for some coaching over the last few months and adopting the technique I was working on had a good effect and improvement were very quick to come.

Back to my fishing, well if I am being honest, I have really enjoyed using these rods as opposed to my Zziplex rods and have become a bit of a convert to fixed spool reels and braid giving superb bite detection and seeing pin whiting and flounder taking the bait makes fishing more interesting.  I cannot deny that I love pendulum casting on my conventional rod and multipliers BUT this new approach to my sea fishing is giving me a lot of pleasure and in a fishing environment I am reaching the same distance with a baited rig on both types of kit.

There are a few manufacturers who are producing very high end 3 piece rods that are capable of power casting but the price is very high, in fact I could buy a new top end Zziplex / Century rod for the same or even less money so as an old fart on a pension, these are out of my reach nowadays. As a side note, I have been casting these rods with 150grm weights but recently because of the high winds, I switched to 175grm with big baits and they handled it all very easily with the bonus that you don't really feel the difference when you cast.

They do say that    'every day is a school day'   and I can only agree.

Phil

[Bangersanmash 3,216]

6 hours ago, philpot said:

I have long been a massive fan of Zziplex beach rods linked to a multiplier reel but in September of last year I had a thought about a three piece rod as we were going on holiday to our favourite place in Suffolk but taking our guns, fresh water fishing gear and 7ft sections of beach rods seemed a bit too much and linked to this, I have been getting a few people coming for a casting lesson with these 3 piece rods.  How can I help to improve their casting if I don't use a 3 piece rod myself bearing in mind that some of these rods have been known to snap so I have to be careful what advise I give to others....................buying a rod (or two / three) seemed to be in order.

Ok so which rod because unlike the Zziplex / Century / AFAW rods, these are very different and I had no bloody idea what to buy.  A dealer in my area bought a couple of Penn, Rough Ground 15.5ft rods for his holiday and was not going to use them any more so I bought one to try, hmmm reel seat up the rod whereas I fish with the reel at the bottom of the rod so I looked and found a Daiwa Emblem 45 scw for sale on facebook at not a lot of money so I bought it. loaded the reel with my normal line and off I went to one of my spots on the Humber that I  know very well. To my great surprise, I caught a couple of flatties which just showed the bites on this rod and so far I was actually enjoying the session.

With the bit between my teeth, I went back and bought the other rod from the dealer and found another Emblem 45 so now two rods and two reels plus with the advice from a fishing pal, I loaded the reels with 44lb braid...................all very different to what I had been doing for the past 40+ years.  So now I wanted more power to cast with so I bought a Sonik Gravity X5 HT which has had a reputation for snapping but after talking to a few dealers around the country who said they were still a brilliant rod so now I also have one of those.

It was time to see if I were able to do more than an overhead thump cast for two reasons, firstly to help others to increase their distance but also because of my own casting style, I wanted to see what I could do without snapping the rods.  With quite a bit of testing on my local sea wall, I was able to increase the distance by quite a bit until I was reaching an average of 176mts which is not a lot by modern standards but with this type of rod I was quite pleased. I have had two guys with three piece rods come for some coaching over the last few months and adopting the technique I was working on had a good effect and improvement were very quick to come.

Back to my fishing, well if I am being honest, I have really enjoyed using these rods as opposed to my Zziplex rods and have become a bit of a convert to fixed spool reels and braid giving superb bite detection and seeing pin whiting and flounder taking the bait makes fishing more interesting.  I cannot deny that I love pendulum casting on my conventional rod and multipliers BUT this new approach to my sea fishing is giving me a lot of pleasure and in a fishing environment I am reaching the same distance with a baited rig on both types of kit.

There are a few manufacturers who are producing very high end 3 piece rods that are capable of power casting but the price is very high, in fact I could buy a new top end Zziplex / Century rod for the same or even less money so as an old fart on a pension, these are out of my reach nowadays. As a side note, I have been casting these rods with 150grm weights but recently because of the high winds, I switched to 175grm with big baits and they handled it all very easily with the bonus that you don't really feel the difference when you cast.

They do say that    'every day is a school day'   and I can only agree.

Phil

Great read phil. I've been looking at the match pro Mk2. Seen two lads using the match pro MK1s down Norfolk. One of the lads worked in local angling shop. Said best rods he's used. Over 500 quid that's just for rod. 

[terryd 8,598]

I have ziplex bass my fav rod but the tip section is pain in butt fitting in van. Nice 3 piece would be good idea 

[philpot 5,031]

3 hours ago, Bangersanmash said:

Great read phil. I've been looking at the match pro Mk2. Seen two lads using the match pro MK1s down Norfolk. One of the lads worked in local angling shop. Said best rods he's used. Over 500 quid that's just for rod. 

The Mk2 is not in the same league as the Mk1.  I had a Mk2 and found it to be numb and has to fish with a minimum of 6oz otherwise the rod simply doesn't perform. When I was selling mine, I had 4 calls from guys who wanted a Mk1 and would not touch the Mk2, can't blame them.

[philpot 5,031]

2 hours ago, terryd said:

I have ziplex bass my fav rod but the tip section is pain in butt fitting in van. Nice 3 piece would be good idea 

Depending what your budget is, the Akios range of 3 piece rods are well worth considering. A chap I know is sponsored by them in part and he will be coming for a casting session with me when he can fit it in, he will be bringing quite a few of the range for me to evaluate but before that he will be carrying out his own test in the next week or two on his youtube channel......... The awful angler. it should be interesting.

I have an AFAW Universal Bass rod, 11.5ft casting upto 150grm which is nothing short of superb for both casting and bite detection. I have not tested actual distance but it certainly makes a lead fly no matter if I am using braid for flounder and smaller fish or mono when on the haddock and cod.  The replacement rod from AFAW is the Bass Pro but I cannot tell you if it is as good as mine.

Here is the Akios range,   

AKIOS SUPERSTORE | Specialist UK Retailer | Low Prices

AKIOS-SUPERSTORE.CO.UK

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Akios Superstore - UK's SPECIALIST ONLINE RETAILER OF AKIOS RODS, REELS AND FISHING TACKLE offering huge savings on the entire range of Akios rods...

Phil

[philpot 5,031]

3 hours ago, terryd said:

I have ziplex bass my fav rod but the tip section is pain in butt fitting in van. Nice 3 piece would be good idea 

Here is the Test on some of the Akios rods done by Alex on his youtube channel which you may find useful.

 

[Bangersanmash 3,216]

7 hours ago, philpot said:

Here is the Test on some of the Akios rods done by Alex on his youtube channel which you may find useful.

 

Great video watch this lad now and then. Shit my pants when he did the camera click and stopped on the action. Thought the f***ing rod snapped. Like a cracking sound. . Like how he has banta with his old man good guy.