It was really difficult to pick out a star product this year, as there were simply so many excellent products on show. My favourite product, however, was the awesome ONE XS pole from Preston. Now, I have been using the GiS 14 and 12 poles for the past year and have been impressed with how well they have performed, so I couldn’t wait to see the new flagship offering.
I will cut to the chase – the ONE XS is one of the stiffest poles I have ever picked up! At 13 metres the pole doesn’t move and when fished at 16 metres it remains as rigid as anything that I have seen before. Now it’s all well and good having a super-stiff pole but, in my experience, the stiffer the pole, the more likely it is to break! This pole, however, is super-strong and has been designed just for the UK market, which means that it will easily handle a 19H elastic for hauling out lumps yet still retains the finesse needed for winkling out a few roach on a hard winter canal.
It has taken 12 months of development to get this pole right – the original ONE pole was superb, so was a hard act to follow, but Preston and Lerc have since spent a lot of time trying different samples to ensure the right mix of strength and rigidity was reached. What they have achieved is stunning and is what Preston describes as ‘the most complete ultimate pole.’
The package with this pole is another key point to its success as it comes with a total of 11 top kits! The pack contains five top-four kits; five power top-two kits, one short No4, one Kup Kit and Kups and a GiS 10-tube holdall – a fantastic amount of spares that will negate the need to buy any extras.
To sum up then, this is a fantastic piece of carbon engineering. I can’t think of a better example of a pole designed for the UK market than this. In fact, it is everything you could need from a pole and I think I’m going to add one to my Christmas list!
| RRP: £2,999.99 5 X Match Top Fours 5 X Power Top Twos 1 X Short No 4 1 X Kup Kit and Kups 1 X GiS 10-Tube Holdall Website: www.prestoninnovations.com |
