Get In A Frenzee! Joe Carass gets to grips with the Frenzee FMR 3000 reel. Reels don’t seem to have changed much in the last few years. For sure they have got better and also much cheaper, but fundamentally they all revolve around the same principles. I suppose the biggest shift was when modern commercial anglers started using front-drag reels instead of the previously popular rear-drag offerings.
After developing a successful range of gear that all started with pole pots, the Frenzee design team has now turned its attentions to rods. Dave Harrell checks out the initial range of seven… Having worked in the fishing-tackle industry myself in a previous life, I know more than most exactly how difficult it is to break into the marketplace with a new range of angling products. I went through the exercise just over 20 years ago when I created the MAP brand, and while taking on the big boys in the industry was challenging I sometimes found myself wondering if I could make products like rods any better than (or even as good as) what was already available from long-established companies. Thankfully, at that time at least, the answer was yes and sales were good for several years before the big influx of rods from China put paid to any competitive developments I could achieve in the UK.
Mid-Wales-based Frenzee is a company that excels in forward thinking and problem solving. It produces several items that have been designed because of specific needs encountered in our fishing. Alex Bones investigates…One of the items to be launched from this stable is the brand-new range of Soft Pots. Having spoken to the guys at Frenzee it’s clear they’re not happy producing products “just for the sake of it;” they want to be innovative and the Soft Pots certainly tick this box.
Poles – the choice is almost endless! So, why spend your hard-earned cash on Garbolino’s latest G-Max 600 model? Alex Bones reveals why…The first thing that struck me when I removed this pole from its holdall was the finish! “Wow… silky smooth,” I said to my MF colleague, Joe Carass. However, upon assembling it to its full 14. 5m supplied length I must admit that I was dubious. Why? Because it felt so light, manageable and stiff… yet Garbolino says, and I quote: “It’s suitable for comfortably fishing elastics to a size 20” – surely it couldn’t be this good and handle the punishment associated with modern-day carp fishing?I treated the pole to its virgin session at the popular Leicestershire fishery, Makins.
When anglers of the calibre of Darren Cox and Steve Cooke work together to design a rod range you can probably expect something pretty good. Dave Harrell takes a look at their work… Match rod actions are something that have interested me for many years and having been involved in rod designs and developments myself in a previous career I like to think I know a bit when it comes to passing judgement on them. This new range of four feeder rods has been developed by Darren Cox and Steve Cooke, two incredibly successful feeder anglers in their own rights with a long list of match wins behind them on various waters around the UK, so as you can probably imagine I was looking forward to having a look at the finished products when they arrived at the Match Fishing office. My first reaction when I took all four rods out of the bags and set them up was one of surprise, as I’d expected to waggle another set of soft, parabolic through-action rods, which seems to be the current trend with virtually every rod producer.
The G-Max feeder rod range was a massive hit in the Match Fishing office, so when the float rod range came in we all got a bit excited! But are they any good? Joe Carass took a closer look…After being hugely impressed with the G-Max feeder rods that we tested a couple of months ago I could not wait to get my hands on the new float rods from Garbolino. I have long been a fan of Garbolino rods having used several of them from the Super G range for quite a long time. They have always been great value and top performers, so when Garbolino’s main man Darren Cox told me that these new offerings were in a different league then I must admit to getting rather excited!First up in the range is the 11ft 6in Commercial Waggler. This rod is a two-piece model that has been designed for commercial-fishery situations.
When Garbolino’s Darren Cox tells you a pole is the best he has ever used you have to take note! Joe Carass is the lucky man to get it out on the bank to give his verdict!Judging by the number of Garbolino poles you see on the bank, the company must be doing something right! Having being involved with a Garbolino-sponsored team for a few years I have fished with just about every top-end pole the French tackle giant has designed over the past few years. I used a Super G10 for two years and many of my angling friends use a G-Max 1000. Both of these poles are up there with the stiffest on the market; in fact, I would go so far as saying I don’t think I’ve ever used a more rigid pole than the G-Max 1000. So, understandably, I couldn’t wait to give the M1 a trial session to see how it stacked up against or bettered the previous offerings.
“Mention the letter M and figure 3 in the same sentence and my heart starts racing,” says Alex Bones. . . Imagine my delight when I received a call from the manufacturer asking if I wanted to test the 2012 M3! I thought: “£2,476.
Joe Carass explains why he believes the Guru Pellet Waggler hook is the ultimate choice for rod-and-line tactics!Hook choice is a constant source of confusion for me. I like certain patterns of hooks for pole fishing and use them a lot – the Kamasan B911 and Drennan Silverfish Pellet spring immediately to mind. But when it comes to eyed hooks for rod-and-line fishing, I must admit to being a bit of a chopper and changer. The Guru QM1 has long been my favourite hook pattern for any kind of legering for carp, as once a carp is hooked with this piece of steel they rarely come off! There are times, though, when I have felt that they were just not quite right.
MAP is offering a whole new way to organise and store your pole’s top kits. Alex Bones took an instant liking to the new system – here’s why. I love a gadget, fishing-related or otherwise, so when Mike Robinson, the man in charge of developing this new product for MAP, showed it to me I was an instant fan. It’s simple – a hard ABS case roughly five feet in length with a zip holding the two halves together and an EVA liner designed specifically to keep up to eight pole top kits in place for transport and storage.
The Best… Bar Absolutely None! Editor Alex Bones checks out MAP’s latest flagship pole – the hotly anticipated 901!Here at Match Fishing we get new tackle to test on a weekly basis. Sure, we tip most of it as good, as a product to look out for, or better than its predecessor but we wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. When it comes to standout products, though, it can sometimes become difficult to express just how good they are. Well, be in no doubt that in my opinion this is THE best commercially available pole ever launched, bar absolutely none!I’d be happy to fish with any manufacturer’s flagship pole – they’re all very, very good – but the 901 is special – it’s such a carefully thought out product that suits my fishing perfectly.
This month, Joe Carass runs the rule over a rod range set to take the market by storm!During my time at Match Fishing I have been privy to most of the new gear available and have certainly looked at my fair share of rods this year alone. This range from MAP, however, has caught my eye and I have seen them going through the testing stages for over a year now, having watched MAP-sponsored anglers Andy May and James Dent putting the various prototypes through their paces on magazine features. Having seen the rods in the different stages of development I couldn’t wait to give the finished articles a bash, but more of that later. Parabolix is a name that has long been associated with quality so there was definitely some pressure on MAP to produce the goods with these and it looks to have succeeded! There are nine rods in the range, varying from an 8ft F1 bomb rod to 13ft waggler rods, so there really is a rod to suit everyone here.
