chillfactor

Who ? This is a budget rods thread , Dave mentioned the fox warrior & an option of 50 mm , my response was to that fella . I doubt that series of rods has had any testing with 50mm sets & would choose 40 every time .

Completely different scenario with custom rods builders to off the shelf bulk manufacturer , they should advise you on what suits the blank of choice, but can make allowances with eye position.

Evening Dave.... think this is where some may get confused & have seen it on here before, when some was asking about just changing the butt ring to a 50mm , it's a complete ring set .... 50 / 40 / 30 / 25 /20/ 16 . Changing just the butt ring to 50 mm would cause major issues on the second eye . I would only personally buy a rod with 50mm rings sets if it has been designed to be used with them , not a rod that has multiple options. The depth of ring off the rod can have a huge baring on how the rod performs through its test curve / playing & casting action . Just chucking a set of bigger rings on a rod will probably make it cast worse that with the eyes it was designed to use . So bare that in mind if you are ever in the market for new rods . If there's an option of 40 or 50 go with 40 every time as the rod has probably had very little testing with a set of 50's on it .

Yes ... & just the overall feel of the reel , I have a selection of xtea's for river fishing / lure fishing & carping , fantastic reels , far better than the recent models .

Spot on Nick... Unless you are using big wide spools , then they are pointless, it just reduces friction which can help with distance nothing else . When shimano brought out the new range of bait runners a good few years back & stopped the xte & xtea range , the quality in the reels dropped massively , very noticeable .

Carp spools have definitely got deeper & wider in the 30 plus years I've been fishing , what was on offer back then to now are very different things. The 50 mm ring sets do make a difference when your trying to really get some distance I have rods with both on & have noticed a lot less friction through the eyes with the 50mm sets . Like you say yourself all the tournament casters use them for a reason . If your not fishing distance then they are pointless.... if your are they can give you extra yards from my experience. Have you used them yourself & compared between the two ?

Remember a session a couple of years back on a lake & the only time I thought I was fishing effectively was off the top !!! Proper savage lol !!!

Crayfish, can make the lake harder to fish than the fish can from my experience , really can get your head scratching. I have tried the korda stuff mentioned above, wasn't overly impressed tbh.... may as well just fish plastic baits as that's what your left with anyway ,with out all the added faff ( which it was )

All to much faffing about for my liking you might as well fish solid bags .

I've played & played with fishing sticks with pop up rigs as I'm a big fan of stick fishing. Just when I thought I had it cracked how to set it up to make sure it sat perfectly every time... it wouldn't ! wafters would be the way I would go if you wanted something other than a bottom bait with a stick.

Pm sent

It's all personal preference on everything we buy & use Gary eh . Heard a little interesting info today Gaz on a lake I know you have fished in the past .... might get the juices going & somewhere for you to target while your pit has its close season. Will pm you

Personally would much rather have all my rods together .... only one area you need to stear them round then & not multiple. Good advice to give people starting out is try not to set your rods up slap bang in the middle of your peg , especially if you are unable to leave the peg to land the fish ( bankside vegetation etc ) set them up to one side & leave your self as much room to land them in the peg as possible.

My thoughts exactly mate

Seen anglers , with bags full of stones simply tied on to all sorts of different pods just to give them a bit of weight ! You know best as always!

Don't use pods myself, but can't for the life of me see why this would cause tangles , looks no different to some of the lads that's post pics up on here who use pods or guys I've met on socials, never here anyone complaining of tangles. It will be fine fella, think some lads weight them down with a carrier bag full of stones on concrete .

Sound mate , think I might order some then

Out of interest Have you used this stuff with a large spomb greekskii with out a leader?

I've used the whiplash & wouldn't buy it again tbh , cast superbly but doesn't like going round the sticks the amount of times it would knot massively when reeling back in was head doing. ( which I put down to it drying out so quickly) meaning lost time & braid & lots of albrigt knots lol You also need a leader with it as it's dineama braid & ultra thin .

If you only need 80 yards & don't do it often just buy a cheap 50 £ job . I only upgraded to the spomb rod because I needed to chuck a large spomb further than the fox warrior I had could stomach .

If you do a lot of spodding keeno Reel = Daiwa emblem spod Rod = free spirit 13ft spomb , which is in budget.

Think this underlines the major advantage of buying off rod builders like Harrison / free spirit . The rods that finally get released have been tested right through there development stages, rather than just an import blank with a different label stuck on it depending on who takes them on . Talking with Terry on the casting days , he is quite often in the Harrison factory literally watching test rods being made & then casting with them the same day, then they tweak the blank to get what there trying to achieve. Yonny Your right about Hutchy testing the ctx rods, both factories know that if it can handle Terry or Hutchy then there pretty indestructible rods in most people's hands .

Not so sure about this mate .... the Hi-s rods are completely different technology as there a low resin carbon lower than any other rods out there by miles hence the price . Agree though that the ctx are great rods for that price bracket.... also think they have another range that's just been released all under the 150 a rod mark .

I sort of drop in between the two. I use my flood water barbel rod 2.75 lb & I find it perfect for bigger fish off the top & it can chuck a loaded float on long way .

Personally I think coiling of any line is down to how you load it on your spool....rather than the line itself. Unless it's on a reel that's not been used for some time.