New 13’ or 14’float rod

[dalesman]

Earlier this year I suffered a stroke and because of this I sold all my gear.I am now in the market for new rod and reel for trotting for chub on the river.

 

[The Sogster]

You don't say new or second hand. This might suit.

Drennan 14 Ft Match Pro Ultralight rod | eBay

<p>This Drennan 14 Ft Match Pro Ultralight rod is perfect for all your fishing needs. Crafted from high-quality carbon fibre, this medium-light power rod offers great sensitivity and strength. The rod is designed to enhance your fishing experience and offers unmatched performance.</p><br...

www.ebay.co.uk

I love mine.

 

[Keith M]

How much are you wanting to spend?

I have several older float rods made by Hardy and Diawa and Drennan however more recently I’ve been using Drennan float rods a lot more often.

If you dont want to carry your rod ‘Ready made up’ then the Acolyte plus float rods and the Acolyte Specimen float rods are superb.

Acolyte Float Rods | Drennan International

Acolyte 10ft Commercial Pellet Waggler Acolyte 11ft Commercial Pellet Waggler Acolyte 12ft Commercial 12ft Pellet Waggler Acolyte 13ft Specimen Float Acolyte 14ft Specimen Float Acolyte 15ft Specimen Float Acolyte 17ft Float Acolyte Ultra 11ft Float Acolyte Ultra 12ft Float Acolyte Ultra...

www.drennantackle.com

If you want to be able to carry your rod ready made up then the 2 piece Drennan Specialist X-Tension 13ft compact float rod would be great too; and a lot less expensive than the Acolytes at around £120 at a lot of places.

Specialist X-Tension 13ft Compact Float | Drennan International

The Specialist X-Tension 13ft Compact Float The Specialist X-Tension is a true all-rounder, it’s a superb rod for anything from hard-fighting tench and bream on a summers day to trotting maggots in the winter for chub. This is a 13’ rod but features a clever design which allows the rod... Read more

www.drennantackle.com

Then there’s the Drennan Red Range Float rod, however this is only rated for 3 to 4lb lines; and is even less expensive but is a three piece rod so carrying it ready made up would be a tad harder.

Red Range 13ft Float | Drennan International

The Red Range 13ft Float rod is built on a remarkably well-balanced carbon blank which has all the attributes needed in a 13ft general purpose float rod. It is perfect for holding line off the water when controlling top and bottom floats, and is also an excellent waggler rod when fishing... Read...

www.drennantackle.com

I suffered from a bad stroke myself several years ago and because of reduced ability on the right side of my body I find it an advantage to be able to setup my rod at home in comfort and carry it ready made up instead of struggling to thread my line through all of the rod rings on the bankside; so I went for the two piece float rods and only use my three piece rods when I’m staying for longer periods on the bankside or need a much longer float rod.

Keith

 

[dalesman]

Thinking a three section and value to 70 - 120 to get back on the river roving won’t be needing a seat box.

 

[@Clive]

I would echo Keith's post regards having a two piece rod. It can be set up with float attachment and hook link at home to save time on the bank and is much easier to carry from swim to swim, broken down with the float, shot and hook attached.

I find it a pain to thread all those guides on three piece rods every session and trying to fold them down to transport is as much trouble as threading it up again.

 

[nottskev]

I would echo Keith's post regards having a two piece rod. It can be set up with float attachment and hook link at home to save time on the bank and is much easier to carry from swim to swim, broken down with the float, shot and hook attached.

I find it a pain to thread all those guides on three piece rods every session and trying to fold them down to transport is as much trouble as threading it up again.

It's tempting to go for ready-rod set-ups for float fishing, but having broken a couple of light quiver tips on made-up feeder rods despite all precautions, I'd question whether the gains outweigh the risks. These days I tie a blunt-point needle (for some kind of embroidery, I gather) to my reel line at home, and it takes no time to thread up a rod. If saving time is a priority, I'd go for putting shotted rigs on winders before transporting float rods made-up. There's no way I'll ever risk a treasured float rod - I don't own any other kind - to save a few seconds setting up.

 

[chevin4]

Thinking a three section and value to 70 - 120 to get back on the river roving won’t be needing a seat box.

Have a look at the Cadence range very good value for money

 

[@Clive]

It's tempting to go for ready-rod set-ups for float fishing, but having broken a couple of light quiver tips on made-up feeder rods despite all precautions, I'd question whether the gains outweigh the risks. These days I tie a blunt-point needle (for some kind of embroidery, I gather) to my reel line at home, and it takes no time to thread up a rod. If saving time is a priority, I'd go for putting shotted rigs on winders before transporting float rods made-up. There's no way I'll ever risk a treasured float rod - I don't own any other kind - to save a few seconds setting up.

I've had different experiences Kev. I've broken rod tips and wrecked rigs whilst moving from swim to swim with the rods fully made up. You pays your money and you takes your chance, as the say.

 

[Keith M]

It's tempting to go for ready-rod set-ups for float fishing, but having broken a couple of light quiver tips on made-up feeder rods despite all precautions, I'd question whether the gains outweigh the risks. These days I tie a blunt-point needle (for some kind of embroidery, I gather) to my reel line at home, and it takes no time to thread up a rod. If saving time is a priority, I'd go for putting shotted rigs on winders before transporting float rods made-up. There's no way I'll ever risk a treasured float rod - I don't own any other kind - to save a few seconds setting up.

I’ve been lucky when using my ready made up two piece rods (both float rods and Quivertip rods) when fishing my streams and stillwaters which are fairly wild with plenty of bankside vegetation; and not once have I had any problems or damage at all (famous last words ); however I do keep my made up rods in protective rod sleeves on the outside of a rod quiver; and I usually only carry one made up rod at a time (unless I’m using a pair of Carp rods), so this is probably why I’ve been fortunate and not damaged any of my pre-setup rods.

If I had kept them unprotected on the outside of my rod quiver then I might have thought a little differently.

Plus it takes me a lot longer than ‘a few seconds’ to setup a rod since having my stroke; it’s more like 15 minutes and sometimes even longer these days .

Keith

 

[@Clive]

I'm a basement tinkerer

We have a large basement and in the garage part where my tackle is kept I can put tressles out and set up full length rods on them. I'll set up a two piece rod to suit where I am intending to fish. The other day I knew that I was going to fish casters on a waggler at distance so set the rod up with a float attachment, stop knot and hook link. Then the rod was pulled apart, folded and secured using a sleeved tip protector at one end, a wrap round reel case and a small length of Velcro tape in the part that sits inside the pocket of my holdall. When I got to the lake I picked the float, plummetted and then shotted. I was fishing in a few minutes.

I'll be going to the Charente at the end of this week. Today I prepared two feeder rods ready for action. Just add feeder and bait and they are ready to go. I don't mind setting up my three piece vintage rods as they don't have as many guides as modern carbon rods, but for me setting up a 13 foot, three piece float rod on the bank is not something that I enjoy doing.

If moving swims I always fold down two piece rods and secure them with the protection they came to the venue in. With three piece rods they get stripped down unless I can carry them seperately making two or more journeys. I have tried folding them in three and it can be harder than stripping and setting up again. Carrying them made up along with the other stuff, net, holdall, seat box, etc. has resulted in mishaps in the past

 

[Keith M]

I haven’t used a rod hold-all since I used to fish in team matches on unfamiliar waters back in the late 90s (I used to Captain our match team then).
I’ve been using rod quivers together with rod sleeves ever since then. I currently have four different sized rod quivers; one for a single rod, one for two rods, one for three rods plus a five rod quiver which never gets used (but came with five rod sleeves); plus around ten or eleven rod sleeves in total which will all fit on the outsides of my various rod quivers.

So all I need to do before I go fishing is pick up a rod quiver and attach the rod (or rods) that I need; which I’ve already setup at home and stored in a protective rod sleeve (or sleeves).

The days of carrying a heavy rod hold-all containing five rods or more and then having to set my rod(s) up on the bank have long gone. 90% of the time I only need my one rod quiver or my two rod quiver and I’m fishing within a few minutes of arriving at my destination; and without the chance of me scaring every fish in front of me; like I would if I needed to move around setting up my rod(s) from scratch on the bank.

However I will still have to setup one of my longer rods on the bank if I was using one of them, because I’d then have no choice; or I will still occasionally setup on the bank when I’m spending all day at a water; or I’m fishing the very occasional match when I don’t know the swim I’m going to fish during the match.

Keith

 

[nottskev]

I don't hesitate to make-up the more robust types of rod, like barbel rods, at home. But irreplaceable float rods with fragile tips, I'm happy to set up on the bank. I can see Keith's point, though, and it's true some things do take more than a few seconds to set up. I'm impatient to get out of the house, impatient with the traffic on the way and impatient to see what swims are free, but I don't mind a few minutes rigging up whatever seems right on the spot. Feeding a bit of bait here and there for a few minutes whilst doing it makes me feel like I'm not wasting fishing time.


I should confess, too, I'm not a fan of rod tip protectors on fine tips. I carefully top and tailed a made up light feeder rod only to find that a badly made seam inside the top piece had caught the quiver tip when inserted, and bent it back on itself, snapping an inch off. This was a famous brand item. At least it was a £20 quiver tip and not a priceless rod tip.

 

[Kevin aka Aethelbald]

I should confess, too, I'm not a fan of rod tip protectors on fine tips.

I like tip and butt protectors (Korum adjustable ones), but with the following reservations.

What I've found with my new Daiwa Connoisseur, compared to an Acolyte Plus float rod that I had, is that the tip section of the Daiwa is slightly shorter than the other two sections, so using tip and butt protectors feels worry-free - the pressure from the elastic is on each end of the butt piece. On the Acolyte, the tip section is the same length as the other section(s) and I always worried a little about the tip getting snapped off if I didn't get everything exactly aligned inside the protectors.
.

 

[Keith M]

I don’t use tip protectors on my 2 piece made up float rod; as my 2 piece rod is folded with the tip section being protected and placed along side the rod butt inside its padded rod sleeve which is subsequently placed inside a deepish pocket on the outside of a rod quiver; and I’ve never had any problems so far (famous last words ).

NB: The two piece float rod that I’m talking about is not an ultra fine rod but is a slightly stepped up rod. I wouldn’t dream of carrying my super fine float rod like a Drennan ‘Ultra’ made up (mine is a 3 piece rod anyway with an ultra thin and delicate tip).

Keith

 

[nottskev]

I like tip and butt protectors (Korum adjustable ones), but with the following reservations.

What I've found with my new Daiwa Connoisseur, compared to an Acolyte Plus float rod that I had, is that the tip section of the Daiwa is slightly shorter than the other two sections, so using tip and butt protectors feels worry-free - the pressure from the elastic is on each end of the butt piece. On the Acolyte, the tip section is the same length as the other section(s) and I always worried a little about the tip getting snapped off if I didn't get everything exactly aligned inside the protectors.
.

Good point. I think the slightly shorter tip section is just good design and should be more common. I lost an inch off a PI Carbonactive 15' rod just by folding the flap of the bag over when not seeing that the tip section was slightly proud. Luckily, there's next to no taper at this point and I could just remove the tip ring and replace it. Now the slightly shorter tip is protected by the other two sections - which they could have arranged in the first place.