| Did I need yet another barbel rod?
Fact is, I listened to a friend (?) who kept going on about Free Spirit rods and how great they were. I did feel in need of a short 2-piece eleven foot rod, like my Daiwa Powermesh Specialist Avon (a 3-piece though), but a little stronger at around 1½lbs test rather than the Daiwa’s 1¼lbs test. The Spirit Specialist Advanced rod seemed to fit the bill and along with this cast-iron recommendation, how could I lose?
I purchased it (please note: it wasn’t provided free so I don’t owe anyone) and the moment it arrived I couldn’t wait to get it out of the tube and lay my hands on it.
Bit of a disappointment, really. I connected the two halves together and gave it a bit of a waggle, it felt like a stick. Almost like a piece of doweling so I stuck a Shimano Baitrunner reel on it to see if it might feel any different when fully balanced. It was still not there so “Why?” was the question to be asked.
Out came the Daiwa and a Harrison H-Design Sulis 4 piece travel rod of 1½ lbs, all fitted with suitable reels and I gave them all a waggle. The Spirit was definitely different, but different in an awkward-feely way. I must point out here that all the rods have triple legged rings, 8 on the Spirit and 9 on the Sulis.
I weighed the Spirit against the H-Design Sulis (also 11 foot) and it came out 22 grams heavier, despite the Spirit having a slightly slimmer and more curvaceous cork handle, which might have saved a little weight. So on to measuring the diameters. The Sulis is 11.3mm at the butt, the Spirit 12.5mm. At the tips the Sulis 2mm, the Spirit being 2.3mm so not a massive amount of difference, but enough to make the weight a little more.
It’s all at the front end, the tips, where you feel that extra weight. The actions are also different, both bend at around the same curve, middle to top at first, and although both are rated at 1½ lbs test, the Sulis seems to give more readily. Perhaps this proves Steve Harrison (designer of H-Design and all Harrison rods) correct when he says not to hold too much store in test curves alone.
So, before I get to use the Spirit, I am thinking I have blown my money and that the H-Design Sulis is still the perfect rod for my purposes. The only things going against the Sulis is the rather straight finished cork handle and it being in four pieces, I felt a little insecure carrying it around as a two-piece in a quiver. I can take the handle down by making up a Heath-Robinson lathe using a power drill and a bit of sandpaper, but short of gluing the pieces together and completely ruining the rod, I can’t make it a two-piece.
Now I get to try the Spirit. On the bank and away from any comparative rods, it doesn’t feel quite so bad. Perhaps I’m getting used to the slightly heavier feel and stiffer action. I’m catching some smallish bream and the fight I am getting through the rod is good until I hook into an Aston-Martin powered lump of muscle, a carp of around 15-18lbs (I wrote about this in my last article).
I never discovered the actual weight because after two minutes of hard-fought battling I lost the fish, but I did see it momentarily on the surface and an estimate was taken. The main point being, the rod performed excellently and at no time did I feel out of control even in the strong current. The reason for the fish getting off was the rather small sized 12 barbless hook.
Because of the poor condition of our weirpool (still), no barbel have been caught by anyone so it’s not been possible to test it against the species I bought it to deal with. However, I have used it on yet more carp in a private lake and it’s caught some nice hard fighters up to 9lbs 14ozs, not once has it let me down. In fact, the more I use it the more I do like it, but I still think it feels a little too stiff when compared with the finesse of the Sulis and even, if I may dare say so, the much stronger Harrison Chimera Barbel.
My overall opinion is, therefore: The Spirit Specialist Advanced rod is a fairly elegant rod you can feel confident with and at a reasonable price, but my lasting impression is that it still feels like a stick. My advice would be to try out the H-Design Sulis as a comparison, but unfortunately, the Sulis is not sold as a basic rod without the Quiver, so expect to pay much more. Neither are widely available so like me, you may have to buy either by mail order and take a chance. |
