TECH SPEC

True length: 16m (with half butt fitted)
Closed length: 1,830mm
Top-2 length: 2,400mm
Top-3 length: 3950mm
Weight at 13m (8 sections): 790g
Weight at 14.5m (9 sections): 1060g
Weight at 16m (10 sections without half butt): 1300g
Number of sections: 10

PACKAGE

16m Response pole
Section 9/10 half extension
Three Match top-3 kits (3.95m)
Two Match top-2 kits (2.4m)
Six Roller Pulla Power top-2 kit (2.4m)
Section 7/8 Bi-Conical Mini Extension
Section 5/6 Bi-Conical Mini Extension
Monster Response Holdall
EVA Elastic Alignment cones with PTFE bushes
Kupping Kit and Kups

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

Roller Pulla F1 top-2 kit (2.4m)
F1 Short Stop (1.85m)
Short No3 section
Universal 1.7m extension

PAY AROUND

£2,999.99

Launched just a month or so ago, Preston Innovations’ new flagship Response M90 pole is ‘selling like hot cakes.’

That’s quite some testament to its performance, especially when you consider that now is the time of year when everyone is saving for the big family Christmas – historically, a quiet time for the tackle trade.

For the more minted in our ranks, this pole will set you back £2,999.99 – you could buy an awful lot of tinsel, crackers and fairy lights for that.

Still, as always, you get what you pay for, in this case a whole load of the finest grade Japanese Torayca carbon, wrapped around mandrels and transformed into a stunning 10-piece, 16m beauty – and a strong contender for the title of ‘stiffest pole ever’.

I haven’t spoken to Prestons about the hows, whens and whys of the pole’s development, but it’s my bet that England match aces Messrs Shipp and Pickering were both directly involved in its creation. I say that, because once it’s assembled the aptly-named Response 90 shows every sign of a master craftsman’s touches.

It’s phenomenally stiff without being brittle. It’s very light at longer lengths, which makes for quick and easy feeding and pinpoint rig presentation. Its shipping qualities make it a quicksilver-fast speed machine.

However there’s more, lots more, and if you slip on one of its 2.4m-long Roller Pulla Power top kits (of which an impressive six are supplied) it has ample section wall strength and linear flexibility to quickly tame the very largest commercial carp.

Yes, this stunning pole is indeed the match angler’s match pole, developed by the best, for use by the accomplished.

My live test session on the lump-littered Lou’s Lake at Decoy Fisheries confirmed the pole’s mettle in every department. Fishing long at 13m up against a bed of tackle-grabbing Norfolk reeds, with heavy elastics and matching rigs, I won every tug-of-war with fish up to around 8lb, despite their determination to get their heads – and my rig – into the roots.

The pole’s short Bi-Conical sections which fit on to sections 5-6 and 7-8 gave the necessary confidence for a spot of margin marauding, and proved more than tough enough to withstand the odd over-exuberant strike.

Female section ends are internally reinforced, while there are extra weaves on the male joint ends, greatly reducing carbon section fatigue.

This stunning Prestons creation truly comes into its own when fished at its full 16m (including its half extension). Wow! Its degree of stiffness is well nigh nonsensical. I have seen and handled poles with this degree of rigidity before, but they never had any sort of elastic rating, and were likely to snap when something less shocking than the sun disappearing behind a cloud occurred.

As you can see from the picture, I only had one pole roller with me – schoolboy error. But so excited was I by the pole’s performance that at one stage I shipped it back with a fish still pulling away on the other end, so its entire 16m length was hanging over the roller with all the back weight resting on the sixth section.

At this point most poles will break! it’s no fault of the pole, just poor angling practice. But not this time. Gingerly I fed the sections back out before breaking down at a longer length. What a test of section strength the Response 90 had just passed!

VERDICT

No-one who has seen or handled the new Response 90 would argue that it is Preston Innovations’ best-ever pole. It’s sharp as a tack, with the reaction speed of a striking cobra.

Built from probably the finest carbon fibre in the world, its steely sections impart the kind of confidence that comes from using the very best.

And it comes with the most impressive array of pre-bushed top kits and carbon add-on sections you will find anywhere.

Mark Sawyer