Middy Reactacore XQ-1 10m pole review
AS ANGLING Times tackle editor I fish quite a lot – because testing rods, reels and poles, unless I’m beside the water, isn’t really going to mean much, or give you any idea of how they’re likely to perform.
I only mention this because of late, whether I’ve been out fishing weekend matches or testing new gear, it’s become abundantly clear that we have a lot of new anglers in our midst.
There they are, all perched on shiny new seatboxes or immaculate fishing chairs, waving around newly-acquired poles and rods and, more importantly, all catching a few fish. It’s wonderful to see, and I hope the trend continues for the rest of the summer and beyond.
When wearing my official Angling Times regalia I always try to have a quick chat with anyone who looks even remotely like a new angler. I’m not being pushy, I just like to see how they’re getting on, maybe give a bit of bait away, or chat about rigs and tactics.
Let’s face it, talking fishing is easy, but by its very nature our sport is quite complex. Things like spooling line on to a reel, or what hooks and bait to use, are taken as read by the seasoned angler, but they’re not obvious when you’re new to the game.
On the right lines
That said, having spoken with quite a few chaps and chap-esses, it seems most have been well advised by their mates on the kit front. Tackle shops too, to their credit, are sending people to the banks with the gear they need, without having them over.
Fishing tackle that comes at a sensible price is what most newbies are looking for, which is where this week’s live test item, Middy’s new Reactacore XQ-1 10m pole, hits the spot.
In my opinion it’s absolutely perfect for the rookie pole angler looking to spend a few hours bagging decent-sized carp on their local commercial.
Price-wise it’s bang on the money, and it’s tough enough to withstand the odd over-enthusiastic moment or two. Rather handily it comes with a couple of spare top kits, and it’s not heavy or unwieldy, which is a big bonus if you’re not used to handling a pole.
Off to the lake
The live test was on Decoy’s day-ticket Lou’s Lake, just the sort of place to cut your teeth on the pole. On warm days you can get bites up in the water, down on the deck and at all points between, not to mention the margins. Nor are the carp in this lake particularly fussy about what they eat, so little more than a tin of corn and a bag of pellets will suffice.
Most importantly, Lou’s has stable and level fishing platforms, with plenty of flat open ground behind you to position your pole roller – as a rule of thumb, around four paces behind your seatbox will be spot-on.
You could thread pretty much any size or type of elastic you wanted through the XQ-1’s top kits, but I kicked off the session up in the water, using a middle of the road 10-12 hollow elastic in conjunction with the short Phantom (grey coloured) top kit that comes inside the pole.
The Phantom top kits
I also rigged up the spare Margin Phantom top kit with a super-heavy 20-24 hollow that would hopefully seriously test the pole’s section strength and pulling power later in the day when I targeted the margins.
Heavy elastic would test the pole’s strength
In truth is it hasn’t got quite the rigidity needed for slapping shallow rigs up in the water, but it’s stiff enough to allow you fish shallow comfortably enough using a catty and pellets. At its full length, just under 10m, it didn’t feel top-heavy or suffer the dreaded top kit pole droop.
The super smooth S-Slide finish made handling quick and clean, and it fairly sped over the roller. It didn’t suffer from sticking section joints, nor did they come apart other than when I wanted them to.
To assemble sections without pushing them on too far or hard, slide them together, give the uppermost section half a turn to the left or right and they’ll lock together but come apart again easily when required.
Middy Reactacore XQ-1 10m pole sections
Having caught quite a few half-decent fish shallow, it was on with the heavy elastic top kit to see if I could drag a margin munter from its lair. No problems, and I didn’t think there would be, as the top kits carry a 30 elastic rating.
One thing that makes the new Middy Reactacore XQ-1 stand apart from any other pole I have fished with at this price is its stiffness. Most power poles of this ilk have an action that spreads across the top four or five sections, and I’m sure that readers have seen lots of bendy pole shots on these pages.
However, take a longer look at the inset pole image and you’ll see that this model stays straighter than the road to perdition when a fish is hooked – basically it’s very, very strong.
This is a very strong affordable pole
Price: £275 (but shop around)
Daiwa 13m Power Carp X pole bankside test
IT WAS feeling like an awfully long time since I’d been out to live-test some new kit.
So when lockdown restrictions eased, I couldn’t get back out there fast enough to put a new pole from the all-powerful Daiwa stable through its paces.
The car’s satnav was programmed to home in on Izaak Walton fishery in Chebsey, Staffordshire, a five-lake, fish-filled venue that I hoped would be perfect for providing the elastic-stretching action I needed to give the 13m Power Carp X a proper workout.
I knew that the venue’s Bottom Lake in particular was paved with hard-fighting carp, including some well into double figures – the perfect adversaries – so after choosing a peg I began setting up my kit in the early summer sunshine.
But I wasn’t here to get a tan. I wanted to see just how good the pole, which carries a pretty reasonable price tag of £425, would be at dealing with the fishery’s resident stock.
In a world where a top-end pole can easily set you back several thousand quid, the look and feel of budget-priced models can leave you a little underwhelmed.
But I was feeling hopeful. This new all-carbon offering from Daiwa certainly looked the real deal, with its classy black livery giving the impression of a bit of kit costing three times as much.
The package is pretty impressive, and the pole comes supplied with a mini reversible Phex section which, when fitted into the end of the butt (eighth) section, takes it to its full 13m length.
Alternatively, it can also be fitted into the end of the 11.5m (seventh) section to provide a bit of extra length, as well as acting as an elbow guard, preventing the section from being cracked or snapped if you’re occasionally a trifle heavy-handed on the strike.
My initial impressions were that the Power Carp X certainly looked and felt like a powerful pole that would be perfectly at home at just about any commercial carp water.
But never mind the looks, what does it fish like, and how does it handle? These must always be your primary concerns when choosing any new pole, whatever your budget may be.
Well, as the name suggests, the Power Carp X is primarily designed for catching big fish using heavy elastics – in my opinion up to a maximum size 20, or the ever-popular Daiwa red Hydro.
I chose to fish it at its longest 13m length, and while not the lightest pole on the market at 1,245g, it was remarkably easy to handle. Its rigidity and section stiffness were particularly impressive. The shipping out process was an entirely wobble-free experience, and I managed to get my tip-fitted pole pot out to the spot without any premature spillage whatsoever.
Feeding 8mm pellets and fishing the same on the hook, it didn’t take all that long for a few greedy carp to turn up in the swim for a nosebag.
As it happened, the first bite of the day turned out to be a foul-hooker, which is always a sure sign that you’re feeding too much, so I cut back what I was putting in by half.
As many of you will know through experience, foul-hooked carp take off at an alarming rate of knots and can often be pole-breakers, especially when that unbridled first burst of acceleration is backed up by body mass.
To begin with it was a case of holding on and hoping that this wasn’t about to become the shortest live test of all time.
With the heavy hollow elastic streaming out of the tip, the pole hooped over and I suggested to my cameraman Tony that maybe now was the time to take a shot before everything came to grief amid a shower of carbon shards.
How wrong I was! Although I couldn’t yet start shipping back, the pole and its robust elastic started to slow the fish’s initial run, and inch by inch I gained ground until the pole’s side puller top-2 kit was safely within my grasp.
Now the roles were reversed. I stripped the elastic slowly at first, piling the pressure on to the fish, which eventually came up tail-first and was safely scooped up into the mesh of the pan net.
Not quite cricket, I know, but the encounter had certainly proved the pole’s mettle and instilled in me a huge degree of confidence in its abilities.
I’m confident that’s just what you’ll discover too if you invest in the Power Carp X which, in my honest opinion, represents astonishing value for money.
Price: £425 (but shop around and you may find it even cheaper)
Preston Innovations Edge Monster Margin 10m Pole Review
YOU might say the Preston Innovations 8.5m Edge Monster Margin is the David Attenborough of poles – everybody loves it!
Launched 18 months ago, it’s strong and dependable, it will handle any size of fish or elastic, and it’s priced so as not to put you into a state of shock as you reach for your credit card.
So imagine my shock when I learned that this best-selling gem of a margin marauder was to be re-jigged and re-released early in 2020. Why a pole that’s already so good?
The reason is quite simple – for some time Preston had been inundated with requests to bring out a longer 10m version of the Edge Monster to give that bit more reach along the bank and enable you to fish up against the next platform along on most commercial waters.
This, as everyone who fishes them will tell you, is a great area in which to target really big fish, especially during the last hour of a match, or during the late afternoon/early evening if you’re on a bag-up pleasure session.
If you’re wondering why Preston didn’t simply release an extension section for the original pole, let me explain – and at the same time dole out some well-deserved praise to the company for not merely releasing a random butt section to achieve that extra length.
Without a proper re-design that would have made the pole overly bouncy and top-heavy, posing problems when fishing with a short line between float and pole.
Instead, Preston has tightened up the all-round stiffness of the Edge Monster Margin in order to compensate for the added weight of the extra 1.5m of pole length.
The good news, however, is that the latest version is formed around the same mandrel as the original, and that means The Edge Monster oozes strength, and I could pile on the pressure – not perfect, admittedly, but it will still perform perfectly well if you don’t want to splash out for the complete new model.
It made sense to run the rule over the new 10m Edge Monster Margin on a lake holding plenty of big fish, where the next platform was far enough away to present the pole at its full 10m length. The Cedar strip lake at Decoy Lakes, near Peterborough, was perfect.
The first thing I wanted to test was whether that extra stiffness had turned the Edge Monster from the UK’s best-selling margin pole into an elongated broom handle, with all the balance of Humpty Dumpty attempting to sit on the wall after a heavy night out on the town! I can allay your fears straight away on that score.
Having fished it at its full 10m length, with the mini extension fitted into the end of the new butt section, I’d agree that it’s been stiffened up through its mid-sections.
This is indeed a whopper-stopper of a margin pole, but it still has some finesse across its top sections.
Tough, hard-wearing section walls are a given, as are top kits that can be used with the heaviest of hollow elastics without fear of an expensive carbon explosion.
Of course, this isn’t a top-end pole, but it’s still very comfortable to hold over the full course of a match and not overly bouncy to fish with.
You must remember, though, that because its reinforced top kits are incredibly robust and quite long at 2.9m (9ft 6ins) it doesn’t deliver the quickest of tip speeds. It does dip a little on the strike/lift too, but the positives outweigh the negatives by a long chalk.
It will handle the largest of fish, although if I were considering using it with an elastic rated 18 and above, I’d cut the tip section back a little to take a larger diameter 5mm-plus diameter PTFE bush.
Preston’s own assessment of the pole as being suitable for ‘super-strong margin work’ is pretty accurate, though. Hook a giant carp down the edge and you’ll have no trouble gaining the upper hand as you ease it away from a tackle-busting snag and over the landing net.
At Decoy, when the float did dip under I was impressed with how well the Edge Monster Margin responded.
There was no cringeworthy wobble of the kind that can lead to bumped fish. The Edge Monster oozed strength, and I could pile on the pressure knowing that the fish would give up long before the pole did.
The finish is good, too, and in dry conditions it moved through my hands well as I shipped it in and out.
Price: £199.99, 10m extension £79.99
www.prestoninnovations.com
Maver Signature Pro 821 pole review
Pulling into Decoy Lakes in Cambridgeshire for the latest live tackle test, I was glad that I’d layered up my thermals. It was a decidedly frosty start to proceedings, but as I unloaded the usual mountain of tackle from my car, I knew that before too long the venue’s prolific stocks of hard-fighting carp would be giving my circulation a much-needed boost.
I was there to put Maver’s new flagship pole, the 16m Signature 821, through its paces. Damson Lake – my focus for the day – is stuffed with small carp to around 5lb, as well as plentiful numbers of feisty F1s, so I knew that the pole would be getting a thorough workout.
This latest offering is a proper top-end bit of kit, and at just under two and a half grand, I know that many of you will be thinking ‘I could go on holiday with the family for a lot less’. That’s probably true, but the fact remains that a few short weeks later you’d be back, sat on your seatbox in your peg, using your same old pole, enviously eyeing the sleek carbon being wielded by the angler in the next peg along.
The Signature 821 may well fit firmly into the object of desire bracket, but in many respects it represents great value and, believe it or not, in the long run could end up saving you money.
Impressive add-ons
First up, unlike many poles on the market, the 821 comes complete with a mightily impressive spares package that includes no fewer than 11 top kits and a cupping kit, so you won’t have to shell out a penny more on post-purchase extras going forward.
You also get two short four sections, two Bi-Conical extensions to fit sections 6-7 and 7-8, plus clever little Pole End Protectors that fit into the ends of the 11m, 13m and 16m butt sections to stop them from splitting. Fit them with skid-bungs and they’ll perform even better. All these kits come with pre-bushed PTFE tips and side puller slots, too. The savings keep adding up.
Serious stopping power
After setting up in a peg that had served me well in recent matches, it was time for me to start the session.
With a pair of rollers in situ, pole sock in place, and with two top kits fitted with No6-No8 hollow and heavier No10-No12 elastics, I tied on the appropriate float rigs. The heavier of my two set-ups, using the single section Power Kit, was perfect for any big fish that might turn up down the margin to muddy the waters.
This kit has a much wider PTFE bore size than the standard commercial kit, and is designed for use with really beefy hollow elastics up to a 20. Incidentally, match up the single-section Power Kit with the short four section supplied, and it handily comes out at the same length as the two-piece Commercial Kit. This Power Kit stiffens the whole pole up, but you do obviously lose a little length.
There, though, the similarity between the two top kits ends. The Power and short fourth combo is the ultimate whopper-stopper, but doesn’t throw the pole out of balance the minute you ship out past 11m. For catching hippos on steroids, this is just the ticket!
All-round ability
The lighter elastic set-up in the Commercial Kit is a pure joy to use, and it will easily handle up to 8-14 Dual Core elastic. Striking and tip recovery are lightning quick and that, plus the steely linear rigidity and lightweight feel it exudes, make this pole a seriously impressive bit of kit for all styles of commercial fishing.
As if that’s not enough, the Suncore anti-friction surface on the pole allows even the most ham-fisted of pole anglers to ship in and out with consummate ease throughout the session, even when being used at the pole’s longest 14.5m and 16m lengths.
During my four-hour morning session on Damson Lake, it performed every task I asked of it with absolute aplomb. Bite after bite was met with a crisp strike, and I didn’t lose a single fish to a hook-pull.
I finished with a superb net full to bursting with small carp – the like of which I wish I’d landed the last time I fished a match at the venue. Then again, I wasn’t using the Maver Signature 821 on that visit!
Maver is a company with a rich history in producing excellent poles in all price brackets, and classic marques such as the Jurassic Carp, Super Lithium and Elite ranges are well-known and loved by all, from pleasure anglers to world champs.
Pound for pound, in spite of its high asking price, the Signature Pro 821 is a stand-out performer and looks sure to follow those legendary bits of kit into the pole angling hall of fame.
Price: £2,499.99