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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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)

Daiwa Connoisseur G90 16m pole package

You might find this hard to believe, but in all my years of tackle testing I have never waved a Daiwa Connoisseur pole over the water. 

Given that the evergreen and award winning Connoisseur has been Daiwa’s best-selling pole for nearly 30 years, that is a quite remarkable statement!

The pole has been produced under many guises, starting way back in 1991 with the original Connoisseur Ultra model. Subsequent decades have been graced with the G8, G20, G50 and the latest G90.

I may never have live-tested a Connoisseur or, for that matter, owned one, but I have been lucky enough to have fished with some of the UK’s best match anglers who were devoted ‘Connie’ disciples. To me that speaks volumes.

The Connoisseur is reckoned by matchmen to be Daiwa’s best power model, and therefore well suited to big-fish situations. However, this preconceived ‘firepower without finesse’ idea has always been a bit of a head scratcher for me, because I know two absolute top-of-the-pile speed merchants who could smash out literally hundreds of roach at lightning pace with a Connoisseur – proving it to be much more than a one-trick pony.

So, after years of waiting and wondering about this pole’s potential, the moment of truth finally arrived! And as I assembled the latest G90 on the well-worn banks of Decoy’s carp-infested Lou’s Lake, my mind drifted to watching Essex County’s awesome Garry Miller slaying big roach on the Trent Embankment with his own ‘Connie’.

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However, that was all back in the day stuff. Modern match tactics and venues require that the seasoned match angler will frequent a commercial fishery where bagging tactics, or big-fish pole methods, are the order of the day – hence Decoy, my choice of live test venue.

There is little doubt in my mind that Daiwa has developed the all UK-built Connoisseur over the years to keep pace with the demands of ever more stressful match situations, and to that end, this latest model is definitely the strongest, stiffest, most responsive and most powerful yet built. This is clearly reflected in its construction.

Daiwa’s Super MSG carbon cloths with Nanoplus resin technology combine to produce a high performance tool. 

It’s a fact that the pole handles better at 13m than it does at 14.5m or 16m, and that’s not rocket science. Poles that are super-quick and slick at longer lengths come with much heftier price tags than this G90.

That said, it is more than useable at any length. It’s proper tough, and will handle a purple Hydro kit with consummate ease. 

Daiwa’s packages allow you to keep your top kits all the same length, while having the right sized PTFEs for the elastics. 

The pre-fitted Interlastic side puller kits come with tip sizes of 4.7mm and 5.8mm, to cover every size of elastic you are likely to need to commercial work. 

The match kits – which really do help to impart a bit more stiffness and tip speed to the pole’s overall action when used with lighter solid elastics – are ideal for all silver fish work.

Verdict: This latest ‘Conny’ is a true all-rounder. The unmistakeably steely feel of a top-end Daiwa pole is there, and coupled with key features such as ITS taping across the top sections and a Diamond Satin finish on the larger sections, this make the pole quick and easy to handle in any weather.

The kit package and choice is hugely impressive too, and will provide you with enough kits for any match without having to shell out for any extras.  

Price (promo): £1,499 for the full package