Middy ReactAcore XI20-3 Competition Match Carp Pole

Middy’s new Reactacore XI20-3 Competition Match Carp Pole might well be named the WIndbeater, such is its resilience in a gale.

Weighing in at just 980g at 13m, it’s no telegraph pole, making it viable to handle when the wind is blowing. So, with a late January gale bending trees double, I made my way to Nottinghamshire’s Janson’s Fishery for the live test. 

On this very exposed venue, only one peg on the entire complex had escaped being lashed by the wind, and that was on Munroes Lake which has a central island at around 13m and is well stocked with carp and F1s.

The X120-3 has a bit of a luxury feel to it when you get it out of the bag, with a lovely S-Slide micro-ground fast-shipping finish, Spineline alignment on each section, and dome-topped joint protection on the fourth, fifth and mini butt sections. A DNS distance numbering system for precise feeding and fishing is a nice touch and importantly, the pole has a satisfyingly solid feel to it when you give those key No4 and No5 section walls a squeeze. .

The four Max22 Karp 2-kits come with CKB colour-coded PTFE bush-fit bands so there are no dramas when it comes to cutting back tips too far. Who among us has not committed this irreversible sin in the past? Reinforced pull-it areas on the top kits can be drilled before being fitted with side pullers. 

So, rigged up and ready to go, I popped a small pot on to the end of the pole – acid test number one. If a pole is sloppy, it’ll bounce all over the place when shipped out and you’ll be left with no bait in the pot when it reaches its destination. That didn’t happen with the new Reactacore XI20-3, even in the wind. 

This is a hard feeling to put into words, but if a pole is too heavy, you’ll feel like Atlas with the world on his shoulders. Here, even when the pole was dragged way off course by rogue gusts, it took little effort to manoeuvre it quickly back into position again. Likewise, lifting and dropping the rig was hassle-free. The stiffness of the pole makes lifting delicate floats almost instant, with little bounce and even less droop as the pole is raised – and the same applies to hitting bites.

Winter F1s and carp often only give you a tiny ‘dink’ on the float, and if the pole is bending like a fiddler’s elbow you’ve got no chance of connecting with the fish. A short but solid lift with this pole though, and I was laughing. Even when a bite was missed, the rig was straight back in and fishing again, such are its recovery values, even at its maximum 14.5m. 

But what about the strength, I hear you ask? Well, the XI20-3 has plenty of it, and although no real brutes were caught, battling the wind was a great test in its own right. When a gust came, holding the pole deliberately against the blast taught me all that I need to know about the X120-3’s power. Sometimes, you can only turn your head away and wince as carbon meets the wind and pray the pole doesn’t come off second-best, but my early fears about whether this one would end up in several more pieces than it arrived in were soon kicked into touch.

In fact, as the session wore on I was actually beginning to enjoy myself, free of those fears. 

The pole is strong, seriously strong, and impressive in all aspects and I would even go as far to say that you could fish it down the edge in the summer in search of big doubles without any danger.

For your typical all-round mixed commercial fishery, it’s bang on the money!

Verdict: This is the second Middy Reactacore model that I have fished with in recent weeks, and I have to say how impressed I am by their technical attributes. 

Spineline alignment sees the pole always fished in its optimum position, while numbering on the butt sections, and depth line markers, do come in handy once you’re fishing. 

The XI20-3 should be a much sought-after pole for any club match angler who spends much of his time on commercials. Its top kit package offers plenty of flexibility and scope. Spare top-kits and sections, incidentally, will all interchange with Middy’s previous Shock-Core and Nano-Core pole ranges. 

If your fishing sees a lot of work at around 8m to 10m with the occasional visit with a longer length to fish against an island, the X120-3 is the one to pick – and when the wind blows it will certainly be first out of the holdall!

Price: 13m £999.99, 14.5m £1129.98. But shop around for even more competitive prices

Preston Innovations 16m Response XS carp pole

This new Response XS Carp pole from Preston Innovations, like its predecessor, is aimed squarely at the commercial match angler.

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Durable and hard-wearing, it’s a tool for bagging big weights and taming powerful carp, while at the same time retaining exceptional balance and responsiveness.

Because it’s built around the same mandrel as all the other poles in the range, all sections are fully interchangeable. This makes it the ideal second pole for existing Response owners. 

An attractive feature of the new XS Carp are nine (yes, NINE) spare 2.4m top kits, including a Kupping Kit. All are pre-fitted with genuine internal PTFE bushes, and supplied with Preston Roller Pulla bushes. These all but eliminate elastic damage and significantly improve the pole’s fish-playing performance.

FItted with the reinforced half-extension that comes as standard, the pole measures a true 16m. 

To that little lot you can add three Bi-Conical mini extensions that fit from the fifth section upward, section alignment arrows, and an Easy Ship finish that ensures your fishing will not be compromised whatever the British weather may throw at you.   

Taking a closer look at the new XS Carp pole, it’s noticeably heavier than its stablemates. Indeed, it’s made from same high modulus Torayca Japanese carbon fibre as all other top-end Response poles, but as you might expect of an out-and-out power carp pole, the cut of the cloth makes for awesome section wall strength, while re-designed section joints are as tough as old boots.

Built like a tank it may be, but it certainly doesn’t handle like one – it’s as nimble as sports car, with a fair turn of pace thanks to its superb Easy Slide finish. 

I discovered that and much more about the pole while testing it on a very windy afternoon at Decoy’s Beastie Lake.

At this time of year, most of the lake’s heavyweight occupants can be found loitering around the margins, and as they have a proper fondness for corn and micros several lines can be fed – waving tails and muddied water betray their ponderous presence. 

The fact that this pole comes with three Bi-Conical extensions makes it ideal for margin work. They not only provide that bit of extra reach, but they give you something to really hang on to when a big fish is hooked. 

On the day, perverse as only carp can be, they didn’t seem overly keen on feeding close in, so it was a case of going long, starting at 13m. The pole’s extra bit of weight actually helps when it’s blowing a hooley, as it offers some semblance of steadiness without the angler having to constantly lean against the wind. 

Anway, fishing at this longer length it wasn’t long before the first Beastie bruiser arrived and elastic streamed from the tip. I leant hard into the fish just to see how much pulling power the new XS Carp can generate, and I can tell you, it was impressive. 

As you can see from the image, I was fishing from a peg on the strip at Beastie. This can be a real pain when you’re using a long pole, as it needs to be broken down several times when shipping back so as not to interfere with the peg behind you. However, the live test proved how easy the pole is to unship under pressure – new ones don’t always want to come apart until they are worn in a bit, but the toughened joints of the XS Carp are not only bullet-proof, but they glide together and come apart with a reassuring swish. 

My only slight gripe about Preston’s latest carp clatterer is that it’s definitely better at 13m than at 14.5m, and obviously it follows that it’s better at 14.5m than it is at the full 16m. That said, it’s very usable at its longer lengths, and there’s no denying its serious stopping power, superb section wall and joint strength, and a spares package as good as you’ll find anywhere.

Verdict: If you're an out-and-out commercial match angler looking for a strong pole that will last you a long time, Preston’s latest Response XS Carp pole could well be for you. The spares package is quite outstanding, as are its tough build and bagging performance.  

Price: £1,499.99

Browning Black Magic Carp 11M pole review

Now in their third decade of production, Browning’s evergreen multi-award-winning Black Magic poles rank among the most popular of all time. 

The originals were no-nonsense tools to cope with large fish using hefty elastics and resolute rigs. 

As time moved on, though, all Black Magic models acquired a more modern feel, their added section wall strength making them much stiffer and more robust than their predecessors. 

They also handle better, and their top-kit packages are designed in keeping with modern commercial tactics. That said, the Black Magic tradition of performance at an affordable price remains unchanged. And to that end, this latest Black Magic Carp is a proper chip off the old block.

This all-carbon 11m pole is reasonably light at 958g, given that its thick section walls defy ovalling or splitting even in the hands of the most Shrek-like angler. Browning uses the same technology brought into play for its European Hyper Carp models, but with a slightly toned-down linear action that allows it to absorb and cushion pressure, rather than destroy all in its path! 

Make no mistake, though, it can really dish out the punishment if need be. That I found out for myself on the live test at Decoy’s lump-filled Oak strip lake in Cambridgeshire.

The fish in Oak are big, very big in fact, with the potential to cause you much grief and lose you a lot of tackle if you don’t come properly tooled-up for the job.

With that in mind, I prepared the Black Magic by cutting 10ins or so off the top of its supplied Power top kit, stiffening it right up. 

More importantly, that made it possible to fit it with a large internal diameter PTFE bush. 

Next I threaded through what must be the mother of all elastics… Browning’s 30mm Xitan Microbore Rocket Red, which laughably carries a 17-21 rating.

If your car breaks down on your way home from fishing, just take this stuff out of your top kit, tie it on to your bumper and get someone to tow you home.

To see this type of pole perform at its best you have to take it as close to its limits as you dare. I reckoned if the Power top kit could stand the pounding it was likely to get on Oak, using the car breaker’s choice of elastic, then surely it could subdue just about anything else that took a pull at it!

While tying up a suitable rig I had thrown a few handfuls of soaked micro pellets and corn down the margin. Goodness... glancing down, all I could see were whale-like tails waving at me, and feeding vortices large enough to capsize a canoe. 

Wondering why on earth I’d tied on one of my favourite floats, I lowered the double corn-baited size 16 hook into the maelstrom.

To quote A Question of Sport: “What happened next?” Well, I didn’t actually see the bite, just an awful lot of bright red elastic between me and whatever was was charging headlong up the pond.

One moment it was slowing down, the next it was coming up in the water and running towards me. Yet there I was, shipping back with nothing broken. Guess what? I had the top kit back in my hand (as you can see from the image, right) and the rest, as they say, is history.

This Black Magic Carp is a great power pole at an affordable price, well capable of dealing with double-figure fish without so much as a creak.

Oh, hang on, it’s the phone. “Hello Sue, yes of course, I would love to come on A Question of Sport... if I can bring my pole!”

Verdict: By my reckoning one of the best Black Magic poles yet, this does just what it says on its butt section – ‘Specialist Carp and Big Fish Pole’. 

It’s not the stiffest pole I’ve ever handled, but it doesn’t need to be, as it’s a proper workhorse that will last you for years.

The reinforced joints won’t let you down, it ships well enough, and its 11m length puts you well within reach of the nearside shelf and, on most commercial fisheries, the next vacant platform. 

My sole criticism is that I would rather it came with two spare top kits rather than just the one.

Price: £249