Drennan Series 7 12ft Puddle Chucker Pellet Waggler Rod

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£79.95   

The last time I asked Drennan director Gary Barclay how many rods the company had in its best-selling Series 7 range it came to 23. Together these cover just about every known match and pleasure fishing scenario, and this situation poses an obvious question – why would Drennan introduce yet another rod?

The answer lies in the meteoric rise in the use of the long-range pellet waggler on big open-water commercials such as Larford, Boddington, Meadowlands and Clattercote.

Such is the popularity of this style of floatfishing that it wasn’t all that long ago that Drennan introduced its own range of Crystal XL Pellet Wagglers. These floats not only cast a very long way, but help to iron out problems such as surface drift, casting accuracy and visibility which are the downside (indeed the pain in the backside) of floatfishing at distance.

Come the float, come the rod – enter the Drennan Puddle Chucker 12ft Pellet Waggler, claimed to offer a slightly more powerful option in its Series 7 range. However, I think Drennan is under-selling the rod with such an obvious comment.

Yes, it clearly has more casting clout than the standard two-piece 11ft Puddle Chucker. The 12-footer will throw a fairly hefty float of up to 20g a very long way. This is made possible by its high forward loading characteristics in which the last 18ins or so of the hollow carbon tip absorb the weight of the float while the rest of the blank pushes its stiffish backbone through the cast. It’s the same basic casting action you find in most good feeder rods.

It doesn’t stop there, though. The 12ft Puddle Chucker, which is in two equal lengths and can be carried ready made-up, has a forgiving parabolic fish-playing action which kicks in when a bigger carp takes the bait.

During the live test it handled floats of up to 14g with consummate ease, although I wouldn’t fancy using it with anything under around 6g.

I can see this rod quickly becoming a firm favourite with club anglers who have matches booked on big-fish venues that respond well to the pellet waggler. My single criticism is that the 23ins all-cork handle needs to be an inch or so shorter (at least it does for me). Pass the hacksaw!