TF Gear Project X Carp Rods
PAY AROUND
£79.99 for two rods
Buy one of these new, big-value carp rods and you get a second one free. It’s supermarket mentality but it makes sound financial sense.
There are seven different, two-piece, 12ft rods in the Project X range and they’re all priced between £79.99 and £89.99 for a pair.
Choose from 2.5lb, 2.75lb, 3lb, 3.25lb or 3.5lb test curves, and there’s also a matching spod rod and a marker rod.
Over the last five years, sub-£50 carp rods have become incredibly good value but there are still some absolute dogs out there that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
I’ve fished with a lot of these entry-level rods and I couldn’t have asked much more from the 2.5lb test curve Project X rods I chose to fish with.
The two rods cost a total of £79.99 through mail order specialists Total Fishing Gear and I matched them with 50-size TF Gear Airlite Free Spool reels costing £29.99 apiece.
For a total financial outlay of just £140, I don’t think any carper –of whatever ability – can quibble with the quality and value for money that this twin rod/reel deal offers.
If this is the maximum amount of cash you have to spend, you’ll struggle to better it and still walk away with kit that actually works.
The matching rod/reel combos certainly look the part. That shouldn’t be important, but it is, and you won’t be the subject of sniggers of derision from your fellow anglers.
The slimline, matt black, carbon blanks have minimal graphics and are dressed with good, strong, three-leg lined guides and simple but sturdy screw winch reel seat fittings.
This rod suits my style of fishing down to the ground. It isn’t a poker-stiff casting machine incapable of bending with the kind of mid-double/low-twenty size fish I normally catch on day-ticket runs waters.
Instead, it will happily deliver a 3oz lead and a small PVA bag over the 30-70 yard ranges I typically fish at, while still bending sweetly from tip into the top of the butt section under load.
I caught some cracking, scale-perfect commons to 14lb during testing and warmed to the rod’s pleasing action.
The rod feels easily capable of landing 30lb fish on 15lb reel lines, while still remaining mellow enough to give sport with smaller ‘bread and butter’ fish.