Maver MV-R 8ft Mini Feeder Review

If you’re a fan of short-range casting for carp and F1s, take a close look at Maver’s MV-R Commercial Mini Feeder rods. 

The shorter, 8ft version has a wickedly fast progressive action that will propel any feeder or straight lead up to 30g around 35yds without too much effort.

Anything past this distance and you’d be better off using the 9ft version. At first the eight-footer feels a tad tippy, but it’s just the job for F1s and smaller stockie carp, minimising the likelihood of hook-pulls or snap-offs at close range. The rod is suited to reel lines from 4lb-8lb, and hooklengths upwards of 0.13mm. 

The pencil-thin carbon blank breaks down into two 48ins sections with one of its three (½oz, ¾oz and 1oz) quivertips fitted. Match the rod with a small 2500/3000 reel and it’s all ready to go inside your holdall. 

It makes things so much easier if you always carry a short feeder rod to your commercial peg.

All the colour had dropped out of the water at Decoy’s Willows Lake, venue for the live test, forcing the fish to shoal up tighter than normal in winter. However, a small maggot feeder, with a couple of maggots as hookbait, will always fetch a response from the odd F1 – you just need minimal feed and accurate casting.

I have to say I found the 8ft MV-R very much to my liking. It cast, as expected, straight as a die, and on a small platform it was easy to get into position without a lot of faffing around. Tippy it may be, but that suited me fine as I landed several fish up to about 3lb. 

I have handled enough short feeder rods to know that this one has a steely enough backbone to handle much bigger fish. A wobble wand it certainly isn’t!

Price: £110 

Verdict: 

This rod is flat-spot free, with an impressive fish-playing pedigree to suit commercial waters. It would also make a handy summer margin Method tool. 

It’s not cheap for such a short rod, but then, you always get what you pay for. 

For me, a big plus point was the equal length sections, making it a doddle to transport ready made up in a carryall.