Maver MV-R 9ft Mini Feeder review
The new MV-R Commercial Mini Feeder rods from Maver are the perfect tools for anglers fishing venues where short-range casting for carp and F1s is required.
The 8ft and 9ft models are part of the MV-R range that consists of nine rods. There are four float fishing models and three feeder rods on top of the two Mini Feeder rods. All the rods feature ultra-slim high modulus carbon blanks with a jet-black gloss finish.
Boasting a seamless, progressive fish-playing action and top-grade ceramic guides, cork and EVA handles and screw-down reel seats, their good looks are matched by their superb performance.
For this test I decided to give the 9ft Mini Feeder model an outing. This rod has a wickedly fast progressive action that will easily cast a feeder or straight lead of up to 30g to 35 yards without too much effort.
If you think you will need to cast further than this then the 10ft version is what you want. For real long distances take a look at the MV-R 11ft and 12ft rods.
The first thing I noticed about the nine-footer was that it felt a tad tippy, but it’s just the job for F1s and smaller carp, minimising the likelihood of hook-pulls or snap-offs at close range. The blank is well suited to reel lines from 3lb-8lb, and hooklengths of 0.13mm and upwards.
The pencil-thin carbon blank breaks down into two 48ins sections with one of the three supplied quivertips – 0.5oz, 0.75oz and 1oz – fitted. This two-piece design means you can have it ready-to-go with a reel attached in your holdall, saving you the time normally reserved for setting up when you arrive at the venue.
For this test I headed to Willows Lake on the Decoy complex at Whittlesey, just outside of Peterborough.
The plan was to fish a small maggot feeder, which I was confident would produce bites from F1s. This tactic requires minimal feed and accurate casting, which is exactly what this rod delivers.
I found the wand very much to my liking. It cast, as expected, straight as a die, and on a small platform it was nice and easy to get into position.
Tippy it may be, but that suited me fine as I landed several fish up to about 3lb. Had anything bigger come along I would have been confident of landing it because I have handled enough short feeder rods to know that this one had more than enough steel in its backbone to handle it.
A weak-willed wobble wand it certainly isn’t, so well done Maver.
Verdict:
The 9ft rod is free of flat spots, 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 you get what you pay for. For me, a big plus point is the equal-length sections, making it a doddle to transport already made up in a carryall.
Price: £120
Contact: www.mavermatch.co.uk
First Look: Maver's new signature rods
Commercial match anglers who insist on the best will welcome Maver’s new Signature rods.
Coming in at 11ft and 12ft, the Pellet Wagglers deliver a full parabolic fish-playing action to target carp and F1s of any size.
Superbly lightweight at only 141g and 157g, respectively, they really come into their own when lightning-fast strikes are required. Both will cast floats of between 2g and 8g, and can be used with reel lines from 3lb to 8lb.
Classy rod furniture includes high-quality SiC guides on the high modulus carbon blank, Fuji graphite screw reel fitting, EVA twist grip and a folding hook keeper ring.
Maver’s new 13ft, 14ft, 15ft and 16ft Classic Float rods have been designed and extensively tested by Welsh International Lee Edwards. They are intended primarily for river fishing, but will handle conventional waggler or sliding float tactics on deeper natural stillwaters too.
With their fine, hollow tips they are a dream to fish with when teamed with light lines and small hooks, and have already accounted for many winning match nets of dace and roach.
Although finesse is paramount, the three-piece rods’ middle sections have enough power to cope with chub and barbel from pacy swims. Instant response on the strike combines with a crispness that lifts line from the water in the blink of an eye.
Key features at all four lengths include comfortable EVA twist grips either side of the reel seat. These are slightly oversized to leave no gap between the handle and the user’s palm.
The upper reel seat grip is moulded to enable perfect placement of thumb and forefinger while holding the rod.
Contributing to sleek looks and understated cosmetics, the guides, whippings, blank and reel seats across the Maver Signature range are of a uniform black – sure to attract admiring glances.
Price: Pellet Wagglers from £189.99, Classic Floats from £229.99
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.
Maver Reality 13ft Match Rod Review
Not so long ago a three-piece 13ft float rod would be standard issue for all match and pleasure anglers, and I’ll tell you why.
The industrial cities of Sheffield, Leeds, Rotherham and Birmingham gave rise to legions of angling aficionados (pardon the pun), many of whom worked in the nationalised coal and steel industries.
These had massive working men’s associations with affiliated angling clubs. Every weekend would see coach loads of fishermen arriving on the banks of the Witham, Welland, Trent, Severn and Thames, where float fishing with 13ft rods ruled the roost.
Those were the days, when fishing was basically the only recreation for many a working class bloke.
Tackle was functional first and foremost. Wicker creels, rods in canvas bags, Intrepid reels, Au Lion D’Or hooks, a handful of handmade floats – oh, and an Efgeeco baitbox containing a pint of ‘gentles’ in sawdust – was about par for the course.
The best float rods of the day were built mainly on fibreglass Golden Jubilee blanks, and appeared under the WB Clarke All-England, Milbro Enterprise and Billy Lane Match brands. The first carbon rods weren’t far away, though, although when Fothergill and Harvey launched them in 1975 they cost a king’s ransom at £133. Bearing in mind that back then a Mars bar cost sixpence (2.5p) and you get an idea just how expensive this rod was.
Thankfully, modern 13ft float rods are vastly cheaper in relative terms, as well as being better built, better balanced, lighter in the hand and an altogether superior product.
Enter Maver’s 13ft three-piece Reality, which can be found for as little as £49.99. It’s also available in 12ft and 14ft versions, and all three decent enough lightweight blanks with their medium-fast action will cast wagglers up to 25g.
Key features include a full cork handle with EVA lock-down foregrip, quality lined guides, folding keeper ring, and a classy jet-black glossy coating.
It’s not the crispest float rod I have ever come across, and it may lack a bit of finesse. But it can cope with whatever comes its way, as I discovered on the live test at Stretton Lakes’ day-ticket Silvers Pool, just off the A1 north of Peterborough.
I was hoping for roach with hopefully the odd better skimmer thrown in. Feeding groundbait laced with a few micro pellets and casters, my basic set-up saw a 3AAA straight peacock waggler attached to 3lb reel line, 0.12mm hooklength, and a size 18 hook with a double maggot as bait, fished overdepth.
Small roach and rudd gave me a bite a chuck, but these skerrets hardly tested the rod’s prowess. Bites then dried up, and I wondered if this was a prelude to the skimmers clocking in.
I didn’t have to wait long to find out. The float’s blaze top vanished and my strike was met with far more resistance than any skimmer could muster. The rod took on its full fighting curve in an action best described as on the stern side of progressive – pretty much what you need from a float rod if you’re likely to encounter bigger fish.
Eventually my balanced tackle got the better of a decent-sized carp, and what a handsome fish it was – bristling with indignation, it had clearly never been caught before.
The Reality Match had done its job, absorbing the carp’s every lunge without cause for concern. Yes, of course this rod was made to tackle silvers on rivers and stillwaters, but when it’s called to battle stations you’ll be glad to have it your side.
Our verdict: What's not to like about this rod? It’s very well priced, easy to use, feels reassuringly sturdy, and is ideal for all float work, trotting or static. As proved during the live test it also has a touch of steel about it, which means it will handle big fish with little hassle.
PAY AROUND
£46.99
Maver Diamond Feeder fishing rod review
SHORT feeder rods are still very much in vogue on commercial fisheries and the 10ft 6ins version of the new Maver Diamond Feeder rods are no exception.
BUY NOW from £179.99 from Chapmans Angling
Super-accurate on the cast, they can be tucked down the side of a platform out of the wind, and are that bit easier all round to handle when elbow room is at a premium.
Provided you’re not faced with a seriously long chuck, rods like this will cast far enough to put you on the fish on most commercials. And, needless to say, they are ideal for Method tactics in the margins where really big fish are about.
Maver’s latest Diamond Feeder 10ft 6ins rod, in two sections, is the perfect length for most commercial feeder and straight lead tactics.
It’s one of four in the range, all boasting high-modulus carbon, cork handle with EVA casting and thumb grips, low-profile lined ceramic guides and the ever-handy folding keeper ring. You also get three graded carbon quivertips.
Unlike a number of other shorter rods that I have tested, Maver’s 10ft 6ins Diamond Feeder has the casting clout to propel a 30g flatbed Method feeder a decent distance with a fair degree of accuracy. I proved this during a live test at Decoy’s mixed-stock Horseshoe Lake… and before any of you familiar with this venue clamour that this lake hasn’t got a long cast on it, I also spent some time casting different weights and distances on the much larger Beastie Lake.
My findings weren’t all that different from Maver’s recommendations, but in my opinion the blank’s limits are being pushed with anything over 60g (2oz) chucked 60 yards.
To be honest, that’s more than enough power and distance for most day-ticket fisheries. A huge plus point is the rod’s non-locking, progressive action with no flat spots.
As you can see from the picture, it tightens up really quickly from a third of the way down the top section, putting you in command when a fish is at the net.
Despite this the rod is not overly stiff, and you’d need to be really clumsy to suffer many hook-pulls. As Dame Shirley Bassey sang, ‘Diamonds are forever’…and sure enough, this rod’s a keeper!
THE VERDICT
The delightful jet black Diamond Feeder gets a huge thumbs-up from me. It’s everything you could wish for. It’ll cast a fair distance when you need to, it’s super-accurate at short range, and it can be used with a wide choice of weights for tactical flexibility. At just 181g it’s very light, and its progressive action combines controlled pulling power with enough softness to make it suitable for reel lines from 4lb to 8lb, with hooklengths down to 0.12mm.
Mark Sawyer
Maver 12ft Barbel Twin Top rod
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PAY AROUND
£89.99
Looking for something other than an out-and-out casting tool at the right price?
This 12ft two-piece twin-top Maver rod could be right up your street.
The 1.5lb test curve blank offers a progressive action and, when fitted with its quivertip carrier section, tightens up towards the mid-section area, providing plenty of punch where you need it most.
With the Avon top in situ the rod becomes much softer, although the backbone of the pokey butt section is still there. It’s more than useful when used with big top and bottom floats, and copes admirably with touch-legering and freelining tactics.
The graphite hooded reel seat is rock-solid, just what you need when retrieving heavy feeders and leads.
Other notable features include quality double-leg SiC lined guides throughout, two unrated carbon quivertips, and a keeper ring.
VERDICT
This quality piece of kit with a modest price tag is nicely suited to all-round feeder/straight lead tactics on larger rivers such the Severn and Trent.
Its Avon-style top section is just about soft enough for floatfishing, too.
Maver Genesis Black Ice 11ft Match rod
• EVA twist grip
• High quality lined guides throughout
• Quality graphite screw reel fitting
• Folding hook keeper ring
• Action: Tip; Through action
• Casting Weight: 60g-90g
• Line Rating: 3lb-8lb
• Weight: 185g inc tips
• Featuring the stunning ‘Black Ice’ carbon finish and top quality fittings throughout. Supplied with three carefully graded tips.
Sometimes tackle can suffer from being labelled ‘one method and one method alone’. Margin poles are one example.
Pellet waggler rods are another, leading the customer into thinking that they can only be used for very specific tactics. The truth is often very different.
Match rods are a case in point. The tag may evoke images of stick float fishing on rivers with 2lb hooklengths, but with modern design, materials and build techniques your standard match tool can actually achieve a great many things. Maver’s Genesis Black Ice 11ft Match rod falls nicely into that category.
Don’t let the ‘Match’ part of its name put you off – this rod has been designed for pellet waggler fishing on well-stocked commercial waters, but its action and softness make it perfect for a spot of roach bashing on lakes and rivers too. It’s the ideal all-rounder for the angler who may only be able to afford or want one rod in their rod bag.
Made from high modulus carbon, the two-piece Black Ice packs a lovely through action, with ample softness in the tip to allow you to fish with light lines when needed.
However, Maver had both eyes on carp when building this rod, and it’s when you gear it up with a 6lb mainline and a loaded pellet waggler that the Black Ice really comes to life.
Soft it may be, but it’s not so sloppy that your casting will be all over the place. There’s enough poke to pick up line to hit fast bites, and more than enough guts to land big fish.
It’s also very light, weighing just 185g, so you can fish with it in your hand all day with no fatigue at all.
Testing took place on Magpie Lake at the up-and-coming Rookery Waters in Cambridgeshire, chucking a loaded 8g waggler to a bed of lily pads at around 40 yards.
Despite a brisk Fenland cross wind, the control that the Black Ice gives you on the cast sees the float landing time after time in the right place, essential when you’re building up a swim.
Landing the float is only part of the battle, though – some rods can fall down on the strike. Too sloppy an action and you simply can’t pick up the line in time, but the Black Ice is deceptively good at doing this.
Even with a bit of a bow in the line, a forceful strike made short work of those lighting bites that often come just as the waggler settles.
There’s also enough grunt to get carp away from snags quickly when you need to ‘hit and hold’ as soon as the hook is set. Get a fish within netting range, though, and the rod takes on a very soft action, bending right the way through the blank at times but never leaving you with the feeling that you’re in any way undergunned!
Finished with top-quality SiC guides, graphite screw reel fitting, EVA twist grip and folding hook keeper ring, the Maver Black Ice is the ideal rod to carry made up in a rod sleeve, all ready to take on whatever your summer of fishing is about to throw at you!
Richard Grange
Maver Genesis Black Ice Xtreme Distance Feeder
PAY AROUND
£94.99
The lads at Maver bill these as ‘the ultimate rod for long distance feeder fishing’ and boy, you can’t half hit the horizon with them!
They’re available in six different XD (Xtreme Distance) types from a 12ft XD, 3.5oz casting capacity model, RRP £94.99, to a monster, 13ft XD, 5oz+ casting capacity variant with a price tag of £99.99.
Extreme 100 yard-plus ranges with large payloads are a definite reality in the right hands with these power-packed blanks.
Between them the six models will cover every job from putting a Method feeder further than your neighbours on sprawling stillwaters like Drayton Reservoir where distance wins matches, to the largest rivers.
Launching 5oz feeders for floodwater barbel on the Trent or Severn and cranking back powerful ‘beards’ against the current will be a doddle with the heavier models.
The rods have a recommended reel line rating from 4lb to 10lb but I think the heavier models will handle much more.
Each rod has a traditional three-piece design consisting of a mega-powerful butt and middle section, plus a quivertip carrier section and four, graded, push-in quivertips to give a good range of bite registration.
I chose to test the 12ft, 150g model (RRP £99.99) and teamed it with a Maver Tica Sportera GR4507 freespool reel (RRP £64.99) loaded with 10lb mono.
If, like me, you plan to blast a heavy rig into the next county it’s imperative that you incorporate a shock leader – in my case, 30ft of 25lb mono to soak-up the shock impact of casting to prevent potential crack-offs.
Quivertips supplied were rated at 1oz, 2oz, 3oz and 4oz and, with the 3oz tip in place, I opted to fish an old-fashioned frame Method feeder which, when loaded weighed a good 3.5oz and looked like a mini-coconut!
Fishing the three-acre Pit at my local Fields End Water Caravan Park Lodges and Fishery at Doddington near March, Cambs (01354 740199) I could reach any swim on the water.
The feeder blank is one of the stiffest I’ve ever used, but you can wind it up with very little effort to catapult the payload impressive distances. Carp fight hard at this venue but the rod tamed fish almost into double figures with impunity.