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Float rod comparison Free Spirit vs Drennan

Jon Frisby said:
You can buy a rod that can play a fish to death, or you can buy a rod with that power to stop and get that fish in..... before it gives its all. Line breaking strain included.
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I must admit I'm not entirely qualified on the float fish side of things, but would wonder if hook pulls become an issue if your using a rod where you'd need to bully the fish from the snag safely whilst using a 'float rod' that's strong enough to do so. I wonder if such a float rod exists?
I'll shut up now and watch from the side lines... 🤣🤣
 
Julian Griffiths said:
I understand what your saying, 👍😊 but then wouldn't it be preferable to leger for them with stronger stepped up gear if fishing close to snags? And fish the float in more open snag free swims?

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a float caught barbel, must be pretty heart in the mouth stuff! 😊
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Not in the spots that I fish Julian, unless your stood out in the river with your rod in your hand touch legering....which I also do at those stretches of river.
If your sat behind a rod, or most use two rods in that area, by the time your rod tip has gone over and you have reached for the rod the fish is in the snags.
 
Ian Woods said:
I disagree with that completely.
Once a rod has locked up the next stage is a snapped rod anyhow.

A softer rod bends round faster and easier than a stiffer rod, so that will allow a fish to get into a snag much easier than a stiffer rod that doesn't bend so easy.




I'm talking about a hit and hold swim where you can't be gentle and play the fish out, a swim where you are trotting along a sunken tree and the second you strike the hook home the fish instantly bolts under the tree.
A soft through action rod allows the fish to reach into the snags because of the bend of the rod allowing it to.
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In total agreement with you in this point. I bought a 13.5 Mark Tunley rod to deal with the scenario you mentioned. In hit and hold swims soft action long rods give the fish the edge in snagging you up.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
This is a different point because if a rod snaps, you’ve used a rod not rated highly enough for the job. This could be either a tip or through action rod the principal of using one strong enough not to snap shouldn’t change.

If your fishing hit and hold your rod is going to lock up. I lock my rods up frequently to the point they don’t want to bend anymore because small snaggy rivers are where I spend the majority of my fishing life. Comes with the territory. There’s a long way between locking up and breaking on an adequate rod for the fishing.

Your point about the fish being able to take up the action before it locks up is a valid one. A through action rod will allow it to go a few more feet taking up the rod’s action but its afew feet tops and once it takes it up, the pressure on the fish and control given to the angler is greater because the leverage is shorter.

It goes waaaaaaaay back long before marks video. The Japanese were doing it with whips that behaved like elastic bands. Banging out huge carp in fractions of the time that can be done with big powerful 3lb rods. It was no contest,
Carbotec was created on the same concept of these whips. Rod’s that hammered out fish before they even worked out they were hooked.
But they still made shit trotting rods for the reasons i mentioned above

It’s the same principle with rod lengths. I like longer rods for trotting I always have. I’m under no illusion though that a shorter rod would give me a bigger fish playing advantage because the pressure applied to the fish is greater but I like additional length especially when trotting from a bank.
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I understand exactly what your saying Richard.
It's quite difficult trying to explaine what we both mean when actually speaking to someone in person, very difficult to explaine it in writing as wires are so easily crossed.
I think we both know what we are trying to say and prolly going at it from different angles is all...barking up the same tree from different sides 😉👍.
 
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Gavin Burt said:
Don’t discount the Cadence CR10 15ft #2 rod too.

I was after a trotting rod that could easily land a double whilst light enough to manage a float down a small river (Warks Avon).
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I bought the Mark Tunley 13.5ft rod. It weight approx 7 ounces. It a 1 lb test curve so its plentyof power. Waiting for 16 June to christen it.
 
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