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Tri-Cast John Allerton Rod, anyone use it?

Richard Isaacs said:
casting weights I pay no attention to what so ever and they would only (at least in this country) be even remotely thought about when it comes to using a plummet on very slow or still waters
I don’t know where they get those figures from.

Line ratings are useful as a guide. It gives you some idea of what the rod is both intended for and what it will roughly deal with before you get into the car and take a completely wasted journey to look at it. I wish every manufacturer of float rod would do this with a brief description of the rod’s action. Eg medium-fast 3-5lb main 4lb HL. Done!
Tells me enough now I can decide if i want to pick it up.

Weight figures are equally useless from my experience. A 180g rod can be identical to a 150g rod in every way but have a different design handle and until you pick them up you’ll have no idea which feels best for you. If manufacturers were to give section weights ……. Now we are talking and again that is information that could be used blind to gather an idea of what a rod might be like before holding it. Unfortunately i doubt we’d ever get there and I’m rambling a bit now with “what if”
Sphere river rods are lovely rods and for their power brackets, they kick the pants out of anything currently made today. I can only suspect the reason for their quick demise would be price as they were extremely expensive and the handle which got so much bad press mostly by people that had never even touched one.
My thoughts are if they had, probably more would of sold as it’s surprisingly comfortable despite being a little long and perhaps a little light
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I actually really like the Asian way of describe the action of float rod. It's a number system, normally you have 19, 28, 37, 46 corresponds to extra fast, fast, medium fast, medium etc.

I agree the weight figure is useless, balance is more important.
 
Huanzhou Zhu said:
Ideally yes, since my 13ft is really out dated and I already have some decent 14 and 15 rods.
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Are you certain you want a spliced tip? There's far less choice. Why not an Acolyte plus or specimen? I mean, if you're only looking for one 13'er.
 
I actually don’t know of a spliced tip rod other than allertons and spheres where i could comfortably say it would deal with large powerful fish. Chris might know more having more experience of them but these more stepped up spliced float rods are only from recent times.

they were pretty much all light action right across the board and some of them were terrible.
Daiwas were probably one of the best in the form of connys or specys and a personal favorite of mine was the original mk1 Leeds blue diamond stick. This had a lovely long splice with a sensational action. Shimanos were pretty good but they were all 3-4lb line rods imo.

You could do what I did with an avenger and build one yourself. That’s a step up in power but has a tip as rapid as whippet. Probably the best spiced action I’ve ever used but then again I’m going to say that as it was me that went to hell and back buying and modifying tip after tip until I got it absolutely perfect for me.
That rod is in a league of its own as I built the handle as well which was again tried and changed until it felt perfectly balanced with a reel on just 4 inches infront of the foregrip.
You won’t get better than your own design and I know you could easily do it. It just takes time
 
Alan Rose said:
Are you certain you want a spliced tip? There's far less choice. Why not an Acolyte plus or specimen? I mean, if you're only looking for one 13'er.
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If I can get a spliced tip one, I would love to. Acolyte are nice rods, I have tried both ultra and plus, I just feel the action is not exactly what I want.
 
Huanzhou Zhu said:
I agree the weight figure is useless, balance is more important.
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Balance is undoubtedly important. However, there's no hope for a rod manufacturer that can screw up the balance of a rod 13' (maybe 14') or less. Your assertion is also somewhat contradictory when you wish to update your rod because it's heavy at 240g. The only 13' float rods I have that are that porcine are capable of landing real stillwater lumps. Given the choice, I wouldn't consider trotting with a rod that heavy.

A bare weight figure never tells a full story (just as a test curve, line rating, casting weight, action descriptor doesn't). Balance is undoubtedly a consideration and one that becomes increasingly important in longer rods. There are rarely significant balance issues in 13' rods, even heavy ones. Therefore, weight is worth considering, though it's not necessarily worth getting uptight about small weight differences. It's also pointless buying the lightest rods available then not considering the weight of the reel. For a rod that will be held all day, If all else (balance, action, handle length, price etc) is equal, I'd rather have the lightest rod possible. This is the real world though, my favourite trotting rods are not the very lightest available to me. Lower weights are the cherry on top when a rod excels in every other way.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I actually don’t know of a spliced tip rod other than allertons and spheres where i could comfortably say it would deal with large powerful fish. Chris might know more having more experience of them but these more stepped up spliced float rods are only from recent times.

they were pretty much all light action right across the board and some of them were terrible.
Daiwas were probably one of the best in the form of connys or specys and a personal favorite of mine was the original mk1 Leeds blue diamond stick. This had a lovely long splice with a sensational action. Shimanos were pretty good but they were all 3-4lb line rods imo.

You could do what I did with an avenger and build one yourself. That’s a step up in power but has a tip as rapid as whippet. Probably the best spiced action I’ve ever used but then again I’m going to say that as it was me that went to hell and back buying and modifying tip after tip until I got it absolutely perfect for me.
That rod is in a league of its own as I built the handle as well which was again tried and changed until it felt perfectly balanced with a reel on just 4 inches infront of the foregrip.
You won’t get better than your own design and I know you could easily do it. It just takes time
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Yes, I am working on stripping my avenger down now. Not sure if I want to convert it into a spliced tip rod since it's a full length blank, but yeah, this is an option.
 
Chris Jones said:
Balance is undoubtedly important. However, there's no hope for a rod manufacturer that can screw up the balance of a rod 13' (maybe 14') or less. Your assertion is also somewhat contradictory when you wish to update your rod because it's heavy at 240g. The only 13' float rods I have that are that porcine are capable of landing real stillwater lumps. Given the choice, I wouldn't consider trotting with a rod that heavy.

A bare weight figure never tells a full story (just as a test curve, line rating, casting weight, action descriptor doesn't). Balance is undoubtedly a consideration and one that becomes increasingly important in longer rods. There are rarely significant balance issues in 13' rods, even heavy ones. Therefore, weight is worth considering, though it's not necessarily worth getting uptight about small weight differences. It's also pointless buying the lightest rods available then not considering the weight of the reel. For a rod that will be held all day, If all else (balance, action, handle length, price etc) is equal, I'd rather have the lightest rod possible. This is the real world though, my favourite trotting rods are not the very lightest available to me. Lower weights are the cherry on top when a rod excels in every other way.
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Well, I agree with what you said, and I am not really looking for the lights rod.

But I guess you never used the JW Young trotter rod. I mentioned its weight just to show how old this thing is, a 240g rod with line rating 2-4lb, can you believe it? And when you hold the rod, you can clearly feel it is tip heavy, it feels like something is drugging the rod down.
 
I agree that it’s only when you start exceeding 14ft does balance have more of an impact but generally overall weight figures in all rods can be very misleading and I’ve only come to that conclusion from what I’ve owned, used and preferred to hold all day and when weight figures are thrown around as a viable statistic to judge a trotting rod, I do think a more forward thinking approach would be beneficial.
Free spirit and Daiwa are absolute classics for demonstrating how little, overall weight can mean. The newer free spirit rods boast fantastic weights in their long rods. 185g for the 15ft vs 215g for the older model. This is a long rod and yet despite the handle on the newer version being nicer, that version also feels heavier in comparison and I’d rather stand there all day holding the heavier rod.

At the other end of the scale I’ve got a couple of 13ft diawas. The butt section alone is just 10g lighter than the overall weight of an acolyte plus….. in the grand scheme of things when we take blank only weights there’s actually going to be very little differences as they are all thin walled nowadays, contain next to bugger all resin and they tend to follow suit with each other. Rings do vary by a few grams and yes a couple of extras on a tip really can make a huge impact. More so than a solid stainless steel but cap and collar.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Chris might know more having more experience of them but these more stepped up spliced float rods are only from recent times.
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Spliced tip rods have seen similar power creep as every other type of float rod over the years. The lack of them in the last 25 years or so makes it much less obvious though. However, it's worth being aware that there are distinct types of spliced tip float rod. There are spliced tip trotting rods and spliced tip light waggler/canal/drain rods. The latter are invariably out and out silvers rods. I wouldn't take the latter anywhere near the rivers I fish. They aren't pokey enough and are generally rather through actioned. Terrible for trotting unless it's for tiddlers at very short range. Most of this type of spliced tip rod will be at least 15 years old. The only exception that comes to mind is the Browning Sphere Hotrods Silvers Edition. The only other I have is a Drennan Team England Action Tip.

When it comes to spliced tip trotting rods, things are a little more murky. I believe that it's reasonable to assume that an older rod is likely to be less powerful than a recent one. However, I have three early 90s Daiwa spliced tip rods that I have no qualms about putting 6lb mainline through despite the catalogues suggesting 2-4lb mainlines. They aren't significantly less powerful than the ten year old Daiwa Connoisseur G that was the last spliced tip rod Daiwa produced. Daiwa rated these at 2-6lb. I wouldn't want to use any of them with the 12oz/1lb bottoms that older matchmen wax lyrical about. Tangling with decent chub hasn't been an issue with any of these rods. However, that's invariably been in a fishing-for-anything scenario. If I were deliberately targeting 5lb+ chub, I suspect I'd choose other rods. I'm also painfully aware that some older spliced tip trotting rods are definitely intended for light line fishing. I had a play with a Tri-Cast Sovereign recently. Woe betide anyone that buys one of these thinking that they might get a similar rod to a John Allerton.
 
Huanzhou Zhu said:
Yes, I am working on stripping my avenger down now. Not sure if I want to convert it into a spliced tip rod since it's a full length blank, but yeah, this is an option.
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Keep a look out for a broken one. There’s plenty of them around especially 2000’s/3000’s
Some idiots still believe they can try and charge the earth for them but sensible priced ones with substantial amounts missing do come up.
Don’t expect them to be giveaways though. Even broken ones are still carrying £100 worth of titanium guides 😜
 
Huanzhou Zhu said:
Well, I agree with what you said, and I am not really looking for the lights rod.

But I guess you never used the JW Young trotter rod. I mentioned its weight just to show how old this thing is, a 240g rod with line rating 2-4lb, can you believe it? And when you hold the rod, you can clearly feel it is tip heavy, it feels like something is drugging the rod down.
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No, I never used one. I picked one up once, that was enough. Probably a good thing that it was in a mate's tackle shop. When I was asked what I thought of it, he just laughed at my two word response. Others may not have taken it as well. Probably a good thing that there were no potential buyers in at the time too.
 
Huanzhou Zhu said:
My 13ft rod is an old JW Young trotter, nice action, but at 240g it really is a pain to use so I am thinking upgrading.
Sphere is one I really want, really regret not buying one when they available, didn’t like the handle at that time, but after trying one, I know it’s the rod I want but hard to find one now.
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Huanzhou, I have both the Young and the Allerton and, personally, I much prefer the Young out of the two, although I agree with you it isn't the most pleasant over long periods and it's far from the best trotting rod. I'm generally a fan of Tri-Cast stuff but I never clicked with the Allerton. I only used it a handful of times before going back to the Young, an old Daiwa spliced tip (only 12ft, but a fantastic trotting rod) and a 13ft Normark. I also have a John Wilson Masterline trotter which I like a lot, but am hesitant to recommend it as I know most people aren't overly keen on Wilson rods.

Sorry to say I'm massively out of the loop with current alternatives.
 
Tricast did a spliced tip power float rod called a Triaxial.

Comes with 2 butts and a 2ft extension. 13ft/15ft/17ft. Hence the name.

I own 2 of them; great powerful (chub) trotting rods but I’ve never tried to catch a barbel on one (yet).
 
Tim Marks said:
Tricast did a spliced tip power float rod called a Triaxial.

Comes with 2 butts and a 2ft extension. 13ft/15ft/17ft. Hence the name.

I own 2 of them; great powerful (chub) trotting rods but I’ve never tried to catch a barbel on one (yet).
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Yes they did. And they go back a good few years now. I forgot about those. Some say highly recommended for barbel too but I’ve never tried one personally. If a complete one came up cheap enough I’d probably take a punt on it.
I’ve seen afew pop up but quite often they are missing a section. How does it handle at 17ft?
 
I have a 13ft 6 browning spliced tip river that I would sell,but won't let it go for less than £350,only used it twice and put it away,I'm in West Yorkshire,but don't want to post it
 
Steve Lewis said:
Huanzhou, I have both the Young and the Allerton and, personally, I much prefer the Young out of the two, although I agree with you it isn't the most pleasant over long periods and it's far from the best trotting rod. I'm generally a fan of Tri-Cast stuff but I never clicked with the Allerton. I only used it a handful of times before going back to the Young, an old Daiwa spliced tip (only 12ft, but a fantastic trotting rod) and a 13ft Normark. I also have a John Wilson Masterline trotter which I like a lot, but am hesitant to recommend it as I know most people aren't overly keen on Wilson rods.

Sorry to say I'm massively out of the loop with current alternatives.
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Young rod has a good action, but there's not way I can trot with this rod more than an hour...
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Keep a look out for a broken one. There’s plenty of them around especially 2000’s/3000’s
Some idiots still believe they can try and charge the earth for them but sensible priced ones with substantial amounts missing do come up.
Don’t expect them to be giveaways though. Even broken ones are still carrying £100 worth of titanium guides 😜
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Yes, there's no way I am paying 200-300 for a broken one, but 100-150 is still acceptable.
 
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