Tackle Reviews

I have not done many reviews in the past because by the time I buy new gear it has been reviewed, tried, tested used and abused by people with much greater influence and a wider base of experience than myself.  It almost feels to me that anything I write will be a second hand opinion but I want to just give my version of what I think of the tackle I use. If I get a reasonable response I will endeavour to ‘borrow’ similar stuff to compare it with.

For my first review I have chosen my lure rod a   Hart Bloody Offshore 265

One of the drawbacks with living in an isolated community is that there is very little chance of trying a rod before you buy it and as such it is necessary to rely on the judgement of others. I was looking for the impossible, I wanted a lure rod that would do everything for me from weightless plastics to poppers and surface lures, pollack wrasse and bass and I wanted this rod for what would now be considered the lower end of middle price range.

   

   

First of the company blurb-

Blank material:  High-modulus carbon
Overall length:   2.65m- 8’7″
Casting weight:  15g to 60g
Sections:              Two equal
Rings:                    Eight, plus tip ring Fuji Aloconite
Reel seat:             Fuji DPS painted fixed screw-winch

Weight:                 220G

The blank is constructed from high-modulus carbon.  The finish colour can best be described as a deep burgundy red.  The whipping is a similar deep red finished of with  two millimetres of silver.  To my eye the whippings appear as a very slight miss match, depending on the light but this does nothing to detract from a high overall finish.   The blank is fitted with single-leg Fuji SiC guides and a fixed Fuji reel seat 40 centimetres up from the butt. The reel seat has been painted splash pattern style with the blank colour and black.  The 265 offshore is rated to cast lures of 15g to 60g, but has plenty of power in reserve in the butt section.  The action has been described as progressive and fast  but there is enough stiffness in the tip to work top water lures.

Although the rod has been around for a few years Hart have not remodelled or revamped it from the original design. It currently retails at around £175 and is available through dealers such as Tronix Pro   Monster Tackle  Gerry’s of Morecombe amongst others.

OK now my part-

This is the first purpose built lure rod I have purchased so I can only compare it to the clumsy coarse gear I have pressed into service to date.

Although I have had the rod since the start of April I have had very little chance of using it for bass due to the ban and foul weather since the ban.  I have had one nice bass of around 5lb on a soft plastic mounted on a jig head. It has been used out on the rocks extensively for pollack and it handles the lunging dives, the blank absorbing the power nicely while still managing to control the fish with ease.  Lures that I have been using range from weightless  Senkos of around 7g up to the 42 g Savagear sandeels. On both end of the weight spectrum the rod performed equally well and I have been surprised by how far I have been able to cast the weightless plastics.  Although I am still at the stage of treating the rod very kindly the finish shows no signs that it has been laid on the sharp abrasive rocks and seems so far hard wearing.

At 8’7″ and with a 4000 sized fixed spool reel the rod is perfectly balanced and I can cast and work lures for much longer than I had been able to with my old rod. The butt section is the abbreviated hard EVA which is standard to most lure rods. Several red anodised rings feature on the butt section along with the obscure words natural selection which appear for no reason other than decoration that I can see.  A large silver ferrel bearing the makers name extends from to handle for around three inches. With a painted reel seat and understated decals it has enough pretty features to appeal to the tackle tart in all of us without being overtly blingy.

At this stage I am very happy with my choice and would not hesitate to recommend the Bloody Offshore to anyone wanting a jack of all trades lure rod on a limited budget.

Budget Senko’s and Stick Worms

Although I am a relevant new comer to the use of senkos I was a little disappointed with the longevity and durabilityoftheYamamoto Senkosthat I have previously tried. I have only caught pollack on them to date and anyone comparing the bristles that pass as teeth on pollack to the savage chomping equipment in the mouths of wrasse can only come to the same conclusion as myself.  At around £8.50 for ten they were relatively cheap compared to hard lures but once the fish started hitting them it became obvious they were pretty much single use. Even small pollack rip them to pieces on every hit so with this in mind I started looking for a similar product at a more cost effective price.

I came across AGM products on the web and decided to place a small order with them to see what their service was like and more to the point what the product is like. I still want to target wrasse on the soft plastics( if the water is ever clear enough again) so I selected a few different sized worms in varying shades of green and some smaller EWG worm hooks.

One thing that is important for me is that AGM charge airmail per weight rather than per order. I can get an awful lot of plastic and hooks for half a kilo postage. I placed the order late Tuesday afternoon and I received an email Wednesday morning to say my order had been dispatched on that day. I received it the following Monday which is very good considering we get no Saturday post in my part of the world.

Packaging was secure and insured everything arrived as it should.  The own brand worms were supplied in simple ziplock bags with typed labels and I am quite happy to see this. Flashy packaging will not help me catch fish so I am not interested in paying for it. 

AGM stock Wave Worm among other brands and when I compared prices with their USA website AGM came out very favourably.

When comparing the two products the yamamoto senkos are slightly more flexible than the AMG own brand and I am sure this will be reflected in the action as well as the price.  Physical appearance is very similar and there is little to choose between the two products.  The AGM have a small groove moulded into the saddle which may make locating the hook slightly easier when presenting.  A s I can get three packs of AGM including postage for the cost of one packet of yamamotos  I am sure that I have found the alternative I was looking for.

Top is an AGM 5″ stick worm in watermelon seed, middle is a yamamoto yamasenko in blue/pearlsilver  and the bottom  is a waveworm tiki bamboo stick in chartreuse.

Even on the internet I tend to do bloke shopping, I know what I am looking for and what I want and when I find it I do not go any further so there may be a lot more products on the site that I may get around to one day if I need them.

I will update this review when I have had chance to fish with the product and say how I though each of them performed but so far for choice and service I would not hesitate to recommend AGM

   

While one trip cannot give assurance of quality I did have a wrasse on the three inch stickworm.  Not a massive fish but a typical savage wrasse bite. The little bait stood up to the fish with no apparent ill effects.