Christening time on Chesil

[Portland Pirate]

I just got my new Cetury Tip Tornada Super Match on Saturday and of course I needed to test it out.

This is the first time for many years I have ventured off the Zipplex path whilst buying a new rod. I acquired a Anyfish Anywhere rod which I started using in anger last year (but I didn't buy that one). I managed a few casts with the Century at the end of last year and thought it seemed like a great rod, so I splashed the cash and hoped that I hadn't made a mistake.

I decided that West Bexington might produce a Rockling or maybe a Dab. Conditions today were not bad. Northerly wind and a bit of colour in the water, with very little surf. Bait was Ragworm and Mackerel.

Excitedly set the new rod up and put a 5oz lead on just to get a feel of it. I was casting down the butt pendulum, a style I have only recently started using. Didn't give it too much welly for the warm up casts but it felt really good. It feels very light and compresses really easily. It is extremely fast, causing the lead to lift too high on the back swing. I went for a longer than normal drop and slowed the cast right down. Once I got the timing right, I set it up with a 3 hook clip down rig all baited with rag and sent it out about 80 yards. Set my other rod up with a 2 hook rig baited with rag and Mackerel.

Nothing much happened for an hour, but with each consecutive cast I gave the new rod a bit more power. I launched a nice one of but knew instantly that the real was accelerating way too quickly. I had backed the brakes right off and the inevitable birds nest followed.

After sorting out the nest and putting on a new leader and rig I banged it out as far as I could. Within a couple of minutes the tip registered a couple of rattles. I wound in to find a little pin Whiting on the bottom hook. I looked on that as a species hunt bonus.


Next cast at the same range brought another rattle to the rod tip and another bonus, a little 5 bearded Rockling.


So it continued for about an hour. I was really surprised how sensitive the tip was at registering small bites at range.

Out of interested I wondered how far I could cast with a baited rig, so I ran a little experiment. I used both my new Century and my Anyfish Anywhere 14ft Match. Reels were ABU 6500 C sports with the centrifugal brake blocks removed, just mag brakes set to about 20%.
I cast along the beach 5 times with each rod. The wind was coming from the right hand site at about 10mph. I used a 3 hook clip down rig fully baited with ragworm The Anyfish rod averaged out at 118m or 129yds old money (best cast 122m/133yds).

The Century averaged out at 139m/152yds with my best cast being a whopping 145m/158yds (in my opinion anyway lol. Not sure what I would have got with the wind behind me as it was in todays fishing conditions. I absolutely love my new rod. It is really sensitive and with some practice I know I can get a good bit more distance out of it. No idea what distance I can get on a field with a simple 5oz lead, but to be honest I am not really that interested in field distances.

Portland Pirate.

[cuckoo]

Great report pp , well done on the slug and ting

[Chesil Chucker]

Good to see that I left the Portland Pluggers in your capable hands on saturday, whilst I was sat for 4 hours on a train trying to get to Twickers!

Well Done PP - Keep up the good work!!

[Spahill]

Sounds like a fun day, always good playing with new toys.
Sometimes I get the urge to improve my casting.... but then I start feeling better.

[scottish_and_mental]

great report fela - i always measure my castin distance using the old ' it was about next to that seagull' rule..
how do you measure yours ? is it on the retrieve or am i being a dullard ?

[chrismc]

well done m8

[BaggieRich]

Well done PP. Species hunt points AND new toys! Perfect!

Those are some awsome distances you were hitting with the new rod! A friend of mine measured out 200 yards on the beach once and it's a looooooooong way. Certain put my casting into perspective (I.E. I'm more suited to Bass fishing! ) Anybody who can put the time and effort into learning to cast big numbers gets my respect.

[Portland Pirate]

I had a 30m tape measure in my toolbox in the car so I used that.

[pingu]

nice one al round

dave